After ten days with snow and wind, rain and storm and many, many clouds – there it is – the sun. The first time i see the sun in Tromsø since some day in November.
Photo taken with my iPhone through the window pane of the canteen at lunch break.
I couldn’t sleep. Not at all! At 1:30 I gave up and went out for a walk. And took some photos. Black and white. By the coast. Snow showers.
Now I try to catch some sleep. Good night!
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Not I see, that the 2nd JPEG has quite strong colour artefacts. I may correct that. Later.
Back in Tromsø I decided to walk to work this week. 2½ km to the Norwegian Polar Institute in the Framsenteret and 2½ km back home. So I get at least a bit of motion each day. And a bit of outdoor feeling, too.
It has snowed quite a bit the night and is still snowing. It’s -4 °C and the wind is calm. It’s fun to trudge through the powder snow.
Lunch time. We get the table by the panoramic window. Some boat owners clear the landing of the marina from snow.
-3 °C and snow fall again but now the wind is stronger and squally. Luckily I have it in the back.
It gets warmer the whole day and it starts to rain. Wet ice and deep puddles on my way back.
+2 °C, a bit of rain. Rubber boots, slush, ice, water puddles.
-1 °C and fresh snow.
I don’t trust the snow. I know that ice and slush lurk beneath the surface. Therefore I wear rubber boots again with attached spikes to avoid slipping on the wet ice. The gloves protect against the wind, the reflective wristbands with the blinking LEDs and the high visibility vest against not being seen by car drivers. No cyclists the last days.
-6 °C, almost like winter. The canteen invites to “sun buns” and cacao because it is “soldagen”, the day where the sun is finally visible in Tromsø again after 8 weeks. Unfortunately clouds block the low hanging sun.
This weekend I won’t see the sun neither. We got warm weather and storm and unfortunately a lot of rain. So I’ll probably keep myself mostly inside.
Since yesterday evening I am back in my “work town” Tromsø. How I got here after 17 hours of travelling is another story. I only mention that it among others had to do with snow.
And snow we got in Tromsø as well. Round 30 cm of fresh, clean snow cover the ground, the houses, the trees and build fields of slush in the shallow parts of the sea.
These photos are from a short promenade from Telegrafbukta and Sydspissen.
Today it’s the darkest day of the year, which means, that half of the polar night in Tromsø is over. With the risk of repeating myself, even the darkest day is not dark, especially when it’s a crisp, clear day with a lot of – well no sun – but cloudless sky and warm, colourful light.
No, you couldn’t see the sun, but the direction where it was, because a light pillar created by reflections of ice crystals in the air marked its position.
People where outdoors, not only on land but seaside, too. Two people clad in neoprene doing a long-distance winter swim. Three women paddling and taking a rest at Telegrafbukta. And finally me who after some hesitation took a winter bath. Air temperature -8 °C, water temperature +4 °C, alas no wind. Perfect conditions!
How long it will take until you can see the sun again? Well in Tromsø probably in a month but I’m cheating. In a week Annika and I head to our home in Sweden, where there’ll be at least four hours of sun every day. Beach holiday in the south ;-)
Why, oh why was the forecast of Yr right? Already a week ago it forecasted a period of thaw and heavy rainfall. And Wednesday it started to rain. Just now I’m listening to another cloudburst bucketing down on the roof.
The snow is gone and the ways and small streets are very icy. When it continues raining like this even the ice may have thawed and washed away soon.
It looks almost like autumn but with a huge difference: It’s dark. The photos above I made at lunch break on my last working day this year.
It’s a pity! Just today my wife Annika will arrive so that we can spend Christmas time together. It would have been lovely with a lot of snow but even though it shall be colder again soon it does not look like we get some.
An almost true story to be read out loud with a deep and rough voice.
I survived one of mankind’s largest expeditions of our times – the crossing of the arctic island Tromsøya from south to north! Probably I’m the first one, who dared to face this extraordinary challenge.
The arctic ice breaker could not approach the harsh coastal line of Tromsøya’s southern tip. Too mighty the storm, too sharp the rocky cliffs, too high the enormous waves! I was forced to row the last mile in a wooden dinghy. When I approached land I realised that despite of months of planning I was without food! Would I survive? Well, the tour must start, with or without provisions. One has to go on in live.
The land was wild and it was hard to find the entry point of my expedition. Where is Sydspissen, the Southern tipp? With my extraordinary orientation skills I finally managed to find this unexplored promontory which would be the starting point for my crossing.
I followed the coastal line through a field of invincible rocks. The storm howled and the surge of waves covered everything in spray. I decided to leave the exposed coast and seek shelter in the inland. To my surprise I found some ancient dwellings.
It seemed that this hostile island had been inhabited earlier. What a discovery! I continued my way and realised that I was not alone. People still seemed to live here. While most of the indigenes hid inside some dared to be outside, guarded by their dogs. The houses were shocking. While the people seemed to have some basic skills in woodcraft, they still lacked the knowledge of constructing right angles.
I continued my way through the forbidding terrain. After a while it opened and gave view to an extent of ice. Could it be a lake? Probably it had been frozen for centuries. Here I spotted more locals. As the others before they ignored me. Didn’t they dare to seek contact? I do not know. First I though they would hunt seal or walrus but they just seemed to wander around without any goal.
Soon I was alone again in the rough mountain scape of this arctic island. Orientation was extremely difficult. Without my compass and sextant I probably would have been lost forever in this pathless country. I was completely on my own.
The terrain descended and gave view to a strange installation. Scaffoldings pointing up to the sky were erected randomly on that slope. Was is temples or other places of worship? Who build them? When? And why? Probably one never will find out.
Since I lost my food I was forced to continue my expedition. Time was precious. The land was bleak and barren. No trees, no bushes, nothing. Maybe some moss seeking shelter between the stone could survive under the eternal snow. For other plants this place is too hostile.
The mountains became even higher and I got view on a small coastal village, probably abandoned ages ago. One wooden house lay nearby but it lacked a door and most of the walls.
I looked for walkable paths that would lead me further north. The more north I came the more glaciers covered the land.
It started to get dark but without food I did not dare to seek shelter. I was forced to go on and on without any rest. Amidst the mountains I spotted two indigenes. They sat on some kind of toboggan well clad in furs to keep them warm in the harsh sub-zero climate. I did not dare to disturb them and only managed to get a blurred photo as a proof of my observations.
According to my positional measurements the northern tipp of Tromsøya could not be far. I had survived until now. Would I make it to Nordspissen, the northern tip?
Alas – after more efforts and privations I managed to reach Nordspissen. I was grateful that fate allowed me to be the first human who reached this remote spot on foot. To my big surprise the legend was true: There is a mystic monument at Tromsøya’s northern tip and I can prove it:
But my efforts were in vain. I was too late! The last ship of the season just had passed by. Now I was forced to live here on this remote and solitary polar island for another year. But that’s daily routine for tough explorers like me.
Today I was too lazy to hike up a mountain. So I packed warm clothes and camera equipment and the car to the mainland. There I took the cable car Fjellheisen. From the mountain station I walked up the nearest top Fløya. Not a lot of snow there but the temperature of -12 °C (and of course the wind) made it feel quite wintry.
Some photos:
Thanks to a phone conversation with my wife Annika I was wandering around the apartment in Tromsø. I watched Orion rise behind the mountains and a faint something above. The something was a weak polar light. Within short time the aurora intensified and while I was walking to the shore I could see it moving over the whole celestial sphere. When I arrived at the shore some minutes later it already had weakened a lot (so typical!) and the violet parts were gone. Anyhow it was still a beautiful polar light worth being photographed.