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Home → July, 2024
Monthly Archives: July 2024 − News & Stories
No Barneo flights from Longyearbyen
The Russian north pole drift ice camp Barnea has been an annual event from 2002 for a couple of weeks each spring. Officially, it is mainly for science, but it was regularly used by north pole tourists and at least occasionally for military purposes such as in April 2016, when Chechen special forces made a brief appearance in the airport of Longyearbyen on transit to Barneo on a Russian-led training mission.
But the main use appears to be within tourism: for prices from 20,000 dollars and more, tourists could fly from Longyearbyen to Barneo and continue from there to the north pole by helicopter or ski.
The flight logistics for tourists used to go through Longyearbyen airport, but this hub has not been available for this purpose since 2018. This has led to negotiations between the organisation behind Barneo, officialy a Swiss company, and Norwegian authorities.
Svalbard lufthavn Longyear in April, the Barneo-season: no north pole flights from there.
Recently the Norwegian government confirmed their negative answer: the airport near Longyearbyen is at times operating near its capacity limits, and necessary standby emergency services are limited. It comes in addition that the extra burdon on the local flight handling capacities did usually not benefit the local community as Barneo tourists would usually not stay in Longyearbyen. These are amongst the main arguments for the Norwegian traffic ministry, according to Svalbardposten.
The Swiss Barneo company may still take legal steps against this decision.
Newest member state of the Spitsbergen Treaty: Turkey
The Spitsbergen Treaty was signed in 1920 and it came into force in 1925. It sealed Norwegian sovereignty over the Svalbard archipelago (the name “Svalbard” was not used in the treaty) and regulates access for citizens of treaty member states.
Fredrik Wedel Jarlsberg, the Norwegian negotiator in Paris,
signed the Spitsbergen Treaty on 09th February 1920 in Versailles.
A range of countries have joined the treaty since 1925. Until recently, Latvia and North Korea (!) had been the latest new members. Both joined the treaty in 2016.
In April 2024, however, Ankara ratified their signature under the Spitsbergen Treaty. Since then, Turkey is the latest signatory country.
This will not change much in real life: Norway does not make a difference between citizens of member states and those from other countries. There are, for example, more than 200 people from Thailand and the Phillipines living in Longyearbyen. Their respective countries of origin are not members of the Spitsbergen treaty.
Turkey appears to be interested on a different level, as the Barents Observer writes: recently in July, a delegation from Turkey visited Pyramiden, a former Russian coal mining settlement in Isfjord, to look at the potential of running a research facility there. Russia has announced plans to develop Pyramiden as an alternative to Ny-Ålesund, where a range of countries run research facilities under Norwegian leadership.
Page of the week: Sjuøyane
Sjuøyane is the page of the week. This page is dedicated to the little archipelago of ‘The Seven Islands’, which are the very northernmost islands and islets of the Svalbard archipelago.
The page has existed for years, but I have improved it significantly now with new map, images and photo gallery and the text has also got a couple of updates. When I work on the travel blog, linking places that we just visited to these pages, I like to make updates and improvements as I stumble over older pages that need some love.
Phippsøya, the larges island of Sjuøyane.
Sjuøyane have some fascinating landscape and they are a fascinating area to visit if all works out, but it can certainly be challing to get there, let alone to get ashore. If getting there is not available in real life, then a virtual trip there is just one mouse click away 😀
Isfjord: Erdmannflya & Borebreen
Fri
19 Jul
2024
Here comes the sun ☀️😃 finally, good weather! So enjoyable, especially on the last full day of the journey!
We got the blue sky in the afternoon, but during the morning it was already warm without any wind. Something that the mosquitos liked on Erdmannflya. A rather rare wildlife experience in Spitsbergen, but not completely unheard of. Humans are usually not too fond of mosquitos, but fish love them! To our great surprise, we found fish in a small moraine pond at Tundraodden. In larger lakes, of course, but such a small pond in a relatively young (maybe 200 years) moraine? Strange, but there they were. Nature is full of surprises!
Borebreen was the final stop, under a blue, sunny sky. This glacier is currently advancing. Stunning! Just compare to our visit last September (click here for the blog entry, the last picture in the gallery). The island where we landed back then is now 500-600 metres behind the glacier front! 😲
Then it was just a few hours of sailing back to Longyearbyen, where we spent the last evening on board in good spirits.
Photo gallery – Isfjord: Erdmannflya & Borebreen – 17t July 2024
- gallery anchor link: #gallery_3123
Click on thumbnail to open an enlarged version of the specific photo.
Fridtjovhamna-Ingeborgfjellet
Fri
19 Jul
2024
Also today the morning was a bit grey, but in the end the weather turned out to be on our side and we could enjoy a great hike in Bellsund: from Fridtjovhamna, a reasonably well-sheltered bay at the glacier Fridtjovbreen, to Ingeborgfjellet further west. That is a beautiful area with large colonies of little auks and a tundra plain with reindeer, arctic foxes and geese. A wonderful place!
