Rotterdam (or Anywhere)

Last Sunday I had to work a late shift (starting at 15:00) but we decided to go for a short hike before. We chose Nedre Kovhaugen as it’s quite nearby and a very easy hike. It was in Ti på Topp last year as well, so we were familiar with the route. Actually it’s not even a real “top”, you follow a valley until you get to a little bump and that’s it :D. Below are the map and the profile.  This time the profile is only for the way back as the gps height was wrong on the way there. Nedre Kovhaugen is 155 m high, the total trip length was just under 8 km and it took us 3 hours and 15 minutes – but that’s including a long lunch break and a few detours 😉

Paul at a little meandering stream, and the river down in the valley. We went down to the river, that’s the funny “bite” out of the profile!

As we had limited time, I didn’t take many photos. Last year we did this hike at the end of June, when it was very green in the valley and it was full of ferns! Those photos never made it onto the blog as I was too busy finishing my PhD – so thought I could share some now! In the first photo you can see how the birch tree has a different colour at the bottom. Someone explained me that you can tell the snow height from this – as lichen only grow above the snow and that’s what makes the brown colour.

I had Monday off, and decided to climb one of the moderate tops, as I had all day. I chose Raudfjellet, a mountain on Kvaløya, about 40 km from Tromsø. It’s 542 m high. The route follows a gravel road all the way up to 400 m, where there is a wind turbine. It’s quite a long route, about 15 km, and it took me 5 hours and 20 minutes.

On the way up, it was quite cloudy and it would rain every now and then. On the way back it had cleared up and it was very sunny. The next two photos are taken from the same place, and show how different the landscape looks in different weather!

From the wind turbine, the route was signposted to the top of Raudfjellet. When I got close to the wind turbine, I realised something was not quite right… and suddenly remembered seeing photos in the newspaper of it being on fire! Click here for a photo and the news article. Quite sad really, it must have cost a lot to install it so high up (and have a road built all the way). I don’t know if they plan (or can afford!) to repair it.

After 3 hours, I finally reached the top. It has a great view over the sea and several islands, and it was a nice surprise to find a clear and sunny view that way! It was quite windy on the top though and I was FREEZING. I ate lunch in the lee of the cairn, but I couldn’t stay very long as I was getting very cold.

Here are some views from the way back: the red signs showing the way, and the “paths” over the large areas with snow. In some places there were melting ponds on top of the snow, with really nice blue colours.

It was so sunny on the way down that I got quite sunburnt – got to remember to bring sunscreen next time! I passed some small lakes, which still had some ice cover on it. The strange thing is that some of the ice was looking very black, and sparkling in the sun. I guess it’s melting, but I don’t know where the black colour comes from…

That’s all for now, it’s almost bedtime for me. I got up at 4:30 this morning!! I went on a very exciting trip with a collegue: we flew Tromsø-Hasvik-Hammerfest-Berlevåg-Båtsfjord-Vadsø-Kirkenes, and from there back to Tromsø, on quite a small propeller plane, sitting in the cockpit! It was really fantastic 🙂 I work as an aviation meteorologist some of the time, and write forecasts for 15 airports in Northern Norway. This trip was to get more familiar with the airports and their topography, and to talk to the pilots about how they use our products and what we could improve. We also visited the control tower in Kirkenes, really fun to see “the other side” of flying!

Ti på Topp has started again! It’s a challenge to climb “10 tops” over the summer. If you climb more than 7, you get a mug (yay 😉 ). There’s 5 easy ones, 5 moderate ones, and 5 extra tops that are much more difficult. Last year we nearly climbed 7 tops. “Nearly”, as we gave up when we were actually very close to the top of Grønnlibruna as we were getting completely soaked. Anyway, I decided to set myself a huge challenge this summer: climb ALL 15 tops. Not just 10, but also the 5 extra ones. Those are very demanding, and I’ll need the 10 other tops as training I reckon! Let’s see if I make it 🙂 I’m planning to post some photos and a map from each trip.

We started last Sunday with Åsfjellet, on the mainland, which is 336 m high. As I am a bit of a geek with my gps, here is the map and the profile of our hike:

It was 6.6 km in total and it took us 2 hours and 40 minutes. Ok, enough of the statistics 😉 We went with 2 collegues of mine, Sevim and Silje, and their boyfriends. We didn’t have the best weather, but it stayed dry most of the time.  Here I am near the top, and we found these antlers on the way. There’s still quite a lot of snow around, as it’s been snowing a couple of times in the past week. It’s patchy – I call it “zebra mountains” :D.

These photos are taken from the top, the view towards Tromsø is very nice! Silje brought her little dog – it’s TINY. About as big as a cat 😀 But of course it was still the quickest to come up, and makes extra mileage by running back and forth the whole way. If we stood still for too long, he would get cold though and start to shiver!

And a photo of us with the cairn 🙂 Notice that it was snowing while we were on the top!! We didn’t stay very long, it was not warm enough to have a break up there, so we just started our way down and had a break at the car.

Yesterday afternoon, I climbed Sørtinden (471 m) with Sevim. Quite a lot higher than Åsfjellet, but the hike starts from a lake at 220 m, so it’s actually a much quicker hike!

The total trip was only 3.3 km and it took us 1 hour and 40 minutes. It was very busy on the trail, there were lots of other Ti på Topp – hikers, plus a whole school class on a trip. Everybody was in a good mood and we chatted with quite a few people on the way – nice! The first photo is taken on the way up and shows the view over Tromsø, with Tromsdalstinden hidden in the clouds. The second photo is taken from the top. The island with its top in the clouds is Vengsøya.

It was cold and windy at the top, so again we decided to walk down and have a break at the car. We were hit by a shower on the way down – a mix between rain and snow which got us quite wet! I really enjoyed the trip though 🙂 On the way home, I stopped to take this photo – so many sun beams, it was beautiful!!

I didn’t use to like the idea of going hiking when the weather was looking quite bad, I guess I am becoming more Norwegian 😉 As they like to say: “There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing”.