Sleeping Beauty

It was a chilly November day on the tundra, the mercury dipped close to -30° Celsius. We found this polar bear napping on a frozen pond next to the shoreline as content as can be. The bear was sleeping when we arrived. After a short while and virtually no movement from the bear, my guide Alex gave me the option to move on and find another bear or stick with this one. Since we had this bear in a beautiful, clean white snow-covered setting, I opted to stay. My hope was that eventually the bear would wake up and go through a nice stretching routine and potentially move around. The decision would eventually pay off some four and a half hours later! The moment you see here was the peaceful snooze prior to the bear waking and eventually relocating to another area.