Ski and Paddle Norway 2009

Distance 37km | Time 9hrs | Ascent 580m | Descent 1100m

It was very cold in the morning, minus 26 to be precise. The air was stinging my face and penetrating my trousers. I said goodbye to the nice couple who ran Randsverk camping and set off up the snow covered road for the 4 km to Lemensjo. It was just after 0800 and very light now.

The road was quite tedious and uphill all the way to Lemonsjo lodge. At the lodge I left the road as advised and headed east to Slomba on prepared tracks. It was fantastic skiing along the easy track amoung pine trees thick with snow.

Slomba itself was a collection of summer farms over looking a lake. It was very pretty and in the bright sun looked idyllic. Just beyond Slomba was the very nice Gronstulen summer farm. The prepared track petered out here but luckily there was still old compacted tracks in the deep snow and other skiiers had been recently.

The track now headed due north over the east shoulder of Graho hill. From the top of the shoulder I was out of the forest and could see over to the white rounded mountains of Rondane. The mountains of the next stage. Stage 6. The view was crystal clear and they were perhaps 40 km away.

From the shoulder I dropped down the other side to Melingen lake. This descent was absolutely enchanting. If yesterday was skiing in a postcard this was skiing through a fairytale. Amongst the pines were numerous old log cabins and summer farms basking in sunny clearings. Across the valley on the south facing side were many more farms with the frozen Melingen lake between. This high hidden valley was a Shangri-la and one of the prettiest sights I have seen in Norway.

Unfortunately the time came to leave the valley when I reached Reiret. I now followed the icy road north into the very cold shade down into the main Ottadalen valley. The road was steep and went through numerous hairpin bends On one of them, quite far down, was a even smaller road which I took.

This smaller road took me past some grand farms and eventually down to the valley floor on the small road which went along the south side of the river Otta. It was in the shade and bitterly cold.

I walked along this road for 15km as there was a lot of grit and gravel in the snow beside the road. It was a change to walk and reminded me of the first days. I rejoiced at how much fitter I am now, as the 15 km was a breeze

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 at 10:21 am and is filed under Update. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.