Tromsø and Its Snowy Playgrounds: Truly a Winter Wonderland

“Ladies, you’re in luck. I gave you the fastest dogs out of the whole lot,” Erik, our dog sledding guide, smirkingly announced while leading the way, which confirmed the hunch I already had. Instead of helping the dogs with an occasional push, I had to make sure to never step off that breaker ledge while doing the balancing act of moving my weight (and feet) from left to right to steer our creaky vehicle through the wintry landscape.

Staying on track without capsizing was the aim of the game, something that looked easy but actually required quite some effort and concentration, whereby the latter was hard to maintain given the endless stretches of untouched snow requesting your attention and admiration — truly a winter wonderland, but have a look for yourself.

Off the Beaten Track Indeed

Having done a lot of walking while exploring Tromsø island the day before — a city tour full of surprises which I hope you enjoyed as well — we decided to give five furry creatures the rein to leave urban sensations behind and embrace the Norwegian wilderness.

We met those furry companions at Camp Tamok, which is a 75-minute drive from Tromsø, a scenic journey through the countryside giving you an early taste of what you’re in for as you watch winds dusting off the snow-covered mountain ranges passing by.

Upon arrival, the camp staff takes care of you providing snow suits, boots and some serious gloves to make sure you’re comfortable the whole way through. If you think you’re warm enough in your own clothes, you can stay as you are but I would suggest following their recommendations — I did, some others did not and had some cleaning to do once back at the hotel, but I’ll come to that later.

Also, how often do you get to wear a zip-up snow suit in your adult life? Always a yes from me, embrace that inner child whenever you get a chance, snow angels and all.

Next step, find a sledding partner with whom you want to share this experience and who you’d happily trust your life to as you’ll be taking turns steering a rather fragile looking sled through the Norwegian wilderness, so choose well. Once that’s settled, the whole group will be split up into three buddy pairs per guide who will then give you instructions on how to make the dogs as well as the sled go where You want to.

You’ll be in charge. For half of the journey, you’ll be a proper ‘musher’ which is how the driver of a dog sled is called. The other half, you’ll function as ballast holding the sled down and offering some steering help while your sledding buddy gives it a whirl. Either way, driver or passenger, it’s great fun giving you a taste of what life must have been like in the olden days when dog sledding was a common mode of transportation, and often not just for one day — adding another layer to my admiration for Wanny* living her best life in Svalbard.

*If you haven’t heard of Wanny Woldstad yet, check out part one of my Tromsø adventure.

Fully skilled (kind of), we left the camp and literally went off the beaten track, making our way through untouched fields of white bliss glistening in the morning sun. It took a little while to get a hang of it. As mentioned before, the five lovely dogs towing us were definitely on a mission. Whatever they had for breakfast, it seemed like I could have done with a portion of that as well.

Once Erik revealed their speedy nature, I felt more comfortable with what I was doing though which mainly involved continuously breaking their stride, something I felt rather guilty about before — a nugget of wisdom I made sure to pass on to my fellow traveller, Beth, when we swapped places.

As I was sitting on the sled myself, the warm gear including proper mittens made much more sense. Not moving your body a lot and being fully exposed to the winds gently slapping your face, it can get rather nippy. It was quite a different experience, equally enjoyable as I now had a chance to have a closer look at our surroundings and daydream a little about those wintry movies we watched as kids.

Have you ever heard of Three Wishes for Cinderella? It was the ultimate Christmas movie where I grew up and will soon be on all channels again I’m sure as we are slowly heading towards that festive season — good thing I kept you waiting allowing me to sneak in that reference. 🙂 The setting they chose always amazed me and now finding myself surrounded by similar views was quite special.

Replaying the title music in my head as we were entering a slightly more forested area, I heard a thud which was definitely not part of the soundtrack and noticed the speed picking up significantly. I had lost my musher!?!

Looking back being rather concerned what happened, I heard a muffled “I’m okay” from the distance which allowed me to focus on my own destiny which lay in the paws of our four-legged friends, and they were going for gold.

It gave me an idea how fast they can go if nobody’s slowing them down, terribly strong little creatures. I guess it would have been less of an issue if it happened in the wide-open spaces we were going through for most of the day. Unfortunately though, I was now heading towards a set of trees which were rather inconveniently placed.

Holding on for dear life and trying to somehow manoeuvre my way around them while considering to jump ship not knowing what the proper procedure would be — something I must have missed during our training session — I saw a figure running my way telling me to stay put. Following his instructions and hoping for the best, I noticed the dogs slowing down as Erik was approaching us yelling all kinds of wonderful sounding words easing my soul which was not leaving my body that day after all.

