Norway is beautiful… as advertised. The northern parts in the Lofoten archipelago felt like ever-green arctic tropics (somehow?). Golden green mountains glowing in 24/7 sun. It felt smaller…cuter…relatable. A nordic “wild coast” if you please. Climbing the mountains there didn’t give the feeling of “wow I’m small” like it does as you move further down in the country. Further south, the mountains are huge. Mainland beasts towering up and over vast fjords: big bodies of blue making it hard to believe that the spidery arms of land could all connect (somewhere?), with a surprising 84% of Norway’s total surface area being mainland. It felt as if we were driving across a million islands connected together by impossibly massive bridges and deep bored-out underground tunnels, but it turns out that these were mostly arms of the same beast! One land mass shooting both vertically and horizontally in what feels like every direction imaginable. With Norway’s main antipode located just south of New Zealand, I can’t help but imagine it extending arms down through the earth’s crust and core and out the other side, sculpting the southern alps and fjordlands with its fingertips.
With so many mountains comes ever changing weather. Usually tending towards the colder end of the spectrum. The experience of moving through land and sky on my own two feet always takes my breath away. And not just because these mountains tend to slope up at about 200-500m elevation per kilometer. Small feet finding vertical earth, tree roots, sticky rocks, mossy rocks like dragon skin, muddy slides, wet toes… So many perfect nooks for an adventurous foot. Open hands finding swinging arcs, tiny rock holds, tree trunks for balance, miraculous finger strength in a moment that matters and Raynaud’s in 4ml Neoprene surf gloves (still cold though).
Nothing I can hold in my hand and hide away from the world can compare to this. Hands and feet tether me, for a moment, to this magic existence of human on earth. Then, between each step, between each hold or grip change, there is a brief split second where I am human in sky… And just like that I undulate like a sin graph through the wildest landscapes imaginable, with the wildest weather sequences fathomable, alongside or perhaps with or perhaps enveloped-in the gentlest heart I have ever known.
Human on earth… human in sky…
Inhale… exhale…
Hot sun clear sky… cold wind inside a rain cloud…
Inhale… exhale…
Heart beat ascent… mind sharp descent…
Inhale… exhale…
The cutest old lady in a mountain “hytte” (that calls Joakim Jesus for being a carpenter)… the strangest old man in a small town with a cellphone turn projector and a touch of psychosis (and resentment that Sweden refused to trade half of Volvo for half of Norway’s entire oil industry?)…
Inhale… exhale…
Heart exploding with all the love I have ever felt culminating in this moment… prickly shell closing me up to life’s magic when I forget to listen…
Inhale… exhale…
I am so grateful to love, learn, grow, climb mountains, surf waves, cycle islands, share everything, talk for life times, make endless love… and yes, hide from the rain and wind at times, but this time not from you and not from myself! This time together has been so exposing, so real, so beautiful, so hard, so easy. Thank you Joakim for being part of my curriculum, and hunting fjords in distant antipodes with me!