St. Jonsfjord: Gjertsenodden, Perhytta

St. Jons­fjord: Gjert­se­nod­den

St. Jons­fjord, situa­ted on Spitsbergen’s west coast, is one of the smal­ler fjords of the island. Gjert­se­nod­den is a small low­land area on the north side. Beau­tiful views of the sur­roun­ding moun­ta­ins and gla­ciers, the gla­cier Gaf­fel­breen (“Fork gla­cier”) in a bay just around the cor­ner, inte­res­t­ing tun­dra with lots of plant spe­ci­es, reinde­er and frost-pat­ter­ned ground – a love­ly litt­le pie­ce of Spits­ber­gen. Often, the­re is a lot of gla­cier ice on the shore.

The huge morai­ne of Gaf­fel­breen indi­ca­ted how lar­ge the gla­cier was in the 19th cen­tu­ry, during the litt­le ice age. But the view is still impres­si­ve today.

Gal­lery – St. Jons­fjord: Gjert­se­nod­den & Gaf­fel­breen

Some impres­si­ons of the stun­ning sce­n­ery at Gjert­se­nod­den and near Gaf­fel­breen.

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

Gjert­se­nod­den: Per’s hut

“Per’s hut” is an obvious eye-cat­cher clo­se to the shore if you hap­pen to visit Gjert­se­nod­den. This love­ly litt­le log-cabin style hut was built in 1962 by Per Johns­son, one of Spitsbergen’s last polar bear hun­ters, and Knut Edin. Back then, Johns­son had a job in Ny-Åle­sund and built this hut for free­time use. It was never used for win­tering. Now it is known as Per’s hut (Nor­we­gi­an: Perhyt­ta), after its buil­der. The log con­s­truc­tion would have been rather unty­pi­cal for a 20th cen­tu­ry pro­fes­sio­nal hun­ter: it shows that time didn’t mat­ter too much when it was built. Trap­pers wan­ted to build their huts rather quick­ly, becau­se they arri­ved late in the sum­mer and then they quick­ly build or repair a num­ber of huts for the win­ter hun­ting sea­son.

Gal­lery – Gjert­se­nod­den: Per’s hut

Some per­spec­ti­ves on Per’s hut.

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

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