POLAR BEAR RANSACKS CABIN AT FREDHEIM: Window and furniture in unoccupied emergency shelter at historic hut damaged before tour group members chase it away
By Mark Sabbatini on March 27, 2021
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Photos by Karoline Tveråen
A polar bear broke into the emergency room of the cabin area at Fredheim on Thursday afternoon, damaging a window and interior furnishings, before it was chased away by a tour group visiting the historic site, according to The Governor of Svalbard.
A polar bear that broke into an emergency room at Fredheim on Thursday afternoon is observed near the historic cabin area by a tour group member. Photo by Karoline Tveråen.
The break-in, first reported Saturday by Svalbardposten, occurred while two field inspectors living at the station were away. Karoline Tveråen, a member of the four-member tour group, told the newspaper the bear was easily frightened by the snowmobiles as they approached the cabin.
“The bear was curious, but as soon as it realized that we were humans, he calmly wandered away,” she said. “It was all very undramatic.”
The governor’s office sent one of its helicopters to the site, but was unable to locate the bear, according to Svalbardposten. The encounter at the cabin about 60 kilometers northeast of Longyearbyen came hours after a bear was seen near several kilometers east of town and was chased into the mountains northeast of town.
The field inspectors have repaired the damage “as well as possible,” Police Chief Lt. Taina Bjørkås told Svalbardposten.
I'm a professional transient living on a tiny Norwegian island next door to the North Pole, where once a week (or thereabouts) I pollute our extreme and pristine environment with paper fishwrappers decorated with seemingly random letters that would cause a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters to die of humiliation.
Such is the wisdom one acquires after more than 25 years in the world's second-least-respected occupation, much of it roaming the seven continents in search of jazz, unrecognizable street food and escorts I f****d with by insisting they give me the platonic tours of their cities promised in their ads.
But it turns out this tiny group of islands known as Svalbard is my True Love and, generous contributions from you willing, I'll keep littering until they dig my body out when my climate-change-deformed apartment collapses or they exile my penniless ass because I'm not even worthy of washing your dirty dishes.
I'm a professional transient living on a tiny Norwegian island next door to the North Pole, where once a week (or thereabouts) I pollute our extreme and pristine environment with paper fishwrappers decorated with seemingly random letters that would cause a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters to die of humiliation.
Such is the wisdom one acquires after more than 25 years in the world's second-least-respected occupation, much of it roaming the seven continents in search of jazz, unrecognizable street food and escorts I f****d with by insisting they give me the platonic tours of their cities promised in their ads.
But it turns out this tiny group of islands known as Svalbard is my True Love and, generous contributions from you willing, I'll keep littering until they dig my body out when my climate-change-deformed apartment collapses or they exile my penniless ass because I'm not even worthy of washing your dirty dishes.
Icepeople is again facing an immediate existential crisis due (of course) to hardships largely inflected by the pandemic. In short, 1) the website needs $22 U.S. (190 NOK) to stay online for another month and 2) the editor needs any and all help possible to avoid homelessness in the middle of polar winter (not that it’s legal here any other time of the year).
So if you appreciate Icepeople for its unique stories about Svalbard and/or critical news during these critical times, as well as its features about the more colorful aspects of life here (today’s feature about the upcoming Polarjazz festival is for the event that first drew our editor’s attention to Svalbard way back in 2008) please do whatever you can during what are admittedly incredibly harsh times for many.