Spring/Winter weather & Lyngen plateau

 The day started calm and still in the pine-forest - and hot! hot! hot!

 A bit of leg-work and grunting through scrubby snow-patches and forest to get up high....

 Then... it was pretty smooth going, still weather (er, and hard work still!)

I think they call it 'picture perfect' (mind you, it was still blinding hot at that stage of the day)

Yes, that is a person on the horizon! sweating up the, er, mostly flat plateau...

Hello views! It all got very, very pretty, with the low cloud ceiling creeping in on us.

Not lost, just setting the GPS and compass-course ;) 

Plateau where we had been shrouded in cloud behind me there.

 No, I was not REALLY that happy about descending into Midtdalen... seemed steep and narrow..

Helen lives!  Here I am, pointing out my so-called 'Death Valley' (which actually wasn't really: transformed snow and good weather in the last while making it a pretty safe haven, even for someone used to the Durdham downs... which are very flat, but very beautiful also)

(these are the beautiful Durdham Downs in Bristol, by the way ;))

A long trip, some nice views, and a beer and a fire waiting down at the tent :)

___________________________________________________________

...and a few days later, feet firmly back at sea-level :)

___________________________________________________________

And a medley of memories driving homewards:

(*if I was at all computer-literate I would stitch these together*)

A deserved beer...

...there is NOTHING, I say, NOTHING like the taste of beer by a fire in a pine forest in spring on a sunny evening after you have skied in virtual solitude in fantastic good weather - so still that you could hear a pin drop - 30 km across a 1000m plateau... 

(even if it is a lager beer ;))

But you know, a pancake breakfast the day after and another wee summit is also rather nice ;)... definitely on a par with the beer!

Contrasts

Contrasts are rife this time of the year!

Woke up to blustery snow this morning... whilst was in - almost - t-shirt and short trousers 2 days ago.  The SUN is back and the spring is fighting to assert itself.

Enjoy here, this medley of contrasting pictures and the joys of spring/winter!

Spring here? (note the bare soil, trees not exactly green but poking through snow... and the blue skies and sun... absence of full-body-armour-clothing...etc., etc.)

The local hills - sun and blue skies. Couldn't be better!

Meanwhile. Back home at the house... 

Bruno the dog is assessing the warmth and comfort of dry grass versus soggy spring snow!

Bring on the summer!  Lazy dog days...

 Back on the local hills around town: lapping up the sun!

Or winter, in its full glory still?

Trip up to 1206m and a very very long 10km uphill slog to get there.  As I said to Per, halfway up, "this is one big hill, this one".  It was.  And it was cold and winter up there.  But worth every laboured step up there - fantastically beautiful views and great visibility due to the cold air!

Storstett, the big hill there is 800m-odd alone.  We are steadily making progress up beyond this.
My house is just under the foot of Storsteet ;)
[Storsteet is the dramatic table-top mountain towering over Storslett (see the first picture of this post)]

Storsteet, the hill to the centre left there... looks like a wee hill from up here!

Hello Storslett, down there!

Back down at sea-level, later that evening: 

distant peaks as seen in Storslett.... memories of the day's ski adventure :)