Mountaineering is quite a challenge in the Finnmark. Not because that climbing a mountain in the Finnmark is technically difficult, but because the landscape is rather flat. All the mountains here are rather small hills. I used to hike quite often in the Alps because I like to enjoy a stunning view from a mountain top. Climbing mountains in the Finnmark is less exhausting than in the Alps, but the view from the top is nevertheless as impressive as from a top in the high mountains.
Since I miss climbing mountains quite a lot, I decided to climb one of those small Finnmark hills every week during this summer. The Finnmark is as big as Denmark or Switzerland, so it should be easy to find enough mountains to climb for my project.
And I start my project with the Sandnesbakke. The small triangle on the picture is an old ski-jump that can be seen from almost everywhere in the close surroundings.
In winter time, the Sandnesbakke is used as a ski-slope. Therefore, a ski lift goes up to the ski-jump. I go up to the top on the track of the ski-lift. And although the difference in altitude is 125 meters on only 500 meters, only the last third of the ascent is steep and exhausting.
When you reach the end of the ski-slope, you can enjoy the first view over the Langfjord. And right next to the ski-lift, you find the biggest of three ski-jumps. These ski-jumps were built in the 1960s and a lot of competitions took place here during the heydays of these constructions. But nowadays they aren’t in use anymore and were closed down in the middle of the 1990s.
If you want to go up on the ski-jump, there is a staircase that you can use. On the last third on the way to the top, the stairs are quite high and even without skies on my shoulder it is quite difficult to climb up these stairs. Moreover, you hardly can see the end of the stair and it feels like I’m walking on a stairway to heaven. But the view from the top is worth the struggle. When I decide to go back and when I have a look on the steep ski run, I get a big respect for those who dare to ski down on ski-jumps. I would not do this for any money in the world.
Just some meters to the west from the ski-lift is another top. I take a last look down to the fjord from here before I start walking home at the back side of the mountain.
Although this mountain is not far away from my home, I hardly go up to the top. But I should do this more often because the view from the top is really beautiful.