A hill hike and a bog walk May 9 2026

Trehørningen

While the mountains around Tromsø are still snowy and the locals are still going ski touring I was looking for a mountain or hill that I can actually walk on by foot. On Facebook people were talking about Trehørningen, not the large one but the small and child-friendly one near Skulsfjord with an astonishing height of 283 metres. Today I drove there, because most places are not accessible by public transport which makes hiking a bit of a motor sport most of the time. I arrive at around half past eight and I’m the first there. After three minutes I and a bit of ascending, I get the first views of the fjord Gállafjerda or Kaldfjorden and the mountain range around the Store Blåmannen.

At first, the path is muddy but then the ground is much drier. The track leads up through an open forest of birch trees. They are still bare.

A bit further up, there is a plateau with a beautiful view of Gállafjerda and the mountains behind.

There are some small snow fields, but only one covers a few metres of the track.

By that snow field there are some water-filled depressions. To my surprise a thin layer of ice covers these puddles. Was there frost last night?

While I am taking these pictures another hiker passes. I’m not alone anymore. Anyway, the mountaintop is near, as usual marked with a huge cairn.

The view is awesome. In the background you can see the island Vengsøya with its mountain Kvantotinden. The island is surrounded by islets and skerries, behind that the Norwegian Sea.

Vengsøya can be reached by ferry. It was just heading back while I was at the top.

The ferry connecting Vengsøy with Bellvik

The sun makes the air feel warm but the wind on the top wins: The air is still cold and I put on my anorak again, hood over my head. As often, I take less photos on my way back. I only want to take another photo of the bare birches. While I looked through the viewfinder I saw a movement. A reindeer that I haven’t noticed before it trots into view. Does it want to be photographed? Probably not. It continued its walk carefully looking at me to see what I intend to do.

After a four-kilometre hike I am back at the car. Six other cars are parked there now. I liked the tour. It is easy and the parking area is just 20 km away from Tromsø so you could do it as a small after-work trip. You get clean air, awesome views and maybe – if you’re lucky – a reindeer trotting by.

Peat bogs south of Tromvik

I had another tour in mind. A tour that could become pretty wet. I want to walk from Tromvik to the lake Storvatnet, but not on the track east from the river Storelva but instead crossing the mires and bogs. First I have to go there by car. Both Trehørningen and Tromvik are on the island Kvaløya but it’s a one hour drive. Remember, Kvaløya is the fifth largest island in mainland Norway. Then I put on waterproof clothes – you never know what happens and start my tour.

To make a long story short: I think, the lake is pretty boring. I took a souvenir photo, here it is. I guess this view is much nicer, when the lake is calm and the sun comes from the other direction.

Much more interesting were all the small ponds with mossy islets and also the muddy peat flats with their scattered grass tussocks forming small islands. Pretty fascinating. Some photos:

After a six-kilometre hike – a pretty wet one – I am back at the car. I liked this tour, too and I plan to come back on a sunny night this summer. Then the sun should be low in the north illuminating the mountains behind Storvatnet. Hopefully …

Mountains

Some mountains and mountain ranges are extremely fascinating in their combination of white snow and rough rock. The first photo I took from Trehørningen, for the other two I stopped the car on my way to Tromvik.

Winter intermezzo Apr 26 2026

When I wrote about the unusually early snowmelt in Tromsø a week ago, I was almost sure that new snow might come soon. I guessed right. Already on Thursday evening, it starts to snow. The next morning, the roads are white and the tussilago flowers are stuck in the snow.

On Saturday morning it is winter again. About 15 cm of snow have fallen; it is -1 °C and it is still snowing heavily.

I take the car on the gravel road to the ski jump, which feels pretty adventurous although the iPhone photo below is exaggerating.

None of the thousands of tussilago flowers is visible anymore on the turning area, they are all under the snow. And the small pond with the ski jump in the background looks like winter has never been absent.

Later that day I make a car trip with a friend. We visit the same beach as my wife Annika and I did two weeks earlier. The first photo is from 12 April; the second from 25 April, which was yesterday.

The common cowslip peeks out from the snow while the pillows of purple saxifrage that were in bloom two weeks ago are buried deeply under the fresh snow.

This snow, however, won’t live long. Parts already have melted away and even if it may snow again tomorrow, the rain expected later will melt it all away. And that’s more than ok, because I have put away my skis and now I’m looking forward to some hiking tours, first some hills, and later some mountains.

