Two snow mobi­les bro­ke through the sur­face of the fast ice in Mohn­buk­ta at the east coast of Spits­ber­gen. Nobo­dy suf­fe­r­ed any inju­ries. Both belon­ged to a group of nine snow mobi­les with locals from Lon­gye­ar­by­en out on a pri­va­te tour. Accor­ding to offi­cals, the group had been careful and exer­cis­ed good prac­ti­ce. Short­ly befo­re the inci­dent, they had mea­su­red the ice thic­k­ness to be clo­se to 70 cm, a value that usual­ly indi­ca­tes safe con­di­ti­ons.

As the indi­vi­du­al dri­vers had kept suf­fi­ci­ent­ly lar­ge distance bet­ween their vehic­les, fol­lo­wing ones could avo­id dri­ving into the dan­ger zone. The dri­vers of the snow mobi­les that had bro­ken through the sur­face mana­ged to get off and onto safe ice. The group could retrie­ve both snow mobi­les with ropes, avo­i­ding loss of equp­ment and fuel in the envi­ron­ment. Imme­dia­te­ly after the inci­dent, they infor­med the Sys­sel­man­nen in case anyo­ne had seen them and rai­sed alarm.

On tour on the ice in Mohn­buk­ta on the east coast of Spits­ber­gen: beau­tiful, but never enti­re­ly risk-free.

The inci­dent, which hap­pen­ed yes­ter­day (Satur­day), shows that fjord ice is never an enti­re­ly risk-free envi­ron­ment for tra­vel­ling. Even with careful beha­viour, risk can­not be ful­ly excluded. Care and quick avai­li­bii­ty of safe­ty equip­ment (ropes and “ispig­ger”, kind of nails with hand­les or some­thing simi­lar that helps you in the worst case to get out from the water and back onto ice) can safe lives.

Source: Sval­bard­pos­ten

The Sys­sel­man­nen has deci­ded to ban moto­ri­sed traf­fic from the fjord ice in Tem­pel­fjord (inner Isfjord), Bil­lefjord (near Pyra­mi­den) and Rin­ders­buk­ta (in Van Mijenfjord). The ban is based on the assu­med dis­tur­ban­ce of wild­life by moto­ri­sed traf­fic. All of the­se places are popu­lar desti­na­ti­ons for snow mobi­le trips from Lon­gye­ar­by­en. Rin­ged seals need the fjord ice curr­ent­ly to give birth to their off­spring, and polar bears, which have been seen regu­lar­ly in recent times in all the­se places, have accor­din­gly an important hun­ting sea­son to build up fat reser­ves. The aut­ho­ri­ties assu­me that the total dis­tur­ban­ce by moto­ri­sed traf­fic is too much for the wild­life to car­ry on with their important respec­ti­ve busi­nesses.

Until 01 Juni – cove­ring the com­ple­te remai­ning win­ter sea­son – all moto­ri­zed traf­fic is ban­ned from the fjord ice in the­se are­as. The­re are excep­ti­ons on the shor­test safe rou­tes in Bil­lefjord from Nor­dens­ki­öld­breen to Pyra­mi­den, which is part of the regu­lar trip from Lon­gy­e­r­abyen to Pyra­mi­den, and in Tem­pel­fjord, making it pos­si­ble to cross the ice on the shor­test safe rou­te west of Kapp Schoultz to Kapp Mur­doch. Maps show­ing the details are available on the Sysselmannen’s web­site.

Non-moto­ri­sed traf­fic is not con­cer­ned.

In 2018, the fjord ice has deve­lo­ped bet­ter than in recent years. It is the first time in seve­ral years that Tem­pel­fjord can be crossed regu­lar­ly and safe­ly.

Appear­ent­ly wild­life is not much dis­tur­bed by careful, sen­si­ti­ve traf­fic by gui­ded groups or careful indi­vi­du­als. Ruthl­ess beha­viour of care­less indi­vi­du­als or groups is ano­ther mat­ter and hard to con­trol.

The Sys­sel­man­nen reminds the public that it is everybody’s indiv­du­al respon­si­bi­li­ty to assess the safe­ty of the ice for traf­fic.

Gla­cier front in Tem­pel­fjord: popu­lar desti­na­ti­on for excur­si­ons, but curr­ent­ly off limits for moto­ri­sed traf­fic.

Tra­vel to the Ant­ar­c­tic once – a dream only few can rea­li­ze. Ever­yo­ne else con­ti­nues to dream while sen­ding post­cards with spec­ta­cu­lar pic­tures from the Ant­ar­c­tic to their loved ones. The post­cards include motifs of King and Emper­or Pen­gu­in, Ele­phant seal, a very rare “Eco­ty­pe D” Orca and spec­ta­cu­lar land­scapes on remo­te Ant­ar­c­tic islands, inclu­ding a tabu­lar ice­berg that is uni­que and distinc­ti­ve to the Ant­ar­c­tic ice­berg form.

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May­be the dream of an Ant­ar­c­tic trip will come true some day?

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Essen­ti­al for all Eng­lish spea­king Spits­ber­gen fans:
The new, fourth edi­ti­on of the gui­de­book Spits­ber­gen – Sval­bard

»Spits­ber­gen – Sval­bard« has detail­ed infor­ma­ti­on about the flo­ra and fau­na of Spits­ber­gen, its natu­re and human histo­ry and detail­ed chap­ters about all regi­ons, fjords, islands and sett­le­ments. The various sea­sons are descri­bed and dif­fe­rent ways of tra­ve­ling. Rou­tes are descri­bed in detail for popu­lar snow mobi­le excur­si­ons, day hikes, long trek­king expe­di­ti­ons and boat trips. 14 mammal spe­ci­es, 26 bird spe­ci­es and 29 flower spe­ci­es are descri­bed in detail and illus­tra­ted with colour pho­to­graphs. Many maps within the text pro­vi­de geo­gra­phi­cal ori­en­ta­ti­on – the­se are among­st the many important impro­ve­ments com­pared to pre­vious edi­ti­ons. The polar bear risk and issues rela­ted to wea­pons are dis­cus­sed. Detail­ed infor­ma­ti­on about rele­vant legis­la­ti­on as well as names of all wild­life and plant spe­ci­es descri­bed in no less than 10 lan­guages make the book a com­ple­te refe­rence also for pro­fes­sio­nal gui­des. This is by far the most com­ple­te Sval­bard gui­de­book available on the mar­ket!

Indis­pensable for Spits­ber­gen-beg­in­ners as well as for Spits­ber­gen-experts