An Autumn in Tromso

Disappearing Aurora captured by 15 secs of exposure.   It later re-appeared in different shapes.

There are but a few reasons why a traveler would want to visit the cold northern parts of Norway -  in late autumn or even winter…

And to see the Northern Lights would be on the top of the list!

Tromso – at 69-degree latitude, is above the arctic circle (66.5 degrees) and naturally cold, gloomy and dark in winter times and have short day light during late autumn and early spring.  For usual travelers visiting the warmer parts of the world,  a short day span or cold winter nights is not a very welcoming proposition to ‘have fun’!  But if one wishes to see the enchanting Aurora – that’s the only best chance. 

Of course, winter time will also offer other interesting activities such as dog sledding, visit to the wilderness to see the reindeers, snow mobile rides – albeit in a cold, gloomy or dark night.   If you don’t mind the cold or not seeing sunlight, and love partying at night – then it would be a good, unique travel destination.

There is no direct international flight to Tromso, so a visit in Oslo is a must.  Applying the travel principle of ‘first priority first’ – I hopped into another plane going north right after arriving in Oslo.  It was worrisome given a mere 3-hour arrival-to-departure gap time, but Norway being Norway meant that services are good and efficient!

The airport is expectedly small, though bigger than most ‘small airport’ standards.  Flight was smooth, baggage retrieved sans delays, money converted quickly – then the task of finding a semi-budget hotel sans map was the next hurdle.  “Viking hotel” was how it was called – making me recall great (and violent) stories of this Scandinavian warrior tribe.

Now remember, if you’re on a budget travel mode, you have to be strong-willed and disciplined to stay within your parameters.  As my small team walked out of the airport, strong winds and fresh snow whipped our faces, chilling us to the bone – and instantly making us hail a cab.  To hell with the cheaper bus. The +200 Norwegian Kroners is more than 1200 pesos but the survival instinct to not suffer in the cold kicked in and consequently kicking out the budget parameters!  So learn – “Cold wind weakens the mind”.

Late October is Autumn, which meant we only have 6-7 hours of day light.  So arriving late afternoon is much like arriving in evening.  Fresh snow made a good ‘warm’ welcome, and after adding another clothing-layer (after checking in) – we braved the city night.   Meals in Norway is quite EXPENSIVE, like 700 pesos for a basic McDonalds meal,  per person!  Without a toy! 

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... "   At Tromso Cathedral area -  I was trying to catch snow in my mouth :) 

The Arctic Cathedral as seen from the city center's harbor area.  

Hotel provided a good, useful map and we unofficially started our (night) city tour – first off, Tromso Cathedral.  We actually just bumped into it.  I liked the Christmasy-feel, with snow around the cathedral, in a small quaint city.   But it was cold so we have to kept moving,  guessing our way to where cheap restaurant might be.   Then from afar we saw the magical sign – perhaps the only fast food shop in town -  Burger King!   If we were to save a few $ for tours and transports, we have to be thrifty in our meals.  Again that’s 700-1000 pesos of ‘cheapness’ in this Kroner-land!

On the way back to our sleeping quarters, I saw a small mountain on the north side of the city – or rather, I saw a distant light on top of the mountain, revealing a possible ‘hiking spot’.  My original plan was to go out of town and do dog-sledding, ride a snow mobile or see the reindeer.  But visiting during off-season obviously has its downside,  those activities are apparently not yet offered or available until 2 more weeks.   So a good hiking spot is always my default backup destination.  And it’s cheap too!

The same mountain view (from below the city) is also a ready canvass to see the Northern Lights during winter months.  No need to go far, I thought.

Hike

Norwegian forests are predominantly ‘taiga’ or boreal type of forest.  I originally thought that everything above the arctic line is the Tundra type.   As if it matters…  They’re all but cold, dry and desolate during late autumn and winter!

When we did our hike, what we saw were dominantly dead-looking birch-tree types in a ‘sad and cold’ landscape.  Not much pine in the area but I saw a few evergreens.  The target mountain was relatively small, and it looked safe given the presence of a cable car.  I guess offered to the lazy ones (or those with fatter wallets). 

The walk should be short, but it was lengthened when we decided to walk and cross the long Tromso bridge connecting the islands.  It was lengthened further when I initially ‘un-smartly’ and deliberately took the winding, gentle eastern path – only to realize that it will obviously take more time and only give us a never-ending ‘dead forest’ experience compared to the direct uphill assault which offered better views of the landscape and seascape below.  

First view point, on the way up.

Attacking the direct route however gave me a nervous pause.  Without crampons (the hiking version) and proper trekking pole – it will be dangerous and an outright stupidity (on my side) to risk my team’s safety.  See, the shallow snow – when stepped on repeatedly (i.e. compacted), sun-melted, then frozen, turns into a slippery, icy slide.  A potential slide to death, if not to the hospital.   Gladly, more than half of the slope have ‘stone steps’ (and a clear sign post advising hikers to avoid the trails for conservation reason) – which made it less risky.  Still, I picked up 2 dead sticks and fashioned them as support poles for my 2 adventurers.   And 'parked my worry' for the slippery descent for the time-being.

It was good to see few hikers here and there, even in a gloomy and initially-cloudy day.   Miserable weather is one thing, ‘feeling lonely’ adds to the mental stress; so seeing people will improve one’s mood.  We’re social beings remember.

Several hikers-who-I-presume-were-athletes zoomed up past us.  The first one who was walking her snow dog disappeared fast – not to be seen again (she’s ok I’m sure), the others were at least kind enough to say hello the second time.  On their way down, that is!

