Cross-country on randonee skis (!!!)
Peaks visited:
| Peak | Height | PF | Municipality |
| Reppanipa | 944m | 101m | Sogndal |
The plan for this Sunday was as follows; if we got sunshine, we would go for a mountain top and hope for an epic ski-descent. Otherwise, we would do a 10-11km cross-country ski-trip from Øvstedalen to Hodlekve.
On my solo ski-trip to Blåfjellet (1397m) on Saturday, I got my share of white-out and had to actively use the GPS to find the summit AND to get safely off the mountain. For Sunday, I wanted an easier trip, and even if Anne had done this trip earlier this year, she also looked forward to it.
Sunday morning, we woke up to fog and light rain. Cross-country it was! If I only had brought my cross-country skis, I would be have been OK. I only had my randonee skis, but realized this would be a great opportunity to test my new waterproof skins (Fischer profoil). The snow was bound to be soaking wet.
We drove up to Hodlekve in Sogndalsdalen, where I parked my car. Then we drove Anne’s car to the parking in Øvstedalen. It was raining light when we headed out, but the forecast had promised better weather during the day. We were optimists.
As we assumed, the snow was soaking wet, but the skins delivered on their promise! We had turned Karma into super-Karma, but that wasn’t necessary as wet snow doesn’t stick on her.
The light was quite flat when we passed Furesete, and Lusaskard (mountain) was covered in fog. The mountain “screamed” avalanche danger in a number of places, but with good visibility it would not have been difficult to find a safe route up the mountain. But we were not heading for Lusaskard today, and continued towards Fjærlandsete.
We had a lunch break just before Fjærlandsete. Anne had brought her doggy bag of pizza from the day before, while I had fresh chocolate buns from the gas station in Sogndal. And warm coffee. The lunch tasted heavenly!
As we passed Dyrhovden, we saw blue sky. I resisted the temptation to take a detour across the summit (only 700m away) and felt proud that I was able to stick to the plan.
But when we approached Reppanipa, my morale “broke down” and I wondered if Anne would mind if I went up to Reppanipa and skied down to Gjerde, where she could pick me up. She didn’t mind.
Anne continued to Hodlekve while Karma and I headed for Reppanipa. We had a parallel course until I reached the top. I reckoned she would be down by the car by the time I was down by the main road.
OK, I had 600 vertical meters of potential superb skiing ahead of me, if it hadn’t been for the wet snow. The skiing was just terrible, but Karma had it much worse, trying to keep up with me in the deep snow.
It got a bit better when we reached the tractor road down by Tuftestølen. Skiing went easier, and Karma was able to follow. And as for timing – I reached the main road a few seconds before Anne arrived. My total distance was 13km and the vertical gain was 620m. I really enjoyed the trip, despite the weather and the skiing conditions.
Pictures from the trip:
