This location is at the place where Andrée and his two
companions (Fraenkel and Strindberg) perished after their abortive
1897 attempt, using a balloon, to be the first to reach the North
Pole. They were not found for more than thirty years after they
died, when their well preserved logs and undeveloped film revealed
what had happened to them after their balloon left Virgohamn (near
the north-west corner of Spitsbergen). A monument has been erected
here in their memory.
This is an area of great cultural and archaeological
significance: do not disturb, move, overturn, or otherwise damage
anything in the area!
This is a micro-cache (black, standard geocaching.com cylinder).
It is not necessary to disturb any rocks or other artefacts to find
the cache. Please use the hint rather than disturbing anything;
getting here is the challenge, not searching! For the same reason,
please be sure to replace the cache carefully so that someone else
might find it in due course!
As noted in a comment below, this area is a national reserve
and there are wide ranging restrictions on what one can do here.
This cache was placed only after taking appropriate advice from the
office of Sysselmannen. Anyone with the skill and equipment to
visit this site will undoubtedly have consulted the office of Sysselmannen
themselves (there are certain notification and insurance procedures
for all travel by non-residents outside the area around the main
settlements) and will be well aware of these restrictions, however,
one may land, and the cache can be accessed without disturbing
anything or breaking any rules - though I suspect the atmosphere
and history of the place will disturb the visitor!.
Now (November 2010) more than five years that this little cache
has been 'unfound' - though some non-geocachers have reported
seeing it; let's hope it doesn't take as long to find as the
remains of the '3 Brave Men' themselves.
February 2012 update: To claim this cache, please send me a
photograph, or other evidence, of your physical presence at the
cache site. I'm adding this additional requirement since,
unfortunately, there have now been several spurious claims to have
found this cache. In future, logs which are not supported by
appropriate evidence will be removed.