Ski and Paddle Norway 2009

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Sometimes when one makes a decision to have a weather day doubts creep in. I am sure I could ski in that or the visibility does not seem that bad now are typical thoughts. Today there would be no doubts. I looked out of the window into the darkness and could sense the vigour of the weather. Even the hut shook from time to time. I went back to bed knowing I would stay there.

I eventually got up at 0900 when day fully broke. It was a spectacular day outside. The wind screamed and spindrift hurled itself in the hut. I had to got out, so got fully dressed complete with goggles. I had a small wind meter. It was a steady 20 metres/second with one gust at 29 metre/second. Double these figures to get knots/hour. The spindrift was sandblasting my exposed nose and cheeks as it was whizzing across the plateau in search of a cornice to settle behind.

On the trip to the outhouse I was frequently buffeted by the storm winds. With a large rucksack on I would have got pushed around. The visibility was down to just 10 metres, and that was where there was a reference feature like a hut or boulder. On looking back to the main cabin, half vanished in the driving spindrift, it was plastered in snow.

Back in the main cabin with another sack of wood, I settled in for the day. I would not be going out again. I reread some of the books finding some new chapters and read another book on recent Norwegian mountaineers like Arne Randers Heen, the remarkable Arne Naess, and Hero of Telemark and Royal mountain guide Claus Helberg.

The weather forecast seemed to indicate the weather would ease over the next day, but today it seems the whole of southern Norway seems to be taking a battering. Certainly by the evening the wind had abated to a gale or kuling.

On reading one book and what I wrote previously on Day 11 it seems I was somewhat inaccurate about Heiberg and his hunting venture. Although Heiberg did create a huge hunting reserve and thereby help preserve the endangered Setersheiene wild reindeer herd he was ruthless at exterminating any other predator of reindeer and ptarmigan. Wolverine and fox were poisoned, snared or trapped mercilessly, and every owl, including snowy and eagle, and all eagles, falcons and hawks were also piosoned or snared. So perhaps I was wrong when I said a lot of his management practices were benevolent.

I settled down to another cosy candlelit evening in front of the fire. Without these cabins my trip would be totally different. In the cabins I could recuperate, dry out and stretch out, both mentally and physically. Without the cabins I would only have a tent or snow hole where clothing would get damp with condensation and contact with snow, and boots would freeze stiff with frost. Life would be cramped and spent in a sleeping bag waiting for the next break. Later in the trip I will have to rely more on the tent where cabins are more sparses. But now I can enjoy their peaceful, timber ambience.

As the evening drew on the wind abated more and more. The temperature thoughout the blizzard and then storm of the last 3 days was only about minus 5. I felt confident I could make a break for it tomorrow.

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I woke at 0630. The wind which had showed promise of deminishing last night was back with a vengance. The sound of it was howling down the stove chimney. I looked out of the window but it was black so I went to the door to look out side. I got a face full of spindrift.

I went back to bed and got up at 0730. This time I needed to go out to the toilet. I dressed well and put on my head torch then braved the 20 metres between the cabin and outhouse. It was a maelstrom of spindrift. My head torch barely punched a couple of metres into it. On the way back I took a sack of wood and the filled the water pails with snow again in case I was staying another day. I went back to bed again.

For the third time I got up at 0830. It was just getting light. The view out of the windows was as I suspected. A good gale with spindrift flying everywhere. The visibility seemed to be only about 100 metres. Even if I could make it the 20 km to Bleskestadmoen cabin it would exhaust me. I might break something like a pole, ski or even leg stumbling over some cornice. It was to be another day at this cabin.

I slowly prepared to stay another day and cleaned out the stove, which was full of ash. I then lit the stove and became quite house proud about the cabin. I tidied up the books and kitchen utensils and swept the floors.

I found an old radio and fashioning and ariel from a whisk and changing batteries managed to get it going. Just in time to get a weather forecast and some news. The weather forecast was grim for the next few day with gale force (kuling) winds from the south to south east.

