Days 9 and 10 - Hatfjeldall to Seterstad Gard
Thursday 17th February Hatfjeldall Hotell to lake Røsvatnet.
Breakfast at the Hatfjeldall Hotell was great we would have been happy to chat with the owner, Evan, all day. He is a lovely man who gave us lots of useful information.
The marvellous Evan. Owner of the Hatfjeldall Hotell. (And; No, I didn’t spell “hotell” wrong)
I wasn’t allowed to take it. Apparently, it would be cheating. Apparently, it’s not in keeping with the ethos of our journey. Picky, picky, picky.
21.4 km today over 7hrs 20 mins. beautiful weather and, to my mind, the best scenery we have seen so far.
Me, spoiling the view
A really hard slog up out of Hatfjeldall. Trond has a newly filled pulk too. Deep snow and pretty steep.
I introduce him to a potential conspiracy theory at change over time (my turn to pull Pulky). I tell him that, when David and I were staying in his place at Renodalen and had decided to start again, but with a pulk, we had carefully worked out that if I started pulling Pulky on day 1, followed by Davids and, every now and then we make some small, but complicated timing changes then it would mean that Trond gets to pull the pulk up all the hills all the way to Nordkapp.
“I absolutely believe it” he replied.
2 minutes after I take over pulling the pulk, the groomed ski scooter trail starts. Trond believes the conspiracy even more.
Some interesting ups and downs with the best being saved for David’s turn with Pulky. So steep he had to take his skis off and walk!
Down at the lake there is one last short, steep downhill bit. David says to Trond, “You might want to have a think how you’re going to get the pulk down here.”
Trond takes one look and simply unclips Pulky and ‘sets him free.’ As Pulky accelerated down the slope I said, “That should work. He’s old enough to look after himself now.”
David, now at the bottom of the slope, had quite a shock when an unattended Pulky, delighting in his new found freedom, went barrelling past.
Traveling along the lake is stunning. A group of mountains, all around 1,300 m high, stand away to our left and are always in view. Each mountain is completely white despite their precipitous sides. To our right, the largest mountain in the region and. far in the distance, a group of mountains reminiscent of Snowdon and its horseshoe of neighbouring hills (only bigger… and whiter… and further north… and… oh, ok, nothing like Snowdon).
The light reflects the colour of the sky, so all shadows are blue. These huge mountains of white and blue are our constant companions throughout the day.
Our view throughout our day on the lake
At about 3.30 we found a place to pitch the tent at the side of the lake. The sun is setting, the light is simply incredible. Tent up I take a few photos and a video to upload to Instagram later. But, first, send a picture to Mrs P.
A room with a view
In the tent, my down jacket is not doing a great job at keeping me warm. No matter what I wear it with. It’s just too tight. No loft. David kindly does the last stint of water melting so that I can get into my sleeping bag. Bed at 7.30pm after writing my diary. Alarm is set for 07.00. Trond has deployed the ear plugs. I really wish I didn’t snore.
Friday 18th February - Røsvatnet lake camp spot to Seterstad Gard
4hrs 15 - 13.2km
Minus 22. Probably about minus 18 in the tent overnight.
The uninviting view from my sleeping bag
I was cold in the night in my Mountain Equipment XEROS sleeping bag. But it is only designed to be comfortable down to minus 15 (which it has been). However, once I put on my down trousers and black synthetic down coat, I slept quite well.
At about 2am I pulled all of my clothing into the bag with me as I didn’t want to be putting on cold clothes when the alarm went off..
Waking at 7am in the morning no one wanted to be first to unzip their bag and start the long and cold process of getting dressed.
I was first to move. I unzipped my bag and was greeted by a shower of ice from the frozen condensation on the tent inner. Brrr! About sums that up.
Here’s how the process goes:
First thing to do is to dress the top half. Gloves first, then off with the coat I wore inside my bag and on with the thermal shirt. Then the synthetic waistcoat goes on followed by the Mountain Equipment, Kinesis jacket, then a thin synthetic down waiscoat, followed by the Mountain Equipment, Tupilak Atmo waterproof (I name the jackets and the sleeping bag because Mountain Equipment (enough plugs yet?) gave us a really good deal on their kit and donated the sleeping bags for free, which, as you know, is my favourite price).
Now the tough bit, legs out of sleeping bag, down trousers off, thermal leggings on and then trousers, followed by waterproof trousers and, on top of all that, back on with the down trousers. Oh, I forgot, by now I have 2 hats on. Then, legs back in bag and time to melt water. Deep joy.
While I dress, David is going through pretty much the same process while Trond, well, Trond is still curled up in his -25 degrees C sleeping bag. Not moving. Now this may make him seem somewhat idle, but the truth is, there really is only room for 2 people to move at any one time. So, he has to wait until we are done before he can move. (Though I’m pretty sure I heard him snoring at one point).
We spend around 45 mins to one hour heating water for hot drinks and breakfast.
David on water melting duty
The chill out zone
Then the worst thing, and the very last thing, to be done before getting out of the tent. It is time to put my boots on. My feet are only just warm in my down slippers and my boots are like blocks of ice. “Why don’t you put your boots in your sleeping bag overnight?” I hear you ask. Well, the idea is great and you hear about people doing it all the time. They are clearly short people. I’m 6 ft tall and only just fit in the bag myself. There certainly isn’t room for a pair of size 46 ski boots as well.
Instantly my feet are also like blocks of ice, so what do I do? That’s right, I get out and start walking around in 20cm of snow at minus 22 degrees c. This is not conducive to warming my toes. By the time the tent is packed away and the pulk is loaded, my feet are not only like blocks of ice, but also worryingly, lack feeling. Fortunately a short, shuffling ski gait allows me to wiggle the blocks of ice in my boots and, after a rather uncomfortable 1/2 hour they begin to feel like toes again. Not too long later (via a little pain) they are warm once again.
Well, I seem to have used my word quota up and it isn’t even 9.15am yet.! Did I mention how cold it was?
Frost covered marker post out on the frozen lake
Back on to the lake it’s a mixed bag of snow from sastrugi (like wind sculpted water) to hard packed snow that our skis make no impression on. Allegedly the Inuit have 100 words for snow. I reckon that at least 50% of them are swear words. Mostly however the snow is perfect.
That well known firm of solicitors; Pulky, Trond & Sun (It’s an English play on words. If you don’t get it just smile politely)
A really short day and great to arrive at Seterstad Gard. Just an amazing place. The house is fantastic and, wait for it… IT HAS A SAUNA!!!!!!! Ahhhhh! No photos from the sauna. No one needs to see that.
We are provided with fish (chard), potatoes, onion and lettuce by the delightful Anja, from their very own fish farm.
I cook and manage to do a half decent job of frying the huge amount of fish.
Anja latter returns with some eggs, cheese, bread and about 2-3 litres of fresh and delicious goats milk.
It’s been a lovely day. Nice to get a bit of a rest and, did. I mention the sauna? Ahhh! What more reason do you need to visit?
Some statistics regarding our journey from Nordli so far:
Distance travelled: 211.4km
Days of moving: 10
Number of swear words for snow: 7
