We have recently returned home from a wonderful expedition with nice weather and a lot of landnings. I know you've had a great week, but did this trip live up to your expectations?

It most definitely did! It has been a number of years since I last visited Svalbard and my expectations were high. My last trip was also on board M/S Quest, but in the month of July. I really liked to be back on M/S Quest and I also enjoyed going to Svalbard in May this time to be able to compare how nature changes at different times of the season.

What would you say is the biggest difference in traveling to Svalbard in May compared to July?

The bird life is of course different. We got to see a lot of different birds during our trip, like Brünnich's guillemot and Little auk, but later in the season you will encounter even more birds. However, the biggest difference, in my experience, was the landscape. In July you can do long hikes stepping over vegetation and flowers, while in May you often get a hike through deep snow. It is incredibly nice in the spring with the snow-capped mountains and the vast fjord ice. On our trip we were lucky enough to have great weather with sunshine, no wind and very calm sea. Despite the white landscape with deep and wet snow, we had the opportunity to make landings every day and do both shorter walks and longer hikes up the mountain. The hikes were definitely a highlight of our trip.

I know you really enjoyed the hikes, but is there any other event you remember in particular? 

I rarely say no to a plunge in the sea, so I will have to say that "the polar plunge" was a really strong experience. We did this next to the pack ice at 80 degrees latitude, and the thermometer showed comfortable minus one degree. It was truly an adrenaline rush and an extraordinary event that I would recommend everyone to do, if you get the chance.

We were lucky and got to experience a rich wildlife during our trip. Is there any encounter that stands out to you? 

We saw polar bears on two occasions during our trip and that is of course very cool, but this time I think that a walrus at Smeerenburg was my best encounter. The water was calm, the sun was shining, the walrus was resting on a rock and behind the walrus we got a glimpse of M/S Quest. It was a great photo opportunity!

We stayed on board M/S Quest and she was fully booked during our week. What was it like to share a cabin with someone you did not know from before? And how was it to spend so much time with 50 other travelers?

Since there is a lot going on on an expedition like this, you do not spend much time in your cabin. But you quickly get to know the person you share a cabin with, so it works great. Surprisingly fast all the faces on board become familiar, and since we do not have any assigned seats in the restaurant, I had the opportunity to dine with most of the travelers. I never experienced the ship as crowded, there are several places to hang out. In addition to the panoramic lounge, I like to be on the bridge, a great place to spend time, talk to the crew and search for wildlife.

Do you have any special recommendations for our PolarQuest travelers to bring with them in their bags?

Binoculars and knee-high boots! A pair of binoculars is a great thing to bring with you on zodiac cruises and also when you relax in the panoramic lounge or on the deck on board Quest. The experience is so much better when you are able see details on everything from glaciers and birds to walruses and polar bears.

Knee-high boots are also a must! In the spring, you often step in deep snow, but it is also a must for the rest of the season. Because during almost all landings you usually step into the sea to get to the shore from the zodiac.

The wild west of the Arctic

In the 20th century, Svalbard and its surroundings were marked as “terra nullius”, meaning that it was considered a no man’s land, a land that belonged to no jurisdiction or country, free for all. Even Sweden occupied land on Svalbard.

The idea of establishing mining colonies in a place located near the North Pole may sound crazy, but became a reality with the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 when the need for coal became urgent. The difficult situation meant that there were now strong interests in making the large investments required to build a Swedish coal mine on Spitsbergen.

Coal, the main source of energy

The need for resources was a consequence of coal being the dominant source of energy at the time. Both in industry, to heat houses and to produce gas for stoves and street lights. Coal was used in the locomotives' steam boilers on the expanding railway networks that connected Europe's industrial facilities and cities. It was also the source of energy for more and more ships in the Western world's merchant and war fleets.

Sweden’s investment in the Svea mine

In 1917, the first workers, on behalf of the company AB Spetsbergen svenska kolfält, travelled to Svalbard to start mining coal at the far end of the Van Mijenfjord in the so-called Svea mine (Sveagruvan). For the next eight years, around 2,000 Swedes lived in the small community. The Svea mine was expected to supply Sweden with coal for hundreds of years.

A hard, but well-paid job

At the beginning of Svea's existence, the coal was transported from the mine to the warehouse with the help of a kilometer-long rail track along the ground. However, the track was often covered with snow, and the workers had to spend a lot of time and effort digging snow tunnels. Therefore, after a while, a funicular railway was built, whose baskets could carry the coal high above the ground. The work was hard and the insolation, the darkness and the cold did not make it easier, but the job was well paid and the living conditions were relatively tolerable.

Sometimes, however, such severe storms raged that the workers could not leave their homes. It also happened that the baskets of the cableway were lost in hurricanes, that the fjord ice broke the harbor dock and that the permafrost thawed where tunnels were dug, so that the roof in the mine tunnels collapsed.

A massive price drop

The challenge of the nature's impact on Svalbard contributed to the amount of coal mined not reaching the company's target. As if that were not enough, the whole world went into a deep economic crisis in the early 1920s. The price of the coal that the Svea mine exported dropped from 160 SEK per tonne to only 30 SEK.

The Svea mine on fire

In 1925, a severe fire broke out in the mine and because it was impossible to put out, Svea was abandoned and closed abruptly. In 1934, the Svea mine was sold to the Norwegian mining company Store Norske. Since 1976 Store Norske has been owned by the Norwegian government.

The most important coal resource on Svalbard

The Svea mine was for a long time the most important coal resource on Svalbard, with up to 400 employees and family members living in the village.

In 2017, the Norwegian government announced that mining in Svea will come to an end, and that all traces of human activity in the area should be erased. The goal is that the mountains and the fjord will become part of the wild Arctic nature again.

