Chapter 13 - Climbing to a frozen waterfall

Today, our activity is a bit far from Tromso and hence we had to start early. Though we were tired, limited time pushed us up from our beds. As expected, the car parked last night was full of snow. We took some time to clean up. But, It was fun cleaning the car and we started our drive towards Tromso town. It was about 8 30 already but still dark. We picked sandwiches on the way and the day's activity was booked with " Lyngen Adventure" - Tromso. So, we drove up to the city centre and took the tour company pick up from there. It is an expensive adventure - 1600 NOK per person ( 11800INR), but am sure all of you will agree that its worth it after seeing the pics.

The adventure sport is a 2hr journey from Tromso City Center. We were in a van that had 6 people and as expected, the onward drive was beautiful with white landscapes. We did take a small ferry form Breivikeiet. The plan was to enjoy the view from outside the ferry, but due to the heavy winds, we stayed inside. And the temperature is -16 today. We continued the drive to Lyngseidet after the ferry. Lyngseidet is a small town, we first stopped at the “Magic Mountain Lodge” at the

Lyngen Adventure Office. At the lodge, we picked our accessories needed for the climb and freshened up. The drive to the forest began thereafter for about 15 - 20 mins. The offroad drive was pretty challenging with thick layers of snow and no people around. After parking the van in a snowcovered open area, we began our walk through the forest. A silent work amidst animal sounds at distances and snow for 20 to 30 minutes brought us to the frozen flowing beauty. Wow ! Nature is a bliss. Its an amazing view. The frozen waterfall is much taller than expected where the water is completely frozen to ice. There are about 2 or 3 levels,

We were given some detailed instructions as to how to use the ice axe and crampons(a sharp metal plate fixed to the climbing shoes). Good stamina and energy are required to do this activity - not a cakewalk. The climbing technique is, to get the grip against the ice, we need to hit the crampons hard onto the ice. Once the position is set, our body weight will be on our feet fingers. The next step would be to hit the axe up and pulling your body along for the second step. It took a bit of a struggle to adapt to the right way of moving and climbing up when we climbed the first level, we were already at 100 feet. It felt so amazing to see a frozen waterfall. A real wonder of nature. Near the waterfall, A small tent made of reindeer skin was set up by the tour company wherein we had a campfire and we can survive from the killing cold. A few hours of rest and meanwhile, one of our guides hike up to the top of of the waterfall (through another way) and fixed our safety cables from the top. And yes, the best was yet to come.

the ice waterfall. We literally sweat inside the winter clothes. also, I fell down a couple of times and hit the rocky ice painful indeed. Nevertheless, there is no gain without pain. But all this while, the fun quotient was always alive and even after a 3 hour climb, we could still move on. Each time climbing was a different experience. We never lose the fun. We took a short break in a tent after 3 hours of adventure made some coffee and sausage and we were good to go again.

It was getting dark as it became 3pm and we headed back. The snow forests were silent and us walking made so much noise. It became completely dark as we reached our van , the ferry was also closed. We took an alternative route by road to Tromso city - a longer drive but we were content cause we saw the amazing Northern lights yet another time. Some burgers for dinner, physically exhausted, had nice hot water shower and falling onto bed wrapped the day for us. Tomorrow is going to be drive around Tromso city and the city touring, for which, please come back to read the next Chapter.