COREY SANDLER BLOG

August 2025: Magical Mystery Tour, Part Three

By Corey Sandler

We were on top of the world. Almost.

The third leg of our Magical Mystery Tour took us from Iceland north, just about as far north as a civilian cruise ship could venture.

Our ultimate destination was Longyearbyen, the only significant town in the Svalbard Archipelago. At 78 degrees north, it is about 800 cold and icy miles from the geographic North Pole.

There are basically two seasons in Svalbard: Dark and Light.

The Dark season fully occupies about three months of the year–from about November 12 to February 20–when the sun never succeeds in rising above the horizon. Polar Night.

The Light season is from about April 19 to August 23, with the sun not quite setting. The Midnight Sun.

In between there is near-perpetual dusk.

We’ve been way up north for both Light and Dark seasons. It can make you crazy, although human beings are remarkably adaptable.

In the Light, the Midnight Sun, the critical piece of equipment is a blackout curtain that allows you to pretend that it is dark outside. The last thing I do before falling into bed is to make sure that there are no significant leaks of light coming into the room.

In the Dark, the Polar Night, your most important tool is a light switch indoors and a flashlight outdoors. Instead I obsess over the weather forecast, hoping for clear skies and a view of the Northern Lights.

You can read more about the long, strange history of Longyearbyen and Svalbard in earlier posts in this blog. Use the search box.

Longyearbyen, Svalbard

We sailed up, up, and away from Iceland to Svalbard, arriving early in the morning–at least that’s what the clock said, although it looked a lot like midday, or early evening, or the middle of the night.

Here are some scenes:

Remains of an abandoned aerial tramway that used to carry coal from mountainside mines down to the harbor in Longyearbyen. Photo by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.
Coal buckets (called Kibbs) still hang from the wires in many places in Longyearbyen. Photo by Corey Sandler.
Hiking Up the Glacier. I went with a guide for a hike up one of the glaciers near town. He casually shouldered a rifle on his back, a requirement for any foray outside of town; we did not see any polar bears on this trip, but there were many (much less frightening) reindeer watching us watch them. Photo by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

On our second day in Longyearbyen, I went by boat across the fjord toward the open ocean to visit Ekmanfjord, the local tidewater glacier: a glacier that descends from ice fields up above and still reaches the sea.

All around the world, glaciers are receding and shrinking, and even Ekmanfjord was noticeably smaller than I remember from previous visits. I wonder if future generations will ever be able to see sights like these.

Ekmanfjord near Longyearbyen: gray skies above white snow, turquoise glacial ice, and the blue Arctic Sea. Photo by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

On our way back from the glacier, we passed alongside an abandoned coal mine established by the Soviet Union. Modern-day Russia still operates one relatively small coal mine in Svalbard, in defiance of climate warnings and the cost of mining and shipping.

Russia, one of the signatories to the Svalbard Treaty, is allowed to conduct business in the archipelago, but like all of the other countries who have signed, it is prohibited from conducting any military activities here. Lately, sabers have been rattling in Moscow.

The Grumant Coal Mine in Svalbard, established by Russia in 1912 and abandoned in 1951. Another mine, at Pyramiden, was operated by the Soviet Union until 1998 and remains frozen in place, complete with statues of Lenin and communal housing and other facilities. Russia still mines at another location, Barentsburg, where it maintains a consulate. In the past few years, Russia has made noises about establishing something else here, details still obscure, and has also conducted a few ceremonial parades and other events not universally appreciated by other countries. Photo by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

As you read this blog, we are preparing for our next adventure, due to fly back to Norway to meet Viking Vela, headed across the North Sea for two circles of the British Isles.

All text and photos by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved. To obtain a copy of a photo please contact me through the form on this blog website.

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