ALTA – SEE A HILL; CLIMB IT

Today has been our second full day in Alta, and we decided we would spend it climbing a hill we’d spotted from the ship, and also walked past, on the way back from the town centre yesterday.

There was only one thing bothering us slightly; despite it not being a particularly mountainous hill, it did appear to be entirely covered in snow, and from the icy conditions underfoot around the port area, we were kicking ourselves for not having brought our spikes with us. A fellow passenger in The Grill at breakfast tipped us off to the fact that spikes had been handed out to the passengers, and that it might be worth asking at reception if they had any spare that we could borrow. So – on the way towards the gangway – we did… but unfortunately, they only had small sizes left… so we decided, spikes or no spikes, that we’d press on and manage regardless.

We did borrow a couple of hiking poles, though, from the selection that sit in a bucket by the gangway.

We retraced our steps up the hill, along the road towards the town, to a point where the hiking trails began. A quick perusal of an information board showing a handy map of the main trails available helped to point us in the right direction, and off we set…

It was sunny, but very cold and windy, particularly as we got higher. Despite the deep snow in all directions, the paths were easy enough to follow, with only a few steep places where the spikes would have been handy. Stepping off the path occasionally resulted in sinking into snow up to my knees, and when the going did get slippy due to compacted ice, there was almost always a convenient tree to hang onto.

As we climbed, we also met lots of other walkers, all of whom seemed to be Norwegians (although, not all had spikes on, which made us feel a little better).

At the summit, the wind was blowing a hoolie, but the views were simply stunning in all directions. We signed the visitors book which sat in a protective box attached to a pole and proceeded to potter around amongst the rocks and the snowdrifts, taking as many photographs as we could until we couldn’t stand the cold any longer and headed on down.

Going down was a little more challenging, but we managed it without any major incidents. Most importantly, we felt more than satisfied that we’d used our time in Alta wisely. By the time we got back to the ship, we’d missed lunch, and it had been too cold to eat the apples we’d taken up the hill with us, so we topped up our food levels in the Living Room where there are always cookies and canapes available, along with coffee and beer. All-about time was 5:30pm, so we had plenty of time, and could have spent longer on the hill if we’d wanted to. I have a commission to paint the Northern Lights, however, and I knew that the latter part of this afternoon would be the only available free time I’d have in which to do it.

I’m pleased to say that I completed my task in time to get out on the balcony and take some particularly impressive shots of the mountains as we left Alta.