Ny London, Ny Alesund, and the massive glacier!

By Glen Bruels
This is part of a series called Nordic Sojourn 2022
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This morning dawned bright and sunny, with a temperature in the mid-40s!  We entered the Kongsfjorden and are at Ny London, a mining operation that went bust in the early 20th Century. We are at 78 degrees, 55 minutes.  As little as 15 years ago, this fjord was iced over year round.  Not so much anymore… Unlike other places we have been so far that was involved in mining operations, it wasn’t coal or precious minerals they were going for here; it was marble!  After initial discovery of marble back in 1906, a gold rush mentality took over and rampant speculation occurred.  The Northern Exploration Company built massive infrastructure on the island including railways, cranes, winches, workshop and storage buildings, and homes for up to 70 people were built.  While production started in 1911, WWI put a hold on production and the quality of the marble was not nearly as good as was hoped and the whole operation shut down in 1920.  As we walked around, we saw the remnants of a speculative operation gone wrong.  There are still ruins of the rather small quarry, the operation manager’s cabin (that has been preserved), and house foundations.  It reminded me of the remnants of Gritviken on South Georgia Island.  Even though it was late in the season, there was a good deal of plant life, as well as the lichen that the resident population of reindeer.  We only saw one reindeer, way up in the hills, on our walk.  As we returned to the ship, we got a nice view of another early settlement in the area — Ny Alesund. Originally started as a coal mining operation, it was shut down in 1962 after a tragic coal mining accident.  But unlike many other settlements that fell to ruin, Ny Alesund was reinvented into an international Arctic research center and environmental monitoring station.  In fact, it is one of the world’s most northern year-round settlements.  Along the way Ny Alesund served as the starting point for a number of quests for the North Pole, including Roald Amundsen’s airship expedition.  Apparently, the mooring mast for that airship.

Approaching Ny London. The hills have a sandstone look to them which is different than a number of places that we have been.
A view from Ny London looking across the fjord. Lots of mountains and glaciers surrounding us.
Camp Mansfield, one of two remaining houses on Ny London. Most of the other 70 homes were taken down and the wood re-used elsewhere. This house was the home of the operations manager that ran the marble quarry here.
Probably one of the more unusual wheelbarrows you will ever see.
So, what is all this machinery? It is actually the remains of the old locomotive that was intended to transport marble around the island. To my knowledge, it was never used.
I’m not sure what this plant was, but the guides were pretty excited about finding it. Apparently, it is pretty rare!
The processing area outside the mine.
The marble mine/quarry. Yeah, that’s it. That’s all they ever got done. The combination of the war and the poor quality of the marble caused the company to fold tent and leave
The winch for lowering and raising materials and supplies. By the way, if you look in the distance along beach, you will see a house. An outhouse perhaps? Nope, it was where they stored the dynamite!
Looking across the fjord to Ny Alesund. Unlike Ny London, after the failure of mining operations, they found a new life as a busy polar research center and environmental monitoring station.

The sun lasted for a grand total of 2 hours and then it was back to the clouds.  The plan for the afternoon was to take a Zodiac tour of a nearby glacier, but we ended up going to the head of the Kongsfjorden where four massive glaciers (Kongsbreen, Kronebreen, Kongsvegen, and Conwaybreen) reach the sea.  As we waited to take our turn in the boat, I went astern and started taking video of the glaciers’ frontage.  As I was panning, I heard a roar and flipped back to see a section calving into the water.  That got me wondering just how close we would get to the glaciers.  We answered that question by going out in the Zodiacs to get as close as possible without risking getting overcome by a calving glacier or the wave it produced.  Just to show how intrepid our Blue Team was, we sang the theme from Gilligan’s Island to show how determined we were. Needless to say, we were all watching the glacier carefully to see if we could anticipate where the next activity would be.  Luckily, we actually saw two back-to-back events which were truly amazing.  We also lined up one of the other Zodiacs between us and the glacier to get a sense of scale.  While the plans for the afternoon changed, we ended up being very grateful for that change!

Deb on the hunt for glacier calving.
It’s a little cold out here!
Lots of ice in the water from the calving glaciers
A little size perspective — in this case, from a Zodiac to the glacier front to judge the height differential.
Size perspective #2 — our ship to one of the glaciers.
Our intrepid Blue Team — in orange!
I’m not too sure I’d be out here in a sailboat. We saw this in Antarctica as well. I think the sea ice would intimidate me a bit…
This entry was posted in Cruising, Norway, Svalbard, Travel
Glen Bruels

I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.

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