Apropos Grumant

... and some other names in the neighbourhood.

Grumant is, or so it´s claimed in some places (like here), a Russian name for Greenland. Both the Scandinavians and Russians believed Svalbard to be a part of Greenland, in olden days.

Apparently the Russians are not very happy about how the Norwegians have established Svalbard as an official name for the islands, they would have preferred the more neutral Spitsbergen.

Svalbard is Old Norse and means something like "the cold shore". Today it´s the Norwegian name for all the islands situated between 74° and 81° northern latitude and 10° and 34° eastern longitude.

Spitsbergen is the name the Dutchman Willem Barents gave the islands when he came here in 1596. The reason for the name is all the pointy mountains.

I am still a bit confused about whether the name Spitsbergen used today means all of the islands, or only the biggest one, the one we´re living on right now. I´ve heard both.

Barentsburg is, obviously, named after Willem. Just like the Barents-sea.

Longyearbyen was established in 1906, by an American, John Munroe Longyear. He was one of the owners of the company Arctic Coal Company. In 1916 the mines and town were bought by Store Norske Spitsbergen Kullkompani, but the name Longyear stuck. More about the town here.

And then there´s Pyramiden, of course. That´s simple, the town was put by the foot of the mountain Pyramiden. I´ll show you photos real soon, they will explain the name of the mountain.

Finally, a few pictures from today´s hike on a nearby mountain. We didn´t reach the summit, but we got plenty of fresh air and exercise, which was the main idea.

Here´s the ridge we followed. Our house can be seen at the bottom.


Me and Rifle. Luckily no polar bears around.



And Emma and Thomas.


The mountain Lindholmhøgda (or actually the summit, that we didn´t reach), is named after Joachim Lindholm, who was a mining engineer at Longyearbyen between 1925 and 1941.

You might wonder where I find this kind of obscure information? Check out this page.

Colesbukta II

Here comes Chapter II in the exciting saga about our adventure to Colesbukta. Starting with a photo of Thomas in charge of the boat. He´s a natural.

A couple of you might remember that we had some anxieties about the boat, as we´d heard it wasn´t quite safe. No worries, it behaved really well. At first, we couldn´t figure out how to go full speed, but eventually we got that right too.

Anyway, the first leg of our journey back towards Longyearbyen went straight across the bay, to a Russian settlement that was abandoned in 1967. Underneath are photos from the harbour area Coles Bay, connected by railway to Grumantbyen some kilometers away. The coal was mined in Grumantbyen, brought here through a tunnel and then shipped away.


Inside one of the houses it looked like this:



Old interesting rubbish inside, and plenty more outside.


The railway could be seen from the sea, as we continued towards Adventfjorden.


Underneath are photos from Grumantbyen - at the opposite end of the railway. We disembarked here as well, and it was obvious why the Russians placed the dock elsewhere, as it was a lot harder to land here.

But we made a bonfire and had a look around, in golden afternoon light.

No doubt as to who reigned here!


Going in Adventfjorden to Longyearbyen , this is the view across Isfjorden.


There´s another abandoned Russian settlement on Svalbard more widely known, and larger, than Grumantbyen. It´s Pyramiden, of course, and it´s the strangest place. You can trust me on this, as, incidentally, we went and had a look at it yesterday. On an organized trip, in a much bigger boat.

But I have barely begun unloading the (almost full) camera, therefore the tale about that trip will have to wait. And from the number of pictures we took, I fear there will be chapters, again.

So bye for now.

Colesbukta I

There are cabins all across Spitsbergen, quite a few of them fairly close to Longyearbyen - and we went to visit one of them last weekend. UNIS has a few cabins available for its employees, and the one we went to is situated at Kapp Laila in Colesbukta. A daring adventure for us, going out into the wild, all on our own, into polar bear-land etc. But it turned out to be not so very different from going to a cabin on the mainland. Except the part about carrying emergency beacon, satellite phone, survival suits, warning flares and of course, firearm.

It seems I shouldn´t have made jokes about heavy skies in Bergen, because that´s what we got. Saturday was grey, but no wind and mild temperatures (5°C).

Our cabin is number 2 from left.




Nice exterior - and classic interior.


The cabin was moved from Todalen near Longyearbyen in 2000 (by a bulldozer, or so we´ve been told). A couple of years ago parts of it was rampaged by a bear, and one wall had to be rebuilt (no one was in the cabin at the time!).

A couple of other cabins nearby on the beach.



This one had an ingenious hinder against polar bears.


Interesting stuff on the beach. We found one big remnant of whale.



And several remnants of civilization. In this case, probably Russian civilization.


At one point, the Russians (most likely) made core holes to take out samples, to check for oil or coal in the ground. Pieces of core samples were still lying around.


And piece of reindeer.


For supper: frying pancakes on the beach.


And of course, plenty of fooling around with the survival suits. They were a real hassle to get in and out of, but warm, safe and handy for swimming.


Thomas looking snug.


... and floating away.


Just kidding - it´s William. He waded out, as it was really shallow.

And finally, we just had to pose...


You wonder how we got there? We didn´t float, we came by boat (hah! it rhymes!). A rather small, open one.

On the way back on Sunday we stopped in Grumantbyen, an abandoned Russian mining settlement. I haven´t had time to load photos yet, so more about that in chapter II.

Roads and stuff

Several people asked me, before I went to Longyearbyen, and when they heard that we´d bring our car - "but are there cars on Svalbard?"

Oh yes there are. Lots more than you´d think. I still think it´s kind of strange, as the distances within town are modest. To walk from the fjord and up to Nybyen for instance, takes around 25 minutes, or 10 minutes on a bike. And in winter, everybody uses snowscooters anyway. So why all the cars? I suppose it´s because of the cabins that people go to in the weekends, and because they´re just used to having cars. And I suppose that last reason is why we brought ours (and also, because it took us all the way up through Norway, and we packed all our stuff in it (...and now it sounds as if I´m making excuses. Oh never mind!))

Anyway, all in all there are 50 kilometers of road in and around Longyearbyen. Most of them are criss-crossing the town, while one stretch going north ends up in Bjørndalen. Southwards you drive through Adventdalen and end up near gruve 7.



We haven´t explored these two directions properly yet, but until then, I can show you a few photos from some short trips that we did earlier.

These are taken while it still was summer(ish), from a visit to Bjørndalen.


Reindeer, of a slightly more reserved kind than those in Longyearbyen.


Peter, always with his football at hand. In the background a view into Bjørndalen.


Curious polar fox.


And here are a few from Adventdalen, when the weather (and light) was quite different.



... and from the EISCAT-radars at the end of the road. These are a part of the Northern Lights Station in the Advent valley.




Spot the birdie.


Of course, if you have a boat you can get a lot further in summer. And when the snow comes, the scooter can take you almost anywhere on the island. So a lot of people have boats and scooters too, as well as cars. We´re planning to get a scooter eventually, but definitely not a boat. BUT this afternoon we´ll borrow one of UNIS´ boats and go on a trip to one of their cabins at Kapp Leila, where we´ll stay until Sunday. A real adventure for us!

Our concern now is whether the boat is completely safe (we´ve heard rumors it´s not), and whether we´ll get survival-suits small enough for the boys. I promise to tell, and show.