Skiing Norway, Part 2

Let's take a little time machine back to May . . .

After our 16-day ski touring road trip through Western Norway (plus a few days in Oslo) in early May, Kristin and I flew to Tromso, which lies well into Arctic Circle, even further north than Murmansk, Russia.

After two days of skiing with some new friends, Kristin and I rented car for two weeks. We lived out of the car (a late 1990's Honda Civic) and camped every night. 

We hiked every day, even the ski days, because the snow level was a few hundred meters above sea level.

We climbed some mountains.  

 We found some good snow and wonderful views. 

 We tried our best to stay healthy and warm, if not comfortable. This is supposed to be summer after all.

 This may not surprise you, but we climbed a mountain on the third anniversary of when we first started dating. It was a gorgeous route that crossed over a high lake-filled plateau and then skirted around a huge, smooth glacier (directly behind us in the photo). It was perhaps the most beautiful ski tour we did in Europe. And, it was a route that we tried that day before but turned around early because of weather. It was a meaningful summit, to return again and succeed, and to celebrate our love.

The year prior, we had climbed Peru's Mt. Chachani (6075 meters/ 19,931 feet) and hated it. Why? Because we walked up AND down, and wondered why the hell anyone would do that when you can SKI down!!! So here we were, one year later, having obviously learned our lesson.

And finally, we went to our most northernly point in our world journey, one tip of the Lyngen Peninsula. Here we camped near the beach and watched the sun tease the horizon. It was the season of the midnight sun. In our 2.5 weeks up north, the sun never set. This photo was taken at 1am and unfortunately, the sun is obscured by the clouds. However, the beauty is quite clear.