Having been saved by yet another tour guide, I heard my companion Beth trudging her way through the incredibly deep snow, something you do not notice whilst gliding along on the sled. Apologetically checking in if I was I okay and telling me what happened, our fright-stricken faces quickly turned into big smiles followed by lots of laughter, which lasted for the rest of the trip as we were trying to manoeuvre our way back to the camp. 

Being all giddy, we almost capsized once more after taking a tight turn a tiny bit too fast which got us stuck instead. But the moment that truly left us in stitches was when our speedy dogs decided to share their little ‘party trick,’ as Erik called it. Thanks, Heet (pictured below), for capturing such special moment and sharing some of the footage which I hope will bring a bit of Nordic adventure and laughter to your home as well:

As mentioned before, do go for all the gear they offer, so you can easily ‘zip off’ nature’s surprises and don’t have to waste any time or memories on vigorous cleaning sessions.

Recyclable Sámi Tradition

After saying goodbye with a proper cuddle, a must after a dog sledding adventure to thank those little pooches for their hard work and strengthening the bond between (wo)man and dog, we were led into a traditional Sámi tent (‘lavvu’) where we got to enjoy some Sámi customs which also included a hot soup and brew, the perfect way to warm up after our snowy excursion.

Sámi are the indigenous people of the northernmost parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. They have inhabited the Northern Arctic for more than 5,000 years with remains of settlements even dating back to 10,000 BC. It’s the oldest culture in Northern Norway. It existed before the better-known Viking culture which developed due to the immigration by and mixing with Germanic tribes.

Considered to be Animists, Sámi’s believe that all natural objects, phenomena and the universe itself possess souls which may exist apart from their natural bodies, a concept that influences their relationship with the local animals that sustain their people. Being a semi-nomadic tribe, the Sámi have depended on hunting, fishing, farming and reindeer herding whereby the latter often takes centre stage.

Camp Tamok’s chef honoured such tradition and served reindeer soup that day which was very tasty and only some of us declined who might have felt a bit iffy being booked into a reindeer feeding trip for the following day. I was booked in for some snow shoeing and as you know by now, already bought into the full array of cured meats available anyways, fully embracing the local tradition of not letting anything go to waste.

And to be honest, it was rather hard to avoid a taste of reindeer since it was even part of the breakfast buffet at our hotel. Being sold on it, Beth had a second portion for lunch the day before in the shape of a burger while I tried another local delicacy, cod tongues — it definitely didn’t sound very appealing but Karina, our city tour guide, mentioned it, so it had to be done. Having very low expectations, it turned out to be a pleasant surprise, especially the size of them which left me rather baffled and in doubt, but maybe try it for yourself next time you’re there.

To return to the Sámis and their waste-conscious traditions, I’d like to share my favourite one which happened to be attached to their belts. Alongside a rather impressive knife which I’m sure can come in handy when out and about in the wilderness, Sámi people also carry a wooden chalice called Kuksa (or Guksi in Sámi), ready to share a drink wherever they are.

Having had a closer look (google) into it, apparently it’s quite a thing among hikers of the Nordic lands where you will rarely spot one without a Guksi dangling from their pack. Traditionally, you should either carve your own or receive it as a gift. If carving your own, birch burl is the suggested material which I assume must be a lighter wood knowing that every gram counts when getting out there (as I had to learn for myself along the North Downs Way).

Apparently, every self-respecting outdoor enthusiast should craft their Guksi by themselves — another skill to learn throughout lockdown or shall I just put it on the Christmas gift list? Hmmm, let me ponder on that one while dimming the lights for our next outdoor activity, the Northern Lights that is.

Chasing the Northern Lights, a Rather ‘Exciting’ Endeavour, at Least That’s What You Hope for

The fascination with such lights has been there from the beginning and remained an awe-inspiring constant throughout human existence. Evidence of such continuous admiration has been found in cave paintings in France dating back to 30,000 years ago. The name ‘Aurora Borealis’ did not come into being until 1619 though, when astronomer Galileo Galilei coined a term to describe the sensational dance of lights across the Arctic skies.

While the Northern Lights often get most attention being more easily accessible, one should not forget their counter-part on the other pole, the Southern Lights (‘Aurora Australis’), being equally impressive lighting up the Antarctic.

Both phenomena, collectively referred to as Polar Lights (‘Aurora Polaris’), can be described as result of disturbances in the magnetosphere caused by solar wind. Not wanting to step too deep into science, I’d just like to note a few things that might be relevant to increase your chances of seeing this infamous light show. The solar winds, if I recall correctly, were one of the things, Karina, who also had to take care of us during the night (poor woman), highlighted various times.

