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Yearly Archives: 2017 − News


The Spits­ber­gen-calen­der 2018: nor­t­hern lights over Lon­gye­ar­by­en in Decem­ber

The nor­t­hern light is for the polar night what the polar bears are for the sum­mer: ever­y­bo­dy wants to see them. The nor­t­hern light, or Auro­ra borea­lis, is inde­ed a maje­s­tic phe­no­me­non! If you have ever seen a real one, you will for sure not for­get it. The­re is an info page about nor­t­hern lights and nor­t­hern light pho­to­gra­phy on this web­site, by the way. The sea­son is about to begin.

Actual­ly, Lon­gye­ar­by­en is not even the best place to see nor­t­hern lights. If you are on an Auro­ra mis­si­on, then nor­t­hern Scan­di­na­via may be just as good, if not bet­ter. But of cour­se you can see fan­ta­stic nor­t­hern lights in Spits­ber­gen! With some luck, you can even see then mid-day. This day­si­de auro­ra is com­pa­ra­tively rare, but they do hap­pen. Hard to belie­ve, but true! This requi­res real dark­ness 24 hours a day, and that is what you get in Lon­gye­ar­by­en from late Novem­ber to ear­ly Janu­ary.

The Decem­ber-pho­to of our Spits­ber­gen-calen­dar 2018 was taken ear­ly evening. We went around in Lon­gye­ar­by­en with a TV team and they wan­ted norhtern lights – of cour­se. Ris­ky busi­ness if you don’t have more time than just a very few days! May­be you are lucky, may­be not … both the wea­ther and the auro­ra acti­vi­ty have to be on your side. We had alre­a­dy been around for a long evening wit­hout see­ing more than dark clouds. A day later, things were more pro­mi­sing. And sud­den­ly, the sky explo­ded over Lon­gye­ar­by­en! It was inde­ed one of my bet­ter Auro­ra moments in Spits­ber­gen. The pho­to does not even show the stron­gest nor­t­hern light of that evening, but Lady Auro­ra was dancing abo­ve this part of the ico­nic coal cable­way and Pla­tå­ber­get, a very cha­rac­te­ristic and well-known moun­tain right next to Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

Spitsbergen-Calender 2018: December. Northern light above Longyearbyen

Spits­ber­gen-Calen­der 2018: Decem­ber. Nor­t­hern light abo­ve Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

Born in Sau­na: Alex­an­der Lembke’s Sau­na exhi­bi­ti­on ope­ned in Tam­pe­re

Alex­an­der Lembke is well known to many who have tra­vel­led with us in recent years in Spits­ber­gen. Many have heard about his pro­ject of sci­ence, pho­to­gra­phy and prac­ti­cal use of the Fin­nish sau­na.

Now, the pro­ject has rea­ched a (preli­mi­na­ry) cli­max: the exhi­bi­ti­on “Sau­na Syn­ty­neet (Born in Sau­na)” was ope­ned on Fri­day, Octo­ber 13, in Tam­pe­re in Fin­land. The exhi­bi­ti­on was sup­port­ed by orga­niza­ti­ons inclu­ding the Goe­the-Insti­tut, the town of Tam­pe­re and the Fin­nish Sau­na Socie­ty. Their repre­sen­ta­ti­ves were pre­sent at the ope­ning and held spea­ches.

Alexander’s work is about the important role of sau­na in Fin­nish cul­tu­re, histo­ry and socie­ty. The cur­rent exhi­bi­ti­on is about peo­p­le who were actual­ly born in a sau­na. A sau­na is regu­lar­ly hea­ted and clea­ned and it is a place of spi­ri­tua­li­ty, which altog­e­ther makes it a place well sui­ted of events such as giving birth. Peo­p­le were born in sau­na in Fin­land also in recent years, also it is much less com­mon than in the more distant past. The exhi­bi­ti­on shows lar­ge por­traits of peo­p­le who were born in sau­na. In poe­tic films, they tell their sto­ries about their indi­vi­du­al rela­ti­onship to the sau­na and their sau­na ritu­als. The youn­gest per­son por­trai­ted in the exhi­bi­ti­on is 5 years old now, the oldest one is 102! Some of the­se peo­p­le, who were born in sau­na, were pre­sent during the ope­ning.

