Easter Mountain Walks

Norwegians traditionally go to the mountains for easter. The aim, for most, is to go cross country skiing...and there is something about taking oranges and kitkat like chocolates called Kvikk lunsj with you. J and I, however, decided against battling the crowds and the traffic to go snowboarding, and decided instead to stay in the almost deserted Bergen and hike some of the 7 mountains that surround the city. We climbed a couple last year and decided we better get a move on if we wanted to conquer the rest before we move to Tromsø in June. During the long weekend of this easter we therefore hiked 2 more - Lyderhorn and Damsgårdfjellet.

Lyderhorn was first.

Although we are technically not supposed to, J and I love to let the dogs off the lead and have them free range on the mountain. Mina absolutely loves it and is a born mountain dog. He trots and hops and scrambles up slippery rock faces, making it all look super easy. Moj goes rather slow in comparison because being a male he has to stop, sniff and piss every few steps of course. Both of them were fantastically well behaved though. Mina went ahead and found the tracks, would stop and wait for us at each little ridge top and both came or waited when they were told to. Amazing. Here is Mina all smiles at the top - doesn't she just look right at home?
We chose to do Lyderhorn on a day when the weather was far from perfect. It was overcast, a little drizzly and there was an absolutely bone chilling cold wind at the top, but if you wait for perfect weather for walking in Bergen then you may never leave your house! This just meant that our view was a little diminished, but you still got a pretty amazing 360degree panaorama of islands, ocean, snow capped mountains and city.
Today when we did Damsgårdfjellet though, the weather was absolutely perfect! Clear skies and sunny! Probably about 16 degrees, with a lovely soft cooling breeze. It was a classic fantastic spring day in Bergen. Here is the view we had while we sipped our thermos coffee.

While Lyderhorn gives you a stunning view over the islands around Sotra on the ocean side of Bergen, Damsgårdfjellet gives you a great view into the heart of the city.
And over to the snow capped mountains where most people are off skiing over easter.
Even though it is a bit of a slog to get there...
The delightful views from the top of these mountains makes it all worth the effort.
Hopefully we can manage the last three before we leave, but I'll keep you posted. xxx