Snow depth = 0 Apr 19 2026

The meteorological station Tromsø (Vervarslinga) measured the following snow depths yesterday:

Time	Snow depth [cm]
2026-04-18 17:00	1.0
2026-04-18 18:00	0.0

Time

Snow depth [cm]

2026-04-18 17:00

1.0

2026-04-18 18:00

0.0

Thus, yesterday was the last day with snow cover at Tromsø (Vervarslinga) this year. Let’s compare the values with previous years:

Year	Snow depth 18 April 18:00	First day with 0 cm of snow at 18:00	Difference in days
2025	72.9	2025-05-18	30
2024	71.0	2024-05-10	22
2023	87.1	2023-05-15	27
2022	45.5	2022-05-18	30
2021	82.7	2021-05-20	32
2020	157.0	2020-06-01	44

Based on the median values from the data above, around 78 cm of snow should have covered the ground at Vervarslinga yesterday, and snow should have remained for another 30 days. I also checked older data and couldn’t find a single 18 April that was without snow at Vervarslinga within the last 50 years.

Average snow depths Tromsø Vervarslinga18 April per year (source: frost.met.no)

That doesn’t mean that all the snow on Tromsøya is gone. Tromsø Vervarslinga is just a single station, but it illustrates how unusually early the snow has melted this year.

This morning I took a walk through the Tromsømarka on top of the island. As you can see, the snow varies. Some forested hills are completely bare of snow, while some boggy places still look wintry, and the lakes and ponds are covered with ice.

The second photo is typical. In winter, cross-country skiing is extremely popular. So popular that countless skiers compact the snow. As a result, it melts more slowly and so you can see “snow lanes” that cross the snow-free ground at this time of the year.

Another typical feature is the contrast: In one spot, thousands of tussilago are blooming while a hundred metres away in the shadow there is still ice on the water puddles.

What I am really curious about this year is the birch trees: will they get their leaves earlier or as usual?

Early spring in Tromsø Apr 13 2026

Saturday morning my car was covered with frost. But don’t be fooled by the photo, because winter in Tromsø is gone and in the lower parts of the city the wild flowers tussilago bloom everywhere together with planted flowers such as crocuses or scillas. The first butterflies and bumblebees fly from blossom to blossom and winter seems to be just a memory.

Yesterday my wife Annika and I went on a trip to Kvaløya.

With the flowers in mind I am surprised to see a thin layer of ice on the sea at the bay at Eidkjosen.

We take the road 862 to Sommarøya through the valley Kattfjorddalen. Although the elevation is only 150 metres, it is still winter here although the edge of the lake Kattfjordvatnet starts to melt. We see many cars with kayaks passing by while most cars parking here belong to ski tourers.

We park our car before the tunnel and walk along some sandy beaches. The sun is warm enough that we walk back in T-Shirts. On one of the hills I spot another flower that uses to bloom quite early – the purple saxifrage, one of the northernmost plants in the world.

Saxifraga oppositifolia – purple saxifrage

Next stop is Sommarøya were we take a short circular tour. Beside of some patches all snow is gone. On the water there are large flocks of common eiders – you can hear them from everywhere.

Back again through Kattfjorddalen. Some skiers return, others just start their tour, while tourists are standing around enjoying the scenery which is probably very exotic to many of them.

We turn left and head to Tromvik to visit the café Søstrene Kafè. It is quite a detour but it is worth it – both for the scenery and the café. And yes – I like the harbour, too.

Finally I take a detour by car to the village Rekvik. The road is pretty rough, but again the scenery is awesome.

From here it is 53 km home. I drive back without further stops. We have seen a lot and it is fair to call the tour “Norway in a nutshell”. Only the mammals were missing. No reindeer, no seals and no otters.

Note: the text is just a draft. I publish the article anyway and will polish it later.

Ski tour in the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park – day three Mar 8 2026

This article is part of the series “2026-03: Ski tours”.

4 March 2026

Today is the third and last day of the ski tour Annika and I are doing in the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park. We slept in the hut Hannukuru. We expect to ski about 15 km and parts of it will be on groomed cross‑country ski trails. Day one of our tour was snowy and windy, day two was foggy, but today the sun is shining.

After our morning routines – breakfast, packing, cleaning – we set off at 09:45 local time. (Finland is one hour ahead of Central European Time.) We follow the trail back a hundred metres, cross the small lake and to our surprise we already meet the cross-country ski trail.

