Underground and Over Water (Tromsø to Lofoten), Pt. 1: July 5th - July 8th, 2023
We left Tromsø slowly. Definitely were delaying some goodbyes with a long breakfast and more rounds of tea and coffee. Some readers may know that Ben and I tried to rid ourselves of caffeine addiction before we went on this trip. That is out the window at this point. Cristobal is far too good at caffeine preparation between being Chilean and thus maté, being married to a Welsh woman and thus tea, and living in Norway and thus coffee. Leaving Tromsø we had to tackle the big hill to get to the other side of the city...I had to push. My excuse was I saw another guy pushing his bike...so I do what the Norwegians do. We made it out of town without any extra stops and head on our way. The Eurovelo 1 route had some construction on it so we detoured along the coast. We weren't too upset by this change as it removed a lot of elevation gain. We also got to check out some ancient petroglyphs which was pretty neat.
We biked into Brensholmen and wandered around trying to find the trail to the climbing area. We finally found it (it didn't help that the trail started part way down someone's driveway) and started pushing our bikes up a two track....now single track....and ok that's too steep and too many rocks. Time to unload! We ferried our stuff to the camping near the climbing area. It was a lot of work. Never doing that for a single night stay, but this was two nights at a beautiful, secluded beach campsite. A Joker (convenience store) close by completed the amenities - food, free water, and bathrooms!
The next day we climbed at Brensholmen. We found the routes easily enough, and we had already done most of the approach getting to our campsite the night before. Ben started by "showing off" and leading the Norwegian 3+ approach route in his approach shoes. I followed in my trail runners, and kind of regretted it. It put us on a nice platform where we could watch the ferry go back and forth and do some more climbs. I led some easy Norwegian 4 sport routes. Ben did too, and then led the easy trad line to prepare for the harder one in the diedre (dihedral) next door. It was very fun climbing with grippy rock and a lot of features to work with. The ambiance was amazing. All we heard all day were the ocean waves, our shouted commands and the ferry. We headed back to our lovely camp for the evening and Ben decided to make a fire. It was a little small and smokey. I don't know how you would ever gather dry wood here.
The next day we flipped our perspective. We got on the ferry we had been watching and got to see our campsite and the cliffs we had been climbing. The ferry took us to the island of Senja. Where we waited at another Joker for it to open, then enjoyed some bakery items and their wifi. We met a fast biker who was planning on crossing the entire island that day. We were planning on a relatively massive day ourselves - 17.8 kilometers to Ørnfjord. We headed off and actually kept up with fast man for a little bit...and then a hill came and he left us to be devoured by flies. Ben was ahead of me up the hill both of us convinced the hill would end soon and we would leave the flies on the downhill, but the uphill just kept going. We had misinterpreted the map. Ben is swatting and swerving all over the road. I am making pathetic noises as they chomp down on my hands. The sun is blazing and we're both really sweaty. Finally Ben pulls over and we deploy our freshly purchased Mygga Spray. It is only a measly 9% DEET. So it does not give us a bubble of safety like US bug spray does, but it also doesn't make the fingers tingle and it stopped the flies from biting.
We continued up the surprise-to-us hill and head down to a surprise-to-us tunnel. We didn't plan this day very well...what can go wrong in 18 kilometers? After the first tunnel we found the tunnel we expected and escaped right to the old road which we took until we found the Ørnfjord climbing area which is set up at a rock slide which makes it so no cars can go through. But with some "cyclocross" (carrying the bikes over rocks) we can make it through on bikes. Just in front of the rock slide, the local climbing man Bent had made the cutest crag we have ever seen. It had a fire pit surrounded by benches, a suggested showering spot complete with a car rear view mirror, a woodworking area, and viewpoints with benches. Not to even mention! Every single route had a painted square with the name of the route, the difficulty, number of pitches, the length, number of bolts or marked as trad. Amazing.
We set up camp and did not get on the inviting rock climbs as we wanted to hike up Segla Mountain and save the rock for when Ellie and Cristobal were joining us the following day. We biked to the small village of Fjordgård. I think Segla hikers outnumbered residents. Segla means sail and was a waypoint for sailors due to its impressive shape. Since we were hiking on it, we wouldn't really be seeing that shape, but the views of the surrounding mountains were incredible. We started up the hike and it was a troad (Trail + Road). Which led us to a cute hut with a fire pit. I'm sure it gets a lot of use in the winter. We were already baking in the sun so we didn't need a fire. Past this hut the trail begins to braid into social trails fairly quickly. Norwegian trails seem to be more of a suggestion and it generally suggests go straight up. They don't really build or plan trails it is just where people walk and the terrain here wears away quickly so new side trails are created quickly.
Thanks to the training on Lillebaughen, we were making a steady pace up the trail. Though we still got passed by Norwegian grandmas. I hope my knees can handle that kind of trail when I am that age. The first steep part plateaued and we hung out and ate some food before the final boulder hopping, dirt scrabbling ascent. I wanted my helmet for rock fall, even though this is a "family trail" - and we did see plenty of sun burned children and huffing parents making bad vacation memories. Nice views from the top though! You could peer over the west side 2000 feet straight down to the ocean.
We hiked down - well I crab-walked down. And head back to camp. Where Bent the climbing man was there guiding a lady. He had pump up music jams going and his client took a big whipper and ended upside down. Good dinner entertainment.
The next day Ben and I started on a multipitch sport climb. Ellie and Cristobal rolled in as we were starting the rappels. Of course the ropes got stuck, but Ellie and Cristobal set up their tent and got ready to join us when we finally made it down. We paused for lunch. Cristobal taught us how to top pølses (hot dogs) in Norway. Crispy onions are the best! Also that's what Lomper is for! Ben and Critobal got on a multipitch trad line together (Ben led his first Norwegian Trad 6-, but suspects it was not that hard) and Ellie and I did the first pitches of a couple of the sport lines. The first pitches were the good ones and didn't eat ropes. Ellie wasn't feeling great so bowed out while Ben, Cristobal and I got on two more sport routes. The bolting seemed tight from the ground but there were a lot of slabby moves so it was nice when you were up there.
We enjoyed another great meal with friends. And the next morning Cristobal continued feeding our caffeine addiction. We had another slow breakfast delaying the goodbye. But finally it was time to move on again!
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