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Nonstinden

Nonstinden

Paul came back from sea last weekend, and after resting a bit, we decided to make the most of the forecasted sunny (and warm!) autumn weather. We drove to Tønsvik, and reached the cabin at Nonsbu after just over 2 hours, in cloudy but dry weather. It was Sunday night, and there was only one other guest in the cabin. The cabin has 2 parts, and plenty of space, so this wasn’t a problem 🙂

On Monday morning we woke up to sunshine 🙂 We took our time to get ready, and chatted to the lady who stayed in the other part of the cabin. Around noon, we finally left to climb Nonstinden, a 1113 m high peak.

Nonsbu in autumn sun, Nonstinden is the mountain in the background A group of reindeer ran past

On the map, it was indicated that you could reach the top by two different routes, and that you could make it into a round-trip. I love round-trips 😉 so we decided to follow the path to Trollvasbu to begin with, then turn onto the steep ridge from the north, and come back on the gentler slope towards the south.

This map shows our roundtrip: up on the steep ridge from the north, down on the gentler slope towards the south

It took quite some time to reach the bottom of the ridge, mainly because we had to cross two rivers. I’m NOT a fan of river crossings, and I forgot to bring sandals so I had to go barefoot. Anyway, when we reached the ridge we soon found out just how rocky it was…

On the rocky ridge - this gets very tiring! Beautiful views towards Ringvassøya

It took 4 hours to reach the top, and we were pretty exhausted by that time. Luckily, when you get to a height of 900 m, it flattens out a lot and there are only small rocks – so you can finally walk normally, without having to use your hands 😉

After 4 hours: the top!! With some spectacular drops along the ridge

It was VERY windy on the top, so we didn’t hang around for very long.

Paul followed the ridge a bit further It was very windy on the top ;)

The views were fantastic in all directions, so we did take a lot of photos 🙂

A panorama of the panorama photographer in action :D The river delta far below

To our relief, the way down was a lot gentler, AND the surface basically was moss with small rocks. So much easier! If I ever was to go up Nonstinden again, I wouldn’t bother with the rocky ridge and just take the same (gentle) route up and down.

Paul on the ridge The way down was a LOT gentler. Time for another sandwich :)

After reaching the bottom of the valley, we still had a long way to get to Nonsbu – and the same two rivers to cross. Luckily, one of them could be crossed by jumping from boulder to boulder, which saves a lot of hassle 🙂

At this river crossing we could luckily jump across without taking our shoes off Paul in the last evening light

Nonstinden turned into Ayers Rock in the last light of the day 🙂 We finally reached Nonsbu at 19:00, 7 hours (and about 14 km) after we started our hike.

Nonstinden turned into Ayers Rock! Back at Nonsbu, 7 hours after we started...

We were pretty knackered by this point – I had also been struggling with a beginning cold which of course didn’t improve by hiking up a mountain 😉 I was almost tempted to spend another night at Nonsbu, but after a cup of tea and some chocolate, we decided to hike back to Tønsvik while there was still some light left. After a brief uphill to begin with, the route was mostly downhill and it took us only one hour and 45 minutes to hike the 7.5 km back to the car. Phew, we made it – tired but happy we drove back home and were able to sleep in our own bed that night 🙂

Blåkollkoia

Blåkollkoia

As a preparation for our planned hut-to-hut ski trip for Easter, we decided to take a short trip to a cabin called Blåkollkoia. We’ve visited the cabin once, but that time we only ate lunch there. It’s a very small cabin with only 4 beds, so we were always a bit nervous planning a trip here, as it can easily fill up (you can’t reserve these huts). After a lot of bad weather, we thought surely nobody else had planned a trip here on a Friday evening…

We left after work, and it started getting dark by the time we left the parking lot in Tønsvik. At the same time, a couple of snowscooters took the same route – they belonged to a rescue organization and they wanted to practice getting lost in bad weather. However, the weather improved drastically that evening – until the skies were clear and beautiful northern lights were dancing above – which made us regret not taking a tripod! We were very grateful for the scooters who drove almost all the way to the hut, leaving an easy to follow track for us. They stopped to talk to us on their way back, and told us they saw ski tracks around the cabin and that there was probably one other person there. No problem, we thought 😉

We arrived at the cabin just before 22:00, and noticed 2 pairs of ski’s outside the door. No problem, there are 4 beds… but when we opened the door, we had a bit of a shock, as we were greeted by FIVE pairs of eyes – all looking just as shocked as us 😀 Three sneaky Belgiums had come on snowshoes… Oh well, there was 1 extra mattress and 2 of the Belgians were willing to share a bunk. After a delicious cheese fondue dinner we tried to sleep sharing a single mattress which was placed half under the sink… I had just settled in my sleeping bag when I heard voices outside… I poked Paul, who refused to believe me. But soon the voices were right outside the door and there was no doubt that more company was on the way 😀

Another couple arrived, and sadly the only place left was underneath the table on a woolen blanket. The next morning we all had breakfast together and laughed a lot about the record number of people in this tiny cabin! Outside, the sun was shining and although some kind of animal had stolen the lunch packet of one of the women in the hut, everybody was in a good mood. Our only plan for the day was skiing back to Tønsvik, so we took it easy and left the cabin around 10:30.

