We ended our Scandinavian fieldwork trip with two days at the other sides of the mountains. We had to find back the Norwegian plots of the roadside research of two years ago to install temperature sensors in the soil.

This little trip brought us the highlights of the Norwegian summer in a peaceful valley called Sjkomdal, in this season a true example of a Scandinavian paradise.

We traveled up and down between the softness of the grasslands in the valley and the breathtaking views from the mountain tops.

The ultimate goal was to find back the sticks that had been waiting for two years in the immense eternal forests and tundra to mark the location of all plots. For the next year, they will guard the temperature sensors until I come back to pick them up.

Luckily, we had gps-coordinates, pictures of the locations and some marks in the field to help us on this true treasure hunt. This facilitated the search drastically, although some sticks still managed to disappear untraceably over the years.

It was nice to be reunited with my plots after two years; coming back there felt like revisiting a childhood playground. With the help of two days of fantastic summer weather, I now finally realized the full beauty of the area and the luck we had to do science up there.

After a long and hot day of climbing the mountains, we set up our tent close to a lovely and cute ‘Fjällbuhytta’, right above a river perfectly suited for an evening swim. We took our time to swim away the dust of the working day and watched the alpenglow on the mountains at midnight.

Mission accomplished in the best of circumstances, that is one thing that makes ecology so amazing!