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Tempelfjorden, Pyramiden and Polar Bears 12. 4. 2015

It was slowly time to go a bit further away from Longyearbyen, so four of us decided to rent snowmobiles and go to Pyramiden.

Snowmobile track in Eskerdalen.

1130 m high Skolten.

Sassendalen and with Templet mountains in distance.

Panorama from Fredheim where sea ice begins.

Leaving the land.

Smooth ride on sea ice.

With many seals.

That disappear into their breathing holes as soon you come close to them.

Tempel fjord with Tuna in Van Post glaciers in the distance.

A ship frozen into sea ice.

Tempelfjorden and ship.

It looks like "Northern light" has inhabitans.

That is probably named ChaCha

The most prestigious kennel.

It looks like you can send a postcard from here.

Tempelfjorden once more.

Going further north in Fuhrmeister valley.

First moraines of Burn Murdoch glacier.

Langholen mountain with interesting top.

On the glacier.

Turning left on Bolton glacier.

Towards Gipsdalen.

Winding track over moraine.

And other side of it.

Hut in the middle of the valley.

Terminal moraine in the beginning of the other valley.

Kvitserken (1125 m)

Could be a pingo.

A camp with a guard.

Another moraine, this time probably medial.

And another glacier.

Up on the glacier plateau.

Plateau glacier Nordenskiöld.

Pyramiden town in the distance.

And first crevasses.

And medial moraine in front of them.

Back to sea level.

With a view on the impressive glacier front.

Slowly collapsing into the sea.

Tiny avalanches.

While we were riding further to Pyramiden, Mathias stayed behind and when we met again, he told us that we drove just 50 m by a lying polar bear which moved its head.

So we went back.

Here it was hiding. Behind sea ice.

And there were already some people watching it.

It is sleeping and doesn't seem to care about us. The tracks in the bottom of the picture are ours.

Showing thongue.

And yawning. Meanwhile a cub started to peep from the side.

We left them in peace and turned again back to Pyramiden.

Mathias in action.

Coal power plant of Pyramiden.

Russian land on Norwegian territory.

Monument resembling Pyramiden coal history.

The last ton of coal was excavated on 31. 3. 1998. And then the town was abandoned.

Pyramiden mountain, coal mine and private residences.

Helicopter landing field.

And the still operating hotel. The second building behind.

Tourist guide and hotel caretaker greeted us at the entrance.

Very nicely decorated and maintained interior.

Arctic animals.

One of the earliest i-phone (iron phone) versions.

And a bit starved polar bear. It must have not eaten for quite some time.

Another, live one, broke through this window in October 2014 and came inside.

65 years of coal mine. But still more 78° than 79°

Main square of the town that once supported a population of more than 1000 people, mostly miners and their families, and was the biggest settelment in Svalbard.

It was founded in 1910 by Swedens and was bought by Russians in 1927.

... is still observing the whole town and the magnificent glacier front.

The streets are well maintained during the winter. Trust Arktikugol company, which owns Russian coal mines in Svalbard, started recently to clean the building interior, which was damaged by vandalism.

Primary school.

Resident houses.

Gagarin sports complex.

The swimming pool upstairs.

Timetable of swimming pool activities.

Small swimming pool.

Dressing rooms.

Zoé, Nicola and Mathias.

Decorated radiators.

Did they do ice skating when the swimming pool heating was broken?

Sports-coulture house.

In remembrance of 30th coal mine anniversary.

Readers corner with the "Year of the Rooster" book.

It looks like a mascot.

Bas balalaikas and broken drums in rehearsing room.

And piano, with jazz and rock posters on the wall.

Ballet practice room?

Movie projectors.

With unfortunately too many movies on the floor.

Which movie did they see the last?

Also they were impressed by Nordenskiöld glacier.

And the northernmost piano.

Festival posters.

And another residential building that is now occupied by nesting birds.

Pyramid mountain and the coal mine where they were mining high quality black coal.

Ground heave safe piplines.

Some weird poles.

And weather station.

The coal loading dock.

Frozen Billefjorden.

And mountains in the north.

And us on a way back to Longyearbyen.

Still impressed by the glacier front.

As some others.

We came across a red trace in the snow.

It was leading form

a seal breathole

To the polar bears we saw before.

That were just finishing their lunch.

Mother: "I told you not to play with food!"

Checking the leftovers.

Seagulls wanted to have their share as well.

Careless playing with full stomachs.

And scuffle ...

And back to the glacier front.

And group photo. Only Nicola decided to hide his identity, so I will not tell you who the person with goggles is.

Bad weather is slowly approaching in Gipsdalen.

Following tourist group was useful, since visibility was already quite bad on the glacier pass.

Lightpole (not house) that probably helps to find a way in Adventalen in bad weather.

But we turned into the Esker river canyon.

Which starts (or ends in our case) with waterfall.

Nice cornices on the edge of canyon.

Another small waterfall.

And drifting snow from wind from approaching storm.

Doesn't look bad.

Behind the fall.

For the day to be perfect, we saw a nice halo just before the end of the trip.