I expected to ski at least half the distance without any groomed trail, now it feels like “civilisation”. At the same time the calm weather and the blue sky give a completely different impression than the days before. First we have wide views of the snowy landscape and the mountains in the distance and many trees are covered in hoarfrost and snow.

We slowly descend into a large conifer forest and the terrain gets a bit hilly. A sign says “Vaarallinen lasku” which means dangerous slope. I walk a small section of this stretch but most of the trail is easy to ski.

We take a short break in the Varkaanjärven kota, not because we need to rest but because it’s there. Two young skiers arrive, looking for matches. They want to ski up to Hannukuru. As most skiers here they have cross-country skis, not the broader backcountry skis that we are using. Probably they are four times faster uphill then we are downhill.

Now we can see the first huts, houses, a snowmobile trail and then we arrive in the village Vuontispirtti. At the hotel Tunturihotelli we take a cold coke and I eat a sandwich. Our ski tour has come to an end. Not the planned one but a good one.

The distances: 17 km + 11½ km + 13½ km, summing up to 42 km.

Our speed: 2.8 km/h in average including all shorter and longer breaks.

Will I – or we – do another ski tour in Finland? A few days ago I definitely had denied this idea. Now, while blogging I see the tour and the landscape much more positively. So my answer: I don’t know. Ask me again a bit later.

Ski tour in the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park – day two Mar 7 2026

This article is part of the series “2026-03: Ski tours”.

When I wake up in the hut Sioskuru in the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park the scenery has changed since yesterday. Thick fog makes the world small and the few visible trees are all covered with frost.

Time to light the stove in our small room.

Yesterday we started our ski tour in Hetta, today we want to continue on to Hannukuru, the next cabin. The distance is shorter than that of the previous day and although it is foggy the weather is calm. At 9:45 we set off. We pass the wooden bridge and ski into the fog.

It is like skiing through a contemporary art exhibition with us being the only visitors. There is fog and there are some frosted trees, some of them are real beauties. And there is silence.

Slowly we gain elevation. Fewer and fewer trees grow here. I’m glad about the wooden waymarks, it would be an effort to navigate through the fog in this featureless landscape.

After crossing this plateau, we descend a bit and are below the timberline again. The fog has started lifting, but it is still grey.

I am still a bit exhausted from the day before but I cannot explain why it is so hard to ski today. It is as if the landscape is bewitched and sucks all my energy, motivation and happiness from my body, my mind and my soul. More and more I have to stop, lean forward on my ski poles and ask myself why I should ski another metre. We are getting slower and slower and it feels like Dementors from Harry Potter’s magical had gathered here in this bleak nothingness. I stop and shout my frustration into the void with words not suitable for publication. Then another nine and a half metres of skiing. A stop. Some more steps. And so on.

After two hours something happens. The clouds have started breaking up and all of a sudden the sun is coming out. It is maybe only half a minute but it helps me to look ahead again. I’m still exhausted but I can see the beauty of the landscape again and of course I know that we will reach the next cabin.

There are more and more trees and in another small hollow we even spot something we yet didn’t see: rocks!

After 11.7 km (and more than 5 hours) we reach the hut Hannukuru, or rather the wilderness village of Hannukuru. There are several huts, woodsheds, outhouses and a sauna. We search our pre-booked shared rental hut, unlock “Hannukuru Hanna” – the room on the right – and inside I spot the most beautiful collection of kindling I’ve ever seen in my life.

While Sioskuru was pretty small and more a mattress room, this spacious room provides bunk beds for twelve people and a giant wood-burning stove.

I am eating part of the chocolate that I forgot we had with us. Annika is soaking dried potatoes and vegetables for the dinner: frittata. Delicious!

Before dinner we plan the next day’s route. We cannot change it – the skiing distance to Nammalakuru, the next hut is 21 km with a tedious ascent in the end. We are considering to change our plans and ski east instead. Reason one: the long distance, likely in untracked terrain. Reason two: the weather forecast that predicts warm temperatures with sleet and freezing rain.

A Finnish couple in the other room knows the area well and shows us the options. We decide to ski east to the small ski resort Vuontispirtti. This also means that we can sleep longer the next day. When three other skiers invite us to use the sauna after them we gladly accept. What a wonderful end of a quite strange and tiring day. And yes – Finnish saunas are hot!

Reindeer on the road Mar 5 2026

This article is part of the series “2026-03: Ski tours”.

