Svalbard

Svalbard. It's north. WAY north. North like the top of Greenland north. 78 degrees north, and only 800 miles from the North Pole.

NOTE: We are still working our way up and down the Norwegian coast on the ferry. However, we took a break partway up to fly to Svalbard and we're sharing those adventures in this blog post.

Svalbard is the red island to the right of Greenland and just below the 80 degree line

However, due to the warming waters of the Gulf Stream, the seas around Svalbard are clear even in winter. Although Svalbard was still snow-covered when we arrived (and some additional snow fell while we were there), locals told us that much of the snow in the lower elevations would be melted by the end of May.

We left our Hurtigruten ferry, the Richard With, in the city of Tromsø, stayed overnight, and flew to Svalbard on Norwegian Air on Wednesday, April 30.

Svalbard has a permanent population of about 2,000, and most of them live in the town of Longyearbyen in the middle of the island. For perspective, Svalbard has 3,500 polar bears, and thousands of reindeer.

Longyearbyen is named after John Munro Longyear, an American who came to the island in the early 20th century and opened a coal mining operation which has continued to this day (although the last working mine in the area will close for good in June).

The town of Longyearbyen is long and narrow and goes up a sloping valley.

On our first day in the area, we took a bus tour called "Longyearbyen in a Nutshell" to familiarize ourselves with the area.

The bus and all the other vehicles in town, including bicycles, had studded snow tires

After seeing the main sites in town (e.g., the tourism office, the power plant) we stopped near the church. Nearby was a set of stairs that climbed to the entrance of the old hospital. It was destroyed when the original town site was bombed by the Germans during World War 2 to halt vital coal production, and only the stairs were left We were told that when the sun finally returns after the darkest months of winter, it shines through a gap in the mountains onto this staircase - the whole town turns out to watch and celebrate.

Our tour took us to a hill overlooking the airport. We were told that the yacht in the harbor belonged to Mark Zuckerberg, although we did not run into him in town.

Looking down in another direction, we could see the thing that Svalbard may be most famous for: the Global Seed Vault where seeds from all over the world are preserved, to be used in case of a global disaster. The Seed Vault was built and is funded by Norway, but over 100 nations have seeds stored inside.

You cannot go into the Seed Vault, which is built into a hill so that the permafrost will keep the seeds preserved even if the artificial cooling inside fails. However, you can walk up to the entrance.

We drove back past the main town to the other side. A sign post indicates the point, beyond which, someone in your party must have a rifle or flate gun in case of a polar bear attack. One of our guides, who grew up in Longyearbyen, told us that the local school never closes because of snow, but she did remember that one day school was closed because a polar bear was roaming around town.

Toward the end of the road we saw Mine 7, the still-active coal mine. It produces high-quality bituminous coal which is shipped to Germany and used in automobile engine production.

The next morning, we took a tour of Mine 3, which closed in 1996. Determining they had mined most of the available coal in the hillside, the mining company determined one day to just stop operations there. They told the miners to just leave all the equipment where it was since it could not be re-used. Thus, the tour took us through scenes time-frozen to the mid-90s.

This map shows the extent of the mining on the south side of the Advent Fjord

Our guide showed us a cross-section of the mountain and the mine, including several kilometers of tunnels

We had to wear hard hats during the tour. Headlamps provided our only light in the mine tunnels.

Before entering the mine proper, we passed through workshops where we saw some of the coal-cutting saws and the mine trains.

Once in the mine, we could see that the coal seam was only about 2-3 feet thick, requiring the miners to work lying down. Over the years, though, thousands of tons of coal had been removed from the mine.

Jacks and supports are used to keep the mountain from collapsing the tunnels.

One area of the mine was used as a test bed for Seed Vault operations before the current vault was built. Another area of the mine contains an information archive, where records from organizations such as the Vatican library are stored on a special microfilm that should last for 500 years.

Later that afternoon, we took a snow cat around the end of the fjord and climbed the mountain opposite town for a panoramic view of Longyearbyen.

We drove by a herd of reindeer, which are smaller and more compact than the reindeer on the mainland of Norway. We learned that only the females have horns year-round. The males lose and must regrow their horns each year.

In downtown Longyearbyen, it's easiest to get around by foot. However, most of the locals own snowmobiles (there are far more of those than cars) for going farther afield.

Our hotel, the Funken Lodge, sat at the top of the town. It had originally served as the administration building for the mining company, but had been refurbished as a hotel.

We were in Svalbard during the Midnight Sun, with 24 hour of sunlight. This picture was taken at 11 pm as we returned to the Funken Lodge after a late dinner of reindeer steak (delish!).

To keep the hotel floors clean, the Funken Lodge had a room where you stored your boots, and provided felted slippers to walk around the hotel.

Walking around Longyearbyen, we saw some signs that you would probably not see in other parts of the world.

The morning of our second full day on Svalbard, we took a different snow cat up the valley behind town to a glacier where we visited a snow cave.

The entrance was inauspicious, and after crawling in we went down a metal ladder and then a steep wooden staircase into the glacier.

Near the entrance, ice crystals dotted the walls, formed by condensation from the breath of visitors throughout the season. Further in, the ice was smoother, shaped by flowing water during the summer.

We were deep enough in the glacier that headlamps provided our only illumination. Near the end of the tunnel, we came on a large open room dubbed The Cathedral. The walls sparkled with years of crystal growth.

One nice thing about our excursions was having a hot drink such as blackberry juice, partway through.

That evening, we went out on electric snowmobiles. This was our first time snowmobiling but they were easy to drive, and quiet.

We wore heavy snowmobiling suits and helmets, so felt quite comfy despite the cold and wind.

We headed away from town up the Advent Valley, frozen and covered with ice and snow this time of year, but the bed of a braided river during the short summer season. Our guide carried a rifle in case we encountered a polar bear (we didn't).

On our final day in Svalbard, we took a six-hour cruise around the nearby fjords. It was a beautiful sunny day with temperatures around 20 degrees, and we traveled on a hybrid catamaran that glided quietly through the water. Some hearty travelers stayed outside on top of the boat, but we spent most of our time inside sitting by large picture windows, going outside for various photo opportunities.

We saw some reindeer along the shore, a rare bearded seal, and we also happened on a walrus sitting up on an ice floe.

As we returned to the Advent Fjord, we saw a number of domes sitting on the plateau above the airport. These hold antennas that downlink data from satellites that travel in a polar orbit, providing valuable connections for organizations like NASA.

On Sunday, May 4, we took a Norwegian Air flight back to Tromsø, stayed overnight, and boarded a different Hurtigruten ferry, the Vesterålen, to continue our trip up the Norwegian coast. More about our ferry voyage in our next blog post!