Today was going to be a solo day and given the new snow I wanted to do something that was conservative and chose Hustinden which is a 5 minute drive from the house in Napp. Ski-in, ski out (well, almost).

You have to drive to Nappskaret car park which is the same car park to go up Stornappstind. You’ll see it as soon as you arrive. This tour seems like a really good tour on those days you’re not sure of the snow pack as you’re nice and safe on the ridge the whole way, so if anything goes, it should go below you.

I had to cross a small river at the start which was easy and then skinned up the first section which is around 30 degrees and then it gets steeper to around 38 degrees (checked on inclinometer) and then mellows back down. Once I get to the steeper section, I boot packed up.

The whole trip is around 700m vertical gain from the car park. It took me about 2 hrs up and down which was a bit slow going. The wind was blowing almost perpendicular to the ridge, so there was a lot of deep wind transported snow on the leeward side, the side I boot packed up but more importantly also the side I boarded down The snow was just below my knee for most of the way. Nice powder.

The snow seemed really cohesive on the lower angle stuff but as I gained elevation and started to climb up the steepest section towards the top (42 to 45 degrees, one section of 48 degrees for 10m (checked with inclinometer)), the snow was drier and I didn’t have a great feeling about it. I dug down to the old rain affected layer which was about 30cm below the new snow and it just seemed a little too light and fluffy for my liking. I could easily just wipe it off the rain affected layer. It just didn’t feel good enough which might have something to do with being solo.  Either way, I decided to turn about 50m below the summit and get out of there.

Being solo and having doubts is an endless battle. Are your doubts genuine or because you are alone. Very often it’s hard to tell the difference, I find. Wind, bad visibility and cold only add to the internal struggles ;).

The snow behaved normally but as the terrain was steeper, I was easily going through to the rain affected snow beneath which is food for thought for steep skiing later in the week.

So the trip achieved what I set out to do. Get some safe, powder turns and check out how things are shaping up. Hopefully, a little bit wiser this week. Things definitely need to bond a bit more on the higher elevations where the snow is drier.

For more trips reports in Lofoten and for more trip reports in Norway.

18

As the road is closed for the winter past Leirdalvassbu, the options are pretty limited so we plumbed for Loftet which forms the first peak on the west side of the Leirdal valley from the road. The face is north north east facing depending on which particular line down you take but on all accounts very similar to the couloir I wanted to ski further down the valley.

As the road is closed at the moment, we had to skin up around 15mins before climbing the mountain proper. It’s a pretty straightforward skin up although it was icy in some places. There is still clear evidence of the Dagmar storm and rain affected snow which has refrozen to ice in places although it had filled in again in many others.

There’s not really much of note to this tour to be honest. We got there pretty late which meant coming down as the light was starting to fade but we were lucky to get beautiful weather.

We skinned up and skied down the same line to get us back to the car. It’s a pretty even gradient the whole way up and down. A nice cruisy tour for any standard of skier.

We were up and down again in around 4 hours with 1200m of vertical gain from the car. The conditions up lead to some conservative skiing on the way down, expecting to bottom out on a hard, icy layer but that didn’t always happen. Too late after the event!

A nice cruisy tour to get the legs going. Needless to say the conditions weren’t encouraging enough for me to want to check out the couloir I had in mind. I cannot imagine conditions improving anytime soon to be honest. The slightest wind is blowing the snow away and temperatures are in the -10 to -15 range making it difficult for the new snow to bond to the hard icy layer. Or maybe the couloir is nice and protected… Hmmmm. I shall persevere.

Want to see more splitboarding in Norway…..? Click here.

9

It’s really easy to get to too which also makes it a pretty popular tour although there were only about four other guys on the mountain today. From Oslo, you just have to head towards Rjukan (a town with its own story to tell) and a few km before you get there, you turn off left and follow the road which takes you to the Gaustatoppen ski resort. As you start to get to the top, the road forks. Keep going straight on (not left) and after a few hundred metres you arrive at a gate blocking the road. The skin starts here and follows the road up a way until a few outhouses where you can pick you line to skin up.

Gaustatoppen (1883m). Taken from the road before gaining altitude.

