Day 10 - Gaukhei to Tjonndalen
12/01/22
Up at 6am and left Gaukhei in the dark at 08.00. Weather: light rain/sleet. Visibility not too bad. Brightened up in afternoon but wind increased.
It’s this way, right?
Our aim today is another, smaller DNT hut at Tjonndallen, around 14km away.
The previous evening, while I was getting the fire going. David had spent some time putting new wax on our skis. I also swapped some really old skins for new ones. This made skiing much easier, no more balling up problems. Still hard work, but I’m not noticing the rucksack weight so much. Possibly because I am concentrating on skiing. Maybe, just maybe, I am beginning to get used to it?
Me, looking a bit like I know what I am doing
To be honest, the previous two days have been the hardest thing I have ever done. Possibly because I am however getting over a bad cold and an injury (broken ribs 8 weeks ago), but still… There have been times when I thought this was just too much. That said, today was not too bad. My skiing has improved I think (David may say otherwise - David may just burst out laughing) and the wax and skins are definitely making for a less exhausting time.
Me, looking less like I know what I am doing and more like a 4 year old who has just been given his first pair of skis.
A fair bit of ascent and descent today. It’s very different from downhill skiing in a resort. It’s important to choose the route carefully to ensure that;
you don’t go to quick
you don’t hit a tree, hole, boulder, each other etc.
A few errors saw me face planting. David Did this too once. I must confess it made me feel a little better. I said to him, “You ok?” I thought; “Yes! He falls over too.”
About 5km in to the day and the winds have picked up. Perhaps 30-40km. (Fortunately it was behind us much of the time.) Occasionally the wind catches you at the wrong time and caused me to fall over twice. I like to think of it more like having a bit of a sit down than falling. A rest. It’s psychologically a better way of looking at it. However, it is bloomin’ difficult to getting back up again after one of these “rests.” Especially with an 18kg rucksack pushing your face into the snow. In deep snow often the only way to get back up is to wriggle out of your rucksack and kind of climb on top of it, from there, hopefully you can haul your sorry self back to the horizontal. It is by the way, compulsory to swear whilst doing this. I am very good at that part.
Micro navigation in these conditions would be almost impossible with map and compass alone. Even with the GPS David is constantly having to stop to check the route and assess the actual ground. He does an incredible job.
The ‘’ground” is an interesting mix of nice flat lakes, tortuous uphill sections and tangled, low birch trees, which we must negotiate both up abs down.
After about 6 hours we saw Tjøndalen in the valley about 200m below us. It took a good hour to pick our way steeply downhill through the tangle of trees. At least we arrived with daylight to spare at 3pm.
The hut is by the lake in the distance. Just gotta ski down through those pesky trees.
The DNT hut here is a quintessential old mountain hut from the turn of the century. No electricity here, just a small main building, which sleeps 6, with a very basic kitchen and a separate woodshed containing an axe, toilet etc. Not a tin of Sodd in sight I’m pleased to say.
We get the fire going, start to melt snow for water and generally settle in.
Cosy cabin life
The elephant in the room
There is an unspoken issue that David and I finally get round to discussing.
We are both becoming more abs more aware that our plan of fast and light, is looking more and more unrealistic.
Our master plan has always been to ski hut to hut. We do have a rather flimsy emergency tent (I call it the Wendy House), that we really did hope to use on a couple of occasions late in the trip and in emergencies only. Our method of travel relied on us getting the the huts each night. Let me try to explain the issues we face…
There is a huge risk taken by anyone hoping to complete the Norge på langs in winter and that is the need to be in the mountains when no self-respecting Norwegian would go anywhere near them. The weather is unpredictable and, particularly this far south, the proximity to the sea means the mountains sees large fluctuations in temperature meaning dreadful snow conditions, even rain. Poor snow conditions mean slow progress. Complicated navigation adds to this slow progress and our relative inexperience on Nordic skis with heavy rucksacks slows us even more. Add that all together and what do you get? We cant be fast enough to fulfil our need to travel sometimes up to 37 km in a day. This means we won’t reach the huts. Meaning we will have to use the tent. But the tent isn’t up to the job.
The reality is, we just aren’t equipped to complete a journey like this with the equipment we have.
To add insult to injury, I slip on the ice when visiting the wood shed and damage a rib. I don’t think it’s broken but it bloomin’ well hurts. It will I suppose encourage me to not fall over any more, because that’s gonna hurt.
We both go to bed a little despondent.
The elephant sits brooding in the corner.
A beautiful place. A big dilemma.