Neither the weather nor any polar bear made life difficult for us today, so we could enjoy being outside pretty much the whole day 🙂
Then it was time to set course for Isfjord.
Photo gallery: Fridtjovhamna-Ingeborgfjellet – 16th july 2024
- gallery anchor link: #gallery_3120
Click on thumbnail to open an enlarged version of the specific photo.
Hornsund & Bellsund
Thu
18 Jul
2024
So now we had the notorious south cape behind us. The passage had not been that bad at all.
The next day saw us in Hornsund. Principally one of Spitsbergen’s finest fjords, the magnificent landscape lay largely hidden behind grey fog and the occasional rain shower. But again, we were actually lucky. Gåshamna turned out to be the best place, with reasonably good visibility and we didn’t get wet. But there was nothing more to achieve today. On the other hand, there is worse than relaxing a bit on a quiet ship and listening to some lectures.
Then it was time to head up north. The swell was still quite strong, so we stayed away from Hyttevika and went straight to Bellsund. It was great to get out for a little walk on Akseløya in the evening. After that the spirits were high as ever 🙂
Photo gallery – Hornsund & Bellsund – 14th/15th July 2024
- gallery anchor link: #gallery_3118
Click on thumbnail to open an enlarged version of the specific photo.
Environmental toxins near airport must be removed
The former firedrill area near Svalbard airport close to Longyearbyen has been a matter of conflict for years. The area is contaminated with “per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances” or short PFAS, which come as part of fire extinguishing foam which was used in large quantities on the firedrill area over years. PFAS is harmful to both health and environment and it is hardly broken own under natural conditions. Hence, once released it stays in the environment for very long and it accumulates in the food chain.
The firedrill area in question was abandoned 24 years ago, but PFAS concenctration levels in the soil are still high. Some of the contaminated soil was removed in 2023, but more remains and further clean-up has been matter of legal and public dispute for a long time. Avinor, the Norwegian company that runs the airport (and other ones in Norway), argued that effort and costs are too high. But now, the Norwegian ministry for climate and environment has decided that the clean-up must be completed.
Part of the contaminated soil near the horse riding centre close to Longyearbyen airport was removed in August 2023.
Avinor has budgeted 25 million kroner (about 2.1 million Euro) for the cleanup project. Work is scheduled to start in August, according to Svalbardposten.
Jørn Dybdahl, former owner of the horse riding centre close to Longyearbyen airport, died in 2023 from cancer. Dybdahl himself suspected the PFAS contamination to be the reason for his fatal illness.
Storfjord & Isbukta
Sun
14 Jul
2024
We knew that sailing could be a moving experience, something that we got confirmed again during the night. Later in the morning, we were moved not only by the swell, but only by a wonderful encounter with a couple of humpback whales in southern Storfjord.
In the afternoon, we found some shelter in Isbukta where we also managed to go for a walk. The choice was either a rather bizarre moraine landscape or a glacier walk. Anyway, it was windy!
Photo gallery – Storfjord & Isbukta – 13th July 2024
- gallery anchor link: #gallery_3115
Click on thumbnail to open an enlarged version of the specific photo.
Barentsøya & Edgeøya
Sat
13 Jul
2024
A night of sailing took us to Freemansund between the large islands of Barentsøya and Edgeøya in southeastern Svalbard. A wonderful area, high arctic in its very own way, very different from Nordaustland’s very barren polar desert ecosystem.
Here, polar bears tend to change one’s plans even more frequently than elsewhere. No exception today. In this very characteristic landscape with its wide, dark, plateau-shaped mountains, there are colonies of kittiwakes and arctic foxes are roaming the tundra. And the wide, green tundra is wonderful. Even when the sky is rather grey.
Photo gallery – Barentsøya & Edgeøya – 12th July 2024
- gallery anchor link: #gallery_3112
Click on thumbnail to open an enlarged version of the specific photo.
Hinlopen Strait (2)
Thu
11 Jul
2024
Hinlopen Strait … haven’t we just been there yesterday? Yes, we have, but it is a big place. you could easily spend a week there – better two! – without having been everywhere in that huge and beautiful area.
So we picked some really good places. Last night we still added a bunch of walruses to a day that had already been better than good. Today, we started the day at Von Otterøya, a stony pearl of high arctic landscape. We returned to the ship earlier than planned because the island turned out to be alreay occupied by a polar bear, but at least we got some more time ashore than yesterday in Wahlenbergfjord.
Bråsvellbreen is one of the seven wonders of the arctic world, and we didn’t want to miss it either. It is just an unbelievable place!
