Polar expedition AeN JC3 – maps and numbers Mar 30 2022

This article is part of the series “2022-02: Winter cruise KPH”.

Just some short info for the people who like maps and numbers.

This is the route of the icebreaker Kronprins Haakon on the polar expedition Arven etter Nansen JC3:

The northernmost point	82.0474°N
The southernmost point	69.5245°N
The westernmost point	07.6551°E
The easternmost point	34.1262°E

The northernmost point

82.0474°N

The southernmost point

69.5245°N

The westernmost point

07.6551°E

The easternmost point

34.1262°E

And some weather records (when my python script is right):

	minimum	maximum
Temperature	-30.5 °C	+2.0 °C
Wind speed	0.1 m/s	32.7 m/s
Wind speed on ship	0.1 m/s	30.9 m/s
Wind chill	-48.0 °C	+1.0 °C
Wind chill on ship	-49.0 °C	+1.0 °C

minimum

maximum

Temperature

-30.5 °C

+2.0 °C

Wind speed

0.1 m/s

32.7 m/s

Wind speed on ship

0.1 m/s

30.9 m/s

Wind chill

-48.0 °C

+1.0 °C

Wind chill on ship

-49.0 °C

+1.0 °C

And some personal numbers:

Been on the sea ice	7 times
Photos taken	4084
Cakes eaten	countless

Been on the sea ice

7 times

Photos taken

4084

Cakes eaten

countless

Two small winter paddling tours Mar 31 2022

Two small morning kayak tours I did this week. One two days ago, one today. Weather was just too great to sit inside the whole day: sunny with temperatures between -10 and -6 °C and a calm wind.

Here is a photo of each tour start:

As you can see it had snowed a bit between these two tours.

The day before yesterday I just wanted to circumnavigate the small islet Lillskär, but there was too much ice to cross and crossing ice with a kayak takes time. And since I work full time, time is limited. So I just paddled around a bit and then back.

Due to the frosty temperatures the ice was thicker today though hardly more extended. I started at the same place but then continued to the island Bredskär. From there I wanted to circumnavigate the island Bredskärssten, but the same story as two days before: At the northern shore of the island there was an ice field. Crossing it would have taken too much time so I changed my plans and made a smaller tour. Nice to be outdoors anyhow!

How do you cross ice with a kayak? If the ice is safe, just walk. You wear a drysuit and have your safety equipment with you, don’t you!? If the ice is very thin, just paddle through (use your cheapest paddle). But if the ice is between 1–2 cm, the ice may not bear you and you cannot use the blades of the paddle neither.

Then you can use isdubbar – part of the ice safety equipment. With these ice claws it is possible to pull yourself forward while sitting in the kayak.

Using ice claws to pull the kayak over the ice

If you are lucky the ice is thick enough to let the kayak glide over it quite fast. If you are less lucky the kayak will constantly break though and then it can be pretty exhausting, especially when the ice claws break the ice as well. Then it is sometimes simpler to pull yourself forward by grabbing the ice with your hands. Waterproof gloves or mittens strongly recommended!

Farewell winter 2022? Apr 8 2022

This evening Annika and I will take the night train to Göteborg. We will meet close friends and spend the Easter week in Southern Sweden where we probably will meet spring. So it’s probably time for me to say farewell to winter.

I was honoured. Winter dropped by personally to say farewell today. The gifts: Strong winds and at least twenty centimetres of snow. First I worked a bit but then Annika and I took a winter promenade to our Vitskärsudden, our favourite beach.

Today’s view from my home office in Sweden

Promenade II – there is usually a road here

Some hours later I dug out the car. We’ll need it later. It had already become warmer and the snow was wet and heavy. So winter didn’t come to stay but I was glad about its farewell.

A hike to the Sørtinden between the seasons Apr 24 2022

After a springlike Easter week in southern Sweden I travelled back to my “work town” Tromsø on Easter Monday. Yesterday I was outdoors in the fjell. –the first time since the end of January.

What kind of tour will I go for? Is it skis or rubber boots? Let’s pack both, take the car to the parking place by the road 863 on the island Kvaløya and have a look.

