Svalbard – Pyramiden and Glacier

A beautiful morning in Svalbard after the snow from the previous night. Today was another highlight of my trip – an all-day boat trip to an Arctic glacier, and the abandoned Soviet mining town of Pyramiden.

Our ship, the “Polargirl”, run by Polar Charters. There were only about 10 of us on the trip; some tourists like me, other adventurers (more on that later), and a bartender from Longyearbyen who was onboard on her day off to watch for wildlife along the way.

This was a map inside the boat showing where we were going. Longyearbyen is in blue, Pyramiden is in red, and the glacier is in white. About 100km or so between Longyearbyen and Pyramiden.

There were very pleasant, warm rooms inside, but many of us spent a lot of time during the 3-hour trip to Pyramiden on the front or back decks, taking pictures and looking for wildlife.

The wildlife this ship saw going out every day since May. Unfortunately we weren’t very lucky on that front. Hundreds of reindeer (which were too far away for good pictures), a couple of minke whales, and two puffins. No polar bears 😦

Probably the best “active wildlife” photo I’ll ever take. My bar is low!

I have literally hundreds of landscape photos of the mountains along the fjord we took to get to Pyramiden. I’ve put a collection of them in this gallery. Feel free to browse through them by clicking, or you can scroll down to continue the story.

The “adventurers” I referred to above? They took the boat to get to this cabin, attached to literally nothing, to just stay there and maybe hunt. A man, a woman, and a big Arctic dog. They’ll get picked up in a few days. I thought I heard something about it costing somewhere around $2,000 for the privilege. You do you!

Our first glimpse of Pyramiden from the water. That giant track thing on the right? A huge defunct coal mine. On Norwegian Svalbard — but was owned and run entirely by the Soviet Union. The entire town was a Soviet company town in Norway, thanks to the Svalbard Treaty.

Pulling into dock, we could see three flags: Norway, the town flag of Pyramiden, and the flag of the former USSR. That bus was not a derelict; the tour guide took us in that bus into town!

Our tour guide, Lada. She works for the Russian mining firm that still owns Pyramiden (and the only other town, Barentsburg, which is still an active mine (for now). She rotates in and out of Pyramiden to run tours with less than 15 other people. Later in the tour she was very interested in chatting with me about places to go in Southeast Asia for a *warmer* vacation!

The rifle was for polar bears, not us (I think). They did say that a polar bear was in the town that morning, but had wandered off by the time we arrived. We did hear a gunshot outside of town during the tour – people usually use the guns to warn the bears off, not to actually shoot them unless they have to save their own life.

Beautiful Pyramiden in all its Soviet glory. During the Cold War there were over 2,000 people living here, and it was a coveted assignment for Soviet citizens (if they could deal with the cold and the coal) as they got well paid, well fed, and since they were “technically” outside the USSR, censorship was less strict and they had access to Western music and movies from nearby Longyearbyen.

Entrance to the canteen, where workers ate and had social events. The guide was taking a picture to ensure the doors were locked (against polar bears).

Below is a gallery of pictures from inside the canteen building. Lots of interesting frescos/mosaics on the walls, pretty wall paneling, and a good ol’ Soviet kitchen.

I took a long time trying to get a good exposure of this building, because the guide said it was the HR building hahaha..

As we approached the Palace of Culture for Pyramiden (something in most Soviet towns), we saw the “northernmost statue of Lenin in the world.”

Looking out at what’s left of the USSR. Nice view, at least. Bet he’s cold in the winter though.

My Google Translate couldn’t handle the curving of the text, so I’m not sure what these mean. Are they awards? Eras? Something else?

Inside was a theater, where they would have movie nights and music performances.

Lada told us that they could even get *gasp* JAZZ bands from Longyearbyen to perform there during the Cold War. How subversive! Seriously, the USSR didn’t like jazz.

“Today they’re listening to jazz, tomorrow they’ll betray their homeland.“

There were still picture collages of daily-life events from the 80s on the wall, from music and dance to sports competitions; just regular small-town life.

What is it with this guy and statues everywhere?

Also inside the Palace of Culture was the “Pyramiden Sport Court” (where it looks like they were set up for basketball, tug-of-war, relay races, indoor soccer, and more), a music practice room, and a dance studio (the “most northern” of all of these too?).