Spring!

The first spring flowers have opened up in the garden, hestehov in Norwegian, or coltsfoot in English.

De eerste voorjaarsbloemen in de tuin, waar de sneeuw net is gesmolten, klein hoefblad.

Finland: skiing in Pallas-Yllästunturi national park

The weather in Tromsø hasn't been the greatest lately so we decided to go to Finland for a few days with Easter to get some sunshine. We packed our camping gear and some food and went skiing in Pallas-Yllästunturi national park in northern Finland. This national park has excellent facilities with many kilometres of groomed ski trails and open wilderness huts. We mostly stayed on the trails as the snow off the trails was so soft now in spring that even with skis we sank ankle to knee deep (nearly waist deep without skis). As we had expected the huts to be busy with Easter we carried a tent with us, but it looked like there were actually very few overnight guests. The huts are nice and well equipped with plenty of wood for heating and gas for cooking, I can highly recommend them.

Het was nat en bewolkt in Tromsø in de paasvakantie, dus we besloten om een paar dagen naar Finland te gaan om de zon op te zoeken. Met de tent en genoeg eten in de rugzak zijn we 4 dagen gaan skien in het nationale park Pallas-Yllästunturi in noord Finland. Dit park heeft uitstekende faciliteiten voor toeristen met vele kilometers met geprepareerde skiløypes en verschillende open hutten. We hebben voornamelijk de løypes gevolgd, want de sneeuw buiten de løypes was zo zacht nu in het voorjaar dat we er ook met skies nog enkel tot kniediep wegzakten. We hadden verwacht dat de hutten vrij druk zouden zijn met pasen, vandaar dat we een tent mee hadden, maar de hutten die we tegenkwamen hadden wel veel dagtoeristen, maar maar weinig gasten die overnachtten. De hutten zijn eenvoudig maar mooi, en goed voorzien van hout voor de kachel en gas om op te koken. Ik kan ze van harte aanbevelen.

Crossing the lake from Enontekiö. A grey and slightly damp start of the trip.

It was raining when we arrived at the first hut and there were no other visitors, so we decided to sleep in the hut that night.

Early start in beautiful weather on day 2.

Lunch stop at the second hut. Quite busy here, with a steady stream of skiers, mostly on day trips.

Sun lighting up the top of a mountain

Well marked trails over the mountains.

Our campsite for the second night.

The third night we camped ca 100 m from an open lavvo, so we could have a campfire in the evening.

Inside the lavvo.

Early morning view from our tent on day 4, nice and sunny again.

Not quite spring yet ...

Last week we thought that spring had arrived, the oystercatchers are back, the magpies are building their nests, the first spring flowers are out along the coast, nice spring skiing conditions in the mountains, the snow was melting, and it felt quite warm in the sun.

Vorige week dachten we dat het voorjaar was begonnen, de scholeksters zijn terug, de eksters zijn druk bezig nesten te bouwen, de eerste voorjaarsbloemetjes staan in bloei langs de kust, voorjaar ski condities in de bergen (zon en zachte sneeuw), de sneeuw rond ons huis is hard aan het smelten en het voelde warm in de zon.

Spring skiing last week

Late evening coastal walk

Today, however, it is clear that winter is not quite ready to let spring take over, and a proper blizzard is battering our house again.Vandaag laat de winter met een flinke sneeuwstorm duidelijk zien dat het nog niet bereid is om het weer aan het voorjaar over te laten.

View from our house this morning

Bird restaurant

We have a very busy restaurant outside our house. It has a self-service buffet and about a dozen trees for outdoor seating. The majority of the visitors behave well, they get their food at the buffet and find a seat in the trees where they can eat it. However, some of the guests prefer to dine at the buffet itself, and sometimes even fall asleep here. This occasionally causes problems for other visitors, because they are blocking the access to the food. 

The great tits are the most common visitors, there are about a dozen of them. They are well-behaved, select their preferred seed and fly to a tree to eat it. 

The willow and blue tits are also regular visitors, but they are in the minority: there is only one willow tit and 2 blue tits. They are also very shy and don't like getting their picture taken. 

Sparrows are some of the less behaved visitors. They are not as agile as the tits and prefer therefore to sit at the buffet and stay there. In the middle of the polar night, the sparrows often sit here for hours during the night. The green finch is a more recent visitor. 

And last but not least, the magpies, of course. They come to clean the floor. 

Austeråsfjellet

We haven't done any bigger trips lately, but here are some photos from some short trips around Tromsø. The first couple of photos were taken on a short Sunday trip up Austeråsfjellet a week ago. Beautiful snow in the valley and forest, but very icy and windy up the top.

A ptarmigan landed here and ran around.

Some nice altocumulus lenticularis clouds.

Tony

Looking towards the Lyngen alps.

Snow getting blown over the ice on the top of Austeråsfjellet.

And a couple of photos of a short walk near Grønnlibruna, on the southeastern point of Kvaløya, a couple of weeks ago.

Tony checking out the ice walls.

I just liked the pine tree.

A reindeer enjoying the sunshine and the view.

Looking towards Tromsø.

Nordtinden

We had fantastic weather in Tromsø today, blue skies and virtually no wind, and since the weather forecast for the next 10 days is terrible (+4˚C and rain) I just had to go out and enjoy the sun while it was here. Nobody else was able to join me, so I decided to do a relaxed snowshoe walk up Nordtinden, on the northwestern side of Kvaløya, which has beautiful views towards the outer islands. I took the snowshoes because I expected icy and windblown snow, but the snow conditions above ca 200 m were better than I expected.

Looking eastwards, back on my track. Lyngen alps in the far distance.

'Selfie' of me and the top cairn on Nordtinden, with Ringvassøya in the background.

View to Vengsøya

A walk into the white - Nonsbu

A Sunday hike to Nonsbu from Tønsvikdalen. After a long cold and dry period, the snow is quite hard or crusty in many places, so we decided to take our snowshoes instead of skis. A good decision as the dull light made it difficult to see any topography in the snow once we were out of the forest. A beautiful trip, and very quiet up in the hills once we turned of the main løype that runs through Tønsvikdalen; we only saw one single skier in the distance.

Een zondag wandeling vanuit Tønsvikdalen naar de hut Nonsbu. Het heeft al wekenlang niet gesneeuwd en het is lang koud geweest, dus de sneeuw die er ligt is grotendeels hard en ijzig. We besloten daarom om sneeuwschoenen mee te nemen in plaats van skies. Het was een mooie en erg rustige tocht; nadat we van de løype door Tønsvikdalen af zijn geslagen richting Nonsbu hebben we alleen maar een skier in de verte gezien.

Nonsbu

Tony in a white landscape

On our way back to Tønsvikdalen with a view towards Kvalsundet, with the islands Kvaløya, on the left, and Ringvassøya, on the right.