Best holiday ever!
This was A BIG TRIP and I have to say it was probably best holiday in my life! Whole trip was influenced by several very nice circumstances but I am going to write about them later. Me, Julian and Line made a decision that we would like to (we need to) go skiing to Troms county. We’ve plan our trip several days before we left. Our plan was to stay in town of Birtavarre, do some ski-touring there and in the Lyngen Alps. Line’s plan was to leave back home on Tuesday and me and Julian stay there until Saturday with Julian’s friends from Germany who were supposed to come on Wednesday. The reality was quite different.
Wednesday 16/3
Tromsø is 2100 km far from Kristiansand so best choice how to get there was definitely by car. We left our dorms at 2am. First stage of our journey was around coastline to Oslo (again!!!) than we took the north direction and crossed Swedish borders nearby city of Stöten. We’ve stopped after few kilometres in Sweden in “beautiful” city called Särna. We had a breakfast there and found out that there is literally nothing in the city. Then we continued with our Journey. We found Sweden pretty flat. We didn’t realized but we’ve entered a forest at seven o’clock morning and left the same forest next day at four o’clock in the afternoon. We saw several features on the way which made our day interesting, for example car accident caused by moose and eighteen reindeers walking on the road. We’ve finished our driving at 6pm at the village called Meselefors in the middle of nowhere. We’ve slept there in rented room and had a nice rest.
Thursday 17/3
We’ve started again at 6am. We were all the way really nervous because of the elks possibly crossing the road. We’ve entered Finland around 3pm (Yes! We were in Finland) and nice weather welcomed us. We made it back to Norway around 5pm. The weather there was totally terrible. It was a snowstorm. When we arrived to our camp in Birtavarre we went directly to the bed.
Friday 18/3 – 1st positive circumstance
We woke up to the snowstorm. When we looked out we found out that there is not that much snow on the surrounding mountains and that they are quite rocky. At that moment Line told us that she has a friend who is studying in Tromsø and that she lives in the house for 8 people and she is alone there for Easter. After our 5 minutes silent amazement ended, we started packing our stuff and load it back to the car during snowstorm. It was another 150 km of driving to Tromsø but never mind, it was nothing compare to previous two days. We found the city beautiful, like pearl of the North. We also found out that streets in the city are pretty steep and my car with front wheel drive and equipped with tyres without spikes was kind of useless there. Line’s friend Josephine was very nice.
Saturday 19/3 – Nordfjellet
First skiing. Me, Julian, Line and her friend Josephine went for ski-touring to the peak called Nordfjellet. We had a guide book with us and knew which way we should take to the top. Line is quite unexperienced ski-tourer and it was a first time ski-touring for her friend. All this made our pace very slow. Nevertheless I was just amazed by the nature. THE NATURE. I’ve got no words for what I’ve seen there. I mean there are no words which I can use for describing it. You have to see it. Everybody should. Anyway, we didn’t make it to the top because of the weather change just underneath the top and also because of the Josephine’s skills. The descent was quite flat but still super fun and I was so happy to ski there. In the evening, Julian got message from his back-home friend that there is his friend in Tromsø studying and also with skiing experience. We met this guy and his other friends in one pub in the city centre and made plans for Sunday. We’ve chosen famous peak Tromsdaltinden. There was one Norwegian called Finn who was supposed to come with us for this trip. It was his birthday on Sunday.
Sunday 20/3 – Tromsdaltinden
We all met at parking lot on the bottom of the massif. There was me, Julian, Line, Finn, Gabriel (German guy studying there) and Max (friend of Gabriel visiting him there). We’ve started ascent at 10am. First part in the forest was pretty steep and guys took quite fast pace. Line had a crisis. We had to stop, have some snacks and adjust the pace. We’ve continued for about one hour to the start of the steep slopes on the mountain. We’ve stopped there, had a lunch and made a snow test. We found out that there is about 3 meters of snow and the layers are pretty stable. There wasn’t real danger on the slope we’d like to descent. We made it to the top at 1pm. The view was again awesome. The surface just underneath the top was very icy so some guys used crampons. It wasn’t really necessary. Because Line was quite struggling with descent on that surface, we made something like safe spots for her. We made a queue (each guy 30 meters from the other guy) so we were sure that there is all the time somebody who could help her. When we passed this part, skiing paradise became, one kilometre of awesome steep slope with virgin powder. Then some nice cornice suitable for drops came. And forest riding at the end? You have to ski good or eat wood. Perfect weather, Perfect day!
Monday 21/3 – Gråtinden
Line’s last ski-touring was at Kvaløya about half hour drive from Tromsø. The weather was again perfect. When we reached the range the clouds came and we were in total white out. We had to be very careful and use a compass for navigation. The weather again changed when we got to the top. Sun came up and I’ve realized how beautiful the surrounding nature is. We picked super steep slope for descent. The top of the slope was very icy but after about hundred metres the thick powder layer appeared. Oh my god, how fast I was skiing down? I was just flowing amazingly in the snow. We finished our skiing just at the coastline. The only thing which we could do was put off our clothes and go to the fjord. Terribly cold but awesome!
Tuesday 22/3 – Day off
Line left Tromsø and we had to move out of our house. We’ve spent some time in the city and then we went to local ski jump area and built a tent there. Did I wrote that we were camping in local ski jump are? Yes! So we had to try out some of these jumps! What a fun to jump on hill-size 40. Very scary but super safe, super fun and probably super forbidden. Night in the tent was nice but very wet because of the condensation.
Wednesday 23/3 – Ski good or eat wood
The weather forecast for Wednesday wasn’t good and the visibility was very poor so we made a decision to pick some nice forest and skied there. We’ve picked the area around Tromsdaltinden. Skiing there was pretty nice even though it was snowing pretty hard. We made to ascents and to descents that day. Afterwards we went nearby airport to welcome Julian’s German friends.
Thursday 24/3 – Blåtinden
First trip with Germans. I forgot to write that Julian is member of skiing crew and these guys are the others from his skiing crew. Level of skiing rapidly rose. We’ve picked the mountain called Blåtinden. We were again very lucky with weather and we made it to the top in about 3 hours. The ascent was awesome. We could see the fjord all the way down. I’ve picked nice steep line and made some good turns there. Philip, one of the German guys took totally insane steep line between rocks and over some huge cliffs. What an experience to watch him skiing.
Friday 25/3 – Storsteinestinden
Final tour – the best tour. The way up was quite long and steep but nice. The view on the top? Open sea, mountains, snow, mountains, water, mountains, mountains, me and my friends – unbelievable. We jumped some nice cliffs on the way down and made our last day there perfect. Because of the warm front coming we decided to leave in the evening. We decided to take a Baltic way this time. We were driving in the snowstorm again but we made it on the Baltic coastline before midnight. Then we slept a bit in the car.
Saturday 26/3
All day driving back to Kristiansand. It wasn’t that bad as we expected. It was quite a lot of fun on the way. We arrived on Sunday at 1am, totally wasted but happy.
I am so glad that we made this trip. We were so lucky with the weather and people who we met there. It was definitely best skiing in my life. Not because of the perfect slopes. Because of the atmosphere in Troms. Because of the nature. It was just AWESOME!
