Sherpa steps to mountain tops

Finally, the weather had cleared up and turned very non-Arctic with temperatures above 20°C and very clear skies. We decided to take advantage of this and planned two hikes over the next two days.

The first day, we climbed Djevelporten and then Fløya, the main peak immediately above our marina. The start of this trail has an incline of 50˚ and it seems to go on forever. However, a group of Nepali sherpas have and are building beautiful stone steps all the way up, so it is far easier than might otherwise be the case.

It being Saturday there were lots of people doing the walk, all looking hot and tired (no matter which direction they were going in) but happy with themselves. Every now and again a runner or a group of runners would appear to make everyone else feel a bit foolish.

About halfway up the trail got a bit more ‘traditional’ as the sherpas hadn’t got that far yet. They need to, the damage being done by so many people walking the trail is pretty severe. Anyway, the walk is physically hard if the only training you’ve done in the last month is standing behind a helm on a boat, but it isn’t technically difficult and the views are spectacular.

Although our knees and calves were a bit sore the next morning, we decided that a bit of the same would be good. So it was another walk up the sherpa steps, this time swinging west about 2/3 of the way up and climbing the higher and far steeper peak, Blåtind. This is on a more traditional track, single track, unformed, so steep you could often almost reach out and touch the mountain side in front of you. The final climb goes up through a colouir where any slip would be a very long one and probably without a happy ending.

Once on top the views all around, from ocean to more high peaks, was spectacular to say the least. Especially with the clear blue sky, not a cloud in sight. We then dropped down off one of the ridgelines and along to the next short climb up to the top of Tuva. The view here was over lakes and snow slopes to the mountains that make up the spine of the island. Again, very dramatic and beautiful.