Norway 2011, Tafjordfjella - Hut touring and hill climbs.
By Graham Harkness
I have just come back from my first trip touring in Norway with my local cross country ski club touring between and around DNT unattended huts. I thought I could ski but was wrong, there is much I have to learn. The weather was unusually warm so the snow was plentiful but horrible and plans were changed to make best use of the area. This almost proved to be the undoing of a friend and I who were heading out earlier than the others. We were not aware that the meltdown had started unseasonably early.
The trip was with friends from the Tyneside Loipers but I was delighted to meet up again with John Starbuck who was with us on our 1994 KMC Greenland 17 years ago.
Logistics worked well and six of us arrived at a road end near Bjroli at 3 o'clock in the afternoon with the prospect of a 15k ski to the Pyttbua hut. We were all pleased to see the hut that night, especially me! The wet heavy snow set the pattern for the week.
Thursday 14 April six skiers headed for a hill called Hogtunga (1912 m) about 5km from the hut. Me nursing blisters, which also set a pattern for the week so a couple of us backed off just below the summit steep section and the others went onto the summit. Lesson - it takes longer than you think to prepare new boots for a long tour, take lots of plasters.
Friday 15 We took a rout up a small combe and after a bit of weaving around rock outcrops and frozen waterfalls we reached a col overlooking Tordsvatnet (a frozen lake). It was a pleasant but difficult wet ski down to the lake. We were skiing down the lake with no particular objective until someone spotted the Torsbu hut in the distance, a place we were definitely not going to visit so three of the team decided to have lunch at Torsbu, (pity they found that they had had no key when they got there). The rest of us picked up a stick marked rout back to Pyttbua.
Saturday 16 April was not a great day so set off to follow the sticks to Veltdalshyutta. We skinned up the first steep section but after that there was a lot of swapping of skins and re waxing for the wet snow. I had never encountered anything like it, fresh snow patches lying on wet porridge and I could do nothing but broad snow ploughs. Lesson – practice off piste porridge skiing in Scotland.
Veltdalshyutta was palatial, a modern lodge sleeping 60 or more, equipped with 2 kitchens and an automated, renewable, electrical supply for lights and fire alarm; and all ours. John Starbuck and myself settled into a smaller 2 bed room most comfortably. Two Norwegians from Pyttbua followed us in and later a cheery team with man hauled pulks and also a dog sled arrived. Scottish lamb, Beer and Aqua Vita on their menu.
Sunday it rained so some including me festered and tended battered feet in luxury, others went out in the rain. The Norwegians headed home via the route from the Torsbu hut.
The Monday forecast was for weather to be improving but Monday morning provided a solid wall of mist. Some of the team decided that there was good touring to be had from Torsbu, the hut that we were definitely not going to visit and that they would move around there, the rest of us stayed on at Veltdalshyutta.
After a lot of discussion the two of us coming out early decided to use the easy exit from Torsbu following a stick route. There was also a bridge marked “all year” on our new maps, but summer only on another map? Only experienced John Starbuck pointed out the difficulty the river might pose but several people had just gone that way, including a dog team; however we badly underestimated the rate of meltdown. Lesson - don't trust Norwegian maps and listen to world travellers.
The afternoon cleared beautifully so myself and a friend skied over to look at two fascinating 1944 huts used by commandoes in WW2 and still fully equipped. One of them was barely visible, built into a rock overhang from packaging materials and right on the lakeside.
That night was colder and on Tuesday we had a wonderful tour to Torsbu and then out from the hut. Meanwhile the four that had gone round the previous day had a long enjoyable tour of larger mountains to the east of Torsbu where they had stayed.
Wednesday was the day for all but the two of us leaving early to return to Veltdalshyutta and rejoin John. My companion very sensibly advised that we should check the crossing we needed to use to get out the next day if we were to catch or flight on Friday. This was good advice but not encouraging. The bridge appeared to be intact but seen closer had no platform and was unusable; it had indeed been removed for the winter. The snow bridge was now rapidly melting slush and the depth of water well beyond the 1.3m of my ski pole, the only hope of going that way was a good night frost and an alpine start. We had a long, but seemingly safe, second option in case the crossing was impassable. That alternative route also carried a risk of a river crossing on a bridge with a very long hard return to Torsbu if we could not find it. On the other hand it did follow a well marked summer footpath to a village called Billingen and that bridge was shown on the map as a permanent so we were reasonably confident. The other options would have caused us to miss our return flight and also possibly set off a search. We had also found some bits of old rope at Torsbu to use as a crude, but sound, safety line; this we took with us.
Thursday 05:00 was disappointing - it clearly had continued to thaw during the night. We did investigate the river extensively but when I lost my footing and got a cold scary wallow in watery slush for my troubles, retreat was the preferred option. We had no choice other than to go back up and try Langedalen , the alternative route. The name was Lake districtish and sounded friendly. Thankfully the snow higher up was good, there were no surprises in the terrain and at the end sure enough a good bridge across a deep ravine. The bridge was a struggle to reach in the deep melting snow but eventually we were down with 2hrs to spare for the wonderful, warm bus and we were still on schedule for flying home.
What did I learn? Well, a lot about wax and cable bindings. I will always carry a warm sleeping bag for myself, as many people seem to, for emergency bivouacs. A lot of people, including us, had planned our trip around Easter holidays but weather patterns are not now as reliable as they were, so late April is not guaranteed to give decent skiing and the Norwegian mountains are most definitely not the place to be when a several meter thick layer of snow starts to melt! At this time of year the condition of the snow can change very dramatically in the space of a day. Norwegian maps are good but the detail is not always accurate, especially regarding status of bridges so plan exit routes to avoid major river crossings if at all possible, and do not deviate from your exit plan whatever other route changes you may decide to try.
The huts are nothing short of amazing and the people we met were without exception warm, friendly and jovial. A great trip, rubbish skiing, or was it this skier, a bit of an epic what more could you ask for?
