''Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can... It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own. ''

At this point, climbing became quite a challenge. I had to pause and take a break about fifty meters further up this slope. I took this shot of Nadia scaling the soggy ground.

We arrived at the snow, and had to trek through it to avoid avalanche territory. Yes, that sounds ironic to me as well. I got this picture of Edmondas, who had a head start.

We paused at these rocks that were half-way up the snow. In this photograph, Karl has just reminded Nadia of how impressed the volleyball team in Malta will be when they hear how she's been training!

Above the snow patch, we paused for a much-needed break. There was a time when we seriously considered turning back. Each time we reached what appeared to be the top, another rock face would come into view.

This is the beginning of the final ascent. The ground consisted of nothing but rock at this height. Tromsø is about 150 degrees to the right.

Here's another photo looking off a precipice. I couldn't capture with a photograph how steep the cliff here was without jeopardizing the camera. And me.

Less than 50 meters from the peak (and about 400 meters horizontally), Nadia and I stopped to enjoy the scenery. The others had already made it. You can't imagine how proud we were at this point.

Tromsø from 1238 meters. That little mountain off to the left is the one the cable car climbs up to. Talk about a change in perspective! On Sunday - yesterday - the cable car got stuck around 2:30 in the afternoon. It took them over eight hours to evacuate the passengers, and the event made the Norwegian national news.

In this picture, you can see some of the places I've been telling you about. See the second bridge, off in the distance? It leads to Whale Island. Markus and Karen's place is just over to the right of this picture on that island.

Edmondas had brought up a Mack-Øl towel with him. The colours happen to match those worn by the national Lithuanian football team!

Edmondas took this shot of Nadia, me, and Karl at the summit. This is looking away from Tromsø towards the rest of the islands.

Here are the intrepid adventurers on the top of the world. We signed the book left at the summit, took a short break, and started down another route.

It was almost midnight at that point, and we weren't to be home until almost 3:00AM Sunday morning. I may have met Nadia and Karl less than a week ago, and Edmondas only a few weeks prior, but one of the the most powerful elements of the Tromsdalstinden experience was the friendship that we forged on the way there and back again. I feel blessed to have seen the world of Tromsø from such a completely different perspective.

Attitude, latitude, altitude... we were on top of it all!