Life isn’t always easy at the top, especially for those not accustomed to it.

Head north—far north—from Oslo, and you’re met with conditions that are anything but hospitable. Here, above the Arctic Circle, you are the outsider. 

Each morning, as you head out in your small Zodiac, the air temperature hovers around freezing, the dark waters loom below you at around 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and the icy wind cuts across your face. In this remote region, your only signs of life are the scattered tiny villages, the occasional fishing vessel, and the animals that call these waters home. 

The dorsal fins are unmistakable—jet-black shards of glass piercing the surface, some measuring up to six feet tall. Orca whales frequent these waters in the winter months to hunt for herring that aggregate in the fjords. Encounters are often fleeting as pods travel in search of fish. This limits opportunities to swim with the whales, leaving you waiting, shivering in your wetsuit, and hoping for a glimpse of the coveted hunting spectacle.

But even from inside your tiny inflatable, you can’t help but marvel at the surroundings. It's an unforgiving but stunning world. The backdrop becomes as much a subject in these topside images as the animals themselves. It all sculpts the scene you traveled all this way to see: orcas—not in tanks—but in the wild, with endless space before them.

In these icy waters off Norway, as in oceans across our planet, one species reigns supreme.