A whole lot of skating on skis…
Peaks visited:
| Peak | Height | PF | Location |
| Sjåheimen | 610m | 57m | Søndre Land, Norway |
| Sjåheimen | 610m | 57m | Søndre Land, Norway |
| Sjåheimen | 610m | 57m | Søndre Land, Norway |
Transport Day, Dec 28 2019
Continued from the Billingen report…
Saturday: We left Billingen and sat course for Hov in Søndre Land.
Neither Anne nor me had really paid attention to the actual distance, just assuming that once we were on the east side of the mountain range, it wouldn’t be a long drive.
But it was! 287km and a 4 hour drive…
We stopped in Gjøvik to buy groceries and a new bed for Karma, who had completely fallen in love with the dog bed at the cabin (our friends have an Italian Waterdog – Lagotto) and we decided that we would spend a fair amount of money on a similar type of bed. It was a good investment. Karma adopted the new bed as if she had always had it.
Eventually, we reached our friends Eva & Bjørn’s place in Scheeskroken, Hov by Randsfjorden and got settled in our usual apartment on the loft.
Sjåheimen (610m), Dec 29 2019
Sunday: After the classic Scheeskroken egg & bacon breakfast, it was time to burn off some calories on skis and Eva & Bjørn wanted to come along.
We didn’t have to travel to get to the trailhead. We just carried the skies up the street and then we were on our way. We didn’t have a clearly defined target, but I was hoping we could ski all the way to Skihytta on Sjåheimen – which is the highest point in the nearby region. Anne, Eva and Bjørn skied on regular cross-country skis, suited for prepared tracks, while I decided to skate.
The first part of the route was 1,2km along the lit trail (a 2,5km loop) before heading into the forest. The snow was soft, and my skis didn’t glide well at all. Sigh! The problem wasn’t that this would be a big struggle. The problem was that this would be no fun!
But thanks to the poor glide, I was also able to get some grip. Without it, this would have been the worst ski-trip ever. So, I was able to keep up with the others.
After 7,6km, we reached Skihytta. The others were a bit surprised. Pleasantly – as I don’t think they had planned to go this far today.
Upon descent, I had to work hard to keep up. I swore to do something with the skis once back in Scheeskroken.
Lucky for me, Bjørn offered to prepare them for me – having all the equipment and skills one needs for this task.
Trip statistics: 15,6km, 330 vertical meters, 2h:25m
Pictures (Iphone8) from the trip:
Dinner and fun with good friends, Dec 29 2019
Sunday afternoon: Anne and Steffen came over for pizza in the evening. After the meal, it was time to try out Anne’s new game “Ticket to ride” with 5 people. That was big fun and we ended up with two rounds.
Sjåheimen (610m), Dec 30 2019
Monday: We woke up to a beautiful day, and Anne and I decided to ski to Skihytta again after breakfast. The tracks would certainly not be soft today. The question was more if they were too hard? And – I was so excited about trying out the skating skis after what was hopefully a “magic touch” from Bjørn.
Once I got the skis on – holy cow! This was a different sport altogether. What a speed! Anne wasn’t able to keep up, so I had to wait a lot. Eventually, she said that I should just to the rest of the route to the top by myself and then we would meet again upon my descent.
Karma had no problems keeping up, as the tracks carried her weight. We did a quick stop for a picture on top, then headed down to meet Anne.
The descent was a bit scary in the longer downhills, and I had to control my speed to avoid an unpleasant meeting with hard snow. Fortunately, we all returned to base without taking any falls.
Trip statistics: 15,3km, 330 vertical meters, 2 hours
NRK Interview, Dec 30 2019
Still Monday: I got a phone call from a journalist at NRK – the Norwegian public broadcaster – who wanted to do a small pitch regarding a poll, showing that 65% of the Norwegian people wants to hike or ski MORE in 2020. I don’t think I was the ideal candidate to be interviewed, because I have no plans to hike or ski more in the upcoming year. I think I do my fair share already. But as I knew her (the journalist), I decided to do the interview (otherwise I wouldn’t) and the following article (in Norwegian) was posted on their web-site a few hours later.
Sjåheimen (610m), Dec 30 2019
Still Monday: With a couple of hours left before dinner, I told the others that I wanted to do a final ski-trip to Sjåheimen – all by myself. I simply had to enjoy the amazing skis one last time. The others were a little bit surprised, but then again – not really. Eva & Bjørn are well aware of my “restless nature“.
I headed out 4:06pm and reached the start of the lit trail at 4:18pm. This was a natural place to start the stopwatch. I didn’t have any given time to beat, and I don’t consider myself to be a good skier either, but I was curious how long it would take to do the 6,3km (and ~250 vertical meters ascent) to the top.
As it was dark, I also got to test my new headlamp – Moonlight Mountain Gear. The forest got properly lit up, but I need to find a new solution for the cable going from the lamp and to the battery.
The trip up the forest was super-nice. I noticed that I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since the previous trip, but any fatigue was suppressed by the pure fun I had.
I reached the top 5pm sharp, which means a 9km/h speed in average. I don’t know how fast a good skier would have done this route, but twice that speed wouldn’t surprise me.
Then followed the descent – slightly longer – 6,4km and I took it nice and slow in the longer downhills. The Red Cross would NOT have to come for me today…
I reached my starting point where I started skiing at 5:29pm – 14km/h on average. Which means that the 12,7km ski-track route was done in 1h:11m. I was quite OK with that. It would have been equally fun if I did it 10 minutes slower or faster. I was back at the house 5:40pm and had 20 minutes of spare time to get ready for dinner.
Trip statistics: 15,3km, 330 vertical meters, 1h:34m
Transport Day, Dec 31 2019
Tuesday: We left our friends at Hov after breakfast and started our 250km drive to Sogndal. This was a trip I didn’t look forward to. During the last couple of days, the roads had become extremely slippery and a storm was raging in the mountains. Lots of roads were closed or there was a convoy.
But all in all, we were quite lucky. The roads had by now been properly ploughed and salted, and the weather across Filefjell wasn’t all that bad. All in all, it was a fairly smooth transport leg but I was happy it was over. I still had 3 more hours of driving before I was back home on Sunnmøre, but that would be the next day.
