Lost in the Woods, Sjursnes

Welcome to Sjursnes (pronounced “shoos-ness”)!

I’m not going to lie that I low key had the soundtrack of Frozen and Frozen II in my head for a lot of this trip to Norway.  Digging into the Sami culture (more on that later), it’s no surprise why.

Channeling a little bit of Kristoff on this one, we left Tromsø for an afternoon to get lost in the woods with a little tour group on what was billed as “the best kept secret” for a snowshoe hike. 

And after a soggy four days of rain, the soft powdery snow under the ever-broadening daylight was just what we needed.

We were v. excited to be outside, as you can see.

We hopped in our minibus and drove about an hour outside of town to a tiny, tiny town tucked into the Norwegian Alps.

And got lost in the majestic, snow-covered woods.

V and I are both apt to head outdoors given any opportunity, and we were both excited to try out our snow legs for a completely new adventure.

Neither one of us winter-sport girls…well, we may have found our groove.

The sky was barely, barely blue and quickly turned grey as we encountered a little bit of unexpected snow, but the uniformity in colour between the land and sky, to me, made it all the more breathtaking.

Truly.

And when I don’t have to drive or commute in it, I really do love the snow.

This area is one traditionally inhabited by the mountain Sami and in many way, remains utterly untouched.  The steady calm in the air was a welcome distraction to the chaos of thoughts that were swimming in all of our heads that day.

In the summer, this area turns into a lush wonderland perfect for fishing, hiking and dipping toes into the fresh mountain water.

I can’t wait to go back and see it.