Arctic posh: Isfjord Radio
At Cape Linne on the Isfjord’s southernmost tip is a tiny settlement that has been retrofitted over the past several years into one of Svalbard’s premier adventure destinations, Loomed over today by a massive radio tower and a dilapidated satellite dish, the cape’s Isfjord Radio Station was established in 1933 as the sole telecommunications link between Svalbard and the Norwegian mainland. When underwater fibre optics laid seventy years later outmoded the station overnight, Norwegian adventure company Basecamp Spitsbergen (t79 02 46 00, wbasecampspitsbergen.com; inclusive stays from 7300kr per person) stepped in and re-envisioned the settlement’s half-dozen buildings as a remote, rustic-chic base for explorations into the Arctic wilderness. The 23 swish, blue-grey rooms are done up with exposed wood, large comfy beds, goatskin blankets and driftwood sculptures, with high-powered binoculars that await you at the window sills (the station looks out onto a protected bird area).
To bear arms
As the world’s most northerly settled land, Svalbard easily lends itself to notching up your bedpost with geographic superlatives: most northerly kebab; most northerly naff souvenir shop; most northerly place in the world where you can walk around in a hoodie and carry a gun without ever getting a second look from your neighbour. Island law requires everyone of age to carry a firearm anywhere outside of Longyearbyen – most residents travel with a Ruger .30 rifle – as well as a “shocking device”, a signal pistol or suchlike, to ward off polar bears. Firearms can be rented from, among other places, Ingeniør G. Paulsen (t79 02 32 00) in town, though you’ll need to either show documentation that you have permission to possess a firearm in your home country or apply for a licence with the governor (see Svalbard tours).
These regulations are a constant reminder that somewhere out there lurks Ursus maritimus, the common, hungry polar bear. Polar bear attacks up here, while not commonplace, tend to get plenty of press in the international media, which often serves to tarnish Svalbard’s good name for a while and result in a few cancelled holiday plans. In 2011, a British teenager was tragically mauled to death and four others injured when a polar bear entered their tent during an expedition sponsored in part by the Royal Geographical Society. Though there have been just five fatal bear attacks on humans since 1971, thirteen bears were shot to death between 2001 and 2011. The root cause of all these deaths – both human and ursine – isn’t carelessness, though: it’s global warming. As the sea ice retreats, the bears, who more commonly hunt seals, are forced to unaccustomedly look inland for sustenance, even targeting such unlikely food sources as the eggs of barnacle geese. As food and proper hunting grounds dwindle, interactions between polar bears and humans are likely to increase, particularly as out of the estimated 3500 polar bears that comprise the Barents Sea population roughly half live on or around Spitsbergen.
Global Seed Vault
Svalbard is home to the Global Seed Vault, a “doomsday” bank built in 2008 that stores seeds from thousands of crop varieties and their botanical wild relatives from all over the world. The current total number of seed samples numbers some 250 million (representing 500,000 different varieties), including members of one-third of the world’s most important varieties of food crops. The vault is most commonly used in the event that any of the world’s thousand-plus collections of diverse crops accidentally lose or destroy samples – not an infrequent occurrence. The structure is about as impervious to an end-of-the-world catastrophe as possible, constructed some 120m inside a sandstone mountain and 130m above sea level, which ensures the site will stay dry even in the event that all the icecaps melt. Seeds are kept in specially constructed four-ply packets and heat-sealed to exclude moisture. For obvious reasons, the vault is closed to visitors unable to prove some specific scientific purpose.
Svalbard tours
Guided tours are big business on Svalbard and you can choose anything from hiking and snowmobiling through to kayaking, ice-caving, dog-sledging, Zodiac boat trips and wildlife safaris, not to mention trips into a former coal mine and stays on a converted Dutch schooner moored in the polar ice. The winter season runs from December to late May, while June to November is the season for “summer” activities. Your first point of contact should be Longyearbyen’s official tourist office, Svalbard Tourism, which presents a fairly thorough overview of everything you can do on the island. Next, select a tour operator – some of the best ones are listed below; prices tend to not vary too much. Note that in addition to the tours below, most of the operators run day-trips to Barentsburg by snowmobile or Zodiac, and some do overnight trips as well, with a stay in the hotel.
You can, of course, book a whole holiday with an operator back home (see Tour and holiday operators) or even take pot luck when you get there, but be warned that wilderness excursions are often fully booked weeks in advance. And finally, note that if you are determined to strike out into the wilderness independently, you first have to seek permission from, and log your itinerary with, the governor’s office, Sysselmannen på Svalbard, Postboks 633, N-9171 Longyearbyen (t79 02 43 00, wsysselmannen.no) – and they will certainly require you to carry some form of weapon (see To bear arms).