5 on a scale to 10
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 30.10.24 | Blåfjellet | 1398m | 144m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
Monday (and my 3rd week in Sogndal): The weather today was … interesting. It was neither great nor bad. There was potential. Unfortunately, I was occupied with work in the morning (yes, I was still on Christmas “holiday”) and I didn’t have time to think about any form of exercise before noon.
I made an instant decision about skiing Blåfjellet – alone. With yesterday’s snowfall > 500m, there would be too much snow for Karma.
The uppermost parking areas at Rindabotn were full, which was not too surprising. I parked at the lower level, for the first time. I was the only car there.
The snow in the forest was great. It was a bit cumbersome to break my own trail and so I just followed tracks from skiers coming down the mountain.
Taking the ski lift was never an option. I recently realized that I was pretty close to 200,000 vertical meters in 2024. With two days left, I was just missing 1600 meters. Today’s ski-trip would reduce that number in half. So, no ski lift.
After a somewhat strenuous ascent up the forest, I had the mountain ahead of me. There were no tracks to follow and so I would create my own…
As mentioned, the weather was interesting. I had no idea if it would get better, worse or stay as it was. I certainly didn’t hope I would get whiteout and wind on top.
As I approached Kambafjellet, I could see tracks coming down from Blåfjellet. I had already seen two skiers coming down and based on the tracks – 3 people had been up here today.
On my way up the final hillside, it was snowing lightly, and the light was quite flat. This would not be a memorable descent. I need to get myself ski goggles with strength.
Eventually, I reached the 1397m cairn and the weather hadn’t gotten any worse. Bonus!
One minute later, a skier (on mountain skis) arrived at the cairn. He told me he met me here 10 years ago, and if that’s accurate, one can only envy such memory.
The western top is 1m higher. But I can’t just stop by the cairn and claim to have been on top of Blåfjellet. That’s just not right.
A couple of minutes and two falls (low visibility) later, I was on the 1398m top. This former height was 1400m, but after the LIDAR survey, this top lost 2 meters…
I was happy about taking this trip, but I didn’t look forward to the descent. At least not on the upper mountain. I didn’t see any contrasts in the snow and couldn’t enjoy the fun in killing a hillside. With a bad shoulder, a very bad knee and a bad back, I had too much to lose.
Before I ripped the skins off, another skier came up the mountain. We didn’t talk.
The descent happened without any accidents. Back in the forest, I could finally enjoy the snow as there were enough contrasts – even though if darkness was on its way.
Now, I was only missing 800 vertical meters before 2024 was history.
Trip statistics: 11,2km, 835 vertical meters, 2h:35m
