HALLINGSKARVET Skiing Wild Norway - Jim Gregson 1999
By Jim Gregson
The cold hand of the bitter winter night had squeezed the land hard and the stillness of the early day was broken only by the squeak and swish of our skis through the sharp snow crystals cloaking the glacier tongue.
In glinting sunshine my wife and I, relying on well-waxed skis, were gaining height on the Middalsbreen glacier en route for the summit of sfr Kongsnuten, one of the mountains at the perimeter of the Hardangerfkulen ice-cap. Although Norway can justifiably claim to be the birthplace of ski travel -- Stone Age rock carvings in the North show elk hunters on skis, and Bronze Age skis have been found preserved in fenland in the South of the country -- only a minority of Norwegian ski-tourers make their way to and from the mountain summits. Most content themselves with lower routes on hut-to-hut tours, so no-one else was in sight.
For the skier who perseveres to develop the greater levels of skill and technique which allow the use of Nordic style and equipment on steeper mountains, Norway offers a cornucopia of opportunity for adventure. There is a great range of mountain districts to choose from, where the effort of skiing uphill to the tops is more than amply rewarded by superb down-hill running in untracked, off-piste snow.
We were in the early days of a ski-mountaineering tour starting from the splendidly appointed Finsehytta, a lodge owned and run by the DNT, the Norwegian Mountain Touring association, standing close to the high-point of the Oslo-Bergen railway line. After a few days here we intended to ski off through the wilder Hallingskarvet range to the North-east, using some of the other huts to gain access to a number of interesting summits before a return to Finse to complete our circuit. Finse and the Hallingskarvet range lie in the track of weather systems sweeping across the North Sea then being forced into and funneled along the Hardanger and Eidfjord sea trenches carved into the Norwegian coast. These weather systems are then abruptly thrust upwards by the 1800 metres high ice-cap, causing frequent heavy snowfalls accompanied by very fierce winds, so a tolerance towards some degree of discomfort is a useful asset to the skier venturing into this region.
We had to complete the ascent of sfr Kongsnuten on foot, by scrambling up the rimed and icy blocks forming the top, then pushed and buffeted by strong gusts of wind we skied South along the ice-cap edge to make an interesting descent on the steeper slopes of the Torsteinsfonni glacier.
A day of skiing with heavier rucksacks took us North and North-east to the Geiterygghytta, our base for the next few days, where the welcoming guardian keeps a small herd of reindeer. The next day stormed so we skied a valley route in poor visibility to keep our muscles supple. Taking advantage of the hut-guardian's local knowledge, we studied our maps to work out routes to get up high. The small glaciers on the Vargebreen at over 1700 metres seemed a good choice and in the following day's sunshine we skied West along an attractive valley to break off up steepening flanks on the North side. By making careful traverses back and forth we found a way across a corniced rim and climbed above craggy ground to a fine outlook. The elevated top gave us extensive views over the rest of the Hallingskarvet, and we could see many other possible summits which canny route-finding would bring within reach.
Our descent gave fine running-- sections where telemarking worked well interspersed with more intricate passages of traversing to avoid rocky outcroppings, then long cruising runs back towards the hut, at one point crossing a wide track of heavily trampled "mashed potatoes" snow which the guardian told us marked the passage of a large herd of wild reindeer.
From the Vargebreen we had noticed two very prominent mountain tops lying some kilometres North-east of the Geiterygghytta. These were the summits of the Urdvassnutane, buttressed with large cliffs. We were informed that they probably hadn't been visited this winter so it was easy to decide to try to reach at least one of them. In the morning we started along a marked trail for a few kilometres, then swung away into wilder terrain, picking a line up and across sparkling slopes in hanging valleys, crossing a large flat area where a frozen tarn lay beneath a deep blanket of snow. Steeper gradients put us onto a shoulder of the mountain, heavily carved by the wind into sastrugi ridges and finally we had no option but to unclip our bindings and finish our ascent on foot.
Swirling winds gave us an extra complication for the descent once we had returned to our skis, but there is a great satisfaction to be had from working out a ski able line on unknown mountain slopes then using one's ability to adapt through a range of free-heel turns and technique to arrive safely at the intended place. On the way back to the hut, we diverted to another neighboring summit which gave a further extension to the amount of downhill running we had packed into the day.
We were committed to moving on to another hut the next day, so were a little disappointed to wake to a gale of wind and low mist tearing past the windows. The journey Eastwards took several hours to complete, with little respite from the nerve-wearing roar of the wind until the last three kilometres down to the lake-side mountain lodge at Raggsteindalen. Although we were traveling parallel to the main Hallingskarvet ridge, the clinging wind- driven mist only revealed to us the bases of dark cliffs as we passed. From Raggsteindalen on the morrow we skied across the ice on the lake then up long slopes to the pass of Folarskardet, just below the highest point of the Hallingskarvet, but the ferocious gale whistling through the pass drove us quickly back down with little incentive to stop and admire the massive crags at this wild spot.
There remained for us a final full day of skiing to return to Finse, for which we were blessed with a day of sunshine and fine visibility. This allowed us to enjoy the impressive surroundings of the Hallingskarvet, narrow valleys threading between large crags, with our route climbing up the defile of Raggsteindalen to cross the high cols by the Nordbotnane tarns, then traversing below the cliffs of Ljftebotnberget. A lunch stop above the Kyrkjedfrsvatn lakes gave us time to admire the appealing glacier and crag slopes falling Northwards from the summit of Kyrkjedfrsnuten before we skied over the frozen surfaces and swung round into the jaws of the Kyrkjedfri, the Church Door pass.
Skiing up through here gives a passage along a narrow cliff-sided fault leading to fast descents to more frozen lakes, the Flakavatnet. Beyond them, some further climbing revealed the high-domed Hardangerjfkulen ice-cap in front of us as tired legs coped with the rapid swoops down to Finse, where we spent a final night relaxing and reflecting on our days passed among and on these wild Norwegian mountains. Although we shared the huts with others, we had enjoyed our summits as the only pair on the hill, and will certainly go back to repeat the experience in another winter.
