I was awoken early by my alarm that Sunday morning in September, but when I looked out of the window, the weather was grim and low clouds sat heavily on the silent buildings of the city.
Tromsø was still sleeping and anybody who peeped out from their cosy home to check the weather probably went straight back to bed. I would have done so too, but today was my only chance for a hike in northern Norway before returning to England.
So I cooked my breakfast of eggs fried in butter, prepared a packed lunch and hot drink, and set off in my hiking boots and waterproofs. I walked down through the cold and quiet city centre then over the bridge from the island across the fjord towards the mainland and the mountains.
I had hoped to climb Tromsdalstinden (Sálašoaivi): The Iconic Mountain of Tromsø, 1,238 meters (4,062 feet) above sea level. It’s one of the most famous mountains within the Arctic Circle, often climbed under the Midnight Sun in summer or with views of the Northern Lights in winter.
That wouldn’t be possible now because of the weather. Since I had no other plans, I walked on anyway, past the Arctic Cathedral (Ishavskatedralen), following my map, into the Tromsdalen valley and taking a damp track through the misty forest. There was nobody else around. I walked on.
I had finished my work for the week and looked back with some satisfaction on what I’d done. I had been one of the speakers at TEDx Tromsø, sharing my thoughts on the subject of “Empowerment through Creative Entrepreneurship.”
Another day, I’d given a presentation at Innovation Norway, about “Creative Businesses, Growth and Economic Impact”. And then on the Saturday I delivered a workshop on Strategic Marketing for creative entrepreneurs at a cultural and creative hub: Tvibit.
Tromsø is a cultural city and it has evolved into a centre for Arctic research, education, and tourism.
The settlement was officially founded in 1794 and was originally a small trading post, but the area has been inhabited by the Sami people, the indigenous inhabitants of northern Scandinavia for thousands of years, traditionally engaged in reindeer herding, fishing, and hunting.
Since Tromsø is located above the Arctic Circle (69°40′N latitude), where the tilt of the Earth’s axis during summer causes the sun to never fully set, its people experience the Midnight Sun. This means 24-hour daylight from 20 May to 22 July. Then the opposite occurs, the Polar Night, with no direct sunlight from 27 November to 15 January. The Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) are visible from September to April.
As a schoolboy in the Scouts, I was keen on hiking on the local hills and climbing the mountains of the English Lake District and north Wales with my friends. We dreamt of expeditions to higher mountains in other countries but as teenagers we didn’t have the money for such distant adventures.
However I did explore the world, gazing at maps in the huge atlases in Bury library on my way home from school. (Nowadays, with Google Maps on my iPhone, I can locate any place on the globe in a couple of seconds. Back then, you had to look up places in the index at the back of those thick volumes.)
We went camping often and I saved my spending money to buy a good quality down-filled sleeping bag from an outdoors shop in Manchester, Blacks. I bought the “Tromso” sleeping bag, so I looked through the atlases and eventually found Tromsø in northern Norway. I discovered it at 69°40′N latitude, about 350 km (217 miles) north of the Arctic Circle.
In ‘The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’, Slartibartfast is a Magrathean planetary designer who specialises in fjords and won an award for the Norwegian coastline. Look at the maps and you will agree that the geography of northern Norway’s islands and fjords is certainly a work of art.
Tromsø is nestled in this magnificently designed archipelago. It became a place I wanted to visit from the moment I saw its amazing location.
Mispronunciation is often a sign that someone has learnt by reading. After pronouncing Tromsø as “tromm-soh” for forty years or more, it was only when I met the locals that I learnt to pronounce it correctly, more like “trumm-ser”.
Now, here I was.
But walking along a muddy forest track below wet grey clouds wasn’t what I had dreamt of. Such is life. I often find when travelling that places are not as beautiful and exotic in reality as they are shown in picture postcards, holiday brochures and travel guides.
I had told my Norwegian colleagues that I wanted to hike up a mountain on my free day and Karl Kristian Hansen suggested Tromsdalstinden. It was part of a mountainous horseshoe that could be walked as a circular route, but they suggested a shorter hike, just going there and back.
I was both touched and slightly insulted by their concern for me. Of course they were worried that a foreigner might not be used to the Arctic conditions, and as my hosts, they felt a responsibility for my safety. Fair enough. On the other hand, I am an experienced mountaineer and in the UK I’ve climbed Ben Nevis, Snowdon and Scafell, and lots of others, many times, in all weathers. And it was September, not mid-winter. At his insistence, I promised to text Karl Kristian about my location and progress during the day.
This expedition was turning out to be a disaster and so I thought of texting him, but only to ask if he was free to meet for a coffee in a warm dry café on that wet afternoon if I abandoned my hike.
Following my map, I turned off the track and started to ascend the low hills in the mist. I decided that I’d turn back if the weather turned ugly. I know from experience how dangerous mountains can be in bad weather and low visibility. And being alone was an extra risk factor.
At some point, during my steady ascent, the clouds thinned, and the day became brighter. Soon afterwards I found myself in sunshine, above a blanket of clouds, the spectacular mountain up ahead of me, with a perfectly blue sky behind it.
Wow!
While everyone else was having a duvet day, I had the mountain to myself!
In the hours it took to reach the summit, I only met one other person. Below I saw a lone figure, moving faster than me, who turned out to be a local man. We paused to exchange greetings. Then he went on ahead, and I followed.
I reached the summit around midday. As promised, I texted Karl Kristian and some other colleagues. Their confused messages back made me laugh. How could I be up there on top of the mountain in the thick cloud? Was I joking with them? Or was I crazy?
I continued along the rocky ridge to follow the circular route, enjoying the brilliant views across the Lyngen alps, Senja and the Kvaløya alps as I dropped down to Salen (the saddle), past some small tarns, then further around the horseshoe and eventually back into the valley.
Most of the afternoon I was alone, but later there were a few more hikers who had ventured out later. Most had written the day off.
I was getting tired towards the end of my 14 mile (21 km) trek, but there was enough light to get off the mountain and walk back through the city to my Airbnb apartment before dark. Karl Kristian was monitoring my progress as he was relieved when I was safely back home.
On those final exhausted miles walking back into town, I reflected on my visit to Tromsø and the bonus of a hike above the clouds on my free final day. I could have stayed in bed, but I didn’t. The reward was definitely worth the effort. I did it!
With tired legs, I pondered what my teenage self would have thought if someone had looked into a crystal ball all those years ago and told me that yes, one day I would go to that place with a strange sleeping-bag name, up there on that far northern page of the atlases.
I had to wait more than 40 years but my schoolboy dream of climbing a mountain in northern Norway had come true.
And in the end, the view from the summit really was like a picture postcard.
Copyright © David Parrish 2025.
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“Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.”
Jack Kerouac
“The world reveals itself to those who travel on foot.”
Werner Herzog
“As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.”
Rumi
“I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.”
Susan Sontag
“Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before”
Dalai Lama
“I’m in love with cities I’ve never been to and people I’ve never met.”
John Green
“Take every chance you get in life, because some things only happen once.”
Karen Gibbs
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