After the snowfall in the first half of the week …

… snowfall continued in the weekend.

Saturday,  2 November – walking

When I woke up yesterday morning another 10–15 cm of snow have fallen over night and it is still snowing. I get myself dressed, grab my camera backpack and go out. At the kindergarten I follow the way to the ski jumps. The light is still dim and I am quite alone. A strong wind gust blows snow from all trees and for some seconds snow is everywhere in the air.

I turn left and head to the small pond. The pair of Red-throated loons has left long ago and now the pond is frozen and covered in snow.

From there I cross the small grassy bog and follow some of the many forest paths.

I walked here quite a lot last summer but now that everything is covered in 25–30 cm of snow I miss some of the paths. That circumstance gave me wet feet quite soon. While trudging through the snow I suddenly felt my rubber boots sinking in something else. Seconds later I stood knee deep in a patch of mud. Brownish water eagerly filled my boots and the mud was so sticky, that it took me a minute to get free again. The rest of my walk I had wet and pretty cold feet. Back home I praised the inventor of the hot shower. (And that of the shoe dryer.)

Saturday,  2 November – jogging

Two hours later I go out again, this time to jog. I just have started again three weeks ago and I want to continue in wintertime as long it is possible. This time I stick to the “official” ways – some of them  are already packed and groomed for cross-country skiers. Luckily you are allowed to bike or walk on the side of these tracks. It is fun to jog while it is snowing again. And my feet remained almost dry (just a bit of snow came into the Icebug winter running shoes).

Sunday, 3 November – skiing

This morning even more snow has fallen and I decide to take a ski tour. Not elsewhere but directly from home. I fetch my “fjellski” and poles from the shack and start my ski tour right from the entrance of my apartment. As the day before I pass the kindergarten and the small pond. The snow depth has grown to 45–50 cm and the skis sink in 20 cm with each step. Mostly I take those forest paths that are not too steep, but sometimes I follow the ski tracks where even I am as twice as fast.

Some more snow showers pass while I’m skiing cross-country. But then the sun comes out and colourises both sea and clouds deep orange. While I try to find a good spot to take a photo (I have my DSLR with me) the sun has begun to hide again. Photographer’s bad luck!

I pass the lake Rundvannet, while another snow shower approaches. No bathers today.

While I am heading back the sun comes out again, this time for longer. It is pretty low and soon disappears behind the mountains. In 3½ weeks polar night will start in Tromsø.

The huge ski jump of the Grønnåsen Ski Jump Center is a good landmark. Since it is on top of a hill it is visible from many places. Today I will climb up and finally ski down the ski jump to see how far I … well, just kidding.

From the ski jump it is only 800 metres back home. I ski the whole distance although I always feel uncomfortable skiing on the roads. The snow is so slippery there. After 7.5 kilometres – sometimes on tracks but mostly cross-country I am back home again.

Some hours later – 16:12. It is dark and another snow shower has approached. More snow! Anyhow it is only a temporary pleasure. Next week it will get much warmer and from Tuesday 78 mm of rain are expected for the next seen days. I guess the road conditions can be pretty ugly then. I am glad that I was outside in the “preview” of winter 2024/25. Let’s see when the next snow will arrive.