And suddenly it looks wintry again in Tromsø. About 30 cm of snow fell in the last two days. Yesterday I walked home from work, today I took the skies.
It is so much fun to ski through the wintry forests on the top of the island Tromsøya even when the snow is as warm and sticky as today.
Annika and I are in Obbola, my “home home”. In the morning we get visitors. Three deer stand in our garden – always alert. Are they happy, that much of the snow is gone?
In my lunch break I am kayaking round the island Bredskär. That’s just 3 km. There is still some ice round the rocks at the shore, but much snow and ice has melted away the last weeks. What a warm winter.
Annika and I take the car to Tromsø. We will make a stopover in Jokkmokk, because the total distance is almost 1000 km. Hejdå home home!
In warm and sunny weather we head northwards to Piteå and then northwest to Jokkmokk. Now we are north of the Polar Circle.
In Jokkmokk we meet a good friend and take a walk round the lake Talvatissjön. Around the sun a halo appears .
After a good sleep in the hostel Åsgård Annika and I continue our car trip. Gällivare, Kiruna, Abisko. Torneträsk – the 6th largest lake in Sweden – is still completely frozen. Good for recreation such as skiing.
Parts of the road were closed some days ago. You can still see some remains of the snow storm.
Some weeks ago it would have been impossible to drive from Jokkmokk to Tromsø in daylight. Anyhow two days ago astronomical spring has started and the days are as long as everywhere. After hours of driving the sun is low but visible. It illuminates the beautiful clouds. And then we arrive at our apartment in Tromsø, my “work home”.
On Sunday the weather gets nasty. Max temperature: +9 °C and wind gusts up to 23.5 m/s. Annika and I take a promenade anyhow. With spiked shoes because some of the ways are just bare, wet ice and the friction is next to zero. We arrive at home before the rain. Good luck.
On my way to work I spot the first spring flowers in front of the Tromsø Cathedral. I could believe in spring …
… but do know the forecast and it is correct: Snow, snow, snow on the next day. So it looks like in the morning outside of the apartment …
… and so in the afternoon, when I walked home.
So we did not solely travelled between countries but also between seasons. Anyhow I hope for some more winter days (or weeks), before my seasonal clock will jump to spring mode. Perhaps in mid-May?
No paddling today. The reason, why? Strong winds and rough sea with breaking waves.
The wind blew onshore, carrying the sea spray several metres inland. Normally spray is liquid, but today it consisted mostly of peaces of crushed ice. Ice from floes that the waves had been crushing into smithereens. So yes – ice can fly, at least a few metres.
A result of these conditions was the ice wall you can see in the front of some of the photos. It was built today and was up to one metre high.
So as I said, no paddling today and no winter bath either.
It’s less the temperature than the wind who makes the sea ice on the Baltic Sea vanish. Although we had -10 °C this morning the sea was more or less open. Time for a slightly longer kayak tour in the afternoon under a blue sky enjoying the calm weather.
But still there is some ice shield attached to the coast. As the days before I push myself forward using ice spikes.
First the ice holds then I crash through. It takes me 10 minutes to cross 100 metres of ice until I reach open water. Yay!
I decide to paddle round the islands Obbolstenarna. There is hardly any ice left on the way there but at the eastern shore it still looks pretty wintry.
The western part of Obbolstenarna however looks like another season. Is winter over now? Anyhow, time to kayak home.
If you look carefully at the photo with the red bow of my kayak you see that the water is very smooth but with some crystal like structures. Let’s take a close look:
Despite of the sun air temperature is still below zero. Not only the sea water on the kayak freezes but new ice is also formed on the water surface. It is thin and fragile but so soft, that the smooth waves do not break it. An even closer photo (heavily edited):
Through this smooth though icy water I paddle back until I reach the ice edge again. I choose another place, take a run-up and paddle onto the ice. I’m lucky. This ice is more stable and I do not break through. I slide back to the shore. Meanwhile the sun is already low. I was slower than planned, because it took some time to take all these photos.
Two days ago Annika and I returned from our Finnmark and Finland journey. Just north of Umeå there was a low layer of strange clouds. Any of you who knows what kind of clouds this is?
We are back home in Obbola in Sweden. The sky is clear and blue. In wintertime this often means that it can be pretty cold outside. Instead we had up to +8 or +9 °C. What a strange winter.
The wind is strong. The waves have already crushed the ice floes. In the afternoon the floating ice has been blown away into the open sea.
