Day 95. Gaskashytta to Vuomahytta
Posted by: James on April 5, 2009Distance 17km | Time 5hrs | Ascent 490m | Descent 280m
I slept well in the cabin and woke at 0700. The stove was out so I relit it and had breakfast. The girls were up soon after. Breakfast was a chatty, good-humoured hour. After breakfast there was a small photo session and goodbyes before I set off at 0930.
It was a glorious day again with the temperature around minus 8. My route was initially up through the thin birch wood and then soon onto the bare hillside in Gaskasvaggi valley. It looked quite rugged up the valley. The birch trees stood out sharply against the brilliant white background of this bright Arctic light.
The route went up the valley for a good 3 km. There were a few ski tracks but it was not necessary to follow them as the snow was hard. There was some sastrugi formations which made skiing more difficult. After 3 km the route veered east and continued up. It was warm enough to pack the hat, gloves and jacket and just go in a vest.
All around me were impressive mountains. Although not that high at around 1500 metres they were very rugged. A few of the glaciers which had been shaping this landscape remained. The majority had gone leaving steep corries with small lakes.
As I climbed up the valley the gradient eased but a bitter breeze forced me to put my jacket and gloves back on.
The next 10 km to Vuomahytta cabin were quite unexpected and very scenic. I had assumed the landscape here was quite ordinary. Quite the opposite. The mountains on each side especially to the north were very impressive indeed As impressive as Rondane in southern Norway.
In addition to impressive mountain scenery the valley gently descended to give me a fast ski with the odd freewheeling section. It was still nice weather but there were some herring bone cloud forming above me and it was clouding over to the west. This spell of good weather seemed to be coming to an end.
I soon saw the cabins on the edge of the Vuomajarvi lake. This lake and many others in the immediate vicinity were famed for the size of the Arctic char. There were a few small fish here but also a few giants. Every year somebody fishing through a hole in the ice caught one which was around 5 kg.
As a result the cabin had a fair share of fishermen. Unlike Sweden however these fishermen had to ski to the cabin as snow scooters are not allowed. Most came with sledges. In the cabin I was in there were 3 more middle aged fisherman and in the other cabin were 3 older teenagers who arrived at the same time as me. They each had a sledge and had come from fishing a neighbouring lake where they had been camping. It was good to see such young people confident in the outdoors rather than sitting in front of a LCD screen.
While I was dithering about going on or not two of the fishermen returned from the lake. We chatted and they were very nice, knowledgeable and interesting. It was only 1430 but rather than ski the remaining 5-6 hours to the next cabin at Havga I decided to stay. As I wrote the blog two lady skiers arrived. They were in charge of the maintenance and running of Dividalshytta cabin. They knew a lot about the area and I picked their brains a bit.
Soon a very easy going friendly couple arrived from Dividalshytta cabin. Then the 3 ice fisherman returned from the lake with the days catch of a few half kilo Arctic char each. They ate some of the fish and let the others freeze outside.
I tried to keep up with the conversation in the evening but the soft melodic north Norwegian dialect was difficult for me. I felt myself getting more are more tired and eventually crashed quite early at 2130. I fell asleep immediately.
It was a another good day. I had been very lucky with the weather and have almost enjoyed 3 weeks of blue skies and sunny days now. The ski was very good and the company I had in the morning and evening was excellent.