Mellomtinden (02.09.2013)  

I met up with Ellen and Siv after work on a sunny monday afternoon. Turned out that Ellen was in the mood for a walk up Bentsjordtinden while both Siv and I had a shorter walk in mind. So in the end we decided for a trip to Mellomtinden which none of us had been to before. Fortunately it was only a little bit over 600m high and being on the western edge of Kvaløya meant that we got to have plenty of evening sun. An excellent choice it turned out to be.

After parking on the roadside about 1km southwest of Tromvik we started walking some time after 5pm and trudged across a bit of myrområde for about 15 minutes. Fortunately we met some sort of path which went up through the forest to the lake at around 300 moh. I had not actually been on a trip with Ellen since our skredkurs in January, but I didn't remember that she had been so talkative. Not that I minded though, I quite like listening to people rambling on if they have fun stories to tell.

Well, by the time we reached Nordskaret between Mellomtinden and Tromtinden it seemed like an ideal place to sit, soak up sunshine, admire the sea views and eat a bit of dinner. Siv and I ate apples while Ellen was disappointed to fish out chocolate sludge instead of a regular-looking chocolate bar from the top of her rucksack. Ellen: 'Vil du ha bæsj?' Meg: 'Uh, hva sa du???' Then it became a bit more obvious....

After the dinner-pause we continued around the northwestern side of Mellomtinden, mostly steep turf with some rock a bit higher up. According to Ellens turbok, we were supposed to head for the south side of the summit via some sort of gully below the top ridge. There seemed to be quite a lot of gullies to choose from in my opinion, so that wasn't so helpful. Luckily our contouring around the mountain landed us quite conveniently on the southern side of the summit anyway and finally we were able to enjoy the views across towards Sørtind, Storstolpan, Skamtinden and Store Hollendaren from the top.

I am not sure why what happened next did happen but for some reason our attempts to find a suitable pose for the camera ended up with pictures that looked like some strange ’fjellhest’ , which seemed pretty hilarious at the time. There was a lot of hysterical behaviour on the top of Mellomtinden that evening! In any case it was a memorable evening to remember that this day was exactly 2 years since having moved to Tromsø :-)

Unfortunately we couldn’t stay on the top all night and watch the sun go down, so it was time to make our way back down to the car, and we went more or less the same route back. Many stops were made along the way just to gaze at the sunset over the sea and the gorgeous colours in the sky. The last half hour back to the car under a dark and clear sky was starting to make it feel more fresh and autumnal for definite. Still, shorts-føre in September had been a treat!