There is still some snow around but parts of the ground is free of snow. That‘s early for the season. And so is the arrival of the first whooper swans.
The wind has calmed down and so have the waves. Time to fetch the kayak from the garage and open the kayak season. While there was not much of ice left at the shores of Obbola and the island Bredskär there was another highlight today: A 360°C halo round the sun.
It looks like we expect colder temperatures, sun and calm weather. I hope, I have more opportunities to do some kayaking.
This article is part of the series “2025-02: Finnmark”.
After days of car driving through the Norwegian Finnmark we crossed borders to Finland two days ago. Yesterday we arrived in Saariselkä in the northernmost Finnish region “Lapland”. Saariselkä is a popular tourist destination, especially for cross-country skiers. So we decided to make a cross-country ski tour today despite of the grey and dull weather that the weather forecast showed us for the region.
After breakfast we took our skies, walked to the tent-like starting point and started skiing. Oh my – after using the broader “fjellski” a lot the thin cross-country skis felt like skiing on matches! I had some difficulties and blamed myself but then realised, that beside of my stiffness one of the skins – permanently glued to the ski – started to peel off. We abandoned the tour in hope to find someone that can fix this. So the first ski tour was just 1.17 km – yay!
We were extremely lucky. We soon found a ski rental and got the problem fixed within a minute. The employee even refused getting paid. Kiitos paljon! So – back to the starting point.
Meanwhile the weather that had been ignoring the forecast as usual started clearing up. Temperatures were around -8 to -9 °C and it was calm. Perfect skiing conditions, if you ask me. This time I felt a bit more comfortable.
We unmounted our skis at a short but uncomfortably steep passage, where the trail crossed a stream in a small valley. Last night’s fog had added rime to the snowy trees.
After this short obstacle the trail got easier and was extremely pleasant to ski on. Plus, the trail was perfectly prepared and the sky cleared up more and more. But let the photos speak for themselves:
Was it as empty as on the photos? Almost. There were a few other skiers, but not many.
After about 7 km we reached the first cabin – Rumakuru Päivätupa. We took just a short break and decided to continue to the next cabin – Luulampi, taking a break there. We passed Rumakuru Vanhatupa and after 4 km we arrived at the large cabin Luulampi.
My dreams of eating cake in the cabin were destroyed. The café was closed. So we skied to the small hut nearby were we took a lunch break. Annika grilled sausages in the fire, while I ate two Karelian pirogs. Then we shared some biscuits.
And then? Taking the more advanced ski trail that climbs at least 150 other metres, leading to the road and then hoping for a bus or a lift? Or just taking the same way back? We chose the latter.
As usual I took much less photos on the way back. One of the reasons: it had become cloudy and the sun had vanished. Now the landscape was more monochrome, but still very beautiful.
We passed the other cabins again, and again we unmounted our skis at the steep descend and ascend. And then, after some more descends we were back in town. Here there are a lot of people, that do not ski and you have to remind them, that ski tracks are – well – ski tracks and not open for pedestrians, cyclists or snowshoers. Mostly it helps …
I tracked today’s tour. The second and real tour was 21.95 km, which adds up to a total of a bit more than 23 km on cross-country skis. I guess, Annika and I will feel our muscles tomorrow. I feel them already now.
This was one of the finest cross-country ski tours I’ve made in the last years. Thank you, Annika for the tour!
Finally it got more wintry the last days and especially today it snowed quite a lot. After work I took the bus to the lake Prestvannet where Annika and I met. From there we skied most of the way home and then walked the rest in the streets.
The skiing took quite some time because snow was warm and so sticky that it glued itself to the skis in thick layers again and again. Anyhow we enjoyed being outdoors and sharing this winter afternoon. It was the very first time that I used skis to get home after my work at the Norwegian Polar Institute, but definitely not the last time.
At home another outdoor activity awaited me: clearing snow in front of my apartment. 25 cm of fresh snow had fallen – surprisingly fluffy for the warm temperatures. Of course the snowplough passed after I had finished. Well, I’ll do that tomorrow …
This night more snow will come but then according to the forecast it will turn more and more into sleet and rain, because another warm period awaits us. Strange winter this year.
If you are like me and love white winters with a lot of snow and clear sky – stop reading. The weather in Tromsø the last weeks was mostly miserable. We had hardly any frost days and most precipitation came as rain. A lot of rain. And it was windy. Yes, we had winds.
