Arctic spring

Arc­tic spring – the snow is mel­ting in the second half of May, and the world up here is chan­ging rapidly. Tem­pel­fjord and east coast, recent­ly just a day trip away, are sud­den­ly as remo­te and out of easy reach again as they have almost always been. Brown patches are gro­wing in the white cover of the tun­dra, and the first water is run­ning in val­leys that will soon be fil­led by tor­ren­ti­al rivers. Snow bun­tings and geese are sud­den­ly ever­y­whe­re on the tun­dra, also insi­de Lon­gye­ar­by­en, and noi­sy Litt­le auks are crow­ding the rocks high up on many slo­pes, fly­ing up, when one of the now fre­quent ava­lan­ches is thun­de­ring down.

Next to tun­dra, val­leys and moun­ta­ins near to Lon­gye­ar­by­en, the many indus­tri­al sites from the coal mining days are inte­res­t­ing places for excur­si­ons and, as always, rewar­ding play­grounds for pho­to­graph­ers. A num­ber of pan­o­r­amic views will fol­low here. A visit to the world-famous Seed Vault is, as expec­ted, bor­ing. Why is ever­y­bo­dy so exci­ted about it …? The best thing the­re is the view across Isfjord and Advent­fjord.

And who said the­re were no trees in Spits­ber­gen?

spits­ber­gen lon­gye­ar­by­en (gal­lery)

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

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