Norway: Tromsdalstinden

[jmarkb]

First day of a fortnight's holiday in Tromsø. Thw weather forecast was a little iffy, so we chose the local classic walk: at least the route finding should be easy! The walk starts just outside the city, at the local shooting range. A good track leads up through the woods in Tromsdal, climbing steadily for about 4km. From the end of a track, a good path led us to a river crossing: the river was in ful lspate with all the snow melt, but there was still a snow bridge across it....

After assessing possible alternatives, we gave the snow bridge a good prodding and gingerly went across! The path carries on upwards, but after a while disappeared under some big snow patches, so we just headed up these and onto the SW ridge. Here we found the path again, though the final section was on snow, and some big cornices over the E face needed a wide berth! Just before the summit we passed a small dog chasing after a skier and a snowboarder, who must have been pretty keen to squeeze one last tour from the season.

From the summit we headed down the NW ridge, which was clear of snow but very stony. We stopped for a chat with three locals coming up, who seemed a bit surprised to meet foreigners. Briefly the cloud came down and it rained a little, but soon cleared up again. A very steep section of path gave way to easier ground and we were soon back down into the birch trees, dodging a few mosquitos and crossing a bridge to regain the outward track.

Route map

Waterfall in Tromsdal


Tromsdaltinden from the end of the track


Further up the path


Looking back at the city


Snow patches


Tverrbotnfjellet


Approaching the summit


Towards Lyngen


River in Tromsdal


Looking back at the summit: our route went up the right-hand skyline and down the left

[Border Reiver]

Enjoyed your report, I love Norway, even though I've only visited a few times by ship. Interesting to see the scenery around Tromso where we'll have a day's visit next June. Any must-see things in or around Tromso that can be done in 6 or 7 hours? Long walks aren't an option as we'll have my slightly older sister in law with us and she's not into our kind of walking.

[jmarkb]

Any must-see things in or around Tromso that can be done in 6 or 7 hours?

There's a cable car which goes up the hillside overlooking the city: http://www.fjellheisen.no/en/
From the top you can walk a bit further up the hill if you want to, and the views are pretty good on a nice day.

The Arctic Cathedral http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Cathedral near the bottom of the cable car is worth a visit too.

[ChrisW]

Great to see a bit of Norway on the site. You certainly went far enough north!!! I've spent time in Kristiansand and Stavanger (and the road in between ) but have never seen that far north but would like to.

I'll bet you were twitching crossing that snow bridge looks a lovely circuit that you hiked, but still plenty of snow around. Enjoyed this, cheers

[jmarkb]

Glad you liked it: I'll be posting a few more as I get the time to write them up! The far north is simply stunning: I've been there a few times now both in winter and summer.

There was certainly a bit more snow than we were expecting: like us they had a cold spring so the melt was a bit late this year.

[litljortindan]

Looks a great route.

[litljortindan]

Looks a great route.