Skittenskarfjellet (02.11.2013)  

During the week I spent probably too much time wondering about how the snow conditions would be like instead of just going out on a trip to find out. In any case I had come to the conclusion that this weekend would most likely be spent with a pair of truger on my feet. I was not convinced that there was enjoyable skiing to be had, given how the snow had been the previous weekend and that there had been a couple of days with milder temperatures. Anyway, from my very limited experience of trugerturer, I decided that a nice, gently-angled mountain would be most appropriate with such equipment. Fortunately I found a mountain on Kvaløya which seemed to fit that description and also be a mountain I hadn’t yet been to. Skittenskarfjellet was therefore today’s objective. Easy to drive to as well since the shortest approach appeared to be from the parking space beside the bridge in Kattfjordeidet.

After changing shoes and realising that I’d forgotten to bring my walking poles, I strapped on the truger and set off towards the apparently unnamed valley between Straumsaksla and Durmålstinden. There was a good deal of stream-hopping before I actually reached the forest, something I found out that I have not practiced enough with truger. Good thing I was getting plenty of opportunities to improve my stream-hopping-wearing-truger abilities today ;-) Anyway, soon after meeting some trees I saw some fairly old ski tracks and followed them for a while. I think I have a bad habit of following tracks, regardless of whether they are trustworthy or not. Lucky that these tracks turned out to be of trustworthy nature and led me nicely out into the valley where I managed to walk at a reasonably good pace up to the skaret between Durmålstinden and Skittenskarfjellet.

Up to the skaret the snow had been pretty hard, wind-blown and actually pretty icy in places, so I was in no doubt that truger were the way to go today. Of course skis would have made the trip more fun, and maybe less tiring but it would have been a waste of fine trip weather to sit indoors and wait for decent skiing conditions. That could turn out to be a long waiting time if the current long-term forecast is anything to go by.

Panoramas

From the skaret it was just upwards all the way along a broad and long ridge to the top of Skittenskarfjellet. The views became a little more interesting, especially being able to see across to the mainland and Malangen, and finally I also got some sunshine on my face. The downside of walking up a valley on the north side of a mountain in late autumn is that the chances of being dazzled by bright sunshine are more or less non-existent even if there there a clear sky. Theres not much to be said for the rest of the trip to the top other than it was deceptively long. Longer than I had expected anyway, but I reckon my lack of fitness was partly to blame for that.

It took a little less than 2.5 hours from the car to the top, and I had some grand plans to soak up midday sunshine and eat lunch on the summit, but it turned out that some clouds came along and obscured any remaining sunshine before I got there. And there was a little wind which made the thought of hanging around not so tempting after all. So in the end I took some pictures, switched some clothes and then began the way down again. I used an almost-identical route to that which I used up (since I ended up following my own tracks). About halfway back, after reaching the valley again I felt warm enough to stop and eat some lunch. I found out after a few minutes that it wasn’t actually as warm as I first thought so I only took a quick break. And eating ice-cold apple with ice-cold fingers was not so fun either. There wasn’t much light on the way back, which made it a little bit of a boring walk back. A fairly straightforward and pleasant trip though.