If you hap­pen to come to Tam­pe­re until Novem­ber 24, 2017, then you have got the oppor­tu­ni­ty to visit the exhi­bi­ti­on “Sau­na­s­sa Syn­ty­neet (Born in Sau­na)”.

Alex­an­der Lembke during the ope­ing of the exhi­bi­ti­on “Sau­na­s­sa Syn­ty­neet (Born in Sau­na)” on Fri­day in Tam­pe­re.

Exhibition Saunassa Syntyneet (Born in Sauna), Alexander Lembke, Tampere.

Coal mining in Sveagru­va is histo­ry

The Nor­we­gi­an govern­ment in Oslo has deci­ded that the coal mine in Lun­ckef­jel­let near Sveagru­va will not come into pro­duc­ti­ve ope­ra­ti­on. The mine was ope­ned in 2014 but sin­ce then, it has only been dri­ven in stand­by mode.

The mining com­pa­ny Store Nor­ske has suf­fe­r­ed bad­ly from low pri­ces on the world mar­kets for coal for years (see for exam­p­le Store Nor­ske bai­lout, May 2015). Near 300 employees had to lea­ve, only about 100 are left.

The­se remai­ning ones will not be able to enjoy their jobs for many years eit­her, sin­ce Nor­we­gi­an Secre­ta­ry of Sta­te for Trade and Indus­try Moni­ca Mæland anoun­ced on Octo­ber 12, 2017, that the govern­ment will not sup­port rene­wed pro­duc­ti­ve mining in Sveagru­va, name­ly Lun­ckef­jel­let. Fur­ther pro­duc­tion wit­hout finan­cial sup­port from Oslo is not pos­si­ble. The govern­ment is also the owner of the mining com­pa­ny Store Nor­ske. Neither the govern­ment nor Store Nor­ske are inte­res­ted in kee­ping the cur­rent stand­by ope­ra­ti­on upright.

As a result, the next cou­ple of years will see the pha­seout of mining acti­vi­ties in Sveagru­va and a big gene­ral cle­a­nup of the place. This will, at least, keep most of today’s employees in Store Nor­ske busy.

It is also said that the govern­ment does not plan major alter­na­ti­ve acti­vi­ties in Sveagru­va, such as tou­rism or sci­ence. It is, howe­ver, not excluded that some buil­dings may be used for the­se pur­po­ses.

The decis­i­on does not affect coal mining in mine 7 near Lon­gye­ar­by­en, which is taking place on a com­pa­ra­tively small sca­le to sup­p­ly the local power plant and minor volu­mes for export.

Soon histo­ry: Nor­we­gi­an coal mining in Sval­bard.

Coal mining, Svalbard.

Source: NRK

Spits­ber­gen-calen­dar 2018: Novem­ber intro­du­ced

The next image from the Spits­ber­gen calen­dar 2018 is the month Novem­ber. It shows a small group of Spits­ber­gen reinde­er. The­se shed their ant­lers once every year. The exact time is dif­fe­rent for males and fema­les. It also varies indi­vi­du­al­ly, to some degree.

This small herd of reinde­er shows all varia­ti­ons in their ant­lers: one does not have ant­lers at all, one dones only have one half and the third one has got the full set of ant­lers!

The pho­to shows reinde­er in a win­ter envi­ron­ment at Dia­ba­sod­den in Sas­senfjord. In the ear­ly win­ter, reinde­er have got their fat reser­ves, next to the meag­re vege­ta­ti­on that is most­ly hid­den under snow. Later, when the fat reser­ves are used up and the tun­dra is still under snow and ice, the risk from star­va­ti­on will increase stron­gly.

Spitsbergen-Calendar 2018: November. Reindeer

Spits­ber­gen-Calen­dar 2018: Novem­ber. A group of Spits­ber­gen-reinde­er with dif­fe­rent varia­ti­ons of their ant­lers.

Lon­gye­ar­by­en ceme­tery may be moved becau­se of ava­lan­che risk

The ceme­tery of Lon­gye­ar­by­en has been in a calm part of the val­ley Lon­gye­ard­a­len for about a cen­tu­ry, bet­ween the church and Huset, the old town mee­ting place. It is still an acti­ve ceme­tery, the last buri­als were in 2013 and the­re may be more in the future. Only urn buri­als are allo­wed, howe­ver.

