Eas­ter keeps the winter’s pro­mi­se

After a dis­ap­poin­ting ear­ly sea­son, the Eas­ter weekend brought dream con­di­ti­ons in Spits­ber­gen: good ter­rain con­di­ti­ons for tours and bright suns­hi­ne. All tho­se who went out on tours by snow mobi­le, ski or dog sledge could enjoy won­derful days in a fri­end­ly win­ter arc­tic. Tra­di­tio­nal­ly, both locals and tou­rists are out in the­se days in con­sidera­ble num­bers. Nevert­hel­ess, it was a calm weekend for the emer­gen­cy ser­vices: a polar bear that was seen near Lon­gye­ar­by­en tur­ned out to be a reinde­er, and an ava­lan­che trig­ge­red by a a per­son on ski did not do any dama­ge.

Even the ice seems to come to the coasts slow­ly, both the drift in the north and east and the fast ice in the fjords, but not to the degree that is nor­mal in April. The sai­ling boat Noor­der­licht, that is usual­ly fro­zen in the ice in Tem­pel­fjord, even visi­ted Lon­gye­ar­by­en befo­re Eas­ter, but retur­ned to stay in an ice chan­nel that had been crea­ted in 7 hours work with axes and chain saws. The first visi­tors could alre­a­dy be wel­co­med on the “ship in the ice”.

The only bad news seems to be rumours about repea­ted dis­tur­ban­ce of a young polar bear fami­ly on the east coast of Spits­ber­gen by incon­side­ra­te or even reck­less snow mobi­le dri­vers. It is said that the­se are indi­vi­du­al locals from Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Com­plains have been filed both by other locals and by orga­nis­ed tou­rist groups.

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