Lille Piggtinden (27.09.2012)
Written by hmsv1 (Hannah Vickers)
| Start point | Grønvoll |
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| Characteristic | Hike |
| Map |
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| Ascents | Lille Piggtinden (1,032m) | 27.09.2012 |
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A very excellent day out. And my very first trip up a 'Lyngen Alp'. I have really only had one primary mountain 'goal' since moving to Tromso, and that is to climb at least one mountain in Lyngen, and this was the trip that fulfilled it, even though Lille Piggtinden is not really in the heart of the Lyngen peninsula. Anyway, I met up with two guys at ICA Langnes at kl.10 - Asbjorn, who I had met on previous trip and Reidar, who was a friend of Asbjorn's. Reidar drove us down towards the parking place in Lakselvdalen where we would begin the hike up. It was quite an impressive view of Lille Piggtinden from the entrance to the valley, and one which I wish I had got a photo of before before we started! I think it was more or less by the shores of Sørfjorden at it's western end where we parked up - but I'm not too sure of the exact location. When we got out it was feeling decidedly fresh, and only about 2 degrees. Fortunately we clear blue sky and not a breath of wind, so it looked like it would be a very fine day to be on the mountain. Anyway, from here we followed an old tractor route up the mountainside, and there was a vague kind of trail where it looked like people had been walking before. To be walking among the golden and orange-coloured trees again was really delightful. Nothing beats a good autumn day's hike with these surroundings to admire! The path didn't last for long though, and we eventually just took a direct line up the mountainside, keeping as much to the grass covered parts as possible, so we wouldn't have to walk across the ur for the whole way. The height was gained quickly, albeit at the expense of my fairly stiff legs, having not had much of a warm up beforehand. But there was no rush and we used plenty of time to stop and take pictures as usual. The forest was not too thick, so were soon above the treeline and could see across Sørfjorden and Lakselvatnet, with Blåtinden sitting at the far end and Rasmustinden, which was next to Lille Piggtinden.
We had skirted across the mountainside a little more to the northeast from where we left the car, but the more commonly used route to Lille Piggtinden was to ascend from its southern end, so we had to take a little diversion more to the south to get round to the correct side for ascending the upper part of the mountain. Here, the terrain changed from soft, colourful grass to bigger rocks - most of which were solid, but a few were a little less stable. We found a useful crag to pause at for lunch though, and took a break here after about 2 hours. Above the lunch stop followed more 'ur' until we reached the shoulder of the ridge where it flattened out very slightly. It was a good viewpoint from which to see the remainder of the route up to the top, which more or less followed a central gully in the upper part of the mountain. This part would have been quite fine, if it were not for the loose, small stones and sand covering the rocks which were actually not that good to tread over. Fortunately there were only a few metres of proper scrambling, and they were on solid rock.
There was only one move which needed some thought before I got over it, but it was much better than I first imagined, and above this we spotted a varden/some piles of stones. They were useful to find the most straightforward route to the top of Lille Piggtinden, which was now not at all far away. I was most glad about the fact that the rock did not have any ice cover, although there was a think layer of snow in places which made us have to take more care. The views from the top were incredible though, and it was the perfect point from which to look out over the Lyngen peninsula, and across to Jiehkkevarri, the Lakselvtindane and Langdalstindane. It was just a shame that the tops of the summits were covered in some fog, so it kind of obscured all the exciting parts of the Lyngen peaks :-( But nevertheless, I was very impressed by the 360-degree panorama around us, even though it was a little bit windy and we couldn't sit around for a little bit longer and enjoy the views.
The route back down was pretty much identical to our route up, and for the first part descending down to the shoulder on the ridge, I had a few reservations because over some of the rock slabs which were covered in some snow and the bit of scrambling I had thought was a little bit tricky on the way up. But it went well, and it was not nearly as challenging as I had anticipated - probably because I was taking care to concentrate a lot and be cautious! Always good to relax back at the car and not before then in my opinion!
The way back over the rock boulders was also much faster, if only a little bit hard on the knees at times. We took another break at the place where we had stopped for some lunch earlier and soaked up some very warm afternoon sunshine here. It had been a shame we'd not had the sun at the top too, but at least we got the views :-) The nicest part about having the sun on us as we descended back down the mountainside was that the trees appeared even more golden than they had seemed on the way up and the red colored flowers were even more beautiful than before. After the grey rocks on the upper part of the mountain, this was a perfect finish to the trip! I'm tempted to downgrade the rating of the hike from a 6 to a 5 on the basis of loose rock, but I guess now if they weren't there, we wouldn't be on a typical Lyngen mountain...... nope, this was just the right mix of amazing views, luftig-ness, fun scrambling and fine weather and good company so it definitely deserves a 6.
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