The loca­ti­on of the ceme­tery is calm, but may­be not calm enough in the long term. The steep moun­tain slo­pes near­by have pro­du­ced ava­lan­ches in recent years, most­ly lands­lips after peri­ods of rain, which have rea­ched the ter­rain around the ceme­tery. In the last sum­mer, even the road bet­ween the church and Huset was clo­sed for pro­lon­ged peri­ods. It is pro­ba­b­ly only a ques­ti­on of time until the ceme­tery its­elf is hit and bad­ly dama­ged.

This is a sce­na­rio which Lon­gye­ar­by­en church with priest Leif Magne Hel­ge­sen are not wil­ling to accept. Hel­ge­sen has taken initia­ti­ve and star­ted a deba­te which may lead to a relo­ca­ti­on of the ceme­tery. It is a place of peace and digni­ty, for which many peo­p­le have strong fee­lings, accor­ding to Hel­ge­sen. He reasons that it would accor­din­gly be irre­spon­si­ble to lea­ve the ceme­tery in a place whe­re it may suf­fer bad dama­ge.

First mee­tings with aut­ho­ri­ties like the Sys­sel­man­nen, who is respon­si­ble for monu­ment con­ser­va­ti­on, and the local admin­stra­ti­on have taken place. Aut­ho­ri­ties in Lon­gye­ar­by­en have expe­ri­ence with moving and secu­ring gra­ves from his­to­ri­cal gra­ves that are threa­ten­ed by coas­tal ero­si­on. Moving a who­le ceme­tery would, howe­ver, be a pro­ject of an enti­re­ly dif­fe­rent sca­le. Also rela­ti­ves will have to be invol­ved.

A new loca­ti­on would natu­ral­ly be near the church, which is a quiet part of Lon­gye­ar­by­en and has are­as that are not at risk from ava­lan­ches and lands­li­des.

The ceme­tery in Lon­gye­ar­by­en may be moved due to the risk of lands­li­des and ava­lan­ches.

Cemetery Longyearbyen.

Source: Sval­bard­pos­ten

Spits­ber­gen-calen­dar 2018: the sto­ries behind 2 months

The Sep­tem­ber-page of our Spits­ber­gen-calen­dar 2018

Spitzbergen-Kalender 2018: September. Walrusses and polar fox

Spits­ber­gen-Calen­der 2018: Sep­tem­ber. Wal­rus­ses and polar fox.

… shows a group of wal­rus­ses on the beach at Smee­ren­burg on Ams­ter­damøya doing what wal­rus­ses do best: slee­ping and digest­ing mus­sels. While we keep a respectful distance of a good 30 m in order not to dis­turb the wal­rus­ses during their nap, a cheeky polar fox which does not care about regu­la­ti­ons and distances runs direct­ly next to the wal­rus­ses! Who could not care less about the polar fox.

The polar fox left as quick­ly and unex­pec­ted­ly as it came, and only this snapshot remains from the memo­rable encoun­ter.

And the Octo­ber-page …

Spitsbergen-Calender 2018: October. Bråsvellbreen, Nordaustland from a bird's eye view.

Spits­ber­gen-Calen­der 2018: Octo­ber. Brås­vell­breen, Nord­aus­t­land from a bird’s eye view.

… shows Brås­vell­breen. This migh­ty gla­cier belongs to the ice cap of Aus­t­fon­na on Nord­aus­t­land. The size is over­whel­ming, the ice cap has a total area of about 8500 squa­re kilo­me­t­res! The gla­cier Brås­vell­breen is only a small part of that. It is well-known for the water­falls that are cas­ca­ding down the ice cliff during the mel­ting sea­son. Here, we see it from a bird’s eye per­spec­ti­ve!

Click here for more infor­ma­ti­on about the Spits­ber­gen calen­dar 2018.