Indeed on the news it said the road I was heading for at Haukeliseter 3 day away was closed due to “uvaer”. Uvaer translated means “unweather” and is used to describe particularly nasty weather. It was not really uvaer but it was not pleasant.

I had another good read of some of the books in the bookshelf. Most of the books were old yearbooks of various mountain walking associations in Norway These books hold a wealth of information on nature, archaeology, cultural history especially the now vanishing summer farms, and suggested walks. Luckily I can read Norwegian so was able to explore them.

I had a lazy day reading in front of the fire. I saw in the larder a barely touched half bottle of famous grouse whisky. Some previous walker had left it behind. I actually saw it when I first arrived but after a year of abstience dident feel drawn to it. They few drams I had this evening tasted medicinal at best, but warmed me.

I spent the evening reading by candlelight in front of the fire with a dram The wind outside was getting stronger and I could here waves of spindrift lashing at the window. The radio playing easy listening golden oldies with the odd bit of news. It was a very cosy setting but I would soon start to get bored.

Unfortunately I have just heard the weather forecast and it is predicting servere gale to storm force winds for these mountains tomorrow. We will see. I could be here another day yet bored or not. Maybe I will have another dram after all.

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I woke late at 0800. Not the early start I needed. However when I looked outside I could hardly believe it. All the clear, cold, calm weather of yesterday had deterioated into a swirling, hissing blizzard. To confirm I opened the cabin door which was nearly wrenched out of my hand.

It was a blesing in disguise. First I would have been a bit late in setting off and secondly my improving muscles were still stiff. I was not going to be able to navigate to Bleskestadmoen cabin in that and did not want to try and set up the tent or dig a snowhole in some 7 hours time in those conditions. So there was only one thing for it and that was back to bed.

I had been musing about the Norway and the Norwegians in the last few days. I have spent time in some 50 odd countries and none seem to have the sense of order, reliability and of being looked after as much as Norway. Their history, Stone Age to recent, has much to do with this.

Norwegians first came to this wild land some 10000 years or 500 generations ago. They followed the reindeer and they migrated north away from the growing forests of the Germanic Plains to this land which was emerging from under the ice sheets.

To survive the earliest settlers had to be very resourceful and had great foresight. Through the 10 millennia since then, the descendants of these first settlers honed their hunting skills and established a migaratory transhumance existance exploiting both fjord and mountain. Some 1500 years ago agriculture became more established, while the hunting and gathering continued

Distance 25km | Time 8.5hrs | Ascent 440m | Descent 280m

I was up earlier than usual and was ready just after 0800. However it was too early as it was still dark so I eventually left at first light around 0830. It was to be a long day but the weather had lots of promise. It was crisp, clear and minus 10 again. If I did not make it to Krossvatn cabin by 1730 the price I would have to pay would be to camp. Incentive enough not to dally.

I set off up Storsteindalen for a km and then cut off northeast up a snow filled gully for 2 km to reach the lake. Just these 3 km took nearly 2 hours and a fair bit of effort. The gully had some tricky steep sections. Just before the lake I reached a small pass and got a wonderful view of the early morning sun on the mountain plateau to the east of the lake.

The lake, called Blasjo, is a vast reservoir built at the very top of the plateau. It has some 8 dams at various points on it circumference, enlarging the many existing lakes and tarns into a 80 square kilometre reservoir at about 1000 meters altitude. The water from here then descends nearly 1000 metres to feed 11 massive turbines which apparently is enough to supply all of Stavanger and Bergens electricity. In total it produces over 4,400,000 mega-watt hours per year.

It cannot be denied that Blasjo is an intrusion into nature, especially for the wild reindeer. Furthermore its’ ring of bare sterile rock around the fringe is an eyesore while the reservoir is filling in the summer. It is never the less an very effective energy source per unit disturbance compared to the more naïve alternative energy sources, like wind turbines.

