In this video by Greg Dennis, we visit a place on Earth about as far removed from 9-to-5 jobs and the hustle and bustle of big cities as one can get. Tromsø—located in northern Norway, above the Arctic Circle— is a location that’s cold, dramatic, and nearly primal in its pristine beauty. This is especially the case during winter—the time of year the native Sami people describe as the “blue time.”
In a kayak, a visitor communes with orcas and humpbacks racing by who barely pay any mind as they pursue herring in the frigid water. Nighttime is lit by timelessly spectacular auroral displays—or the souls of departed ancestors, as the Sami once believed.
Overland travel in the area is by sleigh, pulled along by a team of hardworking huskies through the low winter light. Roads don’t circumscribe the path to be taken—it’s all snow and rock, and, yeah, more snow—and according to guide Jeff Allen, who narrates the video, experiencing this place is “an amazing honor and pleasure.” It’s an opportunity for his visiting passengers to remove the “cotton wool,” as he says, which is wrapped around their civilized lives. The remote and magnificent locale allows them to embrace the magical wild.
