Ski and Paddle Norway 2009

Distance 18km | Time 6hrs | Ascent 480m | Descent 180m

After a wonderful breakfast and nice chat with Mikkel I set off quite late at 0930. I followed the road for about a km until a small track headed off to the north. This road was covered in about half a metre of frozen snow.

The track climbed through the trees passing small private cabins for a good 2 km until it arrived at a dam. Aseral kommune or council own a number of dams and it is their main source of income. They store the water until the electricity price is high in Norway or Europe and then open the sluice gates and sell it.

The reservoir behind the dam was frozen to a depth of 40 cm. Enough to drive a car on let alone ski over. I had no hesitation in setting of across it, but just had to exercise caution where streams might flow in.

I quickly skied across the largely bare ice to the far end and then headed up through birch and juniper forest. There were many fox trails and a few ptarmigan signs. Generally the snow was firm. Occasionally yesterday’s snow had blown into soft drifts.

The unmarked virgin route changes between the sparse forest and a row of interconnected lakes. Only occasionally were the deeper drifts a problem. Indeed I felt great. It was a superb cold crisp day, all the equipment was doing exactly what it said on the tin and I was getting used to hard work.

I made good time up to a large lake called Oyarvatnet. Here there was just a few km to go. However there were two short steepish slopes covered in thick soft snow which tested me and especially the short skins under the skis. In fact I spend a good half hour floundering around on each slope.

Soon I was crossing the last lake and rounded an island in it to spot the hut some 500 metres away. It was a gorgeous old log building. Yet still with triple glazed windows, a wood stove and bunk beds. I had a key which was not necessary as the previous clot had left the outer door ajar.

It was minus 4 inside and minus 11 outside. I quickly got a fire going and melted 2 buckets of snow. There was no mobile cover here so set off my tracker device. Then settled down to a tin of peaches from the larder shop.

Amazing there was a noise outside which heralded the arrival of three young Norwegians. I was very surprised to see them as they were me. They turned out to be extremely nice.

With two groups at the hut the fire was well stoked, many candles were lit and it became very welcoming. I wrote the blog then joined in card games.

It had been a marvellous day again. Apart from the two steepish slopes all was as I had hoped and expected with weather, equipment and myself. I looked forward to another 110 days of this, but know there will be harder times.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 11:58 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.