There is still round about 45 cm of snow, but it is wet, icy and has a lot of holes. It’s ugly and hard to walk on.
So it looked like today when I was walking home from the bus stop Prestvannet:
Luckily it looks like that a colder period starts tomorrow and we even may get some fresh snow until the end of the week.
It was so beautiful in the weekend when Tromsø got half a metre of fresh snow. Already on Monday it got warm and it started raining. Since then it has been above zero with a lot of rain of all kinds. Drizzle, steady rain, downpour. Snow became sleet, the roads and footpaths became very icy and roof avalanches tried to hit my car with wet snow.
While it continued raining first the larger roads became free of ice and snow and then even many smaller ones. More than half of the snow has melted away. What a shame! Anyhow, if yr is correct we get new snow on Sunday and colder weather next week. That would be much appreciated by a winter lover like me.
| Date | Snow depth at 0:00 CET | Rain fall |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-01-13 | 124.0 cm | 26.7 mm |
| 2025-01-14 | 94.8 cm | 23.0 mm |
| 2025-01-15 | 88.6 cm | 0.2 mm |
| 2025-01-16 | 72.5 cm | 34.9 mm |
| 2025-01-17 | 64.1 cm | 13.9 mm |
| 2025-01-18 | 55.0 cm |
(Source: www.yr.no/nb/historikk/graf/5-90450)
When I woke up this morning another 20 cm of snow have fallen within the last 12 hours. Looking out of the living room window and through the glass door of a balcony showed snowy landscapes amidst the town of Tromsø.
At half past nine I start a ski tour, right from my place in Tromsø. My photo task for today: show at least a human artefact on each photo, not only snowy trees.
The snowploughs haven’t been there so I can ski on the streets.
The gravel road to the ski jump is covered with snow, but the cross-country skiing trail has already been prepared. I however want to ski off the beaten tracks. I follow a snow covered trail to the pond and take some photos. That takes a bit of time because the light is so dim that I use a tripod. Remember: we still have polar night for some days.
Then I leave the trail. I immediately sink into the fresh snow up to my knees – with my skis on. And so it continues. The skis are under half a metre of loose snow and sometimes I sink deeper with each step. My ski poles sometime sink in the whole way despite the large snow baskets. That makes skiing pretty exhausting. I follow a snow-covered stream that leads my to a jagged terrain with small but deep gullies. Some of them are three metres deep and impossible to cross for me. Where am I? Is this still Tromsøya? I zigzag through the hilly and snowy forest looking for possibilities to cross the gullies which involves pulling myself forward by grabbing trees. But at the same time it is marvellous to ski through the “wilderness” and I have it all to myself.
After a while I reach another path, also deep in snow. But at least I sink in only 20-30 cm into the snow now and I’m glad that I can just ski along.
The way leads up and down and ends on the main cross-country skiing trail that seems to be prepared permanently. I step aside to make way for the oncoming snow plough. I take a photo but the lens is a bit fogged up. It is only -1 °C and everything is damp.
I follow the trail north until I come to the steep slope where I chicken out – as usual. Too steep for me. I go back and make my way to the barbecue place with the nice view on the district Hamna. No foot steps, I’m first today :-)
For a short while I follow the trail, then I turn right and take a trail to Skihytta. That’s a cabin that occasionally serves hot chocolate and cake on Sundays. Will it be open? First the trail is well prepared but then I am in fresh snow again and on the ascending passages I have a pulse like a hummingbird. Step by step and with some short rests I make progress and after a while my “private” path meets another trail that leads to Skihytta. Hooray! There it is.
Unfortunately the cabin is closed. But the good thing is: from here it’s only 700 metres to my apartment. First I ski down through the forest, then I unmount my skis because all the streets have been cleared from snow in the meanwhile.
It was only round six kilometres skiing today, but it took me almost three hours, mostly due to the tiring snow conditions and the time-consuming crossing of some gullies. But taking photos with a tripod slowed me down as well.
Note 1: This was not my only workout today. In the afternoon I had to clear another 20–30 cm snow of my parking lot, that I already had cleared yesterday. Then I helped my neighbours a bit. This was a task I had to do today, because …
Note 2: The weekend brought almost half a metre of snow but now the weather will become extremely ugly. Tomorrow it will rain almost 30 mm and in the rest of the week another 60 mm of rain are expected. So I wanted to get rid of the snow before it gets soaked by that rain.
Thank you for the snow, weekend. I really appreciate it. What a pity that we now get a period of rain and thaw.