Bergen #1 - Ulriken

Although I do miss the nice spring skiing in Tromsø, it is also very nice to be in Bergen, where it is already fully green; there are lots of flowers and it is quite a bit warmer than Tromsø where our garden is still partially covered in snow. The last 3 days it has been particularly warm in Bergen, 20-23 degrees C, so on the weekend I just had to go for a longer walk and decided to head up Ulriken. Lots of people had the same idea and there was a steady flow of people on most of the trails on the mountain. I expect that Fløyen (the closest mountain to the centre of Bergen) probably resembled an ant hill this weekend. But it is good to see that so many people are enjoying themselves with non-motorised activities outside.

Route up Ulriken

Looking towards Ulriken

Spring flowers in the forest

A steady flow of people walking up Ulriken; it is good to see so many people walking rather than taking the cable car

View from the cable car station down towards the centre of Bergen

View to the southwest; I am surprised to see so many huts and ruins all over this mountain

And a different route down a beautiful steep valley, not many people here

Last skiing of the season?

This was probably the last ski trip of the season, a beautiful trip up Glimfjellet on Ringvassøya. Warm spring weather, and nice spring snow.

Jukkasjärvi and dogsledding

Freek and Ellen came up to Tromsø for a week of Arctic experience: ice, snow, northern lights, sleddogs, Sami culture, and to celebrate my birthday in the ice hotel in Jukkasjärvi. We first drove through Finland to Kautokeino to stay in an old hut at the Sami Čunouvuohppi fjellstue near Kautokeino with traditional Sami food. Fortunately for our guests, it was a cold and clear night with good displays of northern lights. The next day we drove to Jukkasjärvi in northern Sweden to stay a night in the ice hotel and enjoy a good birthday dinner. Everything around the ice hotel is very touristic and expensive so we booked a dogsledding trip from a small husky kennel in Holmajärvi (http://www.huskysafari.com) southwest of Kiruna. This turned out to be an excellent choice; we got a private trip, we all got to help with harnessing the dogs and preparing the sleds, we drove our own dogteams and guide Niclas cooked us a nice lunch and coffee. We had already noticed the road signs saying that the road to Norway was closed after Björkliden because of snowstorms. We had, however, already booked a hut at Björkliden, and as the road was open up to there we tried to get there. We got into a blizzard with visibility less than 50 m for the last 40 km or so, so the drive took a bit longer than expected, but we got there safely. The last 2 days were supposed to be high up in the mountains in the beautiful mountain lodge Låktatjåkko with great views towards Abisko, Lapporten, Torneträsk and towards Narvik. The lodge was indeed very nice and the food excellent, but although the weather in Björkliden had cleared up, there was still a blizzard up in the mountains. So instead of skiing/snowshoeing up the local hills and enjoying the views, we had a lazy time inside reading, playing memory and eating waffles. Freek en Ellen then took the train back to Stockholm and we still had half a day skiing at Björkliden before driving back to Tromsø. Here are some photos:

 the 'bubble' room

guarded by polar bears

watch out for the fish hook

sleeping in a refrigerator

arty ice room

ice church

ice bar

our snow room

dogsledding with Freek driving the sled in front of us

coffee and lunch break

we saw quite a few moose along the road to Nikkaluokta

lots of new snow in the 5 days we were away

Walking to work

It has been a very good winter so far with continuous cold temperatures and snow since October. The official snow depth is currently 91 cm. It is a very nice walk from our new house in Hamna to the university. The walk goes through quiet streets, along the skiløype and walking tracks through the forest, and it takes me around 40 minutes. On the way home I walk straight north and the dark walking tracks are great for watching northern lights. Last week I brought a camera along to document my daily walk.

The snow around the house is up to the windows

I have to go over the island, so first I walk up through Hamna to the start of the skiløype, this is the view to the west from the top of Hamna

A few hundred meters along the skiløype

Then a well used walking track

Around Langvannet

Past the Arctic animal research farm and a kindergarten on the edge of the campus

And, finally, over the bridge to the natural science building with a good view towards Tromsdalstinden

Skamtinden - July 2010

We are still in the middle of the winter and the sun won't come up for another week, but sorting through my photos from last year I came across these ones from a beautiful trip up Skamtinden on one of the few warm sunny days we had last summer. So a brief green break from all the snow and ice photos....

Skamtinden is ca 1 hour drive west of Tromsø on Kvaløya. Start of the hike.

The view from Skamtinden is just stunning. Here looking east along Ersforden with Tromsø in the far distance.

Looking west towards Håja and the open ocean.

And looking north.

Mørketid

During the mørketid we basically have 3-4 hour long 'sunsets' and we can therefore get some very colourful skies during mørketid. Here some photos from a very cold day when strong winds at high altitudes resulted in lenticular cloud patterns.

Lenticular clouds formed by strong winds at high altitude

You can see the snow blowing of the tops of the mountains

Altocumulus lenticularis

Christmas in Heiahytte

The geology department and the former biology department own a hut together. This hut, Heiahytte, is located next to Takvatnet, a large lake about 1.5 hours drive south from Tromsø. We had a short 3-day Christmas break here, a break from moving house, cleaning, and painting. We spent Christmas here a few years ago as well, that time with rain and little snow. This year it was beautiful, nice cold weather, some 40 cm snow, and clear enough to watch the northern lights one evening. 

Heiahytte

We brought only snowshoes this year. I find snowshoes easier for trips in the dark and in this time of the year you inevitably end up being outside in the dark, watching northern lights for example.

Tony snowshoeing up the hill across the lake from the hut

One evening we walked out on the lake to watch for northern lights and we noticed all these fantastic ice formations along the rocky coast. The next day we went for a walk along the coast in daylight to have a better look at the ice structures. There must have been strong winds blowing up water from the lake before it got frozen, or maybe rain on already frozen ground/rocks.

Takvatnet, with mountains in Inner Troms in the distance

Tony inspecting some of the ice formations

Colourful lichen on frozen rock

Massive icicles, about 2 m tall, underneath an overhanging cliff

Close up of the frozen roof from the overhanging cliff above