OK. Let’s take boots! I lock the car and start crossing the bogs. Some parts are still frozen, others bounce like a wet sponge when being crossed. The terrain rises and soon my boots trudge through snow. Snow is still deep but so compact that I hardly sink more than 5–20 cm.

I slowly ascent the mountain landscape and leave the trees behind. Soon I reach the top of the hill Skavlikollen.

I continue north. I put off my jacket because I am sweating in the warm sun. I realise that I forgot a sun blocker and take my buff for protection. (It worked – no sunburn the next day!) While the higher mountains are still covered with snow I walk also on rocks and heather. The hilly and mountainous landscape looks beautiful in the sunny weather.

After round about 6 km I reach the top of Sørtinden (471 m). I’ve been there twice (1), (2), but only in autumn.

Here I take a rest and enjoy the view of mountains and fjords. I start to freeze and I’m glad about my down hoodie that fits into the camera backpack. The sun provides warmth but the air temperature is hardly above zero.

I choose another way back but get a bit “photo-lazy”. For the birch at the slope however I’ll take my camera out of the backpack.

Partly it is easy to walk down the snowy hills because you can glide, but parts of the snow has softened by the sun and more than once I break into knee deep snow. After 11.5 km of walking and snow trudging I arrive at the car. From there it’s only 20 minutes by car home.

That’s a good start for #onceaweek– my plan to make a new tour every week. Let’s see what I’ll do next weekend. When I look at next week’s weather forecast it might be a ski tour.

The first Thursday paddling in Tromsø Apr 28 2022

Today was the first torsdagspadling (Thursday paddling) of the Tromsø havpadleklubb, one of the two large kayak associations in Tromsø. Now we have enough light in the evening that you can take tours after work and it’s not so cold anymore. Well, kind of …

While it is not my first kayak tour this year – I paddled for example four weeks ago in Sweden– it is my first one in Tromsø and most of all the first one with others. We were nine paddlers today, eight experienced kayakers and me, the beginner. Fortunately the tempo was low and wind and waves were not demanding. So I could follow without any problems.

First everything went wrong. I could not book a kayak in the internet. Then I could reserve it but not pay it. Then one zipper of my neoprene boots was jammed. Then I could not close my drysuit zipper. Then I lost a part of my waterproof iPhone bag. Then I could not find my woollen cap. And so on. And so on. But with a lot of help of my fellow paddlers I finally was on the water. And luckily someone remembered me to attach the spray deck. (In Sweden I hardly use it.)

Oh – so nice to paddle again!

It took perhaps 15 minutes until we were right in the first snow shower. Not unexpected, since it had been snowing in Tromsø for three days now and we have subzero temperatures and at least 20 cm of snow on the ground. It was so beautiful with the sun peeking through holes in the clouds while the snow was falling.

But between the showers the sun came out.

Until the next shower. Now we were quite near the bay Telegrafbukta which is in the direct neighbourhood of my apartment. There I had taken a winter bath yesterday (water: 3.5 °C), now we approached it by kayak. We slowed down a bit – time for discussing paddle technique or to go ashore and re-adjust the footrests.

We did not go on land because the weather was not too inviting. So we paddled back against the sun and through a new snow shower. This time the wind increased a bit and we got even some waves on our way back.

Round two hours and eight or nine kilometres later we arrived at the club houses of the Tromsø havpadleklubb. Time to dry the kayaks, put them back and change to more civil clothes.

Takk for turen – thanks for the tour – I’ll be there next Thursday!

April snow in Tromsø Apr 29 2022

On Monday evening, the 25 April it started to snow.

Tuesday, 26 April 2022

On Tuesday it was snowing and temperatures were below zero.

Still some flowers peeked through the snow.

Wednesday, 27 April 2022

On Wednesday it was snowing and temperatures were below zero.

Some heavy snow squalls covered everything with snow.

Heavy snow squall in the center of Tromsø

In the evening I took a winter bath at the beach of Telegrafbukta and then took a photo of the snow figure by the stairs.

