So Lars devised a plan. He recruited a team of eight tourists who wanted to see “the real Svalbard.” Each morning, they would walk through the dark, icy tunnel from Pyramiden to Longyearbyen, legally “entering” Norway. Each carried a backpack filled with the same set of items: duty-free whiskey, chocolate, and strangely—hand-warmers. They’d claim their taxfree kvote, drop the goods at a storage locker, and walk back through the tunnel. Repeat. Three times a day.
Lars returned to studying glaciers. But every April 1st, the people of Svalbard still raise a glass to the “Taxfree Tunnel Rebellion,” and newcomers are told: Never underestimate a loophole—especially one written in the dark. taxfree kvoter
Lars had noticed a loophole: the taxfree kvote applied per person, per entry. And Svalbard’s border wasn’t just at the airport—it was also at the old coal mine tunnel that connected to the abandoned Russian settlement of Pyramiden. No one monitored that tunnel except the occasional Arctic fox. So Lars devised a plan