Femundsmarka, Norway Ski Tour
Thursday 18th - Sunday 28th March 2010
by Susan
In the end only three of us (Keith, Neil and myself) went to Femundsmarka National Park for a hut-to-hut ski touring holiday. The park is dominated by Lake Femund and is near the Swedish border at a latitude just south of that of Trondheim. Impeccable planning by Keith got us to the DNT Svukuriset serviced hut at the southern end of the park area. This involved a day’s travelling from the airport hotel on 4 buses and a 2½ hour ski, arriving half an hour after new staff (a Swedish couple) had arrived to open the place up for the season. We had planned to follow a marked summer route to the hut through trees and over the brow of a hill, but our progress was extremely slow through the deep snow and the navigation hard (we soon lost the red marks on the trees). Instead we decided to take a longer but easier route by tracks. Whilst we were plowtering around the woods we were rewarded with our only sighting of elk during the holiday. The Swedish couple at the hut were very hospitable and provided a gourmet meal. This called for splashing out and the purchase of some alcohol.
We had booked ourselves in for 3 nights at Svukuriset and over the following couple of days we explored the area. We went up Stor Svuku, the nearby mountain. It was about a 700 m climb and this got me using my skins. Keith and Neil gallantly traversed up the whole way without skins – despite carrying them! This turned out to be the only time that any of us used our skins on the holiday. Reindeer were also spotted – apparently the area was the southern-most extent of reindeer in Norway.
Vista near Svukuriset
One evening there was a wonderful slideshow laid on for the DNT tour that was passing through. The photos were of wildlife and of scenery, all from the area of the park. There was also a series of wonderfully atmospheric shots of traditionally-clad Swedes coming over to a winter market with ponies hauling heavy wooden sleds laden with furs and other goods.
The next few days saw us starting our tour proper. We were heading for Røros to the north where we would catch a train back to Oslo. The first stopping point was the DNT Røvollen self-service hut, 18 km away. The food in these self-service huts is not exactly gourmet but as Keith says, it’s all in the mixing (bit like cocktails!). There’s plenty to keep you busy when you arrive at a self-service hut – getting the stove going, collecting snow for water, cooking, locating and possibly digging out the toilet, but once feed, watered and warmed up, you really appreciate the relatively comfortable access they provide to remote and beautiful areas of Norway.
The next stopping off point was a whooping 28 km away. What’s more it was very uncertain as to what was there as it was a closed DNT hut (Ljøsnåvollen), but rumoured to still serve hot meals. Needless to say when we eventually arrived at dusk dog-tired, no one was there and it took us a while to even locate an open building. Once inside we found a bag of food and 3 duvets left for us! The relieve was immense and once we got the stove going the only difficulty remaining was how to eat runny stew (and the porridge the next morning) without any cutlery whatsoever! The crispbreads certainly came into their own. Soon we were able to appreciate that the place was full of lovely old ornately carved furniture and was full of character.
Whisky time at Ljøsnåvollen
The next day we were moving on. Generally it was planned to stay 2 nights in each place allowing for exploration of the area without full packs. However our tour route coincided rather closely to that of an official DNT tour and we realised that some of the huts were not big enough to accommodate the 2 parties. As a result we weren’t able to stay where we wanted to every night. It was another fairly long day (25 km) but like the previous day we decided to ski as much as possible on the lake because this made the navigation easy and the going relatively fast. It is a strange feeling skiing on what is a huge expanse of water in the summer. Very peaceful. The weather was rather excellent the whole time we were there with little wind. This was much appreciated during these long days on the lake.
The hut was Marenvollen self-service hut. Apart from in Svukuriset and Røvollen we were entirely on our own in these huts. It was the nicest hut of the holiday. There was a weighing device there and we weighed each of our packs, including full water bottles. We were all between 10.5 and 12.5 kg so we did really well with our packing. We were not carrying sleeping bags but had a shovel, wind shelter and emergency insulation bags with us. It was surprising that Keith’s came out the heaviest as he seemed the most efficient of us all. Anyway I can assure you that you feel every 100 g after a long day and it’s well worth putting the effort into minimising weight, without, of course, compromising safety.
Marenvollen DNT hut
After Marenvollen the navigation was easy as we were on marked, and eventually cut, trails leading to Røros, our final destination. Røros is a World Heritage site because it retains much of the infrastructure from the mining industry a few hundred years previously. The worst weather was encountered here – rain! Despite this Neil and I hired some lightweight løyping ski equipment and went for a quick dash (we had used metal-edged skis and either plastic or heavy leather boots for the tour).
All in all, a lovely tour.
Susan, legless