After catching up on some much needed sleep on Saturday, we ate a very late breakfast before setting our sights for Tromso’s iconic local mountain–Tromsdaltinden–which is featured in the photo below. Looming large approx. 4,000 feet above this Arctic island town, Tromsdaltinden was impossible to resist. And at the crack of 2:30 p.m. (got a nearly 24-hour daylight!) after a short bike ride to the edge of town, we were on our skis.
The nearly 4,000 foot climb landed us on the summit around 6 p.m. On our way up the approaching valley, we encountered dozens of local Norwegians–most on skinny skis, many ski-joring with dogs, some skiing in family groups, and a few pushing 70-80 years–sliding home after a day on and around the mountain. Higher up, views from the summit ridge toward the slightly higher mountains of the Lyngen Alps held us in a trance. Impossibly steep peaks dotted the horizon. Small glaciers filled their valleys. In other directions, we spotted distant fjords, a few small towns and the highland Swedish-Finnish border region–and far below, we could almost make out our bikes.
The ski was a classic, multi-pitch descent that was highlighted by boot-deep powder! Off the summit and some relatively steep turns down a very aesthetic chute below an ice strewn sub-peak set aglow by the evening sun. Back in the valley, we passed a beautiful mountain hut, skied some gentle birch glades, and whizzed along a groomed nordic track before finishing off the day with a two-mile coast on our bikes back to Tromso. The sun was still shining bright behind the distant, Teton-like peaks on the northwest horizon–our destination for the coming days…
(<em>Photo: Courtesy Wikipedia/Creative Commons – Click to Enlarge)</em>
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