Kvedfjordbukta

Kve­dfjor­dbuk­ta ist an open bay on the west coast of Spits­ber­gen, bet­ween Krossfjord and Mag­da­le­n­efjord. This rather hos­ti­le coas­tal stretch is very expo­sed. It con­sists of eit­her steep rock slo­pes and some boul­der beaches and gla­ciers. The­re are seven major gla­ciers in this area, and they all used to reach the sea, so the wha­lers named this coast “The seven ice­bergs”, today “Dei Sju Isfjel­la” in Nor­we­gi­an. All the­se gla­ciers have retrea­ted in recent deca­des, so not all of them reach the sea any­mo­re.

This coast could be a chal­len­ge on the way north as the­re was no shel­ter in case of sud­den storms. Ham­burg­buk­ta fur­ther north is the first place whe­re smal­ler ves­sels may anchor, but then you have alrea­dy almost reached Mag­da­le­n­efjord with the his­to­ri­cal­ly well-known and most­ly well-shel­te­red ancho­ra­ge at Tri­ni­ty­ham­na, east of Grav­ne­set.

The vege­ta­ti­on loo­ks rich and pris­ti­ne. It is obvious that the­re is not a lot of tram­pling here, and the­re is a lot of fer­ti­liz­a­ti­on from the litt­le auks that are bree­ding on the steep scree slo­pes in lar­ge num­bers.

Trap­pers have built a hut in Kve­dfjor­dbuk­ta in the 1920s to have a link bet­ween Krossfjord and Kongsfjord to the south, whe­re Ny-Åle­sund pro­vi­des Spitsbergen’s nort­hern­most out­lier of zivi­li­sa­ti­on, and the hun­ting grounds fur­ther north, in Mag­da­le­n­efjord and Smee­ren­burgfjord. The­re was ano­t­her hut at Ræderfjel­let (Tred­je­breen). Both have disap­peared and the­re is not­hing left but a very few scat­te­red remains so you can bare­ly see whe­re they might once have been.

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