Tromsdalstinden

Today was definitely an adventure. The day’s agenda began with Callie, Holly from Canada, Leonard from Belgium, and I meeting at 8:30am to begin our day of hiking. Once at my place, we realized the bus system didn’t even start running until 9am which was logical since it was Sunday. On Sundays basically everything is closed in Tromsø except a few gas stations here and there. Therefore, with everything closed, we thought it’d be a good day for outdoor hiking.

Once on the bus we went to the city center to get on another bus route. We boarded our next bus. While on the bus we soon realized we were on the right bus route number, but were heading in the wrong direction. This meant that we ended up at a bus station out by the airport on the other side of the island. At the bus station we huddled on a bench for an hour while we waited for the correct bus. At 11:30am we finally arrived at our destination. We could begin our trek.

It is important to note right now that Callie, Holly, and I had intended to climb the “Cable Car” mountain called Big Stone. It was a mountain right along the shore on the mainland and you can either ride the cable car up its side or hike. On the bus ride and the beginning portion of our hike, we kept repeating that we were excited to climb the “Cable Car” mountain.

Anyways, since we arrived to the starting point later than anticipated, we ended up starting the hike at the same time as 80 medical students from the university. We wanted to do the hike as a small group of 4 versus 80, but a benefit from the situation is that if one of us gets hurt, we have plenty of future doctors there to help.

The beginning of the hike went well, however, after the first hour the incline increased dramatically. At this point, Holly who was still sick decided to turn back. We had agreed to meet up with her in the city when we were done. We continued our hike, stopping frequently to catch our breath and relax.

  

Tromsdalstinden summit; look close, you can see small people 



After about the third hour of climbing, I looked around and noticed something important: we were on the back side of the “Cable Car” mountain. This meant that we were clearly not climbing it. Instead, we were about to conquer the highest peak in the area, Tromsdalstinden. Tromsodalstinden’s summit is at 1,238 meters. I wish Leonard would have corrected us since this climb requires more mental preparation than I had planned for. Looking back on the day it was funny, but at the time I had no clue what I was getting myself into.

Taking a break to do snow angels!

Towards the top the climb became very steep. My thighs and calves were burning as I continued to climb over bare rocks. I avoided looking down because it was so steep. I also avoided looking up because I didn’t want to look at how much further I had to climb. I only looked at the path in front of me, which was the safest option since I didn’t want to slip and hurt myself.

Finally, after four hours we reached the summit. The views from the top were splendid. You could see far into the distance in all directions because the sky was so clear. Yesterday Leonard had climbed this same mountain, but it was so cloudy he couldn’t see anything. Even though he’s crazy for climbing Tromsdalstinden two days in a row, Leonard enjoyed seeing the beautiful scenery. We were very grateful he accompanied us since he was basically our tour guide. Leonard is studying geology so he loved the opportunity to guide us.

Me on the summit of Tromsdalstinden

Once we had taken in as much as we could before catching a cold, we started our trek down the mountain. Leonard guided us towards a more gradual route down the mountain since going back the way we came would be too dangerous. The two hour journey down the mountain put a lot of strain on my knees. It was nice to finally reach the bottom and walk straight, neither up nor down an incline.

Panorama view on top of Tromsdalstinden

Once I had arrived back home, I was exhausted. I skyped my family and then headed to bed. Have a long second week of school ahead of me.