Arctic mountains
have created some of the loveliest abstract shapes I
have seen in nature.
If the landscape isn’t strange enough, the history
of human exploration, determination and settlement in
the hostile environment of the Hi gh Arctic is baffling
and impressive. (I encourage everyone to read some
of the myriad books devoted to the subject, where
ships get crushed in the ice and people are eaten by
polar bears). We were lucky to visit the Russian ghost
town of Pyramiden. Because Svalbard is an
international territory it isn’t owned by any one
country, which means several countries have
settlements or research facilities there. Pyramiden was
a coal mining town, mothballed in 1998. There are 5
people (6 if you count the statue of Vladimir Lenin)
that live there year round to keep an eye on the place.
It used to be home to 800 people, which would be a
giant city on this archipelago. The interiors still have
photos of residents, the basketball court displays the
final game’s score on its board while a lone basketball
rests on the floor, the cinema projector is threaded
with film, a pommel horse waits in the center of the
floor ready for the next young athlete, and dead
potted plants line the cafeteria walls. They provide an
eerie reflection of the aspirations of all the people that
have tried to live there before.
The true residents of Svalbard are the ones that
have lived there for millions of years: the polar bears,
reindeer, arctic foxes, seals, walruses and birds. We
were fortunate to see all the large animals except the
polar bears who were hopefully on the east side of the
archipelago digging maternity dens. Their numbers
are decreasing due to shrinking summer sea ice and
chemicals (e.g. PCBs and DDT) in the seal meat that
they eat. By far the most charming sight was the herds
of walruses – animals so odd looking that they must
be another trick by Mother Nature. Weighing 9001500kg (2000-3,300lbs) each, they are awkward
moving around on their flippers on land. Their tusks
seem too big for their relatively small heads, perched
so far on top of their bodies that they appear as an
afterthought. When in the water all that can be seen