No coal – no people

Today, Norway has only one mine in operation, Mine 7, but traces of mining can be seen in many places. And frankly, without coal, no people would probably live in Svalbard.

Not many people can write in their resume that they have lived and worked on the planet's coldest, most desolate and most inhospitable continent Antarctica. But fact is that one of these people is our own operations manager Henrik Törnberg, who since 2018 has been working behind the scenes with security and logistics for our guests and guides. During the winter of 2017, Henrik spent two months as expedition leader at the Swedish research station Wasa. We asked him to tell us about his experiences to give us a unique insight into what it is like to work and live in such an extreme environment like Antarctica.

Dronning Maud Land is one of the least studied regions of Antarctica in terms of variations in ice sheet thickness and dynamics. There are plenty of potential study sites in the mountain ranges, whose peaks are sticking up through the ice sheet 200–300 km from the coast.

The purpose of the research project MAGIC-DML was to reconstruct how the ice sheet thickness in Dronning Maud Land has varied through time. The results of the surveys provide the necessary basic knowledge, for example, verifying the results from climate models in order to understand the polar regions’ climatic factors and climate variability.

Henrik, how did you end up in Antarctica and in this project from the start?

I've been working in the polar regions my whole adult life really. I moved to Svalbard as a student in 1998 and stayed there as a guide for almost seven years. In 2004, I changed base camp from Svalbard to Stockholm University's glacier research station at the foot of Kebnekaise in Swedish Lappland. There, in roadless terrain, I lived six months a year and led the field program for glacier research and the operation of the station. In 2011, it was time for new challenges as a research engineer at the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat. My responsibility there was the land-based research expeditions in both the Arctic and Antarctic.

Tell us about the great research expedition you led in Antarctica?

I traveled to Queen Maud Land in Antarctica in January 2017. The team, with eleven people from Sweden, Norway, Great Britain and the USA, consisted of four researchers, technicians, mechanics, a mountain guide, doctor, chef and me, who were both project manager and expedition leader in the field. Preparing and planning the trip took many years because it was postponed several times.

What did you do exactly?

We traveled over large areas between different nunataks that protruded from the ice and looked for boulders with quartz crystals to be able to take rock samples, date the decay and get an idea of the history of the melting. We spent a total of twenty nights in tents.

What were the safety risks during the expedition?

The safety on the mountains and glaciers went far beyond what is normally associated with the mountain guide profession. We had practiced a lot working in rope teams to avoid falling into glacier cracks and save each other if needed. Then, of course, we had to consider the safety around vehicles (an accident in Antarctica can have serious consequences) fire safety, danger of carbon monoxide poisoning in tent camps and various risks that existed in the daily life at the station.

Tell us what a typical day could look like?

Our primary purpose was of course the science fieldwork but sometimes that could not be separated from making sure the camp functioned daily. That meant we all had to take our part in the various daily camp activities such as melting snow for food and drink, cooking meals, washing up, refueling the trucks and snowmobiles, recharging batteries for the GPS, drills, toughpads and various other communications devices that we had. Some days we were able to leave a person in camp to take care of a few of these tasks, but other days we were all out in the field so those tasks were left to the evenings.

What was it like doing fieldwork in Antarctica?

hen we were out in the field, we were a team of eight people based in a field camp. We had three large tents; two for sleeping and one that served as a mess tent for cooking, eating and storing spare food and equipment. We slept four persons in each tent, used a sleeping system that consisted of a folding camp bed (to keep us off the cold snow beneath), a roll-mat and two sleeping bags. We also had a small toilet tent, pitched at a discreet distance from the other tents.

You were there during the Antarctic high summer when the sun never settled. How was the weather and temperature?

The temperature varies greatly depending on how many meters above sea level you are positioned. Wasa is located just 300 meters above sea level. There was often radiant sun 24 hours a day and five to ten degrees below zero when there was no bad weather and storm. I always wore sunglasses and used high sun protection on my face. Some nights the temperature could drop below minus 30 degrees, but you slept well in double down sleeping bags. It was important to stay isolated from the feet and upwards, I mean we had three kilometers of ice below. In the event of a storm, we stayed inside for safety reasons. There is enormous force in the polar wind.

 

What did you eat?

Meat, fish and potatoes. Instead of a cow, we ate springbok, which is what you eat in Cape Town. We brought with us the world's best chef who was also a trained nurse. Dry goods, preserves and the freeze-dried food that we used for our lunches out in the field and emergency food, were shipped there from Sweden, while frozen and fresh goods came from Cape Town. Everything was stored in our food container out in the yard.

Did you see any animals during the expedition?

As a tourist in Antarctica, you witness amazing wildlife. Whales, penguins, and lots of birds, but we were too far from the coast. I think I saw one or two birds during two months time.

What are your strongest memories?

I remember an incredible number of cool experiences from the expedition and learned a lot about myself in the leadership role which was very different. But the strongest memories are probably from the days when I was left alone in the camp while the others were out in the field, many miles away. The powerful feeling of being the only living being on a large radius on the world's most isolated continent. A completely unique solitude. Not many people get to experience it in their lives.

Was the loneliness scary?

No not at all. As a leader in a group like this, and when you lived so close together, it was very relaxing to be by yourself, get some alone time and be able to hear your own thoughts. I also realized that this expedition was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I must enjoy because I had decided to quit the Polar Research Secretariat.

Was the expedition considered successful?

It was a big international investment with a tight schedule and high goals, but absolutely, we had a good team spirit, never had any accidents, took care of our own safety and came home with important results that can add knowledge when we are facing a climate change.

Will you be guiding during any of the 2022 PolarQuest trips to Antarctica?

That's the plan, hopefully the trip that goes in November.