Reindalen

Reind­a­len ist Spitsbergen’s lar­gest ice-free val­ley. A lar­ge part of the regio­nal reinde­er popu­la­ti­on is fee­ding on hundreds of squa­re kilo­me­t­res of tun­dra in just this val­ley.

The dimen­si­ons of the land­scape are see­mingly end­less. The val­ley is a good ten kilo­me­t­res wide at its mouth, unin­ter­rupt­ed by any land­scape details. This makes the land­scape appear huge. It takes many hours to get some­whe­re on ski­es, not to men­ti­on a sum­mer hike when end­less wet­lands and the lar­ge river take a lot of time and ener­gy. In the win­ter, it is easier to access and enjoy this vast land­scape.

If you dri­ve with a snow mobi­le from Lon­gye­ar­by­en to Sveagru­va, then you will usual­ly cross Reind­a­len and then dri­ve up Slak­breen, pas­sing Andre­as­bu, an emer­gen­cy hut by the mining com­pa­ny Store Nor­ske. I made this pan­ora­ma on a hill of the Slak­breen-morai­ne, on the sou­thern side of Reind­a­len. The val­ley Reind­a­len is Spitsbergen’s lar­gest ice-free val­ley, with a huge river and wide wet­lands and mars­hes in sum­mer.