Photo by Æventyr
They chase the darkness to see the light
The dirty little secret of people who grew up beneath the auroras of Northern Norway?
We kinda didn't notice them.
Being a kid in Finnmark, the aurora borealis was something that was always just there, like the uniform shape of parents in thermal wear or the normalcy of daytime looking like night half the year.
Flares in the sky that light up the sharp mountains, the flat plateaus and the spectacular cloudberry clusters in the bogs?
Whatever, we had video games.
But once in a while, dragged along by parents on a sled trailing some roaring snowmobile headed into snowy darkness, we did actually look up and realize where we were. Away from the lights that brightened the towns and the roads but dulled the stars, the auroras came out in full force, dense and massive, threatening to crush us for ever forgetting they existed.
Flares in the sky that light up the sharp mountains. Holy hell. How did we not notice? Are you seeing this?
You need darkness to see, and Alta has a lot of it.
Photo by Lars Abrahamsen
Alta is sort of a city? There are restaurants and hotels and a sizable population.
Still, Alta feels more like three small towns that grew and grew until they got embarrassingly close and figured 'what the hell' before running an eraser over the map borders.
Tour guide and resort manager for Æventyr, Annichen E. A. Iwarsson, moved here after years of guiding in Svalbard.
"A lot of it reminds me of Svalbard, but here we have forests, mountains and no polar bears to worry about."
– Annichen E. A. Iwarsson
Photo by Æventyr
Annichen
Photo by Æventyr
Her job is to take visitors out past the outskirts of Alta's borders, away from the warm lights, to let the dark swallow them up. Finnmark is the size of Denmark, and in wintertime most of it is night country, save for the moonlight reflected by the snow.
Escaping the light means getting on a snowmobile or dog sled (Annichen calls the mush huskies her «four-legged colleagues») and setting off through forests or up to the Finnmarksvidda plateau. When they find a good spot and kill the engines of the snowmobiles, the silence and darkness is everywhere.
«And then the sky explodes.»
It's not every night, and she doesn't have a dimmer switch to turn the auroras on or off. In nature, there are no guarantees. But when it happens, visitors' faces brighten – some even cry. Annichen brings out toddy and chocolate.
"I never get as many hugs as when the auroras show themselves."
What some travel half the world to experience, the citizens of Alta have every day. As Karianne Engelien-Anti of Visit Alta puts it:
«The open air and mountains and nature play a larger role in people's day-to-day lives up here. It's right outside our doors.»
Photo by Ina Cristine Helljesen
Alta has everything from 7000 year old rock carvings on the UNESCO world heritage list to modern culture like concerts and theatre, but it remains a city closely connected to what lives outside its citizens’ doors.
Nature is reflected in the local food, both cooked at home or served in restaurants and lodges. Seasonal ingredients make for ever-changing menus. Berries and fish late in the fall, various meats taking over in the wintertime, infusing every dish with a real sense of place. For all of this, the Northern Lights do still remain the main dish for many visitors.
Photo by Fredrik Ahlsen | Visit Norway
When you live here, you see it when you least expect it. Going on an evening walk, it suddenly hits you - the entire sky is illuminated. Alta has a very stable and dry climate, which makes for good aurora conditions.
– Karianne Engelien-Anti
Photo by Æventyr
Looking up, you might be seeing Earth's magnetosphere interacting with the solar winds. Or maybe you see the Sami «guovssahas», souls of the dead dancing in the sky. Or perhaps it is as the Finns said, just your regular magical fox emerging from deep within the woods to run across the sky and create its «revontulet» - fox fires.
The auroras are a meeting place for mythology and science, for history and modernity. People have been looking up and wondering as long as there have been people living around these parts. And people have been seeking darkness.
Go back a couple centuries, when Alta was smaller and illumination was a luxury, people were still seeking to go further into darkness. Alta is where the first photograph of the Northern Lights was ever captured.
Photo by Kurt Johansen
In 1899, professor Kristian Birkeland made the three hour trek out to Halde and built the world's first permanent aurora observatory. In 1944, the Nazis burned it down, but the brickwork remained. It was rebuilt after the war and finally became a landmark and cabin for hikers owned by The Norwegian Trekking Association.
So much of Finnmark is like this. Unassuming buildings and places, but peel one layer off and deep history hides underneath.
Photo by Æventyr
Darkness is not only found on solid ground. Finnmark is just as much about the water as it is about the land, and bobbing along on the waves of the Barents sea in pitch black surroundings is just one more way to commune with the auroras.
«I don't think you can go anywhere that is darker than the sea at night.»
Photo by Alexander Benjaminsen | Visit Norway
When Valerie Gerdes first came here from Germany, she would run out in her pajamas at even the weakest hint of an aurora. Now, working as both manager and guide for Finnmark Moods, her work place is Sea Runner, a passenger boat that treks visitors out to sea to look for whales, crabs or the auroras.
«I love my job, I'm so excited every time I go out to sea. I have 47.000 pictures on my phone.»
Valerie
Photos by Valerie Gerdes
Some nights are easy. Other nights, the lights are far away or blocked. That's when it becomes a chase. She remembers guiding a group from China under a thick cloud cover. In the distance, she saw the cloud edges and a hint of something green. So they started driving, and all of a sudden it was above them. And they did like they always do.
We turn off all the lights on the boat except for the safety, and the colors of the Northern Lights just pop. The green comes out so much better. These super crazy dancing lights. You stand there and forget your toes are freezing off. It's like another world. I don't think it's something you ever get used to.
– Valerie Gerdes
Growing up in Finnmark meant looking for ways to not be bored. We sought excitement in glowing screens, chasing shapes and stories from faraway places. Somewhere something actually happened and everything would be big.
Only much later does the realization hit, that up here everything was already happening, and it was everywhere else that was small.
Video by Timo Oksanen
Alta's winter wonders await you
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