Christmas, bad back and a new year…
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | MAP |
| 24.12.23 | Sjusjøen | – | – | Ringsaker, Norway | MAP |
| 25.12.23 | Storåsen | 974m | 17m | Ringsaker, Norway | MAP |
| 26.12.23 | Nevelfjell | 1090m | 169m | Lillehammer, Norway | MAP |
| 27.12.23 | Sjusjøen | – | – | Ringsaker, Norway | MAP |
| 28.12.23 | Sjusjøen | – | – | Ringsaker, Norway | MAP |
| 29.12.23 | Lunkefjell | 1012mm | 95m | Lillehammer, Norway | MAP |
| 30.12.23 | Hov | – | – | Søndre Land, Norway | MAP |
| 31.12.23 | Sjåheimen | 610m | 57m | Søndre Land, Norway | MAP |
Sjusjøen, Dec 24 2023 (Week 51)
Sunday: After a delicious breakfast with our friends at Årnes, we got ready for the drive to Sjusjøen to spend Christmas at our friends’ cabin. The car was smack full, including a pine tree from where I live (on the northwest coast).
The drive went smoothly. This was travel leg 9/12 this Christmas and so far the weather had been OK. When we arrived at the cabin, I shovelled snow and brought all the stuff from the car and inside the cabin.
After locking the car, and bringing the last bag into the cabin, I drew a sigh of relief. We had been fortunate to a) not get sick, b) not deal with cancelled flights or c) lost luggage. I felt really, really lucky. That was my thought when I dropped the last bag onto the floor. Then, a “knife” hit me right in my back. I screamed and fell to the floor. Anne was at the bathroom and didn’t hear me.
After a couple of minutes, I was able to get on my knees and wondered how on earth I would go about standing upright. The pain in the back was unbelievable. At the same time, I had to laugh, given my very recent thought on lucky I had been.
After a while, I got up and humped around like the ringer of Notre Dame, feeling slightly sorry for myself. Anne took care of the practicalities and started to plan for Christmas dinner. The traditional ski-trip was totally out of the question.
Anne was happy doing her stuff in the kitchen, while I was decorating the Christmas tree…
Then it was finally time for Christmas dinner. Anne delivered, like she always does. Pork rib and sausages (produced by my neighbor) We had a very nice Christmas Eve, as the beer and the Aquavit took away some of the back pain…
After dinner – time to unwrap the presents. I looked forward to presenting her the usual gift – 2 new picture books from our hikes together. It’s becoming a collection now…
It’s an expensive gift, but I find it worth the while and money. I feel my pictures really “come to life” in book form, compared to my downscaled web versions. The books were appreciated, like always…
Storåsen (974m), Dec 25 2023
Monday: Short version: My back was just as bad as the day before, but – the weather was lovely, and I just had to go out for a short ski-trip.
It was painful like hell, but hell if I wanted to miss out on it. I just had to test one of Anne’s Christmas presents – a new pair of skis with built-in skins. Best fit for spring conditions, but spring wasn’t exactly around the corner, so…
We passed Storåsen and sat course for Sjusjøen.
I didn’t mind the downhills. No pain there…
It was just lovely to be outdoors.
As we approached the cabin, I wanted to do yet another trip up to Storåsen – just to have a named point to tie this trip to.
Anne sighed, but agreed to follow…
So, we went back up to Storåsen one more time…
The off-trail part was really terrible for Karma. She had to dig her way up to the top.
But eventually, we were all present on top.
We felt she was eyeballing us…
The descent was just as hard as the ascent…
But eventually, we got back on the road and …
…back to the cabin.
Trip statistics: 7,3km, 215 vertical meters, 1h:24m
Nevelfjell (1090m), Dec 26 2023
Tuesday: Today, we took the drive to Nordseter to ski Nevelfjell. It was a gorgeous day!
There were lots of people in the tracks and we decided to keep Karma on a leash, just to prevent any accidents with skiers coming down in high speed…
After a while, we got Nevelfjell in view…
Did I say it was yet another gorgeous day?
…and we were super-happy about being in the tracks. My back was still hurting like hell, but I had found a way to keep skiing and deal with the pain.
Eventually, we had to go off-trail. There were some tracks in the beginning that we hoped would carry Karma all the way to the top, but they didn’t.
After leaving the tracks, we had to break the trail and Karma was just swimming after us. I really felt bad for her. She would rather die than not following mommy and daddy. We had some responsibility here…
It got slightly easier, the higher we got…
And eventually, we had the summit in view.