The mountain was not tall enough to ‘inspire us to perspire’, nor super steep to give us a heart-pounding pain or a gasping attack.  We eventually reached the summit ridge – greeted by strong winds coming from the other side.  But who cares – the ‘house station’ was close by and good time to take a break, drink coffee and eat a basic hamburger - which was priced at 180 kroner or 1100 pesos!  (Not counting my refillable coffee).

After like a hundred pictures, we hurried down eager to rest and recover for our late night, 7-hour Aurora hunting trip.

Sami Tribe-inspired pop-up store selling reindeer stuff, wool garments, sausage meat and other souvenirs.  

So what happened with my worry about the slippery descent?  Apparently, you can use your boots or shoes to ‘ski down’ the icy trail.  It was a pleasant surprise to discover that, at least the ‘worrisome member’ of the team can actually semi-ride the slope using his basic skating moves learned from a few visits in SM mall’s rink.   We whooshed down the slope in no time.  And rode a bus this time, going back to ‘sentrum’(city center).

Gear advise.  (For reference only and not to advertise,  my team members’ shoes were waterproof Columbia hiking boots, and mine was an old and super glue-reinforced The North Face goretex trail shoes – none of us used insulated boots which I will recommend for prolonged walk on snow;  It will be smart to bring a small, detachable ‘hiking-crampons’ to lessen the fall risk).

Aurora

After a mere 1 hour of rest in the hotel, we prepped ourselves and put an extra layer of inner jacket for the cold night ahead.  I was wearing 2 mid-layers and a down parka.  Hood, head gear and gloves are all essential for this trip.  As well as torches, SLR camera and tripod.  

(Tip – learn to assemble and operate your apparatus in the dark, and while wearing gloves!)

We booked a ‘tour’ (actually just a ride with ‘free bonfire’) worth a few thousand pesos per head, and joined a mixed team of I-don’t-even-know-where-they-came-from.  This kind of tour doesn’t need much socializing especially if you find yourself busy operating your camera in the dark, ideally away from the rest of the tourists and also making sure that no one will walk in front of your ‘studio’.

Here’s a tip:  The ONLY best way to capture the northern lights,  and to capture color wavelengths that may not be readily seen by the naked eye, is to bring a good SLR were you can adjust the shutter speed, ISO (light sensitivity) and aperture.  Theoretically, a lower aperture, with high ISO and low speed are the settings that you will be after.  As to the exact combination – you have to experiment!  A friend who visited Iceland 2 weeks prior my trip used 2.5 aperture with 1600 ISO.  My colleague on the other hand (lacking a lower aperture setting) used 3.5 with 3000+ ISO with varying speed and maxed at 15 secs (some of the subject shots are blurred owing to the hard-to-control miniscule human movement while posing).

Happy as I can be (it's hard to pose for +10secs so expect a blur).

If you only have point-and-shoot, or worse a GoPro – you may as well bring chips and beer and just enjoy the show.  Sans pictures!

The place where we ‘landed’ was like an hour away North of Tromso proper – dark, mountains around us, by the ‘lake’ with a distant village to the far north.  The key is to go to a place which offers DARKNESS.  My tour team were a tiny bit unlucky to have a bright moonshine which impedes in a proper display of colorful Aurora.  We were lucky enough that the moon hid itself behind the mountain to our northeast, probably a mere 5 degrees below the skyline (but still shining its light around).

Stars, particularly the big dipper group of stars were very clear. 

When we got down the van,  I thought I saw grayish clouds in the northern sky.   But when I reached the icy, watery, dark beach area – the green version of the ‘cloud’ revealed itself.   THE AURORA WAS SHOWING ITSELF TO US!  Albeit a bit shyly.  

Only around 4 smart tourists brought SLRs, who started to panic and scramble to setup their hardware.  I didn’t have one and relied on a co-sharing scheme with my team.  I was after-all a mere winter survival consultant and not THE assigned photographer of the night.  Actually, I thought my small camera can ‘see’ the Aurora - which was apparently not the case.  So the next time you see someone posting magnificent, colorful, super great Aurora Borealis shots – feel good to know that the picture was not how they actually saw it.  Sour graping can lessen the burden of envy, sometimes.

Spectacular, dancing light behind me.

We were lucky enough to see ‘the lights’, dancing in the quiet night,  changing shape, streaks of greenish and ghostly light illuminating in a dark night canvass – reminding one of how beautiful life should be.  It disappeared, and re-appeared in different forms across several hours.  One can only be amazed by nature’s grand design.  It’s a wonder that violent solar flares from our home star can cause such quiet, peaceful and beautiful painting across a starry night sky.

After the first hour, our tour lead started a bonfire and offered marshmallow to roast.  It was really cold with slight but constant wind, I felt it was between -5 to -10C (but the driver suggested a mere 0C, claiming it was actually a warm night).  Yeah right!

The ‘magic show’ lasted for many hours, until we all got exhausted and sleepy.  The wish to have a 3^rd of the sky lit up with full blown Aurora complete with yellow and purple colors -  didn’t happen that night (and should not be expected anyway).  We were thankful that we’ve seen the wonder on our first and only Aurora night trip – and grateful to have witnessed one of the world’s greatest natural phenomenon!

On the way back, the entire team slept soundly – while I still prolonged the experience, cherishing the unforgettable beauty of Aurora.  Who knows, maybe someday I’ll go back to the Arctic circle, and meet her once again face to face. 

*** 

Bibliotek building - if you're a book fun.  Or can read Norwegian ;)

By the harbor.  The 4th (right) building is the Polar museum.

Not lost, just checking out the old place where Roald Amundsen used to stay before his arctic expeditions.  He led the first successful team to the South Pole (Scott's British team came in second and who all perished on their way back).

Polaria.  A few seals live in a pool inside. Designer was inspired by - - ice floes? 

The Arctic Cathedral up-close (you have to cross the long, windy bridge from downtown).