Tyven Hike

Today was so much fun! We got up and drove to Hammerfest to hike up Mt Tyven. We knew we were getting a wind storm today, but we were hoping it wouldn’t be too bad while we were up there (and it was supposed to get windier as the day went on until finally stopping in the evening so I was hoping if we got there early enough it would be okay).

The hike up started and it was windy, but not too bad. There are 325 steps throughout the hike and they had brought in sherpas from Nepal to carry the stones and make the steps. We got up some of the steps and then two birds flew up the next set after we startled them so we stopped to try and see what they were…and after we stood there for a bit they started coming back towards us and back into the rocks next to the steps! They were Rock Ptarmigans and they were so silly! Eventually a third one joined them and if you look at the photo with just rocks there are all three in that photo! They are almost in a vertical line and we sat and watched them run around for a bit. It was a lot of fun!

Then we kept walking and oh my goodness the wind in the last 500 meters was crazy! I kept having to stop and turn my back to it as it was so strong it was blowing me a little bit! And whipping my hair into my face! We were hiking head into it and it took us forever to go that last bit. But finally we made it to the top and there was a shelter up there and we could get out of the wind! But then it was too warm in the shelter. Once I warmed up I went back out to try and take photos of the view and that wind! I was thinking it was good it was wide open space so if/when it blew me a step it was fine. If it would have been on a cliff or something we would have had to turn back as don’t want to chance stumbling off! So that was crazy, and after we had a little break (and Raymond tried out the firewood splitter) we headed back down. There were two ways to get up there/down and we took the 3km one on the way up and at the bottom I thought we would take the 7km one on the way back and see what else we could see…but not after that wind! We could see where the other trail went and there was a good long section that was still in crazy wind! You could see the lakes it went by and the white caps on them and the spray blowing off the lakes from the wind! I was like well there is no way we are doing that! We just have to get down a ways here to get out of the crazy wind and who knows what the whole 7km other way would be like! In just wanted out of the wind!

Even going down with the wind to our backs took a while! It was still trying to knock me over at times and stairs+ super strong wind = not great! But we took another break when we got out of the wind and enjoyed the views! It was so nice!

On the way down we saw so many snow buntings flying around! I took a short video, but it was like a constant stream of them flying through! And they would land for a second and completely disappear into the rocks/grass.

Then expert mode find that bird - when we got down to where we saw the Rock Ptarmigans we were trying to see if we could find them. I thought they had left the area until one flew up to some rocks. Then we were like okay, where did they come from? Because the other two are probably nearby…and we looked and looked and Raymond finally found the one! So then we looked and looked and I was like there is not a third…I even used my binoculars to look and was like yup! No birds! Only rocks! And we were about ready to give up when Raymond saw the third one move…and it was right next to the second one! It was crazy! I was like I looked there and no birds, but once you see them it is like oh, obviously there is a bird there. But the photo of rocks/grass in between the videos has two of the birds in! If you want a challenge you can try and find them. I showed Raymond and he only found one and he knew where to look! He said if I posted it no one would find them and he may be right…I remembered vaguely where they were which is why I found them, but the second bird in the photo really is quite hidden! Then I added two videos of them walking around - I don’t know why but they made me laugh so much! The second video the bird is so silly! Then after the videos are some of the Snow Buntings! They don’t look like it, but when they are flying they look so white!

This hike was so much fun even with the crazy wind at the top! All the fun birds watching! And just a really nice area to be wandering in!Read more