It is not easy to see this region and the city of Tromsø on a globe. Locate Norway then look at the very top, on the polar circle. Between Norwegian coasts and Finnish border, you will only guess numerous islands and ripped coasts … To discover the magic doors of the Arctic, best still is to head out there.
A wonderful breath of nature
The north of Norway is both mountain and sea. Green islands and fjords mix to become one and the same and the mountain sometimes drops straight down in crystal-blue waters.
Purity and freshness of the air are stamped Big North but here, thanks to the Gulf Stream, no ice. Waters remain free all year long. We slide from an island to the other one and we venture on foot or in ski (off-piste skiing naturally because there is no ski slopes) on its coasts and its 90 kilometers high or low mountain range with a view on Lyngenfjord. It’s somewhat as if we assembled a puzzle, every part revealing a so staggering but different landscape. Here, you discover what means “ice blue” and the indescribable light of the polar zones. In summer, you will wait maybe two o’clock in the morning to see the midnight sun being reflected in fjords …
The Alps of Lyngen peaking in 1833 m and multiplying colors, the Lyngen Alps give you abrupt and bucolic hiking trails, rocky valleys, dark forests and snowy summits. Without forgetting few villages with hospitable houses and some dogs sleds.
Those that you could meet are also nature lovers. The county of Troms protects the peculiarity of its landscapes until the close Finnish border.
The Norwegians are known for their almost physical relationship to the nature. Their need for outdoor life, to merge in spotless landscapes, they call it Friluftsliv. Wilder than the famous Lofoten islands, the Lyngen Alps became one of the places that they prefer to connect with this nature that commands respect.
Tromsø, capital of the Arctic
Hardly 1000 inhabitants at the end of the 18th century … Tromsø was not still a capital. With 75 000 inhabitants and counting hundred nationalities today, it owes its development to some explorers of the Big North as Amundsen. More than 300 kilometers north from the polar circle, it became The Door of the Arctic as a starting point of great expeditions in the 20th century and of course, the ideal place to admire auroras borealis.
Tromsø has the charm of these almost timeless cities which marry modernity, nature and traditions. More, it is located next to the highest summits of the Lyngen Alps.
Universities attract students of the whole world, the scientific research blooms, you’ll find here all that a big city can offer, in particular an unbridled cultural and night life. Vestiges of stave churches, polar museum, church organs of the Arctic cathedral, festivals and restaurants … But it seduces also by the Saami roots. These nomadic people of reindeer breeders native of Lapland was the firsts present here. They symbolize an ancestral lifestyle existing since millenniums from Norway to the Northwest of Russia. In Tromsø, during the summer migration, we can discover their traditional craft (Duodji), their sung stories (Joïk) and exchange with them about the daily challenges that they meet.
Concept of the Ultra NORWAY Race 2018
Program of the Ultra NORWAY Race 2018
