Norway 2005
By Alan Beal with assistance fom Pam Knight
When I think of Norway I think of settled weather, great snow & easy skiing, comfortable and well equipped huts, well marked trails, and unattainable alcohol. This trip involved none of these !
It all started well enough – Keith’s travel arrangements via Ryan Air worked very well -although a night spent by Prestwick in an independent hostel felt more like sleeping in someone’s garage - and the comfort & punctuality of Norwegian railways is something all commuters should experience.
So settled weather ?
Well, the first days skiing out
of Oppdal to Gjevilvasshytta hut began in bright sunshine and clear
views. In typical ESTC fashion we managed to get 20m from the hotel
before someone’s bindings came apart or boot fell out.. about
60 mins after the first person was ready we managed to get going, just
managing to get past a toddler on skis who had passed us earlier.. It
felt like a long 14km – as indeed it was as it turned out to
be 23km.. we arrived at the hut a bit late at 5.55 but just in time for
tea at this staffed hut - it felt like a late finish. Little did I know
how wrong I was ! It was a great hut, full of life, children, friendly
staff and an open fire.
The next day was a ski to Trollheimshytte, 19km away with a 700m climb. Again, this day started with bright sunshine and a ski along the valley. Our fun was only just beginning… it was slow progress going through deep unbroken snow and then climbing the mountain – the fresh snow was compressing by around 8 inches as it did every subsequent day, and there were no other trails to follow. As we got higher, the poles that marked the winter route began to disappear and the wind got stronger. Then the cloud enveloped us reducing visibility to around 10m and it got cold. It took us some time to admit that we really had now lost the poles and that we had to stop for lunch – around 3pm. This was the time for the bivvy tent which we struggled to get up and stay in. After lunch we realised that we were in the wrong place, next to a fairly exposed drop down.. however with the aid of a GPS we managed to refind the poles and continue. It was now 4pm and we were still on the top.. we followed the poles as best we could – though vast swathes of them were buried completely or only partially visible. Over gully and peak we went, until we finally realised that we were on the downhill part around 5pm, still some 7km from the hut.
Talk about going back was
dismissed, and we started descending.. but this was incredibly slow as
boots fell out of bindings or people fell over.. time ticking away.. it
was 5.30 before 3 of us were together whilst Pam decided to walk it ..
it would be dark by 6pm.. with visibility low, our options were rapidly
running out…. Eventually at 6pm we worked out that our only
way to get to the hut was to walk and use GPS… in the deep,
soft snow, this was slow progress indeed “It’ll be
midnight before we get there” said Dave. It was even more
difficult for Pam & Dave because Dave, having lost his head
torch in the hotel , was using the light from Pam’s torch to
see the way forward.
As we looked at the distance on the GPS it was slow going –
sinking around 24 inches in the snow each step was not easy –
we were covering around 1km an hour. Not my first choice way of
spending a Sunday evening.
We plodded, plodded and plodded. And we plodded. Finally, thanks to
Keith’s flawless navigation using the GPS we reached the
forest which we quickly went through. Finally we arrived by torch lit
procession at midnight.. what a day. The meal – even of
reindeer balls - was most welcome before we collapsed in our bunks..a
full 14 hours of wading and skiing.
So, that’s day 2 with all the characteristics of Scottish in
one day !
Thankfully that was indeed the worst day – however, on full ‘hut to hut’ days we still didn’t arrive before 6pm primarily because of the difficulty of skiing through such deep snow, despite 6am starts ! Fortunately, we spent two nights in each hut so that there was always a full day to recover.
As for comfortable huts – well, some were(Gjevilvasshytta on day 1 and Trollheimshytte days 2 & 3) but.. some weren’t quite so as others. In Karvatn (days 4 & 5) and Innerdalen (days 6 and 7) the dorm temperature didn’t rise above –2oC and on day 6 the temperature started at –15oC but managed to drop to –26oC in a sheltered valley.. not the place to spend a night. Perhaps the most basic was Innerdalen. We expected this to be staffed & so were looking forward to some creature comforts. However, this was not open to us so we had to stay in the unstaffed hut – a hundred year old wooden building with no right angles and no food but plenty of small furry friends (mostly dead).
We could hear running water but the taps didn’t work and we could not find the DC/toilet anywhere.. finally we went to ask (at the staffed hut !) only to be told that we had to dig them both out !! The DC involved digging and clearing a volume of snow 2.3m high by 1.5m long and 50cm wide. That’s a lot of snow ! The water was in a stream beneath the hut which involved digging out a door under the hut.
As for well marked trails.. well we never saw any poles again after the Trollheimen hut day..
In terms of unattainable alcohol .. in a pre trip meeting at the Malt Whisky society we planned whisky rations for each day of the trip which almost worked ! Once we hit the hotel at the end of the trip – a bit like grisly Adams hitting 21st Century new York – we pushed the boat out and bought ourselves a beer each from the bar, intending it to last the evening. However, friendly ( or maybe sozzled) Norwegians took pity on us and bought us a beer and a whisky each – a storming £40 worth – as well as plying us with moonshine! It was a great finish to the main skiing and a great evening in civilisation.
This really was a remote region – we were the first people of 2005 in several huts so it did feel a bit like Arctic exploring ! However, we were well equipped and fit enough to keep going; by asking people & researching we did ensure that we always knew what to expect at our destinations with no unpleasant surprises. Altogether then, a bit more of an epic than I expected, and a great way to lose weight !
So the Moral of the story ? Even the winter routes in winter may be
difficult to follow! Expect to make very slow progress if the snow is
deep; take a GPS! Even better : go to Trollheimen in the summer where
there is 24 hour daylight !!
Alan Beal