Visit the Svalbard Global Seed Vault

“Sunday was the scheduled day to visit the Vault, and that morning it was a white out blizzard. We had been told that not even the Royalty of Norway were allowed in the actual seed vault, and to expect to only see the entry hallway. Our guide at the University, a few days before, was shocked that we would even be allowed to see the hallway. The drive up the switchbacks was a bit perilous in the snowstorm. We had to stop multiple times as visibility dropped to zero. We met our hosts Roland von Bothmar and Anders Nilsson of NordGen at the top of the road, and together approached the vault. Apparently they had spent a lot of time the previous day cracking and melting ice off the door as it had been above freezing allowing water to run down, and then freezing the door shut as the evening temperatures dropped. [...] Their work had paid off though as they were able to open the door quickly and we all scrambled in out of the nearly horizontal snow stinging our faces.”

“I have visited the vault and am completing a book about connections between scientific research on seeds and ideas about immortality over centuries. [...] The vault is designed to prolong their dormancy at 0°F (-18°C) in three ice-covered caverns inside a sandstone mountain. The air is so cold inside that when I entered the vault, my eyelashes and the inside of my nose froze.”