katikaa When the groove is on it’s hard to stop… We had one day to drive from Engabreen glacier at Halsa, Norway to Umeå, Sweden and as there were few ferries on the way at Norway end, we decided to leave early. It was a good choice as you always find something interesting on the road.
After driving in the middle of a lot of nothing there was suddenly people, cars and a gondola going up a fell. This place is clearly a skiing paradise during winter time and we thought hmm easy way up, let’s take it! We decided to put on our hiking gear “just in case” after we got to the top with the gondola we were already at around 800 meters. The peak was so close and it was higher than Saana (1029 m) so we went for it.
Ascent was 326 meters and highest point 1147 meters, meaning we broke our record of Saana! True we cheated a bit with the gondola, but we simply did not have the time (or food!) to do the whole way up and down. The trail up was 4,5 kilometers and it took us 1 h 10 minutes. This was a really easy trail and I can recommend it to everyone even with smaller children.
I ran most of the way down hence the time was pretty good, but tried again to keep the heart rate at 60% level due to the flu I had earlier. Husband though was about 300 meters faster than me so his time would have been around 1 h 5 min. I am worried as he is turning to be a better trail runner down than me! This needs to be rectified… more training, hahaha (love you🧡)
It was one of the hottest days of the summer around +33 degrees Celsius and there was not a breath of wind, not even at the top. You can imagine the amount of sweating after going up, running down and then to the gondola without ventilation. It was like a badly heated sauna, so a dip to the lake in the closest village was our next stop. It was so refreshing.
Then drive to Umeå, Sweden and ferry to Vaasa, Finland next morning and drive back to Helsinki where chores and work is calling.
I am sure that Norway will call us again too. Hopefully in very near future. One of the most beautiful countries I have been to and can highly recommend it.