From the car, the vertical gain is around 950m and I was on the top in around 2 hrs. I had thought about lapping this one more time but that thought was put paid to halfway up and  confirmed on the way down. The snow was bullet!

I started slipping pretty badly on a few sections on the way up and had to bootpack up for a few hundred metres before putting the boards back on. The way down was not much better to be honest.

I thought I would try out the first obvious couloir from the big tower (you can just about see it on the picture). There is a bit of a convex role at the entrance and these always make me a bit nervous for avalanche no matter how stable things are, especially being solo. Absolutely nothing to worry about. It was bullet!  Maybe I should rephrase that. Not quiet bullet. You could make an impression in it if you punched it but my board didn’t leave very obvious tracks. It’s a pretty steep entrance. I’m guessing around 45 degrees but it soon mellows out to around 40 degrees and then keeps mellowing from there.

At least the surface of the snow in the couloir was smooth. I couldn’t say the same once I was out of the couloir. Sastrugi everywhere and this time it was bullet and icy with a couple of mm of powder. Not nice at all. Survival snowboarding really. I didn’t open it up until a joined the skin track on the way down and you cannot really open it up there anymore anyway as it so mellow.

I’m guessing the rain from Christmas time is still a major factor here. This mountain is quite exposed and any new snow is probably just being blown away at the moment. I should really have just boarded down the way I skinned up to be honest.

So….. not great snowboarding but a good day out in the pursuit of fitness.

Want to see more splitboarding in Norway…..? Click here.

5

It’s one of the many routes you can do after taking the lift up from Passo Pordoi and I cannot recommend it enough. Nothing extreme or nasty about it. The entrance to the valley might be a little on the steep side for some (probably high 30s in degrees but it soon mellows and leads you into the valley itself.)……sheer rock walls all around you. Really, really beautiful, almost to the point where the skiing becomes secondary….but only almost.

Sigurd at the entrance to Val Mesdi

Sigurd skiing down the couloir from the entrance

It probably takes around an hour to get to the entrance from leaving the Passo Pordoi lift (didn’t pay much attention to the time so that could be a little off but close enough). Just like Canale Col Alton, you have to head for Piz Boe and then keep skinning looker’s left (looking from Passo Pordoi). It should be pretty obvious. When we were there, there was an obvious skin track all the way across the base of Piz Boe which leads you to the entrance of the couloir. If you end up at the Boe refugio (which was closed when we were there), then you’ve gone the right way.

Looking back up the couloir to the entrance

Just before the valley opens up proper

Mid-way down the valley

There are a few nice couloirs skier’s right when you ski down the valley. I will certainly have to check them out when I go back… and I will go back!

Nice couloir for another day!

Spagetti Western or what!

You’ll know when you start to approach the exit, as the descent starts to get narrow. Head skier’s right and follow the tracks down or mogul field as it was in our case. You’ll come out onto a track with just enough gradient to get you back onto the slopes in Colfosco.

The exit from the valley (most obvious line)

An absolute cracker! Skiing the Val Mesdi takes as long as you like but no more than 20 mins if you’re in a hurry. Once in Colfosco, we got a lift down to Corvara again and a taxi back to Arabba where we were staying. EUR 30 for the taxi for two if you’re interested. You can take the lifts back but they were closing when we arrived.

DO IT!!

Want to see more trip reports from Italy….? Click here.

The start of the season in the interior of Norway has been pretty tragic. The odd powder day in Hemsedal, touring around Hemsedal on a 50cm base and skinning up the local 300m slope in Oslo (Tryvann). All a far cry from my seasonnaire days where mountains and routes were a plenty and just outside the door!

Needless to say, I was pretty excited at the prospect of going to the Dolomites in Italy for a couple of days. Only two days skiing but definitely better than nothing. My first time there and I don’t know why it has taken so long. For someone who likes couloirs, this place is a mecca. And just stunning mountains to boot.

It hasn’t snowed here since Christmas but just a day before we arrived, we got a nice covering of around 40cm and spent the first day with some locals, finding our bearings and skiing the slack country on Marmolada and getting a feel for how the snow was settling.

