Ny-Ålesund - Summer 2008
July 30th
Sailing into Kongsfjorden, we are greeted on the right side by the Scheteligfjellet
(only the 694m top is visible, the 718m top just behind is in the clouds)…
…and on the left by the magnificent nunataks called Tre Kroner - from left to right, Svea (1226m),
Nora (1226m) and Dana (1175mm). The "three crowns" symbolize Sweden, Norway and Denmark respectively.
Pretender (1245m) and Dronninfjella (1264m).
Garwoodtoppen (731m) and wonderful exposed rock foldings.
Ny-Ålesund was founded 1917 as a coal mining town. Mining was stopped in 1962 after a
mining accident kills 21 miners, the infamous Kings Bay Affair that brought down the Norwegian government in 1963. In 1968 the settlement is redesigned
as a scientific settlement, and after the Norwegian Polar Insitute opens its research base, several other research centres are created. Today Kings Bay AS,
a government enterprise, operates the entire settlement - providing transport, power- and water supply and catering.
Mining is particularly difficult and dangerous here - the coal layers here
are vertical, instead of horizontal.
Zeppelinfjellet (554m), formerly the main entrance to the mine, has today a weather station.
View towards the radio station, where also the airport is located, and Scheteligfjellet.
The airship mast from which Amundsen and Nobile left with the Norge to reach the North Pole as
the first verified explorer team to have reached the pole, and from which Nobile left with the Italia for a second series of flights in the Arctic regions -
Nobile was to die on the third flight of that series.
Ny-Ålesund has the northernmost functional post office…
…and the northernmost hotel, Nordpol Hotellet.
These two (four) houses have been moved here from Ny-London on the other side of Kongsfjorden -
more about that later.
View across Kongsfjorden, Mitra in the background.
On to Blomstrandhamna | Back to Svalbard - Summer 2008
Sailing into Kongsfjorden, we are greeted on the right side by the Scheteligfjellet
(only the 694m top is visible, the 718m top just behind is in the clouds)…
…and on the left by the magnificent nunataks called Tre Kroner - from left to right, Svea (1226m),
Nora (1226m) and Dana (1175mm). The "three crowns" symbolize Sweden, Norway and Denmark respectively.
Pretender (1245m) and Dronninfjella (1264m).
Garwoodtoppen (731m) and wonderful exposed rock foldings.
Ny-Ålesund was founded 1917 as a coal mining town. Mining was stopped in 1962 after a
mining accident kills 21 miners, the infamous Kings Bay Affair that brought down the Norwegian government in 1963. In 1968 the settlement is redesigned
as a scientific settlement, and after the Norwegian Polar Insitute opens its research base, several other research centres are created. Today Kings Bay AS,
a government enterprise, operates the entire settlement - providing transport, power- and water supply and catering.
Mining is particularly difficult and dangerous here - the coal layers here
are vertical, instead of horizontal.
Zeppelinfjellet (554m), formerly the main entrance to the mine, has today a weather station.
View towards the radio station, where also the airport is located, and Scheteligfjellet.
The airship mast from which Amundsen and Nobile left with the Norge to reach the North Pole as
the first verified explorer team to have reached the pole, and from which Nobile left with the Italia for a second series of flights in the Arctic regions -
Nobile was to die on the third flight of that series.
Ny-Ålesund has the northernmost functional post office…
…and the northernmost hotel, Nordpol Hotellet.
These two (four) houses have been moved here from Ny-London on the other side of Kongsfjorden -
more about that later.
View across Kongsfjorden, Mitra in the background.