Kinnvika by Kirjakaari

Preface This book is about a research project conducted at 80°N on the island of Nordaustlandet in Svalbard. It also tells the story of the old Kinnvika research station and the people who stirred it back into life for a few years of brisk activity during the last International Polar Year 2007–2009. Our scientific endeavour and adventure began a decade ago, when the first plans were laid and an idea arose to use the Kinnvika station, which was built some fifty years earlier during the previous Polar Year. This idea grew into an international project that involved almost a hundred people and culminated in extensive field expeditions made during the springs and summers of a three-year period. This book is a coda of sorts – it wraps up the themes and opens up a summit view on the Kinnvika project. It tells the story of our winding journey to Nordaustlandet within the larger picture of polar exploration. It does not contain much about the project’s scientific findings, as they can be studied from the articles listed in the bibliography. Instead, we seek to shed light on the everyday life of Arctic field research: striving for scarce data whilst living with colleagues and coming to terms with the often, but not always, harsh conditions in the Arctic. No one who visited Kinnvika can forget the grandeur of Nordaustlandet and its ice caps. We hope that some glimpse of this can be gained from the photographs taken by the project participants. And the spirit that carried the project through setbacks to success and enthusiasm will be remembered equally well. It arose from a passion for science – but also from mutual equality, respect and friendship; from sharing the same visions and experiences. In addition to its scientific findings, the Kinnvika project’s main achievement was to enable a large number of young scientists to experience Arctic research work and realise that it is not only competition for resources, but also a common enterprise to understand and protect this unique environment; and that the organisational bureaucracy and logistics of a large Arctic research project require just as much teamwork. Thanking everyone who helped turn a somewhat wild and ambitious scientific idea into the largestever Nordic Polar Year project would result in far too long a list, but some names cannot be left unmentioned: Veijo Pohjola, not only a top scholar but also a most professional expediter, who led all the expeditions to Kinnvika and also assisted in the making of this book; and John Moore, Piotr Głowacki and Magnus Tannerfeldt, who were the main forces behind the whole endeavour. Special thanks for contributing to this book – in addition to everyone who handed over their photographs – go to Ilmari Helimäki for the photographs he took during the first Kinnvika expedition in the 1950s, and to Kati Lähdemäki for her patient cooperation during the graphical editing. We would also like to thank the Nordic Council of Ministers, for funding the production of this book. 2

1. Kinnvika

An abandoned house on Nordaustlandet

Each has a differently shaped roof. The effect is reminiscent of a low-

One morning in early September 2005, a small expedition lands its

patterns that the annual freeze cycle has braided into the gravel.

budget science fiction movie in which a spaceship is marooned on a frozen planet like Mars. This otherworldly feel is enhanced by the cellular

inflatable boat on the gravel in Kinnvika, a cove about a mile long and

The weather-beaten cluster of shuttered buildings is Kinnvika’s

equally wide. Although the North Pole is only a thousand kilometres

Finnish-Swedish-Swiss research station. In the late 2000s, it was

away, the weather could not be more beautiful, and their small

resurrected for three years after being abandoned for fifty.

vessel, MS Farm, can be left casually anchored on the calm waters of Murchisonfjorden. The boat trip around Spitsbergen lasted several

New construction on Nordaustlandet

days, offering spectacular views of the island: an unbroken line of snowspotted, blackish mountains and the glaciers at the bases of the fjords. But the peaks of the main island have now been left on the horizon. The

Almost 50 years ago, another visitor had looked out over the

landscape is dominated by browns and ochres, and the closest feature

same landscape under not dissimilar weather conditions:

bearing the name ‘mountain’ is a hill of no more than a few hundred metres.

The sun shone from a cloudless sky, and the bay lay about

We are in Nordaustlandet, where the Gulf Stream’s final forks peter out and

us like a mirror of polished turquoise crystal. It was tranquil

the true Arctic region begins. A little moss grows by the shore and, if you

and warm. Screeching gulls and terns circled above us. Our

go searching, you may find a white or yellow Arctic flower. But if you climb

boat, the Aranda, a strange interloper, was surrounded by

the bank, the gravel desert opens out before you, where it seems as if the

seals. Their snorts could be clearly heard on deck, and droll

Ice Age ended only last month. The noise of the terns does not destroy the

faces with round button eyes stared up curiously from the sea’s

profound silence of this rugged landscape – if anything, it emphasises it.