All good and day two we took the lift up from Passo Pordoi to check out some lines. This lift is in the town of Canazei and gives you access to so many off pistes runs. I don’t think I have ever been on one lift that opens up so much terrain and variation with so little effort. We were spoilt for choice and changed our minds more than once on the way up and when we got there! But we plumped for Canale Col Alton, (canale being Italian for couloir).

Canale Col Alton with Piz Boe in background

Defintely a good warm up run and the steepest thing I’ve skied all season (which isn’t saying much all things considered). It’s around 40 degrees with a few sections of 45 degrees and south west facing. There had been two turns in it before we got to it (at least we knew it went ;)). It takes about 30mins to get to once you get out of the lift on the summit of Sass Pordoi and very easy to spot as long as you head for Piz Boe. Bit of a role-over in the entrance which always heightens the suspense.

Entrance to Canale Col Alton

But an absolute stunner of a couloir. Perfect blue skies, good snow and a great line. Not much else you could ask for.

Sigurd in the upper section of the couloir

Sigurd halfway down

Exit of the couloir

Once you’re out of the couloir, you end up in Val Lasties which opens up nicely for a bit of charging.

Out of the couloir and entering Val Lasties

Once you’re into the valley it’s just a question of following the fall line down to the left (as in picture above) for another 700 vertical metres of skiing (my guesstimate). Val Lasties is very accessible and consequently pretty popular as far as routes go in this area. So it was no surprise to find a very icy mogul field on the way down (this is a little couloir right next to the north face of Sass Pordoi) which led to some good old bush whaking before we came out at Pian Schiavaneis (an outcrop of buildings next to a road). The good thing about this run is that you can get right back to the resort without having to hitch. When you get to Pian Schiavaneis, there’s a trail which runs alongside the road and then crosses the road further down and you’re back at the resort. Nice! One word of warning….. get the superski pass. We got the Arabba-Marmolada pass and it doesn’t cover the two lifts you need to get back to Passo Pordoi. EUR 6 for a single up. No big deal but still…….

And another good tip… buy the book “Freeride in Dolomite” by Francesco Tremolada. Indispensible if you come to ski here.

Want to see more trip reports from Italy….? Click here.

Day 2 of our little trip out to the Hurrungane and after eying up a few possibilities, we decided to ski Store Ringstind. According to some of the guide books, this is one of Norway’s most classic ski tours. I cannot really argue against that, not having done much skiing here but it was certainly a great tour if that comes close to classic. And it really is a ski tour in the true sense of the word with a short boot pack at the start of the climb but otherwise skins are on all the way.

Lars on the start of the long approach.....Store Ringstind centre right

It’s pretty long approach of around 4km (you ski out the way you came in) with little altitude gain. I think it was around 200 to 300m before you start to climb proper and the vertical gain for the trip was 1300m. We did it in around 5.5hrs including breaks, faffing and everything else. Unfortunately the weather hadn’t improved much from the previous day but sun was forecast…..and it promptly came around 11.00.

Nice scenery on approach right

Taken approach right (Store Soleitind side) at start of climb/bootpack

I was really impressed with the terrain around here. From the road around this area, you can be forgiven for thinking it’s all rolling and quite tame but it’s all in there. You just have to get in there. It was as good as anything I’ve seen. There is a 1000m 50 degree couloir which is on climber’s right on the approach. I thought I was in Chamonix there for a second. Oh, the delights!! It’s really exciting to realise that this kind of terrain is only a car drive away!! Oh yeah, baby! ;).

We took a different bootpack up to everyone else (oh and there were quite a lot of people. Seems the Norwegians like this tour a lot!) but we didn’t really gain much time for our difference. This is used as the descent exit for most skiers.

We bootpacked up climber's far left

Lars skinning up after the bootpack

Me boot packing after the long approach courtesy of Lars Thomas Nordby

The actual face of Store Ringstind is like a giant wedge, sheer faces on three sides and then this perfect 35 degree snow clad slope. Whoever came up with the idea of earth must have been thinking about skiers when they made this face. Perfect! There are a few large crevasses in it but they are large.. and therefore easily avoidable. We didn’t have glacier travel gear (some did and maybe it would be sensible to).