White hump­back wha­le again seen in Sval­bard

White hump­back wha­les are a very rare phe­no­me­non. Glo­bal­ly, sci­en­tists know of three indi­vi­du­als. Two of them live in Aus­tra­li­an waters and a third one in the north Atlan­tic. The lat­ter one has recent­ly been seen again for the first time in years. First sightin­gs date back to 2004 and 2006, then near the north Nor­way coast. In August 2012, a white hump­back wha­le was sigh­ted seve­ral times east of Spits­ber­gen. It was most likely the same ani­mal as in 2004 and 2006. No pho­tos are known from tho­se ear­ly sightin­gs, but in 2012, a num­ber of ama­zing shots were taken. Espe­ci­al­ly note­wor­t­hy are tho­se taken by Dan Fisher, mate on the sai­ling ship Anti­gua, from the mast of the ship. Due to the high per­spec­ti­ve, almost the who­le ani­mal can be seen on the pho­tos.

Hump­back wha­les live in all of the world’s oce­ans. They are usual­ly most­ly dark grey to black. The bot­tom side and parts of the flu­ke and flip­pers are part­ly white. The exact pat­tern can be used to iden­ti­fy indi­vi­du­als, just like the fin­ger­print of humans.

Com­ple­te­ly white hump­back wha­les are very rare. The unu­su­al colour is usual­ly due to leu­cism, a par­ti­al loss of pig­men­ta­ti­on which leads to pale or white colour. Only one of the two white hump­back wha­les in Aus­tra­lia is actual­ly an albi­no.

Now, the­re has been a sight­ing of a white hump­back wha­le in the north Atlan­tic, the first one sin­ce 2012. The wha­le was seen in late Sep­tem­ber by sci­en­tists on board the rese­arch ves­sel Johan Hjort in eas­tern Sval­bard. This area is often fre­quen­ted by hump­back wha­les at this time of the year.

White hump­back wha­le in Hin­lo­pen Strait, pho­to­gra­phed on August 11 2012 by Dan Fisher.

White humpback whale

Source: Hav­forsk­nings­in­sti­tuttet

Seve­ral polar bears obser­ved near sett­le­ments

Seve­ral polar bears have been seen near Lon­gye­ar­by­en and other sett­le­ments in the past few weeks.

Polar bears look cute, but can be nasty when they are loo­king for food

Polar bears Longyearbyen

One of the bears – a 17-year-old male – had to be anes­the­ti­zed and trans­por­ted by heli­c­op­ter to Nord­aus­t­lan­det in the north-east of Spits­ber­gen, after devas­ta­ting seve­ral huts at Kap Lai­la River bet­ween Lon­gye­ar­by­en and Barents­burg on 15 Sep­tem­ber. Polar bear expert Jon Aars from the Nor­we­gi­an Polar Insti­tu­te con­firm­ed, that this was alre­a­dy the bears second flight with a heli­c­op­ter. The polar bear was mark­ed as a cub and alre­a­dy regis­tered in 2001, when he des­troy­ed a hut tog­e­ther with his brot­her and mother. The mother was also obser­ved later in simi­lar burgla­ries.

This is not an unu­su­al beha­vi­or for a polar bear, says Jon Aars. Some polar bears even seem to have spe­cia­li­zed in hut burgla­ries. But to stun the polar bears and fly them out can just be a short-term solu­ti­on. Last year in April a polar bear from Lon­gye­ar­by­en was flown to the island of Nord­aus­t­land seve­ral hundred kilo­me­ters away. Only one year later he was back at the Isfjor­den.

At the begin­ning of Sep­tem­ber, a fema­le polar bear with two cubs was obser­ved at Rev­ne­set – a few kilo­me­ters north of Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Three attempts have alre­a­dy been made to hunt them away by means of a heli­c­op­ter. The three bears retur­ned twice after a few days and reap­peared near Lon­gye­ar­by­en. After the third attempt, the bears have not yet been seen again.

Ano­ther polar bear with two cubs was obser­ved near Svea and seve­ral bears were seen near Isfjord radio at Kapp Lin­né the last month.

The fact that so many polar bears appear in the vici­ni­ty of human sett­le­ments in such a short time does not occur too often, but is pro­ba­b­ly coin­ci­dence. Jon Aars belie­ves that such visits could occur more often in the future, as polar bears have been pro­tec­ted for many years. Gene­tic rese­arch shows that polar bears tend to visit the same are­as for seve­ral gene­ra­ti­ons. Peo­p­le in Lon­gye­ar­by­en will pro­ba­b­ly have to get used to fre­quent visits of polar bears. Or the other way around.

