These houses are now used as cabins by the people in Longyearbyen. They are responsible for the internal maintenance, and the authorities is responsible for the outdoor maintenance.
The mine here is 500 meters up the mountain, and the workers was not paid for the hour it toke to walk up there, so they built a small cabin up by the entrance. There is a story that one of the workers stayed up there for 7 years without coming down.
It was still early spring at Svalbard so the ground was not exactly dry. As you can see in the picture our guide carries a rifle, this is something you have to do on Svalbard as soon as you leave Longyearbyen because of the Polar bears that can be aggressive.
Everything on the beach is defined as a cultural inheritance, and nothing can be removed.
When we came back to Longyearbyen, we had paddled 7 km, and that was enough to give me blisters in both hand, well that is what you get from spending your days in an office.
