After a three hour snow machine ride, I arrived in Pyramiden, slightly frozen. Some of my coldest life experiences have been on snow mobiles - especially as a passenger.

I had initially planned on camping in Pyramiden but after some last minute internet searching in Longyearbyen, I found out there was a small Russian hotel there.

I have been wanting to go to Pyramiden for some years so having the delay in our North Pole schedule allowed me just enough time to squeeze in the trip. Additionally, I wanted to scout the route for a potential Fat Bike guided adventure next year (I think it's going to be awesome).

Pyramiden is an abandoned Russian coal mining town. It's easily the weirdest place I have ever been. And eerie too. Peering through the windows, desks and papers were just left in place like someone just said, 'hey come over here for a second.' But that second turned into an eternity and they never came back. It was if time had stopped.

There is a soccer field, indoor pool, apartment buildings, children's swing sets in several locations, and a wide variety of other buildings. Bricks lay on pallets awaiting another building project, bulldozers sit rusting, and a pair of Arctic Foxes wander under all the building (which are built in pylons because of the permafrost).

I spent the day wandering around and taking pictures and thinking about the people who lived here.

I left In the early afternoon and made the long ski across Bille Fjord where I set up camp near the face of a glacier. I had heard about a mother polar bear and two cubs playing here earlier in the week. After the tent was up, I noticed a set of polar bear tracks 10' from my door.

I made an extra trip wire which I tested (successfully) then slept soundly. In the morning, a policeman / ranger (its like the Wild West out here) pulled up to my tent on a snow machine and mentioned that there was a big male polar bear sleeping a few mikes away. I initially planned on camping by the glacier for two nights, but I didn't want to take the risk so I packed up and skied along the glacier front.

After spending a couple hours taking pictures, I climbed up off the sea ice and up the glacier tongue. After a half hour of very slow, very hard uphill progress, I scanned the sea ice below me.

Then I saw it, by my campsite a polar bear walking on the ice.