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.

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9

I’ve decided to call a failed attempt on a peak a “reccy” instead, as that is what it really is. Checking things out and lessons learned for the next attempt. Anything to help lessen the frustration

The snow came late to Europe and Norway has been no exception. But when it came, it came in abundance. Or at least that’s what it looked like looking at the snow reports and from hearsay. Then Dagmar (a hurricane à la Norwegian) came along over Christmas with warm temps and rain.

That’s unfortunately how I found Isfjorden on the West Coast of Norway, just outside of Åndalsness, a 6.5 hrs drive from Oslo. A long drive through the usual, “hilly” mountains before you come to Trollveggen (highest vertical rock face in Europe) and the mountains get serious and beautiful. I wasn’t quite sure which face was Trollveggen but it turns out I was looking at the wrong one, just one door down from the face I should have been looking at which was shrouded in cloud. Another excuse to go back that way!

The wrong Trolllveggen!

I didn’t really have a plan on going to Isfjorden which is always a bit of a mistake when time is short. I’d heard of the usual suspects like Kirketaket but that was it. So I thought I would try and do something on the first mountain I saw which had skiable lines and that was this one just above the town of Isfjorden:

Snortungen (1193m) & Isfjorden

I wasn’t sure if this was a little ambitious for the first tour of the season and the second day on the board but you won’t know if you don’t try so off I went. The problem with touring at this time of year in Norway is the short days. What looked like a fairly straight forward approach turned out to be a shitty bush whack in shitty rain affected snow, so time and uncertainty got the better of me and I binned it before I got to the fan of the couloir.

I had hoped to spend all three days in Isfjorden getting to know the area but it looked like it had rained pretty much to the top of the mountains before I arrived and more rain was coming the next day ( 29th Dec) and a lot more the next day, so off I went to pastures new, hoping to wrestle a bit of snowboarding out of the few days I had.

Waking up to the pitter patter of rain on my tent the next morning, my decision was confirmed and I headed to Jotunheimen with a pit stop in Bjorli for a couple of hours of piste skiing (a really small resort with a couple of runs).

It turns out they had just closed the road (N55) for winter the day before I got there which meant I wouldn’t be able to get into the area. Things were conspiring against me. I could get some way up the road though to the road that turns off to Leirvassbu and Loftet mountain.

Looking towards Skagsnebb at 9am

I’d had my eye on a little something in Leirdalen which again might present me with a few timing issues due to the short day light hours, as indeed it did. I took the wrong approach which didn’t help and lost a lot of time but at least found the best way for next time. A failed attempt but a successful reccie

Conditions here too were not the best. It looked like it had rained pretty high up (at least 1500m. As high as I got.) and refroze. It was boiler plate with a 10cm light and fluffy layer of powder on top and deep pockets of accumulated snow if you were lucky enough to chance upon them. I did on a few occasions and it was blower powder!

There was a big avalanche run out too which I can only imagine was from warmer temps and rain. The debris was boulder size and much more like the warm, wet slides you see at the end of the season. Something to bear in mind as this layer forms the foundation for other snow layers later in the season.

Avalanche in Leidalen (West facing)

Looking north in Leirdalen as the light fades (3pm)

So, on paper a pretty unsuccessful trip. But then what was I expecting having no knowledge of Isfjorden and just generally challenging conditions. Off paper (if you can say that), it was a fantastic 3 days away with me, my car, my splitboard and my tent. A fantastic sense of freedom that I haven’t felt for a long time which has got me well up for the new season!

And things to look forward to: Lofoten, Chamonix and Pakistan!

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Store Smørstabbtinden

And the weather is still really hot. I don’t know what the ambient temperature was during the day but 10 to 15 degrees didn’t seem too far off the mark. And the night time temps were around 0 to -5. Needless to say, the freeze-thaw cycle was in full effect and there was definitely no need for early starts. The snow was bullet hard until mid day.

Store Smørstabbtinden

This run is west facing, so it was a good job we waited as late as we did. We set off around 12.00 and were on the summit for around 16.00, enough time for the snow to soften up. I didn’t take too many pics on this trip but have borrowed a few from Trond. To be honest, the hike up is not really very noteworthy.

The tour starts at Krossbu Hotel and makes its way up gently for the first 500m taking a route which goes looker’s left of the mountain and is very obvious. The last 550m gets steeper and we bootpacked all the way up the ridge to the summit. The snow was very firm the whole way up.

Trond on the way up. Picture courtesy of Gunnar

Views from the summit looking south. Picture courtesy of Trond

Finding the entrance to the couloir is pretty okay but you need to get a good fix on it on the way up. The actual couloir itself is around 40 degrees and pretty narrow in the beginning before widening out again. You have to navigate your way through some stones towards the end and then just peg it across the glacier to get back to Krossbu. Keeping speed, I managed to get most of the way back to the car without having to take the board off. As little walking as possible please

And that’s that. Not much else to report on this one. We took a very leisurely 5hrs up and down with about 1.5hrs break along the way. Total up from the car was 1050m. And that is probably my last tour for the season unfortunately.

