Jernsenga

‘Jern­sen­ga’, the ‘iron bed’, in Advent­da­len.

Jern­sen­ga (“the iron bed”) is an old beds­tead south of Hel­ve­tiaf­jel­let in Advent­da­len, about 5 kilo­me­t­res east of the end of the road. The­re are actual­ly two beds­teads. The­re is also a sto­ve, alt­hough it is a bit rus­ty and worn.

“Jern­sen­ga”, the iron bed in Advent­da­len (2010).

Of cour­se, the­re have always been rumours that the­se are the remains of a cabin fire. This may be due to the fact that most peo­p­le come here in the win­ter, when the Jern­seng (the -a at the end, omit­ted here, is the defi­ni­te artic­le) is easi­ly acces­si­ble by snow­mo­bi­le and is a popu­lar place for a first stop. But then, of cour­se, the tun­dra is cover­ed in snow and you can not see that the­re are no char­red planks or other rem­nants of a cabin fire lying around.

No, the real sto­ry is ano­ther one: The old fur­ni­tu­re in a hut fur­ther east in Advent­da­len (Passhyt­ta) was due to be repla­ced with some new stuff in ear­ly of May 1961. Some men went the­re from Lon­gye­ar­by­en by dog sled to do the job. They brought the new beds and other things the­re and took the old items with them back to Lon­gye­ar­by­en, but left them tem­po­r­a­ri­ly the­re becau­se bad wea­ther was coming in inclu­ding the onset of snow­melt. They had to make sure they would cross the burs­t­ing river befo­re it beca­me too big.

“Jern­sen­ga”, the iron bed in Advent­da­len 2024.

The ori­gi­nal plan was to pick things up the fol­lo­wing win­ter. But then they rea­li­sed that the old fur­ni­tu­re would make a useful land­mark in its new loca­ti­on – this was long befo­re the inven­ti­on of GPS, and a clear land­mark was a gre­at help in the dark and in bad wea­ther in the vast Advent­da­len val­ley. So it was deci­ded to lea­ve ever­y­thing as it was. Sin­ce then, Jern­sen­ga has stood in Advent­da­len, sur­pri­sing visi­tors to the area almost every day in win­ter.

In the sum­mer, hard­ly anyo­ne visits it, as it can only be rea­ched by a stre­nuous hike that includes crossing the lar­ge river in Advent­da­len. Tho­se who do visit in the sum­mer will noti­ce that the dwarf birch, which is other­wi­se very rare in Sval­bard, grows in abun­dance in that area!

Dwarf birch in the sur­roun­dings of “Jern­sen­ga”.

Jern­sen­ga pan­ora­ma

This pan­o­r­amic view shows Jern­sen­ga in the polar night on one of the rare days with red light, a phe­no­me­non cau­sed by Ray­leigh scat­te­ring in the high atmo­sphe­re (stra­to­sphe­re). Click here to read more about this phe­no­me­non. The atmo­sphe­re was abso­lut­e­ly unre­al, like on Mars. At least that’s how I ima­gi­ne it, visual­ly.

Jern­sen­ga Pho­to gal­lery

And final­ly, a few impres­si­ons of Jern­sen­ga, taken bet­ween 2010 and 2025, which also show how the ‘iron bed’ has suf­fe­r­ed during this time. It looks as if someone once dro­ve over one of the beds with a snow­mo­bi­le.

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

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