If the caused disturbances are strong enough to alter the trajectories of charged particles (mainly electrons and protons) in such wind and sphere, they will precipitate into the upper atmosphere (thermosphere/exosphere) resulting in ionisation and ‘excitation’ (the only term that stuck with me) of atmospheric constituents which are then visible to us as lights in varying colour and complexity.

The band-like appearance of the light is somewhat linked to the acceleration of the precipitating particles, which is where I would like to end the science lesson and return to what truly matters — getting those atmospheric constituents excited!

Unfortunately, their excitement was not as big as ours during our night watch putting a bit of a damper on the trip, but at the same time, it gave us another reason to come back to this beautiful country one day, to give it another try and explore more things we did not have enough time for this time around.

And to be honest, we might still be Northern Lights virgins but the nightly views were still spectacular. In addition to that, we got to wear a full-body snow suit again — winning — and our tour guide and bus driver continuously refuelled us with coffee, tea and home baked cakes making it a lovely memory I still reminisce about.

To cut to the chase though, what should you keep in mind when planning your Northern Lights trip:

• Go on your first night to increase your chances: If you don’t get lucky first time around, you can keep trying. Our nightly adventure was booked for the second night, so lesson learned.
• Consider the moon cycle: The less light pollution, the better. The moon, as lovely as it is, forms part of such lightly distractions, so try to avoid a full moon — although there are people who disagree with such theory, usually the ones that got lucky enough to see them during a moonlit night. We had a full moon as well, again, noted for next time as we didn’t belong to such lucky bunch.
• Check the weather forecast, avoid summer: Clear and dark skies is what you’re after which is why you should aim for the end of September to Mid-March to avoid that summer sunlight which can be around for quite some time, even at midnight as we learned from Tromsø’s Midnight Sun Marathon. In addition to seasonal variations, the weather forecast must also be clear to increase your chances.
• Escape the city lights: As mentioned before, light pollution is the enemy in the fight for Northern Lights, so either plan your entire trip around remote areas, apparently rental car trips around Iceland where you self-drive and determine your own fate show high success rates, and sound quite fun as well — one to be added to future travel plans perhaps?! Otherwise, keep trying your luck next time you’re in Finland, Sweden or Canada, other places where those fickle lights can be spotted. We actually almost made our way to Finland that night being so close to the border. Unfortunately, we did not, leaving my current country count at 40 for now.
• Download an Aurora Forecast App: There are various apps out there. Most of them will provide information on solar rays, wind speed and density which will give you an idea how probable it is to see the lights. Our guide used one of those while navigating through the night.
• Have a guide who knows what they are doing: As mentioned above, we had Karina, whose wealth of knowledge was not restricted to Tromsø’s city delights but kept us busy and entertained all through the night. She definitely knew what she was doing, was in constant contact with other guides trying their luck in other areas which brings me to the final tip.
• Bring a big bag of luck: While you can try above tricks to increase your chances, it often comes down to pure luck. I’ve heard of people strolling along the nightly streets of Tromsø being graced by the glorious view without even trying. But that’s just how it is, it’s either the time for you or it isn’t. I guess that’s what makes it special when you do see them. And when you do, apparently there’s something else you can try to make it extra-special.
• Random Bonus: I came across two other recommendations which can give the moment you see them an extra layer of mystery. According to some Native American tribes, you can make the lights dance for you if you whistle at them. In contrast, Inuits believe the lights are spirits of the dead and your whistle would tempt them to scoop you up and take you away. The choice is yours?!

Snowy Shoes, Fishy Racks, and a Quick Lunch

After a night of cruising through the Norwegian wilderness chasing down those fickle lights, I felt the urge to get back on my feet and do some exploring the old-fashioned way, even if nowadays gear was probably a bit more durable than the traditional version being made of hardwood frame and rawhide lacings.

I’m sure Wanny would approve taking advantage of modern technology while snowshoeing along Kvaløya island, the one with the rose garden if you recall. No roses in sight that day but endless views of winter fjords and snowed in houses bringing back that Crosby tune.

If you love walking in the snow, hearing that crunch when slightly sinking into the powdery mess, you’ll love snowshoeing. It allows you to walk on top of such white fields, literally off the beaten track on top of newly fallen snow. You truly get to explore such winter wonderland while getting the heart pumping a bit, working off all those wonderful treats.

And speaking of, I did say I’d return to some of the items I mentioned in the Scrumptious Bonus. The first one that was addressed on my snow shoeing adventure was the dried fish as we drove by one of the traditional drying racks when we made our way to Kvaløya.

