Part 4: A day trip on snowmobile to Barentsburg
One of the most interesting aspects of the island of Svalbard is the mining concession giving to the Russians and the still active mining town of Barentsburg – a sort of little Russia on the official territory of Norway.
Although Norsemen probably have discovered the island centuries before and used it for fishing and hunting, the first “official” discovery of Svalbard comes on the name of Dutchman Dutchman Willem Barentsz, who sighted the archipelago in 1596 searching for the Northern Sea Route to Asia. He named the island Spitsbergen ('Spitse bergen' – or 'pointy mountains' in English) after the wild mountain scenery. For those wondering, the Norwegian Svalbard means 'cold shores' and the first official landing only happened in 1604 when an English ship landed here. It were the Dutch though whom in 1619 constructed the first settlement, with a few other countries following suit (all doing so for whaling purposes). By the late 17th Century the Russians arrived and even wintered, being more interested in hunting of land mammals, although they later left at the time when the Norwegians arrived in bigger numbers.
Fast forward to the turn of the 20th Century and Svalbard has become an increasingly popular place for arctic exploration and the mining of newly discovered coal deposits. Norwegians, British and even Americans came to the islands as talks were started to discuss the status of the island – although World War 1 put a hold to that. After the war the Svalbard Treaty was signed, granting full sovereignty to Norway. However, all signatory countries were granted rights to fish, hunt and mine the mineral resources (currently only Norway and Russia make use of these rights). Russia immediately started mining operations in the towns of Barentsburg, Pyramiden and Grumant. During the cold war, about two thirds of the island's population of 4,000 came from the Soviet Union. Grumant was closed after it was depleted in 1962 while the much larger town of Pyramiden was closed in 1998 after its coal was depleted as well. Barentsburg has however remained active as a coal-mining town According to the latest statistics, there are currently 471 people still living in Barentsburg (almost entirely Russian and Ukrainian nationals) where they are employed by the Russian state-owned Arktikugol company.
Enough history – back to the trip! I booked my tour to Barentsburg through Spitzbergen Adventures. At 3,190 NOK (329 EUR) it wasn't cheap – but then nothing on the island really is. At least it included the whole bunch: snowmobile, insurance, fuel, snowmobile outfit, helmet, gloves, shoes, drinks, lunch, pick-up and drop-off at your hotel. I booked just a day before through the easy-to-use website of visitsvalbard.com. You have to pay in advance online and will instantly receive confirmation. As all people on today's tour stayed in different hotels further away I was the last person to be picked up and driven to the Spitzbergen Adventures office/warehouse. We began the tour with a briefing on our route and some compulsory health and safety guidelines.
After that it was time to dress up. We received a full outfit for the snowmobile which you have to wear over your multi-layered winter clothes and jacket. Sounds like a lot of clothes – but trust me, you need it when you are driving at speeds which can easily reach 80kph. The extra outfit consisted of a one-piece snowmobile jumpsuit, snowmobile boots (for over your normal shoes), a balaclava, helmet and special gloves. This is how it looks like when you are all dressed up for the ride.
We were then driven in two sorties to the starting point in the middle of Longyearbyen where all snowmobiles were parked, where our guide for the day gave some last instructions on how a snowmobile actually works. It would be my first time on a snowmobile. To drive one is actually very easy when it comes to the controls – although to really master it would prove a bit harder and easier said than done. I would not have thought that it would still require quite some physical strength and concentration when steering!
It is required to carry a gun when venturing outside Longyearbyen due to the danger of polar bears. Of course, our company had a permit to carry a gun so our guide took one for us as a group. Just remember that if you want to venture out alone or as a group without a local guide, getting such a permit can be tricky or at least time-consuming – making it almost impossible to go on a spontaneous trip out of Longyearbyen without being part of a tour group.
I was assigned to the rearguard of our group of around 10 to 14. The trip to Barentsburg would take 55 kilometres one-way, and would take us over one mountain pass. The first few miles were along the main road of Longyearbyen and along a frozen river in the town's suburbs. After clearing this, we were starting the most challenging part of the route, which is the ride up and down the pass.
At flat lands it is remarkably easy to ride on a snowmobile, even when you hit high speeds of around 80kph. It is however more challenging going up and down a small mountain pass at much lower speeds. At such moments, steering becomes very heavy as there is of course no power steering like you would find in a car. The front skis which you steer still cover quite some bit of surface in the snow and it takes quite a bit of power and exact timing to put them in the right direction to make a corner. Especially in the beginning I accidentally hit a few times the throttle lever when I did not intent to do so, causing me to be catapulted into a corner at times I actually wanted to reduce speed. Luckily each time I managed to recover the snowmobile without creating an accident. As the day progressed I slowly got a better grip of the snowmobile and its controls.
Once we reached the top of the pass we immediately ventured on a bit more down, and only stopped a while later for some grand views over the surrounding scenery.
The rest of the journey was quite straightforward. The first bit was on a large plain with little to no corners. Here we could hit speeds of up to 80kph – except for a part about two thirds on the way in between some small hills littered with rocks which slowed us down a bit more as we had to zigzag through. At no point did it become boring. I was enjoying riding the snowmobile – and there was plenty to see such as deer and hunting huts. Once we came near to the coastline again we again made a brief stop.
Down at the fjord the views were again truly spectacular.
After 15-20 or so more minutes driving parallel to the coastline we finally reached the Russian mining town of Barentsburg.
Next up: Exploring the Russian mining operations at Barentsburg, and riding back to Longyearbyen through more spectacular landscapes.