Over the mountains

This time everything about a wonderful hike through ice, snow and mountains. 

On Friday evening, Pia and I spontaneously decided to hike to Ulriken on Saturday. Until now, we never dared because of the weather conditions, but on Friday a Spanish guy told us that he had been up there this week and that the path is also possible without spikes. Enough footprints have pressed their own staircase into the snow, which is easier to climb than the actual stairs. And since it would be the last cold sunny day in four weeks, we didn't want to miss this fantastic clear view of the mountains. To get to the starting point of the hike below Ulriken, we first took the Bybanen towards the center and from there we wanted to switch to a bus towards Ulriken. We had to wait 20 minutes at the bus stop. Some Norwegians stood next to us with skis and without in their hands, heading to the same destination as us. The bus came around the corner, Pia jumped off the seat and ran to the curb, the bus accelerated and drove past all of us. Confused and speechless, we all stood there at first. A few jumped into the Bybanen towards Sonstewo. We were somewhat unsure whether we were at the wrong bus stop or had read the wrong time. However, we could not find a reason why the bus did not stop. The next bus didn't leave for another half an hour and we considered what to do. Pia suggested to simply walk a few stops to Ulriken in the meantime or to get as close as possible with the Bybanen. While we were considering this, time passed and in the end we decided to go to the bus station, because the bus would definitely stop there. So we drove towards the bus and it actually stopped there. The bus was packed but we squeezed ourselves in. He stopped at our original bus stop this time and even more people squeezed in. But the further he drove, the more often he only stopped to tell the waiting people that they should wait for the next one. Luckily, we were going in the right direction. By the way, the distance rules were quite casually disregarded. After a long journey, we finally arrived and walked the path with what felt like a whole tour group. The path was wide and easy to walk on. After a few bends, we took the only 800-meter-long path to the summit. The signpost was at an altitude of 270 meters, so it was a decent climb. The actual stairs were more like an ice rink, but fortunately there were the self-made ones next to them. However, you occasionally slipped and slid. It also got warm. You could only look back if you stood still, but you couldn't stay there too long because you didn't want to block the way for others without having to avoid the ice rink. After a few breaks, we finally reached the top and what can I say, the view was simply amazing, fantastic, wonderful, brilliant and bloody deadly. This time you could really see as far as the open sea. The Løvstakken looked like a small hill. Behind us, the landscape was simply hilly, soft, and white. We took a break and enjoyed the view. From there we continued towards Fløyen. We would walk over the wall or the wave, as Pia and I call the mountain Storfjellet. When viewed from below, it looks threatening and enormous because it has no peak, but is flat at the top. This makes it look so intimidating and dangerous. The world above looked more like the ice desert in Star Wars, but only with a blue sky and sunshine. When the snow had melted in some places and then frozen again as an ice cover over the rest, it had an interesting pattern. The path was otherwise easily walkable, thanks to the many feet and skis. By now, the snow was very dry and each ice crystal lay individually next to the other. It felt like sand and it was partially slippery downhill. We passed some snow-covered mountain lakes and had to walk steeply downhill and later uphill to reach Rundemanen. Of the two of us, Pia had the safer step this time, because I sat down in the snow every two meters. Maybe it was also because I started laughing the first time and my muscles didn't want to tense up again. Anyway, I only had to lift my head when Pia called me and I was sitting on my butt again. We narrowly escaped a crazy skier. He was so nice and drove down the slope, but he also didn't have the option to dodge far or brake. We somehow missed the official and therefore well-trodden path to Rundemanen, so we walked through deep snow and hiked up the hill in the shadow of the mountain. When we came out of the shadows, it felt like a second sunrise. After I had already been to Rundemanen and seen absolutely nothing, we could also let our gaze wander over the mountains, towards Ulriken and over the sea here. We walked in the same direction towards Fløyen as I did back then. However, it took me some time to recognize it again, everything looked so damn different. When we arrived at Fløyen, we followed familiar paths and arrived back down quite exhausted. The day had been super beautiful and a new discovery of snow-covered mountain landscapes.

Our impressive round in the snow: https://www.komoot.de/tour/316325363?ref=itd&share_token=ac72qOMHISY7xyvgqfQwUeqzjAWW4Gir0um3S1n3gxU1PExH43