
What you’ll do:
After a cablecar ride, you will map hiking trails and cairns on the mountain.
When:
June-September (when there is no snow on the ground)
Where:
From Fjellheisen (cable car), up to Storsteinen, Fløya and Bønntuva.
Duration:
4 hours
What the project is about:
What are cairns? Well, you probably saw them if you have hiked in mountains. You might even have contributed to growing one. Cairns are constructed piles of rocks that mark trails and guide hikers in barren areas. They are particularly important during periods of low visibility and in winter when snow covers the trails. USEFUL OR USELESS Along trails, cairns are useful landmarks. But did you know that cairns can also be a disaster, harming nature and being paradoxically a safety issue for hikers? With this project, we are using citizen science to inform about the evil nature of some cairns and encourage more virtuous practices in the mountains. PETER GOT LOST Imagine a mountain in Tromsø. It is November. The visibility is low. Peter is a trained hiker, but with these conditions, he is struggling to see the trail. In the far distance, Peter sees the vague silhouette of a cairn, and he decides to walk in its direction. But as he gets closer, something doesn’t feel right. The terrain gets steeper and steeper, the rocks are icy and slippery, and suddenly a cliff appears under Peter’s feet. Now, we wish Peter the best, and don’t worry about him, he will make it safe and sound. But not everyone is as lucky as Peter. In Norway, trolls have a bad reputation, but cairns are responsible for more accidents. A useful cairn is a cairn that grows along hiking trails. All other cairns are potentially evil. TO CAIRN OR NOT TO CAIRN And that’s not all. Take Fløya for example, the mountain above the cable car. It is now July. The growing season is short at this latitude, and plants must hurry up to do what they have to do. Even in summer, weather can be harsh in the Arctic. To survive, these plants use rocks as micro shelters. Pick a rock (say, to grow a cairn) and some plants will find themselves so brutally exposed to the elements that they will dry to death. One person moving a rock in the mountains is no big deal, but mountains like Fløya are visited by several thousands of people every summer. The impact of rock picking on plants is significant. To make it worse, Fløya’s plant composition is literally extraordinary. Many red-listed species are found there. Most people look at the view, but there is a wealth of life trying to grow at feet’s level. WHAT WE CARE ABOUT, WE PROTECT This project aims to inspire participants to care for the mountain plants. Together, we document how existing cairns grow and how new ones appear, following a protocol developed with our research partner. And so, we hike and joyfully map the cairns. While we’re at it, we also map the ever-expanding hiking trails on Fløya. Once people start noticing the unnecessary cairns, the many trails, and the plants struggling to survive in this harsh environment, they often don't need convincing to do the right thing: give the plants a fighting chance beside their life-saving rocks. Do you want to help plants and learn leave-no-trace practices? Join the next event!