Oop North

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Oh, and I've been keeping some other stuff close to my chest too. A plan's been hatching for some time now. I'll be heading back up North for some wild time in the first week of July. Yes you guessed correctly. Norway again. It's not out of my system yet. This time I aim to get really high. Not the height you measure in meters though. Oh no. The height you measure in degrees, minutes and seconds. Tickets are booked and I'm off to Hammerfest, a hair-raising 70° 39' 50” North, to catch up with my old mate Randulf. He plans to whisk me off to Seiland, a snaggle-toothed little island just across the water. What it lacks in altitude it makes up for in attitude. It may only rise to just over a 1000m at it's highest point, Seilandstuva which roughly translates as “ Seilands Tussock”, but it's home to Norway's Northern most glaciers, Seilandsjokelen and Nordmannsjokelen and the next thing to the North is Svalbard.


  1. Svalbard has Polar bears if I recall. So not good for backpacking without a rifle. Where you are going sound remote and wild. I will look forward to reading all about it.

  2. Sounds like a few of us will be up north this summer, maybe between us we can write a guide to touring above the arctic circle. Bit worried about Martins comments about polar bear though, hopefully with an experienced local they will not be a problem.

  3. Martin, yes there are polar bear on Svalbard. Seiland, a long way South over open water, is thankfully free of them. Seiland is however wild, relatively untouched and has little infrastructure. That's what attracts me to the place. This time out I'll have a guide who knows the place well since Randulf bases himself in Hammerfest. My last time out with Randulf was memorable (see teh Gressamoen write up). I'm looking forewards to this!

    Roger, we would indeed need to pool experience, at a rate of two weekends a year it would take me a fair old time to accumlate a guide books worth on my own :-)


