Route: Finse-Dyranut-Sandhaug-Hellevasbu-Haukeliseter Time: 5.5 days Better late than never, I finally found some time to write up on our fantastic crossing of the Hardangervidda in the remnants of winter 2015. Day 1 The week after Easter, early April, we took the train up to Finse. The train journey showed a slow transition of the surroundings from spring in Oslo to the winter conditions on the north side of the Hardangervidda. Getting off the train was a slight hassle with two pairs of ski’s, two large backpacks, two duffelbags and a pulka. Once on the platform we took a few minutes to take in the sun struck white expanse in front of us before loading up all the gear for the first leg of what would turn out to be an epic ski trip (in terms of views and enjoyment). Leaving the train platform of Finse on skis early in the afternoon, we crossed the lake and started climbing the side slopes to the east of the Hardanger Jøkulen. I was full of energy and absolutely psyched that we were finally starting off on the trip we'd been dreaming about for two years now. Having read that the great Norwegian explorers mostly practiced in this terrain, although often in a different time of year, we had gotten truly inspired. At such moments it's difficult not to walk faster than you should but after a while we settled into an easy pace. A couple of hours later we decided to call it a day and pitch our tent for the first night out! Being there with just the two of us in such a vastness of white mountains, packing down for the night just gives THAT wonderful feeling of freedom! Day 2 The second day led us through the mist and some hilly terrain towards Dyranut. Winding through shallow gulleys, up and down small hills, we got small surprizes coming out of the mist all day. Dyranut is a cabin/diner on the shoulder of RV 7 , the main road crossing Hardangervidda on its Northern side. During the day we wondered how far we'd get today and if we would pass Dyranut, whether we'd stop for a coffee and a treat. A ski trip like this is of course all about you and your natural surroundings and I always aim to be as self sufficient as possible. However, if you literally pass by a chance of some freshly brewed coffee and a chat with the locals, why not cherish that moment before heading off into the wild again. Late in the afternoon we put up camp a few km’s short of Dyranut. Would tomorrow bring better weather and a cup of that freshly brewed coffee I was talking about? Day 3 Alarm clock... Open tent... Mist... Again... Hitting the road at Dyranut, we "dismounted" and scrambled down the steep snow slope towards road level. Carrying the pulka across we ditched our stuff beside Dyranut's entrance and stumbled into the warmth. After Dyranut the terrain flattens out to show itself as the plateau that the Vidda actually is. Hitting the plateau, the sun also decided to come out again and boy does it get hot in the spring sun. Stripping away the layers we had on, we experienced the skiing conditions that the Norwegians are so fond of: short sleeves, sunglasses and sunscreen. Today we also discovered the added comfort of pulling the pulka together: dragging the pulka alone forces you to wrestle it up to speed with every step you take. With the right adjustment of the ropes we were able to pull together out of sync and so prevent the pulka from coming to a complete standstill at every step. I could go into my engineer-mode and start off about static and dynamic friction, inertia and the lot but I'll spare you the details... for now. Approaching Sandhaug the undulations in the terrain returned. We decided to pitch the tent on the slopes overlooking Sandhaug. By this time the wind had picked up so while Bibi was busy cooking, I got about building a wall from blocks of snow; we had seen remains of such walls around old campsites during the day and had deduced that this was the solution to the noisy buffeting of the tent fabric in the wind. It’s a nice activity that not only keeps you warm in the time before dinner but also wakes the childhood enthousiasm of building sandcastles. By the time dinner was ready, we had ourselves half an igloo… Day Four The day started out cold and windy, crossing the lake at Sandhaug and heading into a more sheltered side valley. The day cleared up and during the last steep climb of the day we broke a good sweat. From the top we had a beautiful view and a great descent down to the next lake and our best campsite yet. Under bright blue skies we built our camp and enjoyed a well-deserved dinner in the afternoon sun. Feeling extremely blessed to be in such a beautiful and tranquil place we indulged in the rest of the sun and meanwhile built up our snow wall again. With some time to spare I built a basic privy from snow – what a luxury to go for a #2 without the wind chill biting at you . Day Five Next morning we got ourselves packed for the leg towards Hellevasbu, a DNT cabin. This was the “sjarmøretappe” as the Norwegians like to call it; a walk in the park. The distance was no more than 7 km but this did include climbing over another ridge with an odd 200m ascent. From the highest point the view was once again breathtaking while we took a moment to strip off some more clothes. From there all that remained was to glide down the slopes towards the DNT cabin Hellevasbu. During the day, the usual speculation about what we would have for dinner started up again: would it be pancakes or lapskaus or maybe a can of meatballs with mashed potato's. By the time I'm writing this, I can no longer recall what we had but I'm sure it went down alright! Since we arrived at the cabin early in the day, we had enough time to play around outside: time to attempt making a snow cave as a shelter. Always good to have this experience and learn from it. Not only for emergency cases but I also still want to try sleeping in one leisurely. Lesson #1: it takes quite some time. Lesson #2: it heats you up properly and with the weather we had, you quickly shed your jacket and end up getting wet when you're digging your way into the snow. At Hellevasbu we ran into a friendly Norwegian on a looooong ski-trip and it turned out to be the inspirator of our new no.1 bucketlist skiing trip. Our current trip was planned for a week but went faster. His had a planned length of more than 3 weeks. Starting in Breheimen, he crossed into Jotunheimen, crossed skarvheimen to end up on the Hardangervidda which he planned to exit in the south and continue on to the Setesdalsheiane... See his site. That must be absolutely fantastic. Day Five-and-a-half The last leg towards Haukeliseter the hilly terrain really returned. The first part was mostly downhill but just before our endpoint we needed to drag the pulka up some very steep slopes. The mist we encountered made things worse because it left us wrestling uphill while having no sense of direction or any notion about how long the climb would last for. Going uphill with a pulka is one thing, going steeply downhill is another. Especially when you have the pulka on a rope and not a rod frame. The downhill was challenging but gave us some great laughs. The pulka following neatly one moment and then racing by the next moment, flipping me around just a second after seeing it approaching... and ending up in a face plant regularly. Descending had the advantage of ducking out of the mist and into the sunshine. We arrived at Haukeliseter with spring temperatures and slushy snow and thoroughly enjoyed our well deserved beer in the sun!
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