Polar bear mum with cub

Polar bear Longyearbyen

Source: Sval­bard­pos­ten

Ita­li­an lost and found

After the search after a sai­ling boat last week, SAR (search and res­cue) forces from Sys­sel­man­nen and Red Cross were, only a few days later, again out on a major mis­si­on. On Satur­day after­noon at 16.20 hours, the local hos­pi­tal in Lon­gye­ar­by­en recei­ved a call from an Ita­li­an per­son who was stuck on a steep slo­pe and not able to move. The man said that he could see the air­port, wit­hout giving fur­ther details about his posi­ti­on. Next to lack of local know­ledge, lan­guage dif­fi­cul­ties may have come in here. He finis­hed the con­ver­sa­ti­on wit­hout lea­ving his name or cont­act details, so it was not pos­si­ble to cont­act him again later.

Hence, SAR forces had to move out in dark­ness and strong winds. The Red Cross sear­ched Pla­tå­ber­get, which is situa­ted near the air­port, with about 30 peo­p­le. Final­ly, a light signal was seen on a steep slo­pe abo­ve the sea on Fuglef­jel­la, bet­ween Bjørn­da­len and Lit­le Bjørn­da­len. Strong winds pre­ven­ted SAR forces from rea­ching the area by heli­c­op­ter, so the Red Cross had to walk a lon­ger distance to get to the site. Short­ly after 5 a.m. the man was final­ly res­cued; he had spent at least about 13 hours in his posi­ti­on. All invol­ved got back to Lon­gye­ar­by­en the­re­af­ter in good con­di­ti­on.

The inci­dent shows how important it is to have at least basic local know­ledge and means of ori­en­ta­ti­on as well as the abili­ty to make a pro­per emer­gen­cy call if worst comes to worst. Next to some know­ledge of a lan­guage used local­ly, or at least a cont­act who can pro­vi­de that, this invol­ves the cor­rect local emer­gen­cy cont­acts (the Sys­sel­man­nen), name and pho­ne num­ber. The man was in very steep ter­rain, in dark­ness, strong wind and wit­hout local know­ledge and ori­en­ta­ti­on. The inci­dent pro­vi­des a nega­ti­ve exam­p­le in seve­ral ways.

The steep slo­pe of Fuglef­jel­la bet­ween Bjørn­da­len and Lit­le Gru­mant­da­len on a nice sum­mer day, whe­re an Ita­li­an tou­rist was res­cued ear­ly Sun­day mor­ning in dark­ness and wind.

Italian Fuglefjella

Source: Sval­bard­pos­ten

Sai­ling boat lost and found

The­re have been strong winds up to storm force in nor­t­hern Spits­ber­gen yes­ter­day (Mon­day). Two smal­ler boats seem to have got­ten into poten­ti­al­ly serious dif­fi­cul­ties. Emer­gen­cy signals have been trig­ge­red and search and res­cue forces are in the area with heli­c­op­ters and coast guard ships.

SV Anti­gua (whe­re the pre­sent aut­hor is on board) is also in the area, but we did not have more pro­blems than some cases of sea­sick­ness during our sai­ling pas­sa­ge yes­ter­day. So SV Anti­gua is NOT affec­ted by any serious pro­blems.

Update: after seve­ral hours sear­ching in the nor­thwest of Spits­ber­gen, whe­re also seve­ral tou­rist ships inclu­ding SV Anti­gua assis­ted, the boat was on Tues­day found „in good con­di­ti­on“. The SAR mis­si­on was offi­ci­al­ly aban­do­ned by the coast guard. It was later sta­ted that it was a local boat from Lon­gye­ar­by­en. The emer­gen­cy signal posi­ti­on was from Mag­da­le­nefjord, while the boat was found in Wij­defjord, almost 100 km away as the ivo­ry gull flies. The emer­gen­cy signal had been trig­ger auto­ma­ti­cal­ly wit­hout the crew being awa­re of it; pro­ba­b­ly, the emer­gen­cy bea­con was lost in hea­vy seas and trig­ge­red its­elf.

Wind force 8 on Mon­day at the north coast of Spits­ber­gen. Pho­to © Alex­an­der Lembke.