Photo gallery – Hinlopen Strait (2) – 11th July 2024
- gallery anchor link: #gallery_3109
Click on thumbnail to open an enlarged version of the specific photo.
Hinlopen Strait
Wed
10 Jul
2024
After the partially weather-beaten last couple of days, today was our day in Hinlopen Strait. Although – it started with cancelling the hike that we had been looking forward to, on a small island in Wahlenbergfjord. Two polar bears on the even smaller neighbouring island!
So instead of the hike, we got a wonderful wildlife observation of a polar bear mother with her first-year cub who were walking across this little island, leaving us with some unforgettable memories!
Later, we got some more equally unforgettable memories at Alkefjellet, this huge colony of Brünich’s guillemots. Amazing!
Photo gallery – Hinlopen Strait – 10th July 2024
- gallery anchor link: #gallery_3106
Click on thumbnail to open an enlarged version of the specific photo.
Sjuøyane
Tue
9 Jul
2024
After that very wet afternoon and evening in Murchisonfjord, the wind came. A lot of wind. There was clearly nothing to achieve in Murchisonfjord, so we tried our luck further north and set sail. Of course it was blowing there as well, it was just blowing all over the place and it was not easy to find an anchorage that worked, let alone a chance to go ashore.
Finally a window opened up for us at Sjuøyane, in the very furthest north of Svalbard, and we got a magnificent landing on Phippsøya, the northernmost “real island” in this part of the Arctic. We greatly enjoyed it!
The drift ice east of Sjuøyane had drifted elsewhere, there was just fog in that area and nothing else. Well, we had really made good use of our weather window!
Photo gallery – Sjuøyane – 08th/09th July 2024
- gallery anchor link: #gallery_3103
Click on thumbnail to open an enlarged version of the specific photo.
Nordaustland: Kinnvika
Mon
8 Jul
2024
Conditions were ideal last night to cross northern Hinlopen Strait, heading for Kinnvika in Murchisonfjord, Nordaustland. Next to the old Swedish-Finnish research station, we explored the barren polar desert – what a contrast to the comparatively rich vegetation we had seen the last couple of days!
In the afternoon, the weather forecast kept its promise with strong winds and quite heavy snow and rain. The best place to be was obviously in the cosy salon of the ship, listening to some presentations and enjoying a good book. It seems to have been a wet place anywhere in Spitsbergen; in Longyearbyen, they actually had to close some roads because of risks of flooding and avalanches!
Photo gallery – Nordaustland: Kinnvika – 07th July 2024
- gallery anchor link: #gallery_3100
Click on thumbnail to open an enlarged version of the specific photo.
Sørdalsflya & Gråhuken
Sun
7 Jul
2024
The headline might just as well be: Kreuzritter and Ritterhütte, which translates to “crusader” and “Ritter’s hut”.
Sørdalsflya is part of Reinsdyrflya, a large area of mostly flat tundra land north of Liefdefjord. This is where the German weather station “Kreuzritter” was located during the second world war, from 1943-44.
Since then, Reinsdyrflya has again been a peaceful place where nature rules.
This is also the case at Gråhuken, in northernmost Woodfjord. Nobody is wintering there anymore, let alone hunting polar bears, but the hut there has seen many well-known winterers from Hilmar Nøis who built the hut to Christiane Ritter, who wintered there together with her husband Hermann Ritter and the Norwegian hunter Karl Nikolaisen in 1934-35. The wintering resulted in the famous book “A woman in the polar night”. Seeing the hut was high on the wishlist for many on board – great that it worked out!
There is, by the way, a page within this website (click here) dedicated to the the “Ritter hut”, including a virtual tour.
Photo gallery – Sørdalsflya & Gråhuken – 06th July 2024
- gallery anchor link: #gallery_3097
Click on thumbnail to open an enlarged version of the specific photo.
Northwest Spitsbergen: Danskøya & Smeerenburgfjord
Sat
6 Jul
2024
The weather at Spitsbergen’s northwest corner was as it so often is in that area, with temperatures close to freezing, a stiff breeze and occasional snowfall. It was good to be dressed with all the outdoor gear you can get, spend just a few hours outside and then get back to a ship with central heating and the next good meal on the table … so different from conditions whalers had to endure in these waters 400 years ago.
Danskøya offered the opportunity for some hiking, and at Smeerenburgbreen, the clouds lifted and gave way to views of stunning beauty. And when that polar bear had gone its way, we could go and have a look at Virgohamna, which is kind of an outdoor museum of arctic exploration, expeditions and drama.
Photo gallery – northwest Spitsbergen: Danskøya & Smeerenburgfjord – 05th July 2024
- gallery anchor link: #gallery_3094
Click on thumbnail to open an enlarged version of the specific photo.
News-Listing live generated at 2024/September/19 at 10:55:46 Uhr (GMT+1)
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