motionless mirror. A gently sloping, rock-grey shore framed the

The feeling that humans don’t belong here is strong, so strong that

mirror. Higher up the bank, this grey became first brown and

not even the small huddle of buildings some way along the shore can

finally moss green. Kinnberget rose up to the east. The mouth

break it, particularly when the grey of their faded planks fits in perfectly

of Murchisonfjorden opened up to the south, sheltered by a

with nature’s palette. About ten wooden structures – sheds and small

cluster of small islands, and behind it shone the eternal ice of

buildings – are clustered around a larger house with multiple windows.

the Vestfonna ice cap. This would be our home for a year.

The writer is Matti Aro, a Bachelor of Medicine who had signed up for a yearlong stint as a Svalbard expedition’s physician. This excerpt is taken from his expedition memoir, Sinisen lumen maa (The Land of Blue Snow). When Aro arrived in Kinnvika on 15 July 1957, there were no remnants of human activity except a large cross on one of the Murchisonfjorden islands, a relic of a former Russian hunting and fishing base. But now the marine research vessel Aranda, over whose bulwark Aro surveyed the landscape, contained 110 tons of supplies to construct and equip a new research station. This wasn’t even a quarter of what was required. The following 300 tons would arrive a couple of weeks later on a larger vessel. Aro didn’t have long to view his new home with a poetic eye, as everyone had to take part in unloading the cargo. They worked in shifts and continued the following day after six hours’ sleep. The tranquillity of the fjord soon reverted to the usual blustery weather, and the rising swell hindered unloading. Three days later, everything was finally piled on the bank, including the sturdy concrete piles required for the foundations. There was cause to celebrate and the expedition retired to their tents. By the time they awoke next day at noon, the Aranda had already left. However, there was still plenty of work to do. Timber and prefabricated elements were used to erect a warehouse, then a shed from which radiosondes could be launched using hydrogen balloons, and finally – what else but – a sauna. Bathing was interrupted by the arrival of HMS Älvsnabben. This Swedish army vessel was laden not only with hundreds of tons of cargo but also a whole bunch of energetic soldiers to unload it. Its cargo included a generator set for a diesel-motor power station and two tracked vehicles for crossing ice caps, the kind favoured by Antarctic researchers. Eventually, it was the Älvsnabben’s turn to leave, and the research station was finally erected after ten days’ hard slog. It included a 250-square-metre main building that contained not only communal space and laboratories, but also a small private room for each expedition member. The main building was surrounded by a tiny village of smaller utility buildings and observatories.

Two polar years, one Kinnvika The reason for this ambitious effort requiring two boatloads of supplies

was the International Polar Year (IPY). Finland contributed by establishing

2. Svalbard Svalbard, Spitsbergen and Nordaustlandet

Where the Gulf Stream ends

Svalbard brings to mind distant Arctic islands with glacial valleys. Yet

The Gulf Stream’s forks and southwesterly air currents have a mildening effect

although Svalbard is a glaciated archipelago lying within the polar region, it

on the climate in the North Atlantic, so weather conditions don’t simply get

is not in fact that far from Europe. The journey from Norway is no longer than

colder as you head northwards. There are usually major annual fluctuations

that to Iceland – a couple of hours by air and a couple of days by sea. The

in the Atlantic climate, which governs Svalbard’s weather. Seasons can

sea journey may be stormy, but you won’t encounter ice until the archipelago’s

vary greatly, depending on which routes the southwesterly currents settle

jagged outline heaves into view – not even in midwinter. Longyearbyen,

into each year. Svalbard’s climate is influenced not only by air currents

the archipelago’s administrative centre, is now a modern western town.

but also fluctuations in ice cover. The northern Arctic Ocean is covered in drift ice even during the summer, and living with its capriciousness plays

However, in this book, it is Kinnvika that plays the lead role – Kinnvika

a central role in the lives of Svalbard’s residents. The varying location of

Bay in Murchisonfjorden on the northwest corner of Nordaustlandet. For

the southern edge of the ice is largely defined by ocean currents, but it

occasional travellers, it is a lot farther from Longyearbyen than that is

is impossible to predict whether an ice winter will be easy or difficult.

from Europe, even though the geographical distance is not so great.