Storm Spitsbergen

Strong wind up to storm force in North Spits­ber­gen

The­re have been strong winds up to storm force in nor­t­hern Spits­ber­gen yes­ter­day (Mon­day – 2017/09/18). Two smal­ler boats seem to have got­ten into poten­ti­al­ly serious dif­fi­cul­ties. Emer­gen­cy signals have been trig­ge­red and search and res­cue forces are in the area with heli­c­op­ters and coast guard ships.

SV Anti­gua (whe­re the pre­sent aut­hor is on board) is also in the area, but we did not have more pro­blems than some cases of sea­sick­ness during our sai­ling pas­sa­ge yes­ter­day. So SV Anti­gua is NOT affec­ted by any serious pro­blems.

Update: after seve­ral hours sear­ching in the nor­thwest of Spits­ber­gen, whe­re SV Anti­gua also assis­ted, the boat was found »in good con­di­ti­on«. The SAR mis­si­on was offi­ci­al­ly aban­do­ned by the coast guard. At the moment, no fur­ther details regar­ding the iden­ti­ty of the boat or other are available.

Update: Accor­ding to Sval­bard­pos­ten, it was a local sai­ling boat from Lon­gye­ar­by­en. The emer­gen­cy bea­con was lost and auto­ma­ti­cal­ly acti­va­ted during hea­vy wea­ther. The crew was not awa­re of that.

Source: Rolf Stan­ge via OnS­at-Mail direct­ly from SV Anti­gua

1600 liters of die­sel lost in Mimerd­a­len

1600 lit­res of die­sel were lost on Fri­day during a heli­c­op­ter flight in Mimerd­a­len near Pyra­mi­den. The fuel was han­ging under the heli­c­op­ter to be trans­por­ted to a sta­ti­on on a moun­tain west of Pyra­mi­den ope­ra­ted by Lon­gye­ar­by­en air­port for aeri­al navi­ga­ti­on.

A rope bro­ke during the flight, so the die­sel fell down and cra­s­hed on the gra­vel plain of the river bed. It could not be retrie­ved and was lost in the envi­ron­ment: in the river gra­vel, one of the many small rivers or final­ly in the fjord.

The heli­c­op­ter was ope­ra­ted by Luft­trans­port, a com­pa­ny that is also respon­si­ble for the heli­c­op­ter logi­stics of the Sys­sel­man­nen, inclu­ding Search and Res­cue ope­ra­ti­ons. The inci­dent is curr­ent­ly under inves­ti­ga­ti­on.

Mimerd­a­len near Pyra­mi­den, whe­re 1600 lit­res of Die­sel were lost from a heli­c­op­ter on Fri­day.

Mimerdalen

Quel­le: Sval­bard­pos­ten

Sum­mer hiking rou­te up to Lars­breen des­troy­ed by lands­li­de

The moun­ta­ins and gla­ciers around Lon­gye­ar­by­en have a lot of gre­at hiking oppor­tu­ni­ties. Right now it looks like the­re is one less: the wes­tern part of the morai­ne of Lars­breen, which is part of the popu­lar sum­mer rou­te ascen­ding Lars­breen towards the gla­cier its­elf or the near-by moun­ta­ins (Troll­stei­nen, Sar­ko­fa­gen) has been stron­gly affec­ted by lands­li­des this sum­mer. This is gene­ral­ly a natu­ral pro­cess in a morai­ne area that con­sists of a thing lay­er of sedi­ment res­t­ing on steep slo­pes of clear gla­cier ice. The area had alre­a­dy been affec­ted by minor lands­li­des in recent years.

This summer’s lands­li­des took the area with the hiking rou­te from Lon­gye­ard­a­len up to Lars­breen. Now, the­re is a steep slo­pe of most­ly expo­sed gla­cier ice cover­ed with a thin lay­er of sedi­ment (mud and stones). The “way” below the slo­pe is expo­sed to fur­ther lands­li­des and rock­falls and hence curr­ent­ly not a safe alter­na­ti­ve.

It remains to be seen if the win­ter rou­te can still be used. Win­ter and sum­mer rou­tes are slight­ly dif­fe­rent and frost and snow chan­ge the ter­rain signi­fi­cant­ly. Mean­while, Lon­gye­ar­breen and Vann­led­nings­da­len remain gene­ral­ly available as hiking rou­tes up to Lars­breen, Sar­ko­fa­gen and Troll­stei­nen.