On Monday my wife Annika and I took the car from our house in Obbola, Sweden to Hetta in Lappi, Finland’s northernmost region. It was almost given that we would see reindeer on our 676-km drive. And we saw a herd of at least one hundred reindeer from the car.

However, we didn’t spot them in Överkalix, Pajala, or Palojoensuu, we saw them right in the beginning, just 2 km from our house. That is not a common sight at all, but it can happen when the Baltic Sea is frozen.

In the afternoon, we arrived at Hetan Kota, our accommodation for the night. The next day, we would start our first ski tour in Finland, directly from the doorstep.

Ice, ice, spring, ice and snow Mar 1 2026

It is mid-February in Obbola in Sweden. Dear friends are visiting us. The Baltic Sea is frozen. On the ice there is a layer of snow. On 16 February we walk from our house to and across the sea ice to a nearby beach. Three days later we do the same with skis.

Three days later I see the sea from above, because Annika and I are visiting part of my family in Augsburg in Germany. 100% sea ice coverage in the northern Baltic Sea, open water near Stockholm.

Augsburg is a striking contrast. First, it chilly and rainy, but then it gets warm. On our last day we are sitting outside for lunch, enjoying the warm sun while bees and bumblebees are visiting the thousands of spring flowers. It’s like another world!

Two days later we fly back the same way. The sea ice is segmented by many shipping lanes. I can even spot one of the Swedish icebreakers – probably the vessel Ymer – which keeps these channels free of ice during the winter.

In the afternoon we are home again in our house by the sea in Obbola.

However we are not here for long. For the next two weeks we will be on our backcountry skis, first in Finnish Lapland, then in Swedish Lapland.

From inland to coast – a cold car ride Feb 9 2026

Yesterday morning, when I woke up I first checked the thermometer in the kitchen. It showed -27 °C.

I was in Jokkmokk to visit my friend Sascha and the Jokkmokk winter market. Would my car start when it’s that cold? After a coffee Sascha, his dog Roxy, and I went to the huge car park behind the railway line where my Suzuki had been parked the last two days. To my relief it started without any issues and even scraping ice off the car didn’t take as long as expected.

Farewell my friends – off I go.

The day was exceptionally beautiful and cold. The car thermometer went down to -29 °C and then stayed around -25 °C for the next hour. Should I switch to the Hägglunds that was parked beside the E45? Probably not the best idea with a distance of around 400 km ahead.

At half past eight, the sun rose. I parked my car and walked to a frozen lake nearby to take some photos. Was that where I froze my nose? It still itches a bit today.

Because of the cold weather in the last weeks the frost and snow on the trees has not melted and often I pulled into a lay-by to take more pictures. The small side roads were white with snow and looked absurdly beautiful.

I started to get hungry and stopped at the small shop in Kåbdalis, where I bought a kanelbulle that was still hot from the oven.

I continued my trip south and crossed the river Piteälven, which was mostly open. And so was the river Skellefteälven, which I crossed three hours later.

The sun sank lower and lower. When I arrived in Obbola at five in the afternoon it has become dark.

Today in Obbola the winter looked very different from the forest-dominated inland. The Baltic Sea has frozen due to the cold winter temperatures and if the icebreakers would not keep open channels for commercial seafaring you could walk the 45 km to Finland. I was on the ice as well, but only for a walk along the coast. I like the snowy forest, but I adore the sea ice!

Fresh snow in Tromsø Jan 25 2026

It has been a while since it snowed in Tromsø. Nevertheless, the trees have been white this week, not because of any snow but because of the hoar frost. Yesterday many trees – large and small – were still covered in hoar frost. In the afternoon it started snowing.

When I woke up today the outside scenery looked as wintry as it could be. The next two photos I took from the balcony of my flat on Tromsøya this morning.

Today after breakfast I went on a ski tour. Not a big one, just starting at the gravel road that leads into the forest 350 metres from here. The road leads to the ski run and crosses a cross-country ski track on the way there.

I like the scenery there in all seasons, but I adore it in winter when fresh snow has arrived. Just some photos, especially from the more open places – bogs in summer, snowfields in winter:

While I cleared 14 cm of fresh snow from my parking space in the afternoon it started snowing again leading to a snowburst with snow bucketing down and adding another one or two centimetres additional snow within minutes. In my snowed-covered teddy fleece jacket I looked like a snowman.

Next week there will be not much snowfall, but it will be cold enough to preserve the snow. I love winter in the north.

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