Peace, Love, and Lutefisk: Adventures i Norge

Stian recently asked a friend: "Why do you live in Tromsø?" He responded, "because it's like giving Mother Nature the finger." Yesterday, I tried to give Mother Nature the finger, and Mother Nature won.

It all started at 8.36am. At exactly that moment, the sun peers over the mountain, through my window, and into my eyes. It's great though because it is not every day that you get to see the sun, so you have to enjoy it while you can, even if it wakes you up. Well, for some reason on this particular morning, I decided that Mother Nature had something to offer me, so I texted Maaike and woke her up, and we decided it was finally time to tackle Tromsdaltiden, the tallest mountain near Tromsø, and the mountain I look at every day outside of my window. We packed food, hot chocolate, and plenty of layers of clothes, ready for the snow and wind that awaited us...or so we thought.

The hike started innocently enough. We started at about 10.30am and made it to the tree line by 12.30pm. There we were treated to a sighting of reindeer! There were over 20 reindeer wandering around the area where the snow began and the trees ended, drinking water and finding the last remaining blueberries. We were only 20 feet away and just watched the awkward creatures stumble around. We even got some great photos of the reindeer and the hike if you want to check them out.

This is the point in the mountain tour (fjelltur in Norwegian) that we should have gone home happy, but we were determined to go to the top. So we continued as the snow began to increase in depth. Soon, the trail we were following disappeared and we just started going up the mountain. Literally up. There were quite a few big rocks and I would kicked my feet in the snow, dig my hands in, and pull myself up as if I had ice pick shoes and was climbing a glacier. After I would move up a few feet, I would then turn around and give Maaike my hand and would help pull her up. It was after a few minutes of doing this that we realized we were not on the trail and were climbing an incline that was about 130 degrees in 3 feet of snow. Well, at this point we thought about turning around, but it seemed almost safer to continue going up and walking around the top to try to find a less steep way down. So we continued, slowly scaling the mountain and trying not to slip and fall through the drifts of snow, and trying to stay positive.

We finally arrived to the crest of the mountain. It wasn't the official peak, but about 800 meter from it. We didn't even think about going to the very top because we couldn't even see it through the snow that was falling and blowing in the wind. We were however treated to a nice view of water all around us. The ocean on the far side of Kvaløya (the island protecting Tromsøya from the ocean), and water cutting into mainland Norway where we were standing. It was also very impressive and depressing to look down and realize how far we had come and how far we had to go, but it was beautiful to see the streams cutting black lines through the snow and to watch as the snow eventually turned into yellow and gold birch trees which in turn became a small city clinging at the water for survival.

We didn't linger too long at the top as the snow continued to fall, so after a few moments we decided to head back down and to get out of the cold and blustery wind. We thought we had found a safer way down, but after about 20 minutes, it was impossible to walk.
Maaike and I sat on our butts and would literally slide for 50 yards hoping that we would not discover a rock underneath the snow. Snow went up the pants, down the shoes, and in the face, but looking back, it was quite fun! The only scary part was when Maaike started sliding and couldn't stop. She even took a little jump while sliding, but got up with just a sore wrist. We slowly traveled down the mountain in this way, falling, sliding, and tasting snow the whole way down. The whole time I kept thinking that the yellow luftambulanse, or air ambulance helicopter, that I see almost every day fly by our house towards the mountain might soon be coming to rescue us!

Fortunately, we smoothly slid to safety. We sat on a rock when we again found the trail and ate our matpakke and hot chocolate out of relief more than enjoyment. We walked down into the valley and got to the bus stop just in time to catch the 5:30pm bus home. We stopped and bought frozen pizza and refused to move once we got inside and stripped off the five layers of wet clothes. I must say though, that my Great Outdoors clothes did very well and kept me warm the whole time!

So, when the snow settled, we walked for 7 hours and roughly 26km (16 miles) according to my podometer. Crazy. Needless to say, I felt it this morning as I woke up with sore legs and a runny nose. Now I'm laying bed, taking Aleve, blowing my nose, and shaking my first: I'll get you next time Mother Nature.