a 1000m rock wall in your right falls directly to the sea, in front of you, a 20km ridge line is meandering joining the 8 summits of Ersfjord in Kvaloya. With 20km and 3000m of elevation, this route from Skamtinden to Store Blåmannen, with some IV class steeps is one of the most famous in Kvaloya island, Tromso, Norway.
The traverse was done the first time in 1978 by Frode Guldal who spent 11 hours on the trip. The tour starts with Skamtinden, before go over Storstolpan, Store Hollendaren, Revbergtinden, Brattbergtinden, Melketinden,Styrmannstinden, Zapffetoppen fand finish on Store Blåmannen.
The start is in Rekvik, 50km driving from Tromso into Kvaloya island. From sea level it starts with a 1000m uphill straight to the summit, with some III class steeps on a exposed traverse we follow until next summit, there it’s a small down climbing section where sometimes you will like to have a abseiling. We continue on easy running between big rocks and some short scrambling sections (sometimes really aerial) following the ridge to the east until a big tower that we will climb on a big “cheminee” of 200m with some IV steeps, exposed. We follow the ridge until the Hollendaren. We go down in the glacier and follow the ridge on a easy terrain until Brattbergtinden, where we leave the ridge that follows the sea and we take the left ridge on a evident circus. A delicate down climbing (or abseiling) and some running on big blocks until we pass close to Blamann hut. From here a vertical 300m very exposed on III-IV takes us to the summit of Zaffetopen, we follow and climb the 3 summits, until we go down to a large pass and start a long rocky ridge to Blamann (some III passages exposed). From the highest summit of Kvaloya, with 1044m we will take a long downhill straight to the sea to finish the traverse.
equipement: running shoes, a rope can be great for some abseiling (40m) here a good description of the route: http://kugo.no/2014/08/ersfjordtraversen/ Kvaloya is a great place for ridge traverses and rock climbing: http://27crags.com/areas/kvalya and around Tromso they’re many possibilities: http://www.lyngen.name