Norway: Nordfjellet

[jmarkb]

Day 8 of our holiday in Tromsø. Today the mainland hills were in cloud, but Ringvassøya, the next island to the north (connected to Kvaløya by a tunnel) looked a bit brighter. We parked just by the bridge over the Sandelva river, and once again failed to find the start of the path! We pressed ahead into the woods regardless and after a hundred metres found the path next to a pylon. This made the going a bit easier, though it gradually became harder to follow as we gained height, and faded out completely after 1/2 km or so. Saw a bluethroat perched in a tree and a willow grouse doing its "broken wing" act: it must have had a nest or chicks nearby.

Once out of the trees a bit of steep ground brought us to a small lake, then a steady climb up grassy hillside (with lots of lovely flowers) towards Glimfjellet. From here the way ahead looked much stonier, and what appeared to be an easier line just turned out to be darker coloured boulders! Fortunately we were able to link a series of snow patches which avoided most of the boulders. Higher up the ridge became more defined, with the remains of some huge cornices still overhanging the steep right hand side. A final pull up broader snow slopes took us to the summit cairn, perched close to a very steep drop overlooking a minature glacier.

Route map

Online map

Waterfall near the start


The small lake


A monster cornice


The final part of the ridge



On the summit

[ChrisW]

The more I see of these Norwegian report from you jmarkb, the more I think I need to get back to see our friends in Stavanger and make use of their hutte really beautiful scenery in every direction again, still a lot of snow around too

[jmarkb]

There was rather more snow than I was expecting: a bit of a mixed blessing, as in places it covered up some nasty boulder fields, but elsewhere made scrambly terrain trickier!