The Gulf Stream keeps the southern part of the Barents Sea ice-free

Uninhabited Nordaustlandet is the second largest island in the Svalbard

from Svalbard to Novaya Zemlya, but to the west of Spitsbergen, it is

archipelago with an area of 14,400 square kilometres – more than

forced to battle a cold ocean current emanating from the Arctic Ocean.

half the size of Sicily. Svalbard’s main island, Spitsbergen, measures

The latter pushes Arctic Ocean drift ice through the Fram Strait between

61,000 square kilometres, and the archipelago has a further 9,000

Greenland and Svalbard, carrying them down the Greenland coast

square kilometres in assorted islands. The distance across Svalbard

as far as its southern tip. However, the Gulf Stream is able to stand

between its extremities is 400 kilometres. Spitsbergen is a wedge-

up for itself on the opposite side of the Fram Strait, where it warms

shaped island with a broken, glaciated mountain range whose peaks

the western shores of Svalbard. Its last fork manages to loop around

rise to 1,700 metres. Long fjords break it into about a dozen sections,

the north side of Spitsbergen as far as Murchisonfjorden and the north

called ‘lands’, and give its coastline a jagged appearance.

coast of Nordaustlandet. The Gulf Stream could even be said to end in

Nordaustlandet has a more regular outline, like a carelessly drawn

Kinnvika Bay. This is possible, as the Fram Strait is part of a deep-sea

miniature Iceland. The island is about 150 kilometres in diameter,

area, while the Gulf Stream’s tentacles do not extend into the shallower

and three quarters of its area is covered by two large ice caps.

waters to the east of Spitsbergen and south of Nordaustlandet.

Due to the Gulf Stream’s warming effect on Svalbard’s northern and western shores, conditions in the archipelago get harsher as you head eastward rather than northward, and on Nordaustlandet as you head roughly southward. During the summer, Spitsbergen’s east coast is a few degrees colder than its west coast, which is equivalent to moving 200 kilometres northward. The east coast can be beleaguered by ice throughout the summer. Yet, as if to counterpoise this, it is possible for the west coast to be ice-free in midwinter, and for the channel of open water surrounding the north coast to extend all the way to Nordaustlandet’s Murchisonfjorden. During chillier summers, marine traffic conditions around the fjord are particularly changeable as, when approaching from the west, it is the first area that can be beleaguered by ice even in the summer. One night, the sea may be open to the horizon, but by next morning, northerly winds can have brought Arctic Ocean ice to the island. And the ice can also enter from the south, through the Hinlopen Strait that divides Spitsbergen from Nordaustlandet. Murchisonfjorden has become the final frontier station for human activity in Svalbard, and many hunting, fishing and research vessels have arrived in open water only to linger too long and find themselves trapped in the ice for the winter. And surviving the winter was not easy, even though Svalbard does not experience severe subzero temperatures. Even during the coldest month, the average temperature is only –14°C, and temperatures of –40°C are rare. The shores are also littered with piles of driftwood from Siberia that can be burned or used as building materials. Winter’s bad reputation comes from the wind and unpredictably changeable weather. Warm, moist air from the Atlantic collides with cold air from the North Pole above the island, resulting in milder, stormy periods with heavy snowfall, or even rainfall and sleet. These weathers conditions – exacerbated by the four-month polar night – have proved too much for overwinterers already weakened by an unbalanced diet. Some reprieved convicts who had been transported to Svalbard preferred to return to their home country for execution rather than spend another winter there. Even today, the island has few long-term residents, as most people return home after commissions of five, or perhaps even fifteen, years. Svalbard’s gloomy though not particularly cold winter is followed by a summer that is lighter but not particularly warm. In terms of weather, it can be called summer rather than spring from mid-July to early September. During this period, the snow has mostly receded from the

21 Above: summer, Below: winter

coast and lowest valleys. The surface level of the permafrost, which extends to a depth of a few hundred metres, thaws and rare vegetation rushes to bloom in myriad colours. The average temperature during the warmest period rises to only 6°C, which confines low vegetation to the valley bottoms. Svalbard is, therefore, largely a semi-desert. In contrast, the more northerly Nordaustlandet is an Arctic desert in which vegetation can be found in only a few sheltered places. The most visible – and audible – fauna are the hundreds of thousands of birds, especially on the island’s famous bird mountains. The island’s bestknown mammals are naturally its approximately 3,000 polar bears, and you might also see arctic foxes and reindeer. On the water, you might spot seals and – with very good luck – even whales. Svalbard also has one large and several smaller colonies of walruses.

