Climb to one of Longyearbyen’s most rewarding viewpoints, and see why locals do this hike repeatedly throughout the year. Platåfjellet isn’t just a mountain—it’s how you really understand this town and the landscape that surrounds it.

We start at ground level and climb steadily through the industrial heart of Longyearbyen. Along the way, you’ll pass the iconic cable car supports that once transported coal from the mines down to the port—structures so distinctive that they appear in nearly every photograph of Longyearbyen taken from above. Your guide shares stories of the miners who worked these mountains, the American industrialist John Munro Longyear who discovered coal here in 1906, and how an entire town was built in one of Earth’s harshest environments just to extract resources. You’ll understand how mining shaped everything: the buildings, the economy, the culture—and how Longyearbyen is reinventing itself now that the coal era has ended.