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June 15, 2024 - In-Svalbard
I spend the morning repacking my bag for today’s trip. I’m taking a short cruise out across the Isfjorden to visit Pyramiden, an old Soviet town in the high arctic that has been preserved and maintained by a small residency of Russians throughout the years. The town gets its name from the mountain that it sits underneath - it was originally a mining town, same as most places here in Svalbard. Today it tourism keeps this place afloat, though times have been difficult for both Pyramiden and the town of Barentsburg due to being cut off from Norwegian tourism agencies. This decision was made in light of increased geopolitical tension between Russia and Norway as a result of the war in Ukraine. Interestingly, Longyearbyen leadership put out a statement banning Norwegian agencies from coordinating trips around the island with Russian-owned companies back in spring 2022, two full years before mainland Norway closed it’s own shared border with Russia (which only happened just last month). When looking for info online regarding how to travel to Pyramiden, you would be led to believe it’s simply not possible to go there any more.
It’s a bit chilly outside this morning, but the skies are fairly clear. I wait for the tour operator, Henningsen, to pick me up at the bus stop outside. I’ve specifically booked with Henningsen, rather than another tour provider like Hurtigruten, as I was tipped off that Henningsen sometimes does dock at Pyramiden and lets people tour the town. I’d heard from several people in Longyearbyen that they’d been there with Henningsen even within the past year. The operator has left language regarding their boat trip ambiguous online, stating the trip passes nearby the town, with the crew and guides reserving the right to change trip plans depending on what they think best for the tour group. An online map for the boat trip traces a route directly to the town and indicates it as a stop. This is drastically different from Hurtigruten’s listing, which explicitly states they cannot and will not enter the town of Pyramiden. I’m going to emphasize this point again: Henningsen uses Pyramiden to advertise this trip, and as the bus rolls up to the stop, the name of the town is scrolling on an electronic ticker mounted to the front of the vehicle.
We drive to Longyearbyen Havn and about 30 people exit the bus to enter a queue, walking out onto the dock and boarding the ship. Our ship, the Billefjord, is a blue-hulled icebreaker that sits next to a very similar ship in red, the Polar Girl. On board the Billefjord, our Danish guide introduces the ship’s entirely Filipino crew and we are given a bit of background info on the icebreaker and its construction in Finland. We are assured the vessel can break through fjord ice even in the deepest of winter and are told repeatedly that today might be the first day of the year the ship can clear through the ice typically surrounding Pyramiden and dock in the town. On the way out of Adventfjorden, we hug to the right and head up Isfjorden. Our guide tells us about the ruins of Hiorthhamn we see in passing, an old mining town were Musk Ox were introduced; the oxen failed to thrive in the arctic, dying off within a few years. Our guide tells us about a few other invasive species that have made it to Svalbard, including feral dogs that had to be hunted and eliminated, as well as a small winter-hardy mouse that snuck aboard ships and still exists around Barentsburg. Other various facts are tossed at us, and once again the German occupation of Svalbard during WW2 is brought up - we are told this is the only time Longyearbyen has been completely evacuated, with residents being sent to Norway, Iceland, and Greenland to escape. As we leave Adventfjorden behind, I get my first glimpse of the SvalSat ground station high up on top of the plateau mountain I’d spent so much time skirting around the past several days. The satellites are set back far enough on the plateau above Longyearbyen that they are completely invisible to scrutiny from below, and it’s only now that I’m several miles out on the water that I can see the shining white orbs neatly arrayed across the mountaintop. I’d sent an email to KSAT, the site’s operator, several days ago requesting visitation to the SvalSat grounds but hadn’t heard anything back.
We are free to roam around the ship, having access to lower, mid, and upper level decks as well as exterior walkways around every side of the vessel on every level; this includes an observation deck to the front of the ship and a viewing platform atop the main cabin. Other ships are heading up and down the Isfjorden, and an electric catamaran speeds past the Billefjord. As I’m milling about snapping shots of the mist-covered mountains rising steeply out of the water, the ship slows down and our guide comes out onto the upper deck, pointing out a group of walrus lounging on the beach up ahead. The creatures stare at us lazily, barely moving to turn their heads and follow the ship with their gaze. We then turn left and cross more directly across the Isfjorden, heading for another smaller inlet off the main fjord. The crossing takes about thirty minutes, during which our guide tells us a few more stories about early exploration and settlement in and around Svalbard.
Once across Isfjorden, we enter Billefjorden (our ship’s namesake). Passing more mist-veiled peaks, we have lunch in the passenger cabin. Ice is now floating in the water outside, and reemerging onto the exterior deck I catch a glimpse of a massive shining wall of ice at the end of the fjord. This is the Nordenskiöldbreen Glacier, running down to meet the water in an absolutely breathtaking sight. Huge chunks of ice now float around us, and the water is more or less completely still; clouds circle the top of a mountain peak, Terrierfjellet, that rises directly out of the middle of the glacier. The boat crawls to a stop - this is one of the most serene and beautiful places I’ve ever been.
After a moment’s rest, the boat continues counterclockwise around Billefjorden, making its way over to Pyramiden, which I was able to peek at through binoculars on the way to Nordenskiöldbreen. We see a couple of seals lounging on the arctic sea ice, one of them slipping back into the water as we get closer. A pod of beluga whales are surfacing up ahead, and we drift very slowly past them - there appear to be around 50, gently cresting to the surface of the icy water, making the liquid ripple and dance from their gentle disturbances.
Approaching Pyramiden, the water looks mostly free of ice. There are a few patches of sea ice here and there, but as we draw ever closer it appears very manageable and unproblematic, least of all for the reinforced hull of the icebreaker. We slow down drastically, and sit idling in the fjord about 400 yards offshore. Our guide begins to make rounds to the passengers scattered around the deck, and by the time he makes it to me it’s clear what he has to say: we won’t be going ashore into Pyramiden. He offers no explanation, instead offering a peculiar bit of news that there are some guests on the shore of the fjord that spent the night in Pyramiden and now need to ride back to Longyearbyen with us. I watch a raft deploy off the front end of the ship and the boat speeds off, weaving through chunks of ice that get more dense the closer it gets to the beach. I follow the craft on its extraction mission with binoculars, panning over to the shore to see five people standing there with packs and luggage. The raft eventually makes its way back after picking up the new passengers, and I watch the two people remaining on shore slowly hike back up the hill to a dirt path stretching back to the Soviet town. The boat pulls up to the icebreaker, and it becomes clear the three new passengers were hunters, spending the evening overnight on the far side of the fjord. They have reindeer antlers strapped to their pack, knee high mud boots, and one carries a rifle. Once everyone is back on the Billefjord, we begin moving again, headed back to Longyearbyen. I turn and watch the town sink away, a route of ice-free water very clearly laid out between us and the dock.
On the way back to Longyearbyen we see more walrus, some reindeer, and even a Minke whale slowly crossing the fjord. I try to focus on the positives of the day, rather than the fact that even in the clearest conditions, we still were unable to visit certain areas on this island due to geopolitical conflict thousands of miles away.
location: Longyearbyen (SJ)
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