Second Attempt: Sørskottinden Peak
No snow, no problem
It had been almost a month since I first set out to climb this local mountain, and spring had been at work since my last visit. Most of the snow was melted revealing the trail I had been unable to find the time before. There was no mistaking it this time, and along I trod.
The sun felt surprisingly powerful up here. As I walked along getting quite hot and sweaty, for the first time this year, I thought about the lake I would meet along the way and how beautiful a sneaky skinny dip would be.
A swim sounded grand, but as I came up over a hill to meet the lake it was still frozen. Frozen solid despite its southern orientation and exposure to the sun. The Arctic winter wasn’t ready to let go just yet.
Still I was very happy to be hiking in just a T-shirt, feeling practically naked after wearing winter layers for the three months I had been living in Norway.
As I walked along I came across some old tracks in the snow, perhaps belonging to Marco (a dude on the island) who had been up here maybe a week ago. I followed them across a few patches of crunchy snow leading towards the first of two giant cairns atop this lovely mountain.
Cairns is my middle name, a family name from my mother’s side.
So I do enjoy a good old cairn marking the way and always add a rock.
very pleased with the hat I have fashioned
Two cairns marked the top of the mountain &
A huge bank of snow still occupied the shaded North side of the summit
lOFOTEN TO THE NORTH WEST
mountains to the southeast
Notice the layers of mountains in this photograph. Lofoten in the far north and nordskot in the foreground and where the day before I hiked up to the “u” between these two peaks.
My first time up this mountain I spent close to four hours wandering around. First on the wrong trail, backtracking to find the right trail, only to lose the trail once again and end up underneath the summit. This time around, with the trail free of snow, I was on the summit in just an hour and a half.
Then the reward for any hike, lunch with a view. The way up had been hot, but I had to bundle up in all my layers once I stopped moving. I sat with my back against the big cairn marking the tippy top, and enjoyed being completely surrounded by mountains. I love mountains.