The wind was quite fierce now, and as we knew that the high point was 160m to the northwest, we took turns to go there, while Karma stayed inside the shelter.
It was windy alright, but it wasn’t a storm…
The high point HAD to be visited. No question about it…
After a while, I started looking forward to getting OFF this mountain…
Back at the tracks, we decided to do a round trip. So now we would be returning to Nordseter along the east side of lake Nevelvatnet.
It was just a great trip…
When we returned to the cabin, we watched Magnus Carlsen trying to defend his World Championship title from 2022 in Rapid Chess.
Later in the afternoon, I got some kind of fever and shivered uncontrolled for the rest of the evening. My digital thermometer didn’t show any fever, but I was really shaking and had to hit the bed.
Trip statistics: 11,3km, 270 vertical meters, 2h:42m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Sjusjøen, Dec 27 2023
Wednesday: I spent most of this day in bed, or in the chair watching Magnus Carlsen on his journey to defend the title as the Rapid Chess World Champion.
Anne took Karma out for a ski-trip, so I had one less worry in my life. The pain in my back was just as awful as the previous days, in addition to recovering from yesterday’s fever…
In the evening, we started playing “Ticket to Ride – World”. Big fun! Anne always wins these games, but today, I won!
Sjusjøen, Dec 28 2023
Thursday: I felt a little bit better, although my back was still bad. I decided to stay indoors and follow Magnus Carlsen and Karma didn’t get a ski-trip today. The weather wasn’t very good either. Karma seemed happy enough…
And I was quite happy when Magnus Carlsen brought home the World Championship – one more time.
Lunkefjell (1012m), Dec 29 2023
Friday: I’m extremely binary. If I don’t want to go on a trip, I’m not well. Otherwise, I’m OK. And today, I felt like skiing Lunkefjell – still with a stiff and sore back.
The weather wasn’t great, and visibility was not good, either.
Still, it was very, very nice to be out again. The fever was gone and while I felt tired and had back pain, I was otherwise OK.
And then we reached the top of Lunkefjell – again.
We returned to Sjusjøen via a different route and then we decided to extend the trip a little bit.
Karma seemed very fit. No doubt the monthly NOK 1000, – Librela injection was paying off. Not the slightest sign of limping since she began getting these injections…
The trip back to the cabin got longer than expected, mainly because a) we didn’t remember the tracks like we should have an b) not all tracks were open.
But eventually, we got back home and could follow Magnus Carlsen, trying to defend his Rapid Blitz Chess World Championship from 2022…
Trip statistics: 17,6km, 370 vertical meters, 3h:33m
Hov, Dec 30 2023
Saturday: Transport leg 10/12 – Sjusjøen – Hov, Søndre Land. We left the cabin on Sjusjøen in pristine order in the morning and drove to our friends Eva & Bjørn in Hov, Søndre Land.
We left before the Blitz Chess championship was over, but heard on the car radio that Magnus Carlsen defended the title once again. What a guy!
Again, the weather was OK, and I wondered how long this luck would last. Anyway, it was very nice to be back in Hov again!
Sjåheimen (610m) & New Year’s Eve, Dec 31 2023
Sunday: Today, we went on the traditional ski-trip to Skihytta, aka Sjåheimen. Initially, it was Eva, Bjørn, Anne and me and Karma heading out.
Just up the road, we met Belinda and her kids Ronja and Johanna. Ronja had a special crush for Karma and felt privileged to ski with her.
The speed wasn’t mind-boggling…
Ronja tried to stick with Karma was long as her strength allowed her to…
Eventually, we lost Belinda and Johanna…
And soon after, Eva & Bjørn returned with Ronja.
Now, it was just Anne, me and Karma – heading for the top.
On our way back, we caught up with the others. Back at our “basecamp”, Karma needed de-icing.
In the evening, we gathered for the traditional New Year Eve’s dinner.
Elisabeth (Eva & Bjørn’s daughter) noticed a red wine that we had brought along. With that kind of compassion, we said the wine was hers to keep…
Then we played Ticket to Ride…
As the clock was approaching midnight, we went outside. We were in the “outskirts of civilization”, which meant that Karma didn’t have to fear fireworks all that much.
When 2024 came along, we were all outside, wishing each other a happy new year.
2023 was basically crap, with wars and such, and we really hoped for some good news in 2024…
Trip statistics: 15,3km, 450 vertical meters, 2h:25m
