7 Mountain Tour

Today I learned the word for mud in Norwegian: gjørme!

A few other words that I heard people using to describe the situation we found ourselves in: galskap (insanity) and gjørmebade (mud bath).

I hiked for almost 12 hours, covered 35 kilometers and climbed 7 mountains ranging from 350 to 640 meters above sea level. Part of the reason it rains so much in Bergen is that, no matter which way the clouds are blown by the wind, they are pushed up a mountain. Today I became a real Bergenser by standing on top of all of them in one day. Along with 5000 other Norwegians, hence the mud.

Insanity? Probably yes. But I’d say it’s a good kind of insanity. As we slipped and sloshed down the face of Mount Ulriken, one Norwegian lady commented to another, “I think the fact that we are doing this reveals something about us…”

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On the way down from each of the mountains we passed through neighborhoods where friendly Bergen residents left their hoses running for 7-fjell tur participants to refill water bottles. Many also capitalized on the captive, hungry audience by setting up stands to sell cake and coffee and waffles. I had a delicious waffle with strawberry jam and rømme (a cream not quite as sour as sour cream in the US).

As described in the previous blog post, there has been a lot of rain this May in Bergen. Today we were lucky and for the first portion of the hike the rain held off, the sun shone, and the views were spectacular. Around 5pm the wind began to howl and the rain let loose.

When I began to get tired and think about quitting, I noticed the 8-year-olds keeping pace or passing me, and the gray-haired couples plodding along, and realized that there was no choice. A true Bergenser I would be!

Now the sweetness of sleep, despite the anticipation of soreness. No bicycling to work for me tomorrow…