In Adriabukta, next to the peninsula Treskelen, there was a small trapper’s cabin. This was the one deepest in the fjord in the days of polar bear hunting. It was built in 1926 by several trappers including “polar bear king” Henry Rudi for occasional use during hunting trips. The main hut was in Hyttevika on the west coast north of Hornsund. The hut in Hyttevika and the one here in Adriabukta were used by some famous trappers such the female polar bear hunter Wanny Woldstad, who wintered several times in the 1930s.
The old hut is gone now. You can just see where it once stood, just in front of the more recent hut which is standing there today. Also this hut is rather small and starting to show signs of deterioration.
Huts are places of longing, dreams and adventure in Spitsbergen’s beautiful landscape. Even if the modern visitor’s eye may mostly be directed towards nature, most will have an open ear every now and then for exciting survival stories about explorers and expeditions, adventurers and trappers.
These huts are silent witnesses and and every one of them tells a little part of the whole story. The little book “Svalbardhytter” and the poster that is part of the same project make these fascinating places accessible for everyone.
From remote ruins, just traces in a few cases, to “famous” trapper huts such as Fredheim in Tempelfjord and Bjørneborg on Halvmåneøya, the war weather station Haudegen, the former scientific base Würzburger Hütte on Barentsøya and Hammerfesthuset, Svalbard’s oldest building.