Not sure what to make of it to be honest. This is my second season away from the mountains on a permanent basis since 2003 and it’s been hard. There’ve been long periods of nothing and mediocrity in terms of boarding and life’s just too short for mediocrity. I’ve struggled to find a ski buddy with a similar background and experience in ski mountaineering and who’s on the same page. Maybe I’ve been spoilt by fantastic ski buddies during my time in Chamonix or maybe there are just so many more in places like Chamonix than in places like Oslo….

Let’s see what happens next season. One things for sure is it can’t be a repeat of this one.

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Steindalsnosi shrouded in cloud (taken from direction of Lom)

Steindalsnosi is well and truly open! As opposed to last month when we got our first turns of the new season and had to to scramble over rocks from the car, you can now put your skis on and skin the whole way! A pleasure. The crevasses are all filled in (where you ski at least).

As regards the snow: very much wind-pack and breakable crust. The mountain has taken a bit of a battering from the wind and hardened up the powder. But, as a result, if you look hard enough, you can find a lot of soft, fluffy wind accumulation in the features on skier’s left as you ski down.

As regards the weather: cold and windy. At the car is was -10 C. With the altitude gain and winds of around 20 knts (gusting 30 knots knts), the wind chill must have been in the high thirties (probably more). Either way, it was bloody cold. Most of the weather was in the last 300m of the summit, so as opposed to the first day where we went to the summit, we spent the second day at lower elevations and lapped the slope. Much more pleasant and much better visibility.

As regards traffic: Saturday, we saw our first people on the mountain as we were skiing down. About ten people in different groups. Sunday, a group of two.

So, that’s that. Steindalsnosi is looking good! Not so sure about the surrounding peaks just yet. Still lots of rocks. I’m sure you could find a line if you are desperate but might be worth waiting for more snow cover.

P.S. Friflyt users….sorry for the bad link. Friflyt adds a <br> tag in the link on their page (invisible. You can see it at the end of the address in your browser though) which corrupts the link and means you cannot go directly to the page. Sorry about that!

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The weather has been getting very crisp of late in Oslo and it had actually snowed around 40cm in early September in the Sognefjellet Pass area in Jotunheimen, so we thought we would chance a little outing to the mountains and check out the lay of the land.

Steindalsnosi is as good a place as any to start the early season with a better snow gurantee than most places. It’s all glacial and consequently holds the snow well. We left Friday night from Oslo, breaking the journey up on the way and arrived in the morning the next day. (It’s normally around a 5.5hr drive from Oslo).

As we first caught sight of the mountain, things weren’t looking too promising….The snow line was around 1000m and patchy at best and there was a lot of crevassing visible on the lower section of the face.

Steindalsnosi shrouded in cloud (taken from direction of Lom)

And it was cold! And windy! It’s pretty crazy to think it’s still September and the temperatures are comfortably in the minus, not including the wind chill. I definitely haven’t acquired my winter coat yet. I was cold! Winds were around 25kn and my board was behaving excellently as a sail.

Approaching Steindalsnosi. Windy!

The snow cover was nowhere near what it was when we skied this mountain last year. We were admittedly one month early but walking over rock and scree for an hour in ski boots is never much fun. As we got closer to the glacier, the crevasses looked nowhere near as concerning as they had from a distance. Firstly, they were clearly visible and secondly they were small. No sweat. The only thing to investigate now was was there enough snow!

Lars-Thomas at the end of the scramble before the glacier proper.

It wasn’t exactly a resounding yes. There was about 6-7cm on glacial ice….dry and fluffy. Great for skiing but you could blow it off the ice like dust. We pushed on and found things a lot better the further we went. I had forgotten my skins, so would be boot-packing for most of the weekend. Nice work, Paul (The Adventures of a Bootpacker ;)) And my camera… So thanks to Lars-Thomas for the great photos! As we got further up the moutain, things closed in but the snow was good! Oh yeah!

Approaching the summit in a whiteout.

The top half of the face was well filled in compared to the lower section which held windblown snow and exposed glaicer. So we skied the first half and then went up again for a second hit.

And on the way back down.

Classic Norwegian Tele-Turns.

I had already set the boot pack, so it seemed a shame to waste it

Lars-Thomas on Steindalsnosi.

And then we decided to call it a day.

Me on the last section of glacier before the delightful, boot-banging scramble back to the car.

What a great first day out on the board for the new season. Nothing too heavy and perfect to blow away the cobwebs. I think we clocked something like 1100m vertical gain in the end. Nothing crazy but why would you on your first tour.

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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……..

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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.

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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.

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