From whaling to coal mining It’s not certain whether the Vikings discovered Svalbard, even though the name, meaning ‘chilly coast’, is found in Icelandic chronicles dating from 1194. It’s highly probable, as the archipelago isn’t very far from Iceland. If you sail north along the edge of the ice, you will almost always end up in Svalbard. The Dutch officially discovered the archipelago 400 years later. As now, voyages of exploration required investments. The motive for sailing into northern waters was to find a new sea route to the Orient, and funding was supplied by Dutch merchants. At that time, they obviously believed that the ice-free conditions in the, as yet unnamed, Barents Sea would continue to the east and that any sea ice was only a local phenomenon, to be found near islands and continents. However, no one sought to voyage further than Novaya Zemlya. This focus on heading east meant that the northern areas of the sea remained unstudied until 1596, when William Barents’ third voyage attempted to determine whether progress could be made in that direction. His first discovery was Bear Island, named after a polar bear that was killed there. Bear Island lies halfway along the sea route between Norway and Svalbard, and soon after comes Spitsbergen, which was named after its imposing ‘pointed mountains’. But as

their goal was to sail east, they continued once more to Novaya

3. Nordaustlandet

Glaciers, fjords, gravel Nordaustlandet (North East Land) is Svalbard’s second largest island and is

The ice shelf rounds off the island’s eastern outline. Although the west

located, as its name suggests, to the northeast of Spitsbergen. It measures

side is much smaller than the east, its convoluted fjords and peninsulas

about 200 by 150 kilometres and accounts for almost a quarter of Svalbard’s

account for two-thirds of the island’s coastline. The fifty-kilometre

total area. Nordaustlandet lies significantly farther north than Spitsbergen. Its

Vestfonna ice cap spreads out across the centre. Unlike Austfonna,

southern edge is one degree of latitude further north than Longyearbyen and

it does not meet the sea as an ice cliff. Instead, ice discharges into

a third of the island lies above the 80th parallel, compared to only one of

the bases of the fjords. The western coast is otherwise ice-free.

Spitsbergen’s peninsulas. Nordaustlandet’s environment differs significantly

Nordaustlandet is separated from Spitsbergen by the broad Hinlopen

from Spitsbergen’s due to the combined effect of its more northerly location

Strait, which is still ten kilometres wide at its narrowest point, and

and a climate than cools as you head eastward. Vegetation is only found in

Murchisonfjorden diverges from the strait’s northern tip. Murchisonfjorden

places, on coastal lowlands, while the rest is gravelly Arctic desert or ice cap.

does not look much like a typical fjord and no glaciers empty into it, as is

The island’s geography is dominated by two large ice caps: Vestfonna and

the case with the majority of Svalbard’s fjords. It is more like a lagoon, a

Austfonna. These glaciers are separated by the Rijpdalen valley, which is

low-banked bay that opens up eastward for about fifteen kilometres from

only 20 kilometres wide. During the summer, glacial meltwater from both

Nordaustlandet’s northwest corner. It contains a small archipelago of two

sides floods into Rijpdalen, making it impassable. Rijpdalen continues

larger and a dozen smaller islands. Kinnvika Bay is located near the mouth

westwards towards the Hinlopen Strait as the Wahlenbergfjorden fjord,

of the fjord, on its northern shore. It is a mile-wide, slightly protected inlet

and northward as the Rijpfjorden fjord. The valley and two deep fjords

that opens up to the south. The head of the bay makes two gentle bends

bisect the island, separating the western section into its own peninsula,

and it is here, on the peninsula between these bends, that the Kinnvika

which then branches out into promontories separated by smaller fjords.

research station is located. Its coordinates are 80 02’ N, 18 30’ E.

The island’s east side is dominated by the hundred-kilometre Austfonna,

Murchisonfjorden was named in 1861 by the Swedish polar researcher

Europe’s largest ice cap, which is slightly larger than Iceland’s Vatnajökull

Otto Torell. Svalbard’s nomenclature contains many references to people

and covers almost 60 per cent of Nordaustlandet. Austfonna’s southeast

from its history, but others have also served. Jan Rijp was captain of

edge extends over the sea as an ice shelf and ends in a vertical ice cliff.

the expedition’s second ship when Barents discovered Svalbard, while

This is a similar landscape to that found on the coast of Antarctica.

