OSLO: Ole Oeiseth doesn’t like leaving his house without a gun.
“A polar bear can come anytime and from anywhere; the hungry young males are especially unpredictable,” he said.
Oeiseth runs Ny-Aalesund, the world’s northernmost permanent settlement in Norway’s high Arctic, the launching point for many North Pole expeditions, including Roald Amundsen’s 1926 Zeppelin flight, the first undisputed reach for the pole.
“None of the buildings are ever locked so you can take cover in case a bear comes,” said Oeiseth, a former military officer, who lives in the villa built by Amundsen, the first man to reach the South Pole in 1911.
A former coal mining colony, Ny-Aalesund is a quiet research outpost of 30 to 40 people about 2,100km north of Oslo, growing to over 100 from June, when scientists from around 20 nations arrive for its short summer. It is owned and run by the Norwegian state firm Kings Bay.
“There’s no mobile phone, I can’t be reached. It’s wonderful. I can live for the moment and not worry about tomorrow,” community worker Nina Weseth, 34, said.
Ny-Aalesund’s residents arrive on two-year contracts and even with extensions, must leave after four years to save their sanity from the isolation, cold and extremely long and dark winters. But for now it’s 24-hour sunshine for the summer.
The sun will next set on August 25 and within two months, darkness sets in, lasting until the next sunrise in February.
“The winter is when you can slow down, contemplate life and live in harmony,” said 24-year-old polar scientist Marta Karoline Jansen. “Then the summer comes and the sun beams down 24 hours a day, so you’re rushing around and can’t even sleep, even when the blinds are pulled.”
To pass the time, residents play gym hockey twice a week, hang out in the communal TV room or go to “knitting” night every Thursday.
And if residents feel they need to get away from the hustle and bustle, the town maintains about a dozen cabins around the snow covered peaks. Residents can also keep dogs, rent out the town’s boats or go skiing among the Arctic’s wildest peaks as long as they take their guns.
Summers can be pleasant, with temperatures rising above freezing for several weeks, wild reindeer grazing around town and Arctic foxes hunting for eggs near the settlement’s bird sanctuary. Winters are also relatively mild with the Gulf stream warming the island’s waters.
Ny-Aalesund may be remote but it’s not forgotten. A mining accident there in 1962 which killed 21 people brought down the government and changed how Norway runs its biggest state firms, including the then-named Kings Bay Coal Company.
Getting out is not easy though. Longyearbyen, the only real town on the island, is an 8-hour snowmobile ride away. So, the only viable exit is on a 14-seat turboprop plane that flies in twice a week, bringing mail and fresh vegetables.
Reuters
