Buren (03.04.2012)
| Start point | Susannajorda |
|---|---|
| Characteristic | Hike |
| Duration | 3h 30min |
| Distance | 7.0km |
| Map |
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| Ascents | Buren (802m) | 03.04.2012 |
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This was what I'd generally regard as a semi-spontaneous trip, because it was planned only the day before we went. There was a cloudless sky, lots of sunshine and plenty of fresh air - just what we needed after a day in the office! With only -3 or -4 at the bottom of the mountain by Kaldfjord, conditions seemed perfect for a hike. My friend Lene had not been out on a mountain since our last hike together to Stor Kjølen, and that was in the previous autumn so she was equally thrilled to be getting out once more in a different part of Tromsø.
Neither of us had much of a plan for route-finding, but we figured that since this was quite a popular choice of skiing destination, there should be some pretty obvious tracks we could follow all the way up. And that's what we did. It was almost too easy, which was probably also a good thing because I didn't bring a map either. But we knew it was roughly 3km to the top, and 800m of ascent.
The snow turned out to be in much better condition for hiking than I'd expected; I had thought that maybe it would be hard work if it was soft and deep, but it turned out to be really well consolidated, and almost hard - so we walked with plenty of ease on the surface most of the way up, and as a result made some quite speedy progress upwards. Fortunately for us too it looked like some snowboarders had already made some footsteps up the mountain, so all the hard work was already done and we were literally climbing a staircase!
Only from about halfway up when we were in the sunshine again, did the snow become a little bit deep. But it wasn't too much hard work compared with what I had expected, so we just continued straight up, passing some skiers who were on their way down. As we gained the top of the summit ridge and stopped once in a while to look behind us, the views towards Tromsø became more and more spectacular. And also the views going straight across to the peaks on the northern side of Kattfjord/southern side of Ersfjord kept us both silent with awe and wonder! Neither of us expected the eye-opening expanse of mountains which popped up to the northern side of the ridge though. They were even more impressive! We could see straight across to Store Blåmannen and Hollendaren, and also further west along the ridge to the summit of Buren itself and the rest of the Ersfjord peaks. It was really really stunning, and days like these always make me feel elated to be out and up high.
And one of the other great things I am appreciating about living in Tromsø is how quick you can be out of work, up on a mountain and enjoying such pleasing views with very little hard work :-) A little bit of wind caught us while we were moved along the ridge though, and I hadn't noticed that my fingers were getting quite cold. Unfortunately I had only brought a thin pair of gloves with me and when I got back to the car my hands were feeling very cold. Only after doing some shopping at Coop on the way home I was getting very worried about the fingers, because my middle finger was now feeling numb and looking very pale. It seemed to recover after about 10 minutes of gradual warming back home though, which was a relief!
Takk for turen Lene!
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