Svalbard

Svalbard: You Must Carry a Rifle Outside Town and the Polar Bears Are the Reason

Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago at 78 degrees North, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The main island is Spitsbergen; the only significant settlement is Longyearbyen, population approximately 2,400. The total polar bear population of the archipelago is approximately 3,000. When you travel outside the settlement perimeter, you are required by law to carry a rifle and to know how to use it. This is not a cautionary guideline. It reflects the actual predator-to-human ratio.

Getting there is cheaper than most people assume. Norwegian Air and SAS fly to Svalbard Airport (LYR) in Longyearbyen from Oslo in approximately 3 hours. Flights run multiple times daily. There are no standard visa requirements – the 1920 Svalbard Treaty grants nationals of signatory countries the right to settle and work, which is why Longyearbyen has a mixed population of Norwegians, Russians (from the mining settlement at Barentsburg), and various other nationalities.

When to Go

June through August: 24-hour daylight, temperatures of 5 to 12 degrees Celsius, hiking trails accessible, boat tours running, seabirds nesting, polar bears moving across the tundra. This is when most wildlife is accessible from the settlement.

March through May: polar spring, snow on the ground, dog sledding and snowmobiling at their best. The late winter light at this latitude – low sun angles across ice and snow for most of the day – is what serious Arctic photographers specifically come for.

November through February: polar night, continuous darkness, northern lights, and temperatures of -15 to -30 degrees Celsius. The northern lights are visible from early September through March with clear skies.

Longyearbyen

The town is industrial and functional: wooden houses on stilts to prevent permafrost melt, a church, a museum, a supermarket, and the infrastructure of a mining and tourism economy. The Svalbard Museum covers natural history and human settlement competently. The Global Seed Vault – a repository for the world’s crop seeds built into the permafrost in 2008 – is 2 kilometres from town and visible from the road. It is not open to visitors but the approach road gives a sufficient sense of it.

The Svalbard Social Club restaurant, in the old coal company headquarters building, is the best option for dinner. Norwegian-influenced food, local produce, expensive by any standard because everything is expensive in Svalbard.

Wildlife

Summer boat tours from Longyearbyen cover the western fjord system. Walrus are hauled out on beaches. The bird cliffs hold little auks, Brünnich’s guillemots, and Atlantic puffins in the millions. Arctic foxes throughout the tundra. The Svalbard reindeer subspecies is small, shaggy, and visible near Longyearbyen.

Polar bear sightings on tours are common in summer on longer expeditions to the ice edge in the north. The bears swim from ice floe to ice floe; ice coverage in summer is variable and has been decreasing as climate change reduces summer ice extent. Shorter day trips have variable polar bear probability; multi-day expeditions to the northern ice give the best access.

Dog Sledding

March and April dog sled tours cover mountain terrain around Longyearbyen and reach frozen fjords where the polar spring landscape is at its most dramatic. Full-day tours run approximately NOK 3,000 to 4,000 per person.

Practical Notes

Pack for temperatures 10 degrees colder than forecast when planning outdoor activities. Mosquitoes are a genuine issue in summer in valleys and near standing water; repellent is useful. Radisson Blu Polar Hotel and Mary-Ann’s Polarrigg are both reliable accommodation options.