Today while I skied across its surface I barely noticed it was a reservoir I made fast time skiing into my long shadow with a bitter breeze directly behind me. Had I been going south sunglasses would have been mandatory given the glare from the sun. It took about 3 hours to ski the pleasant 14 across the snow covered ice. There were lots of reindeer tracks on the lake but I saw none.

At the north end of the lake I had a choice of doing 2 sides of a triangle or risk the direct line through craggy knolls. I played safe learning now just how rugged the Setersheiene landscape is. Indeed it is a alien landscape of knolls separated by warrens of deep clefts between them. A nightmare to ski and navigate through, especially with cornices everywhere.

I decided to ski east up the Poyleaa stream bed for 2 km despite the fact the hut was north. Even this simple route was full of up and downs between tarns. I then turned north and followed a line of small lakes and tarns, all frozen and covered in snow. On each side of me up this corridor were gnarly outcrops dripping with snow cornices.

As it was getting dark I at last reached Krossvatn lake. I took the detour around the lake for the last 2 km rather than risk unknown crags and snow filled warrens for the much shorter direct line. When I round a small peninsular and the cabin came into view a short distance away I was delighted.

It had been a long day of some 8.5 hours which I had done without a stop or even taking my rucksack off. On the other hand the navigation and decisions in hindsight were the right ones. I was tired though.

After digging out the door of the cabin I went in. It was minus 5 inside. After a couple of hours I had it warmed up a bit but it was quite drafty. I was knackered and with great effort wrote this and punched the references into the GPS for tomorrows long ski to Bleskestadmoen across a string of smaller lakes.

I had been a great day and I made good progress northwards. I was also able to enjoy the wild snowscape in good weather for the first day, and also appreciate just what a wild place this is.

Distance 13km | Time 7.5hrs | Ascent 540m | Descent 570m

I was up early and away by 0845. It was just getting light. It was a beautiful morning. Crisp, clear and cold at minus 10.

The snow squeaked as my ski stick twisted in it. Great conditions with a firm base and a little frost on top. I made good speed across Kringlevatn lake and up the stream bed on the north side.

I then had to go through undulating country where there were lots of drifts and the dreaded cornices, which I could at least see today so I could nimbly skirt them.

About 3 km from Kringlevatn I ran out of map for 5 km until I gained the next sheet. During this period I confidently followed a stream bed with confidence. So much confidence that I never checked the compass or GPS. This a mistake I sometimes make when things are going well. I was a good 45 degrees off course.

By the time I realized my mistake I had happily followed the snow pasted U shaped stream bed for a good 2 km. To rectify this I had to climb over a ridge dividing the stream bed I was in and the one I should be in.

On reaching the top of the ridge I had a remarkable view over the Setersheiene mountains. They were absolutely plastered in snow. They are renowned for being ice scrapped bare craggy rock but much of this was smoothed over by huge amounts of snow. A couple of ice covered lakes stretched away to the distance.

Remarkably I got mobile cover on this ridge top so managed to update the last 7 days complete with about 10 photos taken on the phone. I received masses of emails also, with some 20 wishing me luck and other saying I was mad. They were all very heartening.

The way down the other side of the ridge was difficult. One area looked avalanche prone so I avoided it and followed the ridge westwards and down. It seemed to end in a steep shoulder. I started to pick my way down the craggs on the shoulder but it go too steep.

I could not afford to slip here so had to retrace my steps on foot. I tried another two places but they also just got too precarious and icy. Crampons would have made the difference but I had none. In the end I had to back track a good km before I found a safe way. The whole process cost me a lot of effort and about 2 hours.

I got to the cabin quite late as a consequence around 1630 as it was getting dark. It was a nice cabin however, and within 2 hours I was warm, comfortable and fed. I needed the time to relax as tomorrow, weather permitting is a big day.

It had been a frustrating day eased a bit by the wonderful views at last and also improved by the fact I could update the overdue dairy and receive emails. They route finding mistake was entirely due to overconfidence and laziness not to get the compass out. This laziness cost me 3 hours and a lot of effort. Let it be a lesson. One I have had a few times now!