23rd October '22 | Postcards by Fabienne

Cabin life in the Arctic Tundra

Hej, hej

Happy Sunday! Today is going to be a super chilly day. I joined a quite long, cold and exciting hike yesterday which was probably one of the last ones of the season. It gets dark super quickly now and my hiking shoes are not really made for snow conditions either. And then, there was a double-birthday-end-of-course farewell party yesterday evening.

This week was all about finishing the course paper, but here are some additional highlights:

• Monday: I think I did not do much more than work on my course paper :D

• Tuesday: Knitting evening organised by the student welfare association.

• Wednesday: Had a cosy evening with hot chocolate and cake in one of the shared kitchens.

• Thursday: Went to the knitting café at FRUENE. Yes, every Thursday, one of the local cafés hosts a knitting evening where all knitting supplies are on discount and it is just super cosy that everyone there is knitting and chatting.

• Friday: There was a screening of the first episode of BBC Frozen Planet II at Kulturhuset (there is a cinema room), and we were able to ask questions to the producer, the two directors and some of the film/logistic crew visited, too).

• Saturday: Hike with explorations of ice falls, meltwater channels and a cave followed by a party in the evening.

• Sunday: Mostly chilling, some groceries, laundry, etc. 😊

And now, let’s talk about the cabin tour from last week!

Outside of Longyearbyen – and kind of all over Svalbard – you can find cabins. Some are just for shelter, others are weekend cabins that you usually reach by boat or snowmobile – or hiking. Infrastructure and “comfort” in these cabins vary widely. Some really nice cabins are permanent homes, too and are still connected to some of the Longyearbyen infrastructure. Further behind these cabins, there is the UNIS student cabin. It is located right off the coast of Isfjorden in Bjørndalen. And it is super cosy and comfortable!

The student cabin group oversees bookings, maintenance and coordination of supplies. The cabin features:

• 8 beds with pillows and duvets: 2 bedrooms with 1 bunk bed and 1 bedroom with 2 bunk beds. There is more space for people sleeping on the couch or the floor, but I think it is cosier with fewer people.

• Entrance and storage area.

• Spacious and cosy living and kitchen. The kitchen is well-equipped and has a gas stove and a sink. The living area has a nice-sized dining table, a couch area and a fireplace.

• A small toilet room (more on that below).

• A bonfire place right next to the cabin.

The cabin is booked via a calendar/form – usually by 1-2 students who want to organise a trip. I was invited to spontaneously join a group of seven others who had already started the planning. We were going for one night, so this meant we needed food for dinner, breakfast and lunch. In addition, we needed to bring 5 l water per person which would be used for drinking, cooking and washing dishes. At UNIS, there is an own corner/closet next to the reception where all cabin supplies can be found. Which is mainly water canisters and bed sheets, but also any supplies that the cabin group wants the next group going there to take along. You also pay a fee of 100 NOK (10 €) per group and night at the reception and then you buy wood from the reception for the fireplace.  

The cabin is quite popular, so we had one group using the cabin before us and another group who would come the next day. The schedule was a bit tight but manageable.

As you can imagine, carrying water, wood, food and then personal stuff is a lot. Plus, walking to the cabin is a ~10k hike along the road which is quite boring.  We booked a cab (yes, there are taxis here) that would take us out to the resident cabins along Isfjorden, and on the next day, another taxi would bring out the next group and take us back. I said it is a comfortable trip!

So we met around noon, made sure we had everything and distributed water, food, two rifles, two flare guns and other supplies evenly for everyone and the taxi dropped us off at the end of the already very bumpy and car-unfriendly road. From there, it is a 20-30 minute walk across the valley which also requires you to cross the meltwater river a few times. It does not sound much to walk, but the tundra area can be very swampy in the summertime. Also, there surface is bumpy and scattered with rocks, so you still have to watch your step carefully. Luckily, the ground had already started to freeze, and there was a very funny soft feeling when walking on the moss. The cabin is situated on a little hill, so we were quite warm when we arrived.

The first thing to do when approaching cabins is to make the group stop a little distance from the cabin and two people (with rifle and flare gun) will carefully approach and circle the cabin to ensure that there is no polar bear around – including looking for signs that one might be INSIDE the cabin. I went together with another girl, and all was fine. There is a good overview on the small plateau, and you can easily watch underneath and behind the cabin.

We were really surprised how cosy and modern the cabin is! We split up the rooms, made our beds for later and explored the cabin. To still make use of the daylight, we walked down to the shore. Some where thinking about taking a swim, but wind and waves were strong, so we decided to stay on the safe side. But the sunset was just amazing!

When we returned, it was time for the first toilet break :D. Well, there is a small toilet room in the cabin but it is only meant to be used for the bigger business. It is a toilet seat with a huge garbage bag inside. You place another garbage bag inside if you have to use it, and then you tie it well and bring it outside the cabin into a toilet waste bag. But just to go pee, there is a designated area approx. 100 m away from the cabin which should be used for relieving yourself as well as for disposing the wastewater from the kitchen. The reason for the designated area is that it is simply not nice if everyone does it somewhere around the kitchen plus during winter, people will use the snow and melt it for drinking and cooking water. So yes, peeing requires you to take rifle or flare gun and do it outside.

Afterwards, we made a fire, had tea and hot chocolate before it was time to prepare dinner which was mushroom pasta and garlic bread. For some reason, we could not get the oven to work, so we put the bread on the fireplace which worked nicely, too.

The dinner was super delicious! We had a small accident with the sink: There is a bucket under the sink that captures the sink water, and that must be taken outside from time to time. But we did not make sure that it was located properly when we arrived. So all the pasta water came running out of the cabinet. Make sure to check the placement and filling status of this bucket :D

We spent the evening playing some games and then still decided to do a bonfire. There are some reindeer furs at the cabin that we used to keep us a little bit warmer around the fire. The night was super dark and we were a little bit scared of not being able to see a polar bear approaching. We turned our headlamps towards the backs of our head so that the person sitting on the other side of the circle could see behind you.

Some of us went to sleep while others chatted for a little longer on the couch. I slept really well – until I woke up and had to pee. And there I was. Finding myself sleepy, just in my pyjamas, in the middle of the Arctic tundra, in the dark of the night and around -7 °C heading out of the cabin with a headlamp and flare gun. The weirdest thoughts came to my mind when crouching down. You cannot really see anything else but whatever your headlamp is reaching. So I felt like if there would be a polar bear, there is little I could do at all. And then I thought: No, I do not want to make it into the local newspaper as the girl who got eaten with her pyjamas down. :D As you might figure, nothing like this happened.

We had a cosy early breakfast since we still wanted to go on a hike before having to clean and hand-over the cabin to the next group.

We hiked a bit into the valley and then up on the mountain behind the cabin (Pilarberget). We had to hurry up on the way back, but we still managed to have lunch and clean everything.

Then we took all our stuff and trash and crossed the valley again. Since it had gotten quite cold during the night, the river had started to freeze and we carefully made our way across.

It was a super nice trip, but I also enjoyed a warm shower when we came back.

Well, that’s it from the cabin trip! Stay warm and cosy 😊

/ Fabi ❆⇞