Breidtind (16.06.2012)  

Today marked the first day of an incredible weekend in the mountains on Senja, and what better company to spend it with than the fjellsportgruppa i Troms? The weekend kicked off with a relatively early start meeting up at ICA Langnes to split into 3 cars. Yngve and Fredrik were both leading the trip together, and on first meeting them I already had the impression that this was going to be a trip with a lot of laughs and good humour. I was not wrong. Other than them, there were two other guys - Gregers and Werner, and two other girls joining in Tromsø, a Czech PhD student called Ilona and a just-graduated student named Solveig who had just finished her Bachelor studies up on Svalbard and was 'passing through' Tromsø on her way back down to Oslo for the summer.

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Ilona and Solveig on the ferry to Botnhamn

Us girls got together in my car and we drove the 55 km to Brensholmen with the plan to catch the 1030 ferry to Botnhamn on Senja. We were so fortunate with the time we got there - it was about 45 minutes before the ferry departure and we were cars 3, 4 and 5 in the queue. Only a few minutes later and the queue had probably quadrupled in length, so at least we knew for definite that there would be room for us to get on the boat.

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First short break to take off clothes and enjoy the views of Mefjorden

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Solveig and Ilona looking chilled out and happy. Breidtinden is in the background

After driving on, we went up to the top deck to chill out on the almost 1-hour boat ride across to Botnhamn. It was very pleasant. Sunshine, mountains and endless fjord. What a perfect way to prepare us for the hike ahead! After getting off we had some stunning views as we drove towards Mefjord. Breidtind loomed like an immense giant above the road just before we lost sight of it altogether and went through one of Senja's many tunnels. Shortly after exiting, we spotted that the other two cars ahead had pulled into a bay beside the fjord so I had to reverse back down the road a short distance as I'd overshot the parking place. Fortunately there was not too much traffic to worry about behind us.

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De-clothed after the break and we're off again :-)

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Not long after our first break and we've stopped for lunch already. Ilona here demonstrates how best to enjoy a hiking break....

It was already midday by the time we'd jumped out of the car and done a bit of faffing around with clothes, changing boots and packing up the rucksacks for the hike. The air was warm and the mountain hike was beckoning. I was very excited. I had heard the term 'luftig' used to describe Breidtind, and I usually interpet that to mean lots of fun is on the way! The initial plod up through the forest was a little bit taxing after having sat down for the journey for a few hours, so my legs and head were not communicating so well with each other and at one point I was starting to think my coordination was more similar to that of a pensioner than a twenty-something female. Fortunately, brain, lungs and legs all decided it would be a good idea to engage with each other after about 1/2 hour of hiking up through the trees and I was quite relieved to feel a little more healthy for the rest of the hike ahead of us.

At the first break , once we'd emerged from the trees, there was much stripping off of clothes and drinking to rehydrate. And now that we'd caught our breaths a bit there was a bit more conversation flowing too. That was nice. Walking in silence can be a bit awkward when you don't know the people you're with all that well! It was also lucky for me that the Czech girl, Ilona didn't speak much Norwegian either, so she was preferring to talk English anyway. After about an hour and a half of hiking we were arriving at Breidtindvatnet, which was still heavily snow-covered and here on the rocks we stopped for some lunch. It was handy too that there was a stream nearby with some fresh mountain water to fill up the drink bottles. Now behind the lake to the east, we could make out at least two distinct peaks of Breidtind. The one we were aiming for was at the southernmost end and also probably the easiest to hike without using actual climbing equipment).

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Near the lower end of the ridge it was just still a walk

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More time spent to absorb the sun, the views and each other's company

There was, as I found out later another distinct summit in between the two we could see from the lake, and it was also the one with the cairn at the top. But anyway, after cooling down with some food and drink we proceeded to make our way across 'nearly a glacier' to gain the dip between Breidtind and Kjørekeisen at the foot of the ridge leading to the southeastern summit. Luckily for us, Fredrik was breaking out some roomy footsteps to walk in, and the rest of us didn't really end up with too much snow filling up our walking boots :-)

The views behind us just got better and better as we began to make our way up the ridge. To start off with it was just a few rocks interspersed with some vegetation and moderately steep. Then the fun and exciting 'hands on' stuff came along and lasted for several hundred meters all the way to the top. It was simply the most amazing day out I'd had in a long long time. We had the treat of warm dry rock to scramble on and the feel of it under the fingers made me a very happy girl, together with the views which were making me ever the more speechless with every meter of height we gained.

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Solveig enjoying another break

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It seemed like there could be not better place to spend a summery saturday afternoon in northern Norway. And I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to spend it with either. It was a great atmosphere. Every now and then it was nice to just stand, sit or lean against a rock to gaze at the spectacular mountains everywhere and the afternoon seemed to pass by without us really noticing it. Although as the summit drew nearer my muscles were starting to indicate that they might not last for many more hours of the near-vertical exercise. But it didn't matter, because finally the ridge gave way to the summit, and we had done it. If I thought the views had been pretty amazing on the way up, then the views from the top were simply spectacular.

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Fabulous views. Fabulous smiles on everyone's faces.

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Across to the west, opposite us we could see Storfjellet and further northwest to Bringtinden, Burstinden and Bratt/Litle hesten and all the way down Mefjord was lined on its eastern edge with small but razor sharp peaks that just fell all the way down into the water. Much nearer was the summit of Breidtind with the varden on the top, and then the far end was dominated by a much pointier top. Every direction we looked the mountain just dropped away fast - and it was luftig. Most definitely. So what do you do on the summit of an awesome mountain after taking an equally outstanding scramble via the crest of its southern ridge, in brilliant summer sunshine and amongst snow-covered peaks? (yes its a lot to describe all at once) Well, it seems there is only one way to lap it all up and that is by a) taking photos b) having something to eat and drink and c) having a power nap en-mass with the rest of the people you're with while listening to.....silence.

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A half-panorama from the top of Breidtinden. Requires a return visit to finish the other half of the panorama which I clearly forgot to take!

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Gregers and Solveig soak up some lush sunshine at the top of Breidtind

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Not even a breath of wind could be heard. I swear at one point I could hear the waves down below in the fjord, but perhaps not. After chilling out (quite literally) for about an hour on the top, we decided to initiate some movement in the direction of back down the ridge. We had a date with a beach BBQ to make and there was no reason to prolong the ensuing hunger any more. So we began the descent with, as Yngve put it in his words - no stress! It was quite smart to take the descent carefully, especially as it was going to involve some element of down climbing what we'd scrambled up. Its not always the part I look forward to! It was a very lucky thing that we'd been blessed with dry rock though, else it would have been a much more difficult and slippery descent altogether.

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View northeast from the summit

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Yngve sends out love from the top

So it was around 6pm by the time we made the foot of the ridge again, and started back down the trail of footprints in the snow back to where we'd had lunch earlier. It was only about an hour after that we were already back down at the cars and getting ready for the short drive to Ersfjord, where we were going to set up the BBQ and camp on the beach for the night. What had been a really fantastic/superb/great (and every other adjective that might go along the same theme) day of hiking on Senja was finished off in just the right way with a sunlit beach view from the tents and a mass grilling session by the camp fire.

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Solveig and Ilona enjoying yet more sit-down time on the top

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Christina and Terese

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Communal grilling. A fantastic atmosphere.

Wonderful. Norway: you continue to massively exceed my expectations and I can't think of any good reason to ever leave!!!

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The sun is just about to disappear at Ersfjorden, around 22.30 or 23.00, I really can't remember now