View from Gru­vef­jel­let to the morai­ne of Lars­breen. The area recent­ly affec­ted by lands­li­des is rough­ly mark­ed by the red cir­cle (the pho­to was taken befo­re the­se lands­li­des hap­pen­ed).

Larsbreen moraine landslide

The new Spits­ber­gen calen­dar 2018 is available!

The new Spits­ber­gen calen­dar 2018 is here, fresh from the prin­ter, and rea­dy for orde­ring and ship­ping! Sin­ce 2012, the Spits­ber­gen calen­dar has almost beco­me a litt­le, annu­al tra­di­ti­on: 12 beau­tiful pho­tos take you through the arc­tic sea­sons. We will enjoy polar land­scapes and light, wild­life and ice. From the polar night with the stun­ning auro­ra, the nor­t­hern lights, to the bright mid­night sun, from a fro­zen water fall in the cold win­ter to the flowers that bring love­ly colours to the tun­dra in the arc­tic sum­mer. And of cour­se we meet some of the big ani­mals, as we obser­ve a curious polar fox having a look at a bunch of lazy wal­rus­ses and we encoun­ter two very young twin polar bears some­whe­re on a fro­zen fjord.

The new Spits­ber­gen-calen­dar 2018 is available now.

Spitsbergen-calendar 2018

Click here for fur­ther infor­ma­ti­on about the new Spits­ber­gen calen­dar 2018, inclu­ding pre­views of all pages and the opti­on to order. As always, the calen­dar is available in two sizes, A3 and A5, to suit your wis­hes and needs. And you can save money by orde­ring more than one – Christ­mas will come soon enough! 🙂

Over­view of all pages of the new Spits­ber­gen-calen­dar 2018. Click here for more infor­ma­ti­on, inclu­ding lar­ger views.

Spitzbergen-Kalender 2018

Sys­sel­man­nen takes action against drugs in Lon­gye­ar­by­en

Lon­gye­ar­by­en is not enti­re­ly free of drugs, as most places whe­re humans live. Apart from the Scan­di­na­vi­an style of alco­hol con­sump­ti­on, which may be note­wor­t­hy as seen from a cen­tral-Euro­pean per­spec­ti­ve, the­re are also har­der drugs. It is not a secret in Lon­gye­ar­by­en that the­re is more or less regu­lar con­sump­ti­on of hemp in cer­tain cir­cles.

Every cou­ple of years, when­ever it is con­side­red neces­sa­ry, the Sys­sel­man­nen takes action against drugs, among­st others with sear­ching and detenti­on of tho­se found respon­si­ble for kee­ping the sce­ne ali­ve. In the past, this has even led to the expul­si­on of peo­p­le from Sval­bard, with an ent­ry ban for a cer­tain peri­od such as two years. In modern times, banish­ment is cer­tain­ly rather unu­su­al in juris­dic­tion in wes­tern count­ries, but this instru­ment is kept available in Sval­bard to pro­tect the small and geo­gra­phi­cal­ly iso­la­ted com­mu­ni­ty. The aut­ho­ri­ties are awa­re of the dan­ger of drugs for bored youngs­ters in the long polar win­ter in a small place like Lon­gye­ar­by­en.

The sub­ject is curr­ent­ly coming up again. Last weekend, the Sys­sel­man­nen has sear­ched places and peo­p­le with help from poli­ce forces from main­land Nor­way, inclu­ding a trai­ned poli­ce dog from Oslo. Three per­sons were taken in cus­t­ody. The inves­ti­ga­ti­on will be con­tin­ued.

Typi­cal envi­ron­ments whe­re hemp has been found in Lon­gye­ar­by­en in the past are youngs­ters and stu­dents. This time, peo­p­le who are in the focus of poli­ce atten­ti­on belong to the tou­rism indus­try. The­re is men­ti­on of drugs har­der than hemp, but no fur­ther infor­ma­ti­on has been released so far.

Drugs in the Arc­tic? As if natu­re its­elf was not exci­ting enough!

Drugs in the Arctic

Source: Sval­bard­pos­ten

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