Thursday, 28 April 2022

Yesterday on Thursday it was snowing and temperatures were below zero.

It was fun to kayak through the snow after work.

Friday, 29 April 2022

Today on Friday it has been snowing and temperatures have been (mostly) below zero.

The snowflakes have become thicker.

This afternoon snow depth was 25–30 cm. The snow figure was snowed in to the neck and the stairs have disappeared in the snow.

Thursday, 19 Mai 2022 …

In 20 days there will be the first polar day. Then the sun does not set for more than seven weeks. Midnight sun!

Summer is near but incredibly well hidden.

A late winter ski tour May 1 2022

It has snowed the whole week and yesterday I finally took the opportunity to do a ski tour in the mountains. Since I’m not a downhill skier I chose the Fløyfjellet area on the mainland. There it is hilly, but not steep and you can take the cable car Fjellheisen to Storsteinen (421 m). The four-minute ride is expensive but worth it.

I’ve been there several times but never with skis.

I put on the skins and go outside. What are these funny snowed in thingies? The left one could be a slide. I remember the playground here. And behind that? Is it not a fence but a swing!? So much snow?

Note: Yes, it’s a slide and a swing. I found an older photo of mid-October 2020 for comparison.

I start my tour at Fjellstua, the mountain station of the cable car. It has stopped snowing and the sun comes out. I pass Steinbøhytta. It looks quite snowed in, but this cabin is built into the mountain.

Navigation to Fløya is easy when it’s clear because of the huge waymark with the wind vane. The summit itself is marked with the typical stone heap.

It’s just 12 o’clock when I reach Fløya and I continue skiing south. I am completely alone and beside of snow and some small, isolated rocks there is not much to see.

It starts snowing and gradually the snow fall intensifies until the visibility is between 50 and 100 metres. Not much in a snowy landscape. I see a small single rock, but nothing more.

Where is Bønntuva (or Romssavákkivárri), the next summit? I use compass and the Varsom app for navigation but I zigzag a bit anyhow. I realise that I go uphills. A good sign, when you want on a mountain. I’m almost at the top when I see the waymark. It’s a large but shallow pile of stones, almost completely snowed in. Time for a “summit selfie” and a break.

And then – all of the sudden – the clouds disappear and the sun comes out and instead of 50 m visibility it’s 15 kilometres and more.

After a short break I ski further south. Here I meet the first other people, two touring skiers. I enjoy the sun, the calmness, the view, the colours while skiing a long circle back.

Panoramic selfie in the wintry mountains

And soon the next snow appears. As fast as the sky cleared up visibility is very poor again and I have some difficulties navigating again.

I head west and then north again. The snow depth is 50-60 cm in average and my skis sink 15–20 cm into the snow with every step. Visibility has become much better again but everything looks dull in the grey, snowy weather. I’m exhausted. Time to take a break.

Still an hour to go, but at least it goes mostly downhills. Step. Step. Step. Looking up. Step. Step. Step.

Not far from the station I meet three women. They sit on huge camping mats in the snow and are cooking something. Their skis stuck in the snow and serve as a backrest. This looks cosy! We exchange a few words, then I continue. When I arrive at the mountain station I take a souvenir photo of Tromsøya. Ten minutes later I stand in the cable car on my way down. Five minutes later I stand by my car and stop the parking because this is expensive as well.

In the center of Tromsø it is thaw and a mixture of wet snow, soft ice and brown slush covers ways and roads. I’m glad that I had this wonderful day in the mountains though photo motives were a bit rare due to the poor visibility. Now I think it would be a good time for spring!

Mai snow in Tromsø May 4 2022

2 May – shall it be spring soon?

With melting snow, slush and strawberries (from the Netherlands)?

Yesterday, 3 May – no.

Today, 4 May – definitely no!

8 cm of fresh snow fell over night. Beside the roads there’s even a layer of crusty, old snow.

If the weather forecast is right, a lot of rain will wash the snow away, but not before the weekend. Let’s see, how long you have to read those “still snow”articles, but when there’s snow, I’ll post about snow.

