East coast of Spitsbergen: Crollbreen

Crollbreen is a “small”, unknown glacier on the southern east coast of Spitsbergen. A remote coast which is hardly ever visited by people. The coastal waters are completely uncharted and there are definitely some shallows, so access from the sea is not easy. This is, if at all, then something for small, robust boats with experienced skippers on fine weather days where you can make a slow, careful approach.

This is what we did in 2018, and it was exciting to have a closer look. Crollbreen was shown with a glacier front at the sea on all maps, but it has retreated strongly in recent years, so it is not terminating at the sea anymore, but in a lagoon. On the north side, the glacier front is resting on land, so there is no steep calving ice cliff anymore.

This makes altogether for a young, different landscape, which came into existence only in very recent years due to the retreat of the glacier, witnessing the changing climate. Maybe we were indeed the very first people to walk along the beach of the lagoon? You have to be very careful when you say that you are the first one to have done something in Spitsbergen, but in this case ..? Possible, at least. If you have been there before, please let me know 🙂

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