Göran Wahlenberg was a Swedish botanist who never went near the place. The same goes for Murchison, a Scottish geologist who was given his own crater on the moon and has been the eponym for no less than fifteen other places across the globe – for example, there is another Murchison Bay in Africa’s Lake Victoria. There is also another Kinnvika (Kinnevik) on Lake Vänern, Sweden – a Swede who was involved in glacier research in 1931 named a number of places on Nordaustlandet after those of his home region. The research station is surrounded by an almost level gravel field. A low promontory to the west protects Kinnvika from the waves but does not really break this feeling of openness, while the east bank extends into a steeper promontory that obscures the view of Murchisonfjorden’s westernmost sections. The promontory’s highest point is Kinnberget, which, at a height of 130 metres, is a good destination for a nice little walk. The landscape is otherwise flat or undulating with a typical height variation of 100 metres. The highest landmark, Celsiusberget at the head of the bay, rises to 350 metres. There are a number of bays in its vicinity, and their names are often found in glacier researchers’ logs as camps and landing points for Vestfonna: Nordvika; Snaddvika (Ringed Seal Bay), which is formed by the ridge-like Kvalrosshalvøya (Walrus Peninsula); and Heimbukta (Home Cove), a small, sheltered bay at Snaddvika’s head. This type of rocky ground and moraine, which rises into undulating hills, or at best low and easy-to-scale mountains, continues along the shores of Murchisonfjorden for a radius of about ten kilometres in all directions: northward to shore of the Arctic Ocean, westward to neighbouring Lady Franklinfjorden, and southward to the edge of the Vestfonna ice cap. Dozens of small ponds dot the landscape. One faster-flowing river carries glacial meltwater to the fjord, but the other streams are easy to cross even during the spring floods.

Hunters, adventurers and explorers In previous centuries, those venturing into the waters north of Svalbard had three main motives: hunting and fishing, conquering the North Pole, and exploration. Western Nordaustlandet is the farthermost

corner of Svalbard that remains reasonably accessible, as its waters are ice-free during a normal summer. People first familiarised themselves with its coastline when fishing vessels began trawling this group of islands. The ice may recede a good long way from Nordaustlandet’s north coast, and during some summers you can even circle Svalbard in its entirety. However, the ice will never be far away, and those interested in the eastern parts of Nordaustlandet must brave a narrow channel that may close up at any time. During the age of sail, this often meant losing a ship. Intelligence concerning new harbour locations and bountiful fishing waters was, however, important. Ships attempted to fill in their charts, even if it meant sending out reconnaissance parties to explore further afield in smaller boats. Nordaustlandet’s northernmost headland is Nordkapp, the tip of a smaller island that is easily recognisable due to its distinctive shape. As early as 1625, Nordkapp appears on a Muscovy Company chart, marked as Cape Tobin. One of Doncker’s maps from 1663 shows the contours of the western fjords and the Seven Islands (Sjuøyane), scattered to the north, of which the outermost is the northernmost land point of Svalbard. Svalbard’s coastline is also fairly well charted in a map published by Giles and Rep in 1714. Quite early on, there were also those aboard who were interested in things other than whaling, seal hunting or animal pelts. However, it was not yet a case of systematic scientific research, but rather recording and collecting. The cartographers and astronomers were first to arrive, as per usual. The geologists and biologists followed once the area had been charted. Even their research was a form of charting and exploration. They wanted to catalogue the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms in the hope of finding something that could be named in their, or someone else’s, honour. And in the background also lurked the hope of finding something that could be converted into money – that was the shipowners’ and financiers’ wish at least. For many expeditions, research was also largely a hobby – their primary aim was to set records in northern latitudes, possibly even conquering the North Pole. Many attempts were launched from the coast of Nordaustlandet, as the usually ice-free area extends further north here than it does from Spitsbergen. Their ships were unable to progress much further than the whalers had, only about 100 kilometres or a tenth of the remaining distance to the North Pole. Yet this did not dishearten them, as the prevailing notion – until at least the mid-1800s – was that the North Pole was ice-free. Although this idea sounds bizarre from a modern perspective, it stemmed from their assumption