Spring day in Tromsø May 16 2022

After weeks of snowfall and cold rain some kind of spring came to Tromsø. Main feature: several hours of sunshine and two-digit temperatures. I take a promenade and see tussilago and primroses blooming almost everywhere.

When you however do not crouch on the ground for taking photos of flowers but go to the beach and look west you see that winter is still remaining in the mountains. At least from the distance their peaks look as white and pure as weeks ago.

This article should have been published on Saturday, two days ago, but I was sick and slept a lot the whole weekend.

Now cloudy weather and temperatures round 3 °C have returned to Tromsø. Business as usual?

17 May aboard the ship Hermes II May 17 2022

Today it is 17 May, the Norwegian National Day. People say “Gratulerer med dagen!” (Happy Birthday!) to each other to celebrate Norway’s Birthday in the year 1814. The rest of the history I won’t tell here, you can read it better in the net, for example on Wikipedia.

While I was in Sweden last year I am in Tromsø today and so I was able to join the celebrations. Last week I got an ad for joining the boat parade on the wooden boat Hermes II, build 1917. That sounded fun and I directly bought one of the extraordinary cheap tickets. Would be nice to be outside on the water this day. And so it was, even in snowfall and sleet and temperatures round 1–2 °C.

Hermes II lies in the very center of Tromsø. I’ve passed it many times, today I entered it at 10 o’clock. Slowly the boat filled up. Some women were clad in bunad. These traditional clothes are very beautiful but I doubt that they provide the best weather protection. Check the video linked below. Other people choose more pragmatic clothes to stay warm and dry. At 10:30 we departed, headed north and met other boats there. In a group of fifteen boats – Hermes II, some SAR boats, the rest private ones – we then headed back to the center. Nothing extreme, just a especially nice way to be outside.

Some photos from today:

Other boats waiting for the parade to start

Also on board was NRK, the Norwegian TV. I can recommend the video, even when you do not speak Norwegian.

Watch it here: 17. mai-feiring på båt i Tromsø (2:44, Norwegian).

Just a short afterwork mountain walk May 18 2022

19:00 – sun is shining. Too beautiful the evening to stay inside. 19:30 – I park at the lake Finnviksvatnet on the island Kvaløya. It is at 230 m altitude and covered with a thick layer of snow. You see the lake as the foreground on the first photo. Outside temperature +1 °C, colder than in town. The only other person I see comes dome the snowy slope, skis in the hands. I only have rubber boots. Let’s see, how far I’ll come.

Not very far (round 2.2 km and perhaps 200 m in altitude) because walking through old snow is exhausting and I’m still a bit groggy from being sick for some days. But alas, Tromsø and surroundings are so beautiful! At least on the rare occasions where the sun is actually shining – a rare pleasure in Tromsø it seems to me.

A sunny ski tour to Bønntuva May 20 2022

Three weeks ago I made a ski tour to mountain summit Bønntuva. There was a layer of half a metre of fresh snow and it snowed so much, that navigation was quite demanding.

This morning I decided to take a day off and do a ski tour to Bønntuva again, because finally the weather is sunny and warmer. No snowfall, no sleet, no stacked cloud layers, just a blue sky.

Same routine: Park the car, buy a ticket for Fjellheisen, the cable car and check, how much snow has melted away from the swing and the slide on the playground. Well, not much!

The playground at the summit station is still snowed in

But you see the difference. Patches of heather and more rocks are visible. The cabin Steinbøhytta however is still snowed in, too.

The cabin Steinbøhytta is still snowed in as well

The only other skier, that started with me – you see him on the first photo – is far ahead and so I have the mountains for myself.

Thanks to my short climbing skins that you can hook into the skis and the easy conditions I reach the the summit of Bønntuva earlier than expected. Time for a short rest and a photo with self-timer. (To the right the selfie from 19 days before ;-) )

The view is marvellous. It’s mountains everywhere. Some are rocky, some are snowy. Some are steep, some are rounded. Some are by the fjords, others amidst other mountains. So beautiful!

