Stor-Kjølen (03.11.2013)  

Storkjølen is just about the only mountain I can see when I’m sitting on my sofa. Given the choice I would rather have a view of Storsteinnestinden or something a bit more aesthetic like the mountains around Ersfjord, but at the moment I have to make do with Storkjølen. At least being so close it only takes 10 minutes to drive to Kvaløya, park up and begin a trip up the mountain. Which is basically the story for today’s laid-back Sunday trip.

I left the car just after the sign for the Interim Kirke, a little north of the bridge between Tromsøya and Kvaløya. From there it was a couple hundred metres up the road and past some houses before reaching the lysløypa, and then I followed a track closed to motor vehicles which goes all the way up to Mellomvatnet. I didn’t actually go all the way up to Mellomvatnet but left the track just before Slaktarhaugen since it seemed a bit pointless to carry the truger further than necessary. Quite soon after reaching Slaktarhaugen I was soon reminded how nice the views are from this mountain, even if the route up is somewhat long and a bit uninteresting. Really great to be reminded what a beautiful city Tromsø is when you can look over the island towards Tromsdalstinden and across the fjord towards Malangen. Further up on Finnlandsfjellet it also becomes possible to see all the way out towards the Lyngsalpene in the east and even Breidtind on Senja in the southwest. I’m sure that must be a fair distance between Lyngen and Senja.

The snow was more or less of the skarelag type all the way up to Svarthammaren, but still not solid enough to take the weight of a person without sinking. I was glad to have the truger at that point – although later regretted them when I realized how flat the mountain became after the initial climb up Finnlandsfjellet. Then it would have made much more sense to ski across the several kilometres of ground between Finnlandsfjellet and the top of Storkjølen which today seemed endless even if the views were fantastic.

Even with the snow and sun today it didn’t quite quality for påskestemning anymore, but it was a gorgeous late-autumn stemming nonetheless. And surprisingly warm. Either it was warm outside or I really had much worse fitness than I first feared and was producing heat a lot faster than usual. Anyway, fit or unfit, it was definitely harder work between Svarthammaren and the top since the snow was softer and deeper. Plenty of untouched (but maybe heavy?) powder to be found there, even if it did take about 5km of walking to reach it. Excellent views across to Store Blåmann at this point too.

Around 2.5 hours after starting the trip I finally arrived at the top, greeted by the cosy varmebua and a fair bit more wind. If I hadn’t known the varmebua was there beforehand, I probably would have chosen some other trip to do today. It’s a great incentive to go up this mountain, especially when its not summertime outside! So unlike most winter/autumn trips I actually had the luxury of eating my lunch – at lunchtime, without freezing fingers and without a runny nose. I enjoyed a cosy ½ hour inside before deciding that it was time to get going again. The only disadvantage is that the actual temperature outside became a lot more obvious when I had to leave. It was cold.

I thought I’d stopped an excessive number of times to take photos on the way up, but in fact I think I probably stopped even more on the way down. Gorgeous colours in the sky and on the tops of the mountains. Lots of pinks and oranges and purples. I think it had been a surprisingly worthwhile trip, and definitely the most scenic of all the times I’ve been up there so far.

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