The cabin Blåkollkoia Descending to the river in snowy weather

You first have to make your way down to the river and cross it by a narrow wooden bridge. After that you climb up to the wide plateau, which was beautiful in the sunshine 🙂

Crossing the narrow bridge over the Tønsvik river Up on the plateau and the sun started shining - you can still see the cabin behind me

We really enjoyed the blue skies and great views, and lots of unspoiled snow.

Deep powder and blue skies - beautiful morning! Great view towards the mountains behind us Paul in the wide landscape

We had a nice lunch break on the plateau, before descending down through the forest. It took us about 3 hours to get back to the car. Here’s a map and a height profile of our trip…

Our route to Blåkollkoia Height profile for our trip to Blåkollkoia

It was a fun trip, but I think we’ll bring a sleeping mat next time – just in case 😉 We didn’t sleep very well on the floor and having stiff muscles doesn’t help much the next day. It was good to have a “practice run” though, and find out how to improve things before our longer trip (next week!).

Signaldalen to Dividalen

Signaldalen to Dividalen

For a while, we’ve wanted to explore the skiing/hiking tracks in Indre Troms, the area near the border with Sweden. There are several huts there, linked by marked paths – ideal as we didn’t fancy hiking with a tent and cooking gear. My parents were visiting us the week before we planned to do a hiking trip, and they offered to drive us to wherever we wanted to start, so we could leave our car where we wanted to finish. This was a great offer as public transport is sparse in this area. We decided to start in Signaldalen and hike to Dividalen. The total length of the walk was 72 km! Below is a map of our route, and the height profile, with the huts that we slept in indicated.

Map showing our hike starting in Signaldalen and ending in Dividalen. Total length: 72 km Height profile for the total hike, with the huts where we slept indicated

Day 1: Rognli (Signaldalen) to Gappohytta (11 km, 4 hrs)

It took us a day to park our car in Dividalen and drive to Signaldalen with my parents (and I managed to add some more time by realising I left my waterproof jacket in the car – we had to drive back for 20 minutes to get it… oops 🙁 )

Finally, at 18:00 we were ready to go. After lots of rain, that day it had finally cleared up and it was sunny!

Ready to go! Following the dirt track up the valley

We followed a track up the valley, first through the forest and later through a more rocky landscape.

Little stream! Paul making his way through the rocky landscape
A very pointy cairn! And notice the mosquito to the left of it... (no that's not a bird!) The long-tailed skua (Fjelljo in Norwegian and Kleinste Jager in Dutch), very common in this area. They aren't very shy, you can come quite close!

After a while, we found the disadvantage of the beautiful still weather – mosquitoes! And lots of them… Fortunately our repellent seemed to work – as in we didn’t get bitten – but it’s hard to enjoy the scenery with a cloud of mosquitoes around your head!

At about 22:00, we reached Gappohytta, which looked idyllic in the evening sun, reflected in the lake. There were 2 huts, one of them empty, so we had the luxury of a whole hut to ourselves. The huts from DNT (the Norwegian Trekking Association) in this part of the country are all unmanned and you need to buy a key to open them. They have no electricity or running water, but are always near a water source. They have gas for cooking (and everything else you need, like plates and pans and cutlery), wood for the stove, beds with bedding (but you need to bring a liner or a sleeping bag), and usually a separate building with a toilet of the hole-in-a-plank variety.

Gappohytta reflected in the lake! We stayed in the one closest to the lake. The one behind it is identical and had other people staying in it. The building on the right is the wood storage and toilet building
Paul reflected in the lake :) A long exposure of the waterfall where we got drinking water from

We enjoyed a good dinner that we brought from Tromsø, and then it was time for bed.

Day 2: Gappohytta to Rostahytta (20 km, 9 hrs)

The following morning it was still sunny, but with some pretty clouds and a nice breeze to blow away the mosquitoes.

The hut in the morning - beautiful sky! Another view from the hut in the morning
A pyramid shaped mountain :) Rostahytta was our next destination Here we were actually leaving Norway and entering Sweden for a while

We walked through Sweden for a couple of hours. We crossed a lot of small rivers, before stopping for a break at a waterfall.

The path we followed Crossing a small river Walking through such big landscapes makes you feel small!
Paul had a close look at the waterfall Checking Crossing a very wide (but shallow) river

We crossed the border back into Norway, and soon reached our halfway point, which means: lunch!

The border! Finally, lunch! I was quite tired at this point

We walked through Isdalen, a pass between two valleys, strewn with huge boulders and surrounded by steep mountains.

Huge boulders everywhere Crossing Isdalen There were still some patches of snow
The red T was showing the way Resting my backpack for a moment

At the end of Isdalen, there is a steep descend down towards Rostadalen. The view is quite spectacular! But walking down over small rocks was rather tedious.

Enjoying the view Just before the steep ascent
The river that we later had to cross Impressive mountain!