After the break I decide to ski back. I am pretty nervous because the snow is fast and I am a lousy downhill skier. Where other carve beautiful sinus waves into the snowy slopes I walk more zigzag. Anyhow I manage to ski down the Bønntuva (which is not steep at all). Now I start to meet other people. Some on skis, some with hiking boots, because the snow is quite compact. I use one track of a skier to bypass the summit of Fløya – a good track, that slowly leads downwards.

After I pass the cabin I unmount my backcountry skis to walk down a steeper passage. Then I mount them again and all of a sudden I feel a bit more comfortable. I have a bit more control and can even do some bends by ploughing. Nice! Next year I should stand more on my skis! But this I say every spring. We will see what next winter has in store for me.

I arrive at the summit station ten minutes before the cable car goes down. Time to take a photo of Tromsø on the island Tromsøya and the mountains of the island Kvaløya in the background.

Then it’s time to leave the winter, go down by cable car and then stop the parking timer in the app, because parking at Fjellheisen is expensive!

“Kayak daytrip to Skarsfjord with beach clean up” May 22 2022

… this was the Facebook event I was invited to some weeks ago. It was an event organised by people from TSI Trulle, the other kayak association, but it was open for non-members, too. The idea was to start a kayak tour in Skarsfjord on the island Ringvassøya, paddle to a beach, clean it, cross the fjord to another beach, clean it, too, relax and paddle back. We were eight people joining the tour from five different countries.

Our tour does not start on the water. It starts with carrying kayaks to a trailer, use lashing straps to fix them there, packing all equipment into two cars and some driving.

After 50 km – one hour drive – we arrive at the parking place by the sea, where we unstrap the kayaks and get everything ready including testing the sprayskirts and the footboards. Things you can do on land as well as you see.

It always takes some time to put on the drysuit, check that everything is packed and working but then we all sit in our kayaks and are ready to paddle to our first destination: The islet Teistholmen.

We leave the kayaks there, take a huge rubbish bag each and start combing the shore of the island. Most of the rubbish is on the northwest side of the island that is most exposed to the elements. Mostly it is plastic from fishing. Parts of old green nets, buoys from small to football size and then of course all the civilisation garbage as empty (or half-full) bottles, styrofoam and some nasty stuff. But it’s not extremely much.

After collecting I take a stroll over the green island. Hard to imagine, that I did a ski tour the day before.

After a while and some lunch we continue our triangular tour, now crossing the fjord Skarsfjorden to another beach. You can see the rubbish bags on our kayaks. We were very lucky that there is no mentionable wind, because with side winds the huge bags would act as sails and turn the kayaks into the wind. But without any wind and waves it was easy to cross the fjord.

When we reach the beautiful sandy beach it turns out that this is not the beach to be cleaned. The location that the organiser has in mind is a bit further away. So we continue a bit to arrive at a rocky shore that looked much less inviting than the sandy beach and a bit more difficult to land.

But it looks like that we would collect a lot of more trash here, and so we do. There is a lot of plastic trash, scrap metal (that we left alone) and driftwood for making fires for months. Some of us are collecting large amounts of plastic. It is obviously too much to be transported on our kayaks. But we are lucky and get help by two locals living on an island nearby. They load their whole boat full with our filled rubbish bags to take care of it. You can hear the motor of their boat for a while after they departed. Tusen takk – thousand thanks!

While others have collected more rubbing some of us have started a fire. Time to tell stories, eat a second lunch or just relax.

Anyhow, it is a day trip and so we leave this place, some of us with extra rubbish bags that didn’t make it on the motor boat. We pass the ship wreck, that we already spotted on the way there. It was washed ashore this winter while the captain was asleep because the anchor did not hold. He was not harmed but the ship was totally destroyed.

We are so lucky with the weather! Not much sun, but hardly any wind, no rain and much warmer than the weeks before. We paddle back to the parking place, the cars are visible as a small grey and a small white dot. The water is extremely clear and of a turquoise colour that makes the sea look Caribbean – until you put your hands into the water and realise how cold it is. This is, why drysuits are a must on such tours even under perfect conditions. Safety first!