Store Ringstind obscured

The face of Storeringstind

The very top of the summit steepens to low 40 degrees but it’s not very long before it becomes less steep. Unfortunately, just before we reached the summit, the clouds and wind came in and it was a complete whiteout, so no nice views for us.

Me on the summit.....beautiful!

And not very many nice pictures of us on the way down. I got cold hands and didn’t want to hang around, so just shot off down the face…400m of great cruisy and fast turns and then…….glue. Not so much fun that bit. Everyone was getting caught out. It changed instantly from spring corn to glue and threw everyone. It got better again lower down though.

Me skiing out and back to the approach courtesy of Lars Thomas Nordby

And then the long ride out back to the car. Board back into ski mode to practice my telemark turns.. or lack there of. You can pole out pretty much the whole way with a little ascent at the end back down to the car.

A great tour and surely one of Norway’s classics……..

Want to see more splitboarding in Norway…..? Click here.

South couloir of Store Soleitind (taken from ridge of Austabottind)

Unfortunately due to its southerly aspect, the snow was not the best and was choked with a lot of old sluff slides. We did manage to find a few pockets of soft snow but for the most part it wasn’t the best skiing I’ve ever done. Still, in the right conditions, it’s a great little couloir.

Lars at the start of the climb with couloir in the background

It saw quite a lot of traffic the day we skied it, with three other pairs than ourselves. And it was hot. The sun wasn’t out but the cloud cover kept it uncomfortably toasty.

Looking up the couloir

Topping out. Couloir of Austabottind in the background. Courtesy of Lars Thomas Nordby

We were up and down in no time. A great day out.

Me and first few turns in the couloir courtesy of Lars Thomas Nordby

Lars on the descent

Lars on the way home.... (Austabottind couloir in background)

Job done courtesy of Lars Thomas Nordby

Linking up both couloirs without any incident and going at a pretty leisurely pace took around 4.5hrs (including breaks, transitions e.t.c) and the altitude gain over the day was 1050m with 1300m skied down. We skied out of the same valley that contains the couloirs. This meant that we had to get a lift back to the car which was a few kms up the road. We did think about just skinning over the ridge on the way back to get to the car but managed to sort a lift out before that was necessary.

And then off to Turtagrø Hotel. What a great little place that is! It was my first time there. A real little ski community with a great vibe and a really nice, basic but somehow swish hotel. We camped outside for 100 NOK each and were able to use the shower and dry room and sit in the communal area and library. The library is something else and supposedly quite famous or at least it was before it got burnt down in 2001 with an enormous collection of mountaineering books. Fortunately for us and thanks to donations from around the world, the library is slowly recovering and they had loads of interesting, rare books to read.

Turtagrø Hotel

Turtagrø tenting

A great place to base yourself (probably the only place actually) and explore the area.

Want to see more splitboarding in Norway…..? Click here.

The light was really flat when we arrived. But that was okay. I mean, what do you do when the light’s flat…? You ski the trees. And what do we do if there are no trees…? You ski couloirs! Ja da! And luckily for us, there were a couple of couloirs on the agenda.

Store Austabottind (2202m) on far left and the North couloir

The west couloir on the Austabottind massif is really wide, evenly steep and just great fun. I’m guessing, excluding the fan, that the couloir is around 400m and at least 45 degrees (and not much more even though I have seen it rated at 50 degrees). This is a great and relatively quick tour to get to the entrance (we did it in a leisurely 1.45hrs) and the great thing is that you can link it up with the south couloir on Store Soleitind which is on the opposite side of the valley and where the above picture was taken.

We skinned up the backside of Austabottind and scrambled along the ridge to the entrance without getting to take a look at the couloir first.

Me scrambling up the ridge to get to the couloir entrance courtesy of Lars Thomas Nordby

The scramble is not that long (maybe 30mins, I cannot remember) and you cannot miss the entrance. If you see a cornice, keep going. There is no cornice formation on the entrance.

