Into the Backcountry

A very cool thing about Norway is the train, and the fact that the train passes through long stretches of uninhabited mountains and high plateaus (uninhabited save for the occasional hytta). You can grab your skis, ride comfortably to over 1000 meters above sea level, get off at your desired starting point and just start skiing.

The snowpack is deep and getting deeper by the week. I went with the University of Bergen’s outdoors club last weekend to refresh my avalanche awareness skills, dig a bunch of snow profiles and practice route-finding.

The hytta we stayed in was classic: dirty and cold, with a little wood stove. I have apparently lived an extremely sheltered life, because I have never learned how to chop ice-cold wood into kindling with a rusty, dull ax - the Norwegians took the ax from me and showed me how it was done... not effortless, but successful. But in spite of the chill, there was great warmth and joviality around the table with candles and warm food, warm drinks and stories of the snow.

It was a blizzard on Friday and Saturday, but surprisingly the snow was pretty stable where we were with no significant weak layers in our profiles. The temperature had been pretty stable, and the snow was binding together fairly well. On Sunday the sun came out and we went on a beautiful tour, including some amazing powder skiing on the way down to catch the train back to Bergen.