And then we are back. Some of us train rescue manoeuvres, some of us relax, some collect trash (oh my, here you could collect for days :-( ). Then we put all kayaks back on the trailer, drive back to the boat house where we put all kayaks back in the boat houses. Then we are ready to leave.

Thank you guys for inviting me, letting joining me and having a great day together. Hopefully I meet some of you again. Would be a pleasure!

Mountains, sea and midnight sun May 29 2022

Yesterday at 18:00 I took the car to Elvenes on Kvaløya to start a small mountain tour. Well, mountain or hill – the summit of Grønnlibruna is only 401 metres above sea level. I chose this destination in the hope that it was not completely snowed over as the higher mountains still are.

I parked the car, walked the gravel path and stood before the first obstacle, the stream Finnelva. I did the same tour last November, where it was easy to cross. Now in the thawing period the water was at least 50 cm deep and quite fast . Too deep to cross here, even with rubber boots. Luckily I found a better place to ford a bit upstream. Soon I was in the forest. A very wet and muddy forest where I was not always sure whether I followed the way, crossed a swamp or waded in a brook. But this stopped when I gained a bit of altitude where old snow covered the forest floor.

As soon as was above the tree line the landscape changed again. There were some large snow fields but most of the ground was bare of snow and easy to walk on.

After 4 km of hike and some hundred metres in altitude I stood on the summit enjoying the circular view while the weather cleared up more and more.

I did not take a break but hiked down again. I enjoyed the weather and the fact that the birch trees start to turn green, at least in the lowlands. I crossed Finnelva a second time, now with a sturdy stick that I had found on my way. It’s much easier to keep balance with such a “third leg”. From there it was not far to my parked car that I reached round 21:30.

When I left the supermarket in Eidkjosen it was 22:00 and the sky was blue. It won’t get dark because the last sunset in Tromsø was more than a week ago. Since then we have polar days with 24 hours of daylight. I could drive home or …

I turned left. Left to the road 862 that leads to Sommarøya. Maybe I catch the midnight sun. Sometimes I had to drive slow because of the reindeers, sometimes I had to stop to take a photo …

… but round 23:00 I had crossed the bridge to the island Sommarøya and shortly after I parked at the sandy beach Steinsvika. I was not alone. People stood at the beaches, some lit a fire, some paddled kayak, some camped in the hills.

I checked an app when sun would be lowest. What? 0:45!? I forgot, that we had daylight saving time, so clocks were one hour ahead. I took my camera bag, some water and an old jacket, that I use to have in the car and walked to the northern tip of Kvalneset. Now I had a lot of time to just observe the sun hardly going down. After one and a half hour it was time: 0:45 – the sun was at its lowest position: 1.55°. The photo is completely unspectacular because it only shows a low sun, not the fact that the sun would not get lower than that this night.

I was glad about my jacket because it got a bit colder, I was tired and I sat there for almost two hours in total. At least I had chocolate! I waited for the sun to disappear behind the prominent silhouette of the island Håja.

Then I went back to the car and had about an hour drive back home. I wasn’t in bed before 3:30 but it was completely worth it. For a very good reason: I never ever saw the midnight sun in my life before! Although I have lived in Northern Scandinavia for more than 12 years I hardly was above the arctic circle in summer and then it was cloudy.

But it was more than just checking another item of my bucket list. It was just gorgeous to sit there and enjoy nature. I should do that more often and put the old sleeping bag back into my car. Just in case …

After work promenade to the Keiptuva Jun 1 2022

Birch thicket in the snow – attention, slippery!

The lake Keipvatna is almost free of ice

Lake in the front, fjord in the back – freshwater and saltwater

38.5 km by car, 5.5 km by foot. Some hundred metres in altitude. Warm and windy weather. Forests, slopes, shallow bogs, mountain paths, water to ford, flowers, snow fields, lakes, tundra, rocks, views to the mountains of Kvaløya, the fjord, the open sea and Greenland. OK, cross out the last point. Anyhow, quite much for a short after work promenade.

Thursday paddling round Grindøya Jun 2 2022

Yesterday I was in the mountains – today at 18:00 I joined the torsdagspadling (Thursday paddling) of the Tromsø Sea Kayakers Club. Together with 16 others paddlers and a dachshund we crossed the Grindøyskarven and rounded the island Grindøy.