As mentioned before, Norwegians love to make use of everything nature has to offer, especially when it comes to animals. Making it last for times when less might be available appears to be the logical next step wherefore the drying of food, the world’s oldest preservation method, is common practice in this country and particularly popular when it comes to fish, ‘Stockfish’ in this case.

Cod is most commonly used in stockfish production which involves winding it on wooden racks called ‘hjell’, which are placed on the foreshore where the fish can dry in the cold air. It’s a rather cheap method, often done by the fisherman themselves along with their family. The right weather does the trick, not to be confused with ‘Clipfish’ production where the fish is salted before drying. Instead of going from the net straight to the rack, clip fish matures in salt for 2-3 weeks before dried which was done on rocks (clips) on the foreshore back in the day.

To compare both to modern procedures, stockfish comes closest to cheese fermentation whereby clipfish is comparable to Parma ham. The smell that comes with it is rather unique one could say, wherefore it shall remain high on my hit list of Norwegian souvenirs for friends and foes.

The fishy gift that keeps on giving is closely followed by one truly made for sharing, especially during a long hike. In fact, I’ve never been on an adventure in Norway where this little treat wasn’t part of the lunch stop, and the snow shoeing trip made no exception.

The ultimate Norwegian hiking Snack called ‘Kvikk Lunsj’ or Quick Lunch for us foreign folk, doesn’t only flash a terribly trendy design which was tailor-made for the ultra-modern sports garment in the 30s, the anorak, but it also has a backstory, which will make you fall in love with it as I’m sure all of us could have been the inventor of such chocolaty pick me up.

Decades before its invention, Freia founder Johan Throne Holst found himself lost in the woods one day during an outdoor adventure with one of his business associates who was devastated when finding out that Holst had not brought any chocolate on the trip — been there, done that, did not invent a chocolate bar though.

I assume that little story also explains why the bar featured mountain codes on the packaging in the 60’s and till this day offers travel tips and instructions where to find the Norwegian Trekking Association’s cabins all over the country — a true life saver in the nutritional as well as logistical sense. Adding such useful details to a treat that already perked up polar hero Amundsen** when he reached the South Pole in 1911, Holst was on to a winning recipe when launching his trendy outdoor bar in 1937, a time when chocolate was already established as nutrition during strenuous physical exertion.

Thinking back about the hiking treat I was given in Scotland, a Cuillin Mint Cake which also packed a calorific punch, I think Quick Lunch wins, and definitely made my day when our snow showing guide unpacked the surprise along with some other local tools I already talked about making it clear what you need to make your next Tromsø trip memorable and terribly authentic — a Kvikk Lunsj, a Guksi and, with a bit of luck, some excited atmospheric constituents!

**If not convinced, check out BBC iPlayer where they just added the film ‘Amundsen’ — the timing could not have been any better. I’ll probably watch it myself, purely for research of course. Let’s see if we can spot some reinvigorating chocolate making history. And speaking of remarkable achievements, did you know that Tromsø will be remembered as the place where the largest polar expedition in history set sail in September last year (2019)? Hundreds of researchers from 20 countries boarded the German icebreaker Polarstern to spend a full year drifting through the Arctic Ocean taking the closest look ever at the Arctic as the epicentre of global warming. In order to better understand global climate change, they even stayed during the polar winter, a first-time endeavour. Given Amundsen’s example, I’m sure chocolate was an essential part of their provision keeping up those sugar levels and, most importantly, spirits throughout many dark nights away from family and friends — 389 days in total. The crew returned last months, October 2020, to a world not quite the same as the one they departed from.

Arctic Conclusion

This was my last trip before the world changed. In fact, Norwegian airlines cancelled their flights just two days after our return. Would I have enjoyed it even more if I’d known it was going to be my last trip for a while? Probably not because I had a blast! I crammed loads into the short weekend, definitely made use of every second and would not have minded to get stuck there to play around a bit longer.

So, if a lover of the outdoors and not too cold a spirit to endure colder temperatures and snow — as you know, there is no bad weather, only bad clothing — you should definitely add this beautiful place to your list. If keen on the Northern Lights, keep the ideal conditions in mind when planning and do a bit of your own research as well, I am still a Northern Lights virgin, so not the expert just yet. If you do end up going and get lucky, do tell and send through some pictures, I’ll try not to get too jealous.

Shame we missed it but my map still looks rather empty when it comes to Scandinavia, so good to have at least one good reason to go back, although you know by now that there are many more, especially those views — here another one to send you off.

🎶 “…walking in a winter wonderland…” 🎶 

When was I there? 6-9 March 2020