We've got company.... The entrance to the couloir

The first 30m or so are less steep and form a blind rollover as the couloir falls away. Conditions were variable with hard chalk snow and a few patches of nice powder. I think it had seen a fair amount of traffic as it felt pretty rutted from skiers traversing the face and not skiing it! And snowboarders get blamed for side-slipping everything

Lars after dropping in

What a cracking couloir! It’s so wide when you’re in it and although I didn’t feel I could charge it with the snow conditions, it was a great descent. Highly recommended.

Look....there's some snow!

Me skiing the couloir courtesy of Lars Thomas Nordby

We skied out of the fan and across the valley to ski the south couloir on Store Soleitind (see next blog post) which is clearly visible from the fan of this couloir. Two opposing couloirs within easy reach. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Want to see more splitboarding in Norway…..? Click here.

South Couloir of Skogshorn

Things have been quiet on the ski front the last few weeks since returning to Oslo from Chamonix and I have to admit that I was definitely over the season. But not now….!! Wahoo!! I hooked up with my Norwegian friend, Lars Thomas, a telemarker (but of course ;)) and we left Oslo at 8.00 with nothing particular in mind and were geared up and ready to skin up the apron of the couloir by 12.00. The skies were completely empty of clouds and the couloir had been taking a lovely dose of sun all morning. One of the luxuries of skiing here is the latitude and the angle of the sun (i.e., it being much lower). The snow was taking nowhere near as much of a beating as say the European Alps where timing is essential on southern aspects. Ridiculously early starts… Not a fan! That afforded us a nice leisurely pace and made the day a lot more enjoyable.

Me starting the boot pack courtesy of Lars Thomas Nordby

From the road which runs right below this peak, it’s about 850m to the summit (according to my watch) which is just off to the East of the couloir entrance. The actual couloir itself is about 350 to 400m long (that’s my guestimate). The lower section of the couloir is high 30′s to 40 degrees and gets steeper as you climb past the “crux” which is a 3m rock band around the middle of the couloir. There was a thin section of snow/ice here on climber’s left which made it easy to climb up (even with 1 ice axe and no crampons). In the upper section of the couloir, there are sections of 45 degrees but it is never sustained. Bit of a mixed bag…..

Lars climbing the crux

Looking up the couloir after the crux

There were a few people skiing down the couloir while we were climbing it so we didn’t get untouched corn. I’m not sure how often this gets skied but it’s supposed to be a bit of a Hemsedal classic, so I suspect a fair bit. I’m pretty sure we did witness one first that day though…..!!! One crazy Norwegian (by the name of Simen) skied it clad in his cross-country lycra and his cross country skis!! Why….I have no idea but he seemed to be enjoying himself even if it was extremely sketchy and he looked close to losing his balance a few times on solid 45 degrees. Each to their own.

Simen in his lycra and cross country skis!

Oh, by the way, for those who use this for beta, the boot pack up was perfect. Just enough penetration for solid steps which never collapsed. Beautiful.

Nearing the summit entrance to the couloir

Lars topping out

From the car to the summit took us just over 3 hours (not including a lunch break) at a pretty leisurely pace. We didn’t hang around long on the summit as it looked like the top of the couloir was about to return to the shade, transforming the snow to something a lot less pleasant to ski. We caught it perfectly.

First few turns......

Lars free-heeling

What can I say…..it was just brilliant! Great snow all the way down and some lovely turns. The couloir narrows after the first section (about a board length for a metre) before widening again and gets steeper (the steepest section of the couloir: 45 degrees, maybe a bit more…).

Lars nicely camouflaged about to drop into the steepest section above the crux

This then leads to the “crux” which we downclimbed. One of the snowboarders who passed us on the climb up let go of his board downclimbing this and it raced another 400m to the bottom. And this was the best part of the couloir……… Not good. Rack it up next time, mate!

Just above the crux

It would be nice to have a rope next time unless you drop it which is doable (I was feeling much too sensible and my hero juice is not what it used to be ;)). There are a few bits of tatt to use although I didn’t look to see how safe they were. What was to come was just some of the best skiing in a while. A lovely pitch and beautiful corn, linking turn after turn. Bloody ridiculous!

All good things have to come to an end and we navigated our way down the patches of snow to the car.