The conditions were excellent: Hardly any wind, a calm sea, blue sky and temperatures almost 20 °C. Perfect not only for paddling but also for taking a break in the sun – of course at the northern tip where we didn’t disturb the common eiders that nest along the beaches of Grindøya. Then we paddled back – with a small sprint to avoid two ships crossing. No danger however because the guides have a VHF to talk to the ships but they already had spotted us and had slowed down. Three hours later we were back from our round 12 km long paddle tour.

Takk for turen, thanks for the tour! And thanks to all organisers of the torsdagspadling. Great initiative!

Grindøya with beaches and forests – Kvaløya in the back

Gathering – shall all circle Grindøya? Yes!

Hiking up the Slåka and Guratinden Jun 6 2022

Slåka (314 m) and Guratinden (424 m) are two mountains on the island Kvaløya. I know them from my book “På tur i Tromsø” where they are described in tour 7. This tour is marked as green, which is the easiest category in this book. I chose it because on the higher mountains there still might be some amount of snow and I wanted to avoid that.

I took the car to the parking place in Skulsfjorden yesterday. The parking place I already knew from another tour. Then I tried to find the hiking trail while the cows starred at me curiously and the bravest of them came to sniff at my hand.

It took a while until I found the way which was not were the map showed it. It forked quite soon and maybe I followed the wrong direction because somewhere over the tree line it faded away somewhere in the heather. Way marks and sign posts you will hardly find when you hike like this in Norway. It is assumed that you can orientate in pathless terrain even on beginner tours. Anyhow a way to the top of the Slåka was easy to find without paths. Here I had a fantastic 360° view. In the north the mountain Nuortagáisi (or Nordtinden), in the south the fjord Kaldfjorden, in the west the island Vengsøya and behind that the open sea. And where there was no sea there were mountains, mountains, mountains, all higher ones still covered in snow.

Without any break I continued to the Guratinden. Again I could not find a reliable hiking trail but more a patchwork of paths, some of them probably animal tracks. Anyhow it’s not far to the Guratinden, where I took a rest to enjoy the view and something to drink.

Although it was the beginning of June it was very chilly on the summit, mostly because of the strong wind. I guess it was 7 °C and at least 15 m/s. Already on my way up I wore gloves and a woollen cap, now I was really glad about my down hoodie. Without I wouldn’t have taken any rest.

Strong winds on the top of the Guratinden

On the way back I followed other trails and tracks or I just cut cross country. Sometimes I walked on rocks, sometimes on boggy ground but mostly on heather.

View on Skulsfjorden and the mountain chain round the Store Blåmannen

Round three hours later I was at my car after 9 km hiking and round about 650 metres in altitude. And here you can see how it looks on the map when you hardly follow any trails ;-)

Rekvik – a place to visit again Jun 12 2022

The weather was overcast and we were hungry, but the short hiking trail starting in Rekvik on Kvaløya is definitely a place to be visited again. With better weather and more time to take pictures.

Paddling in Obbola Jun 19 2022

Since the weekend I’ve been back in Obbola in Sweden. This afternoon it stopped drizzling and the sun came out. So Annika and I took an evening tour with our kayaks. I’m so glad, that I’m home with Annika even though it’s only for three weeks.

Evening Paddling with Annika in Obbola I

Evening Paddling with Annika in Obbola II

Evening Paddling with Annika in Obbola III

Evening Paddling with Annika in Obbola IV

Summer paddling to lunch Jun 30 2022

Since last Friday we have summer home in Obbola, Sweden. Temperatures are round 25 °C (and higher in town) and the sky is mostly blue.

Today it was sunny again. Although working I finally managed to paddle to the beach Bredviks havsbad and eat lunch there. Tour–retour it is about 7 km and since the weather was very calm it was easy to paddle there. I paddled in shorts and t-shirt but it was still almost too warm. At the beach I took a bath to cool down while waiting for Nouri’s tasty Pinchos.