At the bottom we had our first serious river crossing – one that required taking our boots off and wading through. I had brought flip flops for this purpose – so I wouldn’t fall over or hurt my feet – so I thought I’d be fine. What I didn’t realise is how COLD these rivers are…. It was really painful, within seconds my feet were numb with cold and I cried when I got to the other side. It took a while before my feet stopped hurting! Not quite the nicest experience… but at least now I’d know what to expect next time.

At some point we heard a funny noise nearby, something between the noise of a duck and a pig, and we looked up to see what made that noise. Not very far from us, a herd of I think around 100 reindeers was walking past. What a sight!

Not a very sharp photo, but some of the reindeer we saw Trying to spray the mosquitos away

The final stretch was tough as the mosquitoes came back in full force, this time biting me all over my face. Such a relief to finally see the hut! It was quite busy and we only just about found 2 free beds. A quick dinner, and off to sleep.

Day 3: Rostahytta to Dærtahytta (17 km, 9 hrs)

We woke up to another sunny day. We washed ourselves in a pool at the side of the river before having breakfast at the hut. The hut is very nice and modern, it’s been built in 2007!

Eating breakfast in the very new hut This was one of the older huts, there were 3 huts here Setting off

To start out hike, we crossed the river using a suspension bridge – cool!

Paul on the bridge Me getting off the bridge

After that, we climbed up rather steeply – not easy when it’s warm! We then walked along a plateau for a while.

Climbing up There were pretty flowers everywhere!

At some point the landscape became very rocky and it’s tiring to walk from rock to rock like that. We climbed up to 1045 m. At that point it started to cloudy over and with the wind that made it feel quite cold. Soon however, the hut came into view!

The rocky bit, just below the highest point First view of the hut, way down below! Climbing down a very steep and rocky bit

It wasn’t long until we reached the hut. Again, there were two buildings and we chose the one that was empty. This was the oldest of the two, and very cosy – with the added luxury of an indoors “toilet”!

We arrived very tired, sunburnt, and all muscles aching from three days of hiking (nearly 50 km). The next day was going to be a very long one (24-28 km depending on the route). It was quickly decided that a day of rest would be the best idea for tomorrow.

Day 4: Rest day in Dærtahytta

We slept for a long time and enjoyed a lazy day in the hut. Outside the clouds were low and it was raining continuously, so we chose a good day to rest! We read the guestbook, which always has some amusing entries 😀 People also leave all sorts of books and magazines, so we had plenty to read. At some point in the afternoon, we got company from a German guy who had walked from Rostahytta that day. Later on, we were joined by a Norwegian couple from Stavanger – they got lost during the previous day and had spent the whole night walking!

Reading an old book in the hut Our bedroom The hut surrounded by low clouds Getting drinking water from the river

Day 5: Dærtahytta to the car (25 km, 9 hrs)

The next day the clouds were still low and it was drizzling. We had 2 options: our original plan was to walk to Dividalshytta and spend another night there, before walking back to the car the next day, or we could walk straight back to the car. The drizzle stopped soon after we set off, and it stayed dry for the rest of the day, but there was no wind and we were bothered by mosquitos the whole time. They bit me everywhere, even through 2 layers of clothes. We got so fed up of the mosquitoes, that we decided to walk to the car and go home that evening. I later counted 30 bites just one one arm, and they were getting into our noses, mouths and ears… they literally drove us out of Dividalen!

The path was quite good at first, so we made good progress. Later we had to go through a swampy area which was tough as we sank in over our boots and got wet feet. In this valley, we found a lot of antlers though! They were lying around everywhere, and we even found a matching pair. We took the best ones home, we’re planning to do something creative with them. Either a lamp, inspired by one we saw in a log cabin, or a coat hanger perhaps.

I found a big set of antlers! We found a lot of antlers, they looked quite funny on top of our backpacks

We had one major river to cross. It was too deep to walk through and very wide. Paul tried hopping from rock to rock, while I took my boots off and walked across on flip flops. We both ended with wet boots though! Paul stepped on a rock which flipped over, and I tripped and fell forwards while my boots (hanging around my neck) dipped into the water. Oh well 😉 The last part of the hike went through the forest, along a beautiful gorge created by the river we had just crossed. The river was now narrow and wild…

River going into a gorge Narrow gorge

We got back to the carpark at about 19:00 and were quite relieved to see our Caddy appearing when we came out of the forest 😀 We were wet, dirty and smelly – just longing for a warm bath at home and a good bed to sleep in 🙂 Some people who were just starting their hike asked if we had been on a long tour – wonder if we just looked that tired, or if they could smell us 😛

It was a beautiful hike through very nice landscape, but if we do it again, it won’t be in summer when there are so many mosquitoes and so much of the ground is swampy! Autumn is probably a better season. People had warned us about the mosquitoes but I thought they were exaggerating. They told me to buy a mosquito-net-hat, but I thought they look uncomfortable and silly. Next time, I’ll leave my pride at home 😉

We’re only home for one day, we’re leaving for the Lofoten tomorrow! We’ve rented a small house near the beach there for a week. I’m really looking forward to it! We’ll take the boat and are keeping our fingers crossed for some sunshine 🙂