One happy customer......

I do look rather pleased with myself, don’t I!!

Right….where to next!!!!

Want to see more splitboarding in Norway…..? Click here.

God, this turned out to be a very long day. Up at 5.45am to get the first bin off the Aiguille du Midi with good friends, Greeny and Nick and down off the mountain at 1am.

The three of us had attempted to climb la Tour Ronde only a couple of weeks previously with the intent of skiing the west couloir (le Gervasutti) but there was just too much snow on the lower section and we got nowhere fast and had to abandon the route. It was probably a bit of a cocky move anyway and conditions really needed more time to settle.

The North Face of la Tour Ronde

This time round, the weather forecast was a little on the dodgy side but then it had been for the last three days and each of those had been beautiful and blue bird, so we hoped the weather forecaster would get it wrong again. We got the first bin up at 8.10am  and were at the Bergschrund for 9.30 with lovely blue skies. So far so good!

Greeny down the arete from the Aiguille du Midi. Look at the weather!

Greeny and Nick on the way to the Tour Ronde

As we were rounding Le Mont Blanc du Tacul, we could see that a group was already on the face and making their way up the ice chimney in the middle of the face. Great for us. There would be a boot pack in all the way!

Start of the skin and la Tour Ronde

We made our way up the lower snow field slowly but deliberately. I was supposed to be down and meeting Seb in the Argentiere hut that night to ski something on the Argentiere basin the next day, so had a bit of a rocket up my arse. And the weather was closing in………

Nick just below the first ice pitch

Soon it was snowing but it didn’t seem like there would be much accumulation but then the spindrift started ripping down the face. Cool, dry powder snow which got heavier and heavier as the day wore on. The actual ice pitch up the centre of the face is only 2 pitches of 60m.

Nick on the first pitch

We simul. climbed up, with Nick climbing the first 60m till the rope went taught on me and I would start climbing and Greeny started climbing when my 60m went taught on him. I’m not sure what the ice grade is but it was probably not more than grade 4 (similar to the Chere couloir). The ice was good with only a few sections of plating.

By this time, the weather was really not looking too good and visibility was terrible. As Greeny topped out at the top of the ice chimney at around 14.45 with 100m left to climb, we decided the safest bet was to abseil back down and bin the route. The spindrift was coming down fast and furious now and one episode hit us with enough force to almost knock us of the face or so it felt (we were all safely on a belay point).

Greeny nearing the end of the second pitch

So, back down we went the way we had come up off a nice v-thread. Nick went down first to set up the next belay point, then Greeny and then me. Safely down to the next belay point and last abseil before the bottom snow field and the rope got stuck. We tried and tried and lost a lot of time trying to free the rope in vain, knowing deep down that the only way was to climb up again and free it which Nick ended up doing. Legend! A few moments of fearing for my frost bitten toes during the interlude and we were finally down to the bottom snow field by 19.00 and the board was on my feet. That was a nice feeling.

We skied the bottom snow field with poor visibility but the snow was deep, steep and cold and then started to worry about finding our way out in the white out. Fortunately, things improved the lower down we got. It was as if we had been sitting in a snow cloud all day on the Tour Ronde.

Down the Vallee Blanche we went, me skootching for about 1hr on flats having gone too far skier’s right, switching to ski mode and then losing one of the skis when I was about to put it back into board mode. It shot off and narrowly missed a crevasse, contouring round it. Greeny saved the day and went a retrieved it. What a day!

Thankfully, things went pretty smoothly thereafter and we skied/walked to the buvette with headtorches donned and then had to walk all the way back to Chamonix due to a lack of snow. Amazing bootbang and very tired.

Long day.

By the way, there was a great little trailer to the upcoming film “Deeper” by Jeremy Jones with himself and Xavier de la Rue skiing this face. The top section wasn’t quite in condition when we were there but there’s some great footage of them riding from top to bottom. I’m just looking for it to link it but it seems to have been pulled. A real shame. Two of my favorite riders.

I’m now stuck in Chamonix trying to find ways to get home to Oslo. If anyone is heading that way, give me a shout!

For more trip reports in Chamonix, click here.