Ski Success/Slow Spring

After the ski snafus reported in last month’s post, I’m delighted to report that this month brought ski success on both the Alpine and cross-country fronts.

Celia and I got in a fantastic last day of Alpine skiing at Snowman Resort. It was pouring rain when we left Tromsø and I had my doubts. On arrival, the rain miraculously stopped, the weather was warm and the snow was excellent. I had fully mastered the bobble and T-bar lifts by now and managed to stay upright on both the ascents as well as the descents.

G and I were determined to do a cross-country hut-to-hut ski trip especially after last month’s aborted attempt. We watched the weather carefully every day. Two weeks passed, I found a used pair of skis to buy, G still had his borrowed skis and we were able to borrow two backpacks. Mark/Jane and Marissa from Tevakenui decided to come as well, this was to be their fourth trip. The weather forecast wasn’t great, but seemed reasonable. As it turned out, it was probably the last and best week of the winter for a ski trip. Since then, it has hovered just above zero with rain, sleet and grey skies just about every day. For our four days in the mountains however, the weather was wonderful, mostly sunny and with little wind, what luck.

We set off on a Tuesday morning. The trail that was invisible on the first trip attempt was now very apparent, there were tracks to follow and the ‘cut’ through the trees was clear, now that we knew where to look. On our first trip we had gone too far up the mountain too fast and missed it entirely. We crossed our decision point from last time and realized that we had made the right decision to turn back. It was still quite a way to Trollvasbu, the first cabin, and it was mostly uphill. Today, in better conditions, it was an easy few hours of skiing and we arrived in good time.

 

Trollvasbu, most of the huts look something like this although Trollvasbu is exceptionally large with five bedrooms and a large great room.

The view from Trollvasbu.

Mark and Jane from yacht Tevakenui (New Zealand).

 

Marissa, aged 15, towing a ‘pulk’.

Trollvasbu is a large, easily accessible cabin and thus sees a lot of use. The night before there had been a school group of twenty-two teens that had spent the night. Luckily, we didn’t have to share with them! We shared with a rather dour, older Norwegian man who was there to do work on the cabin. He didn’t speak any English and communication was difficult. The Norwegians like their heat and he stoked up the fire so high that we were all roasting. We’d open a window or a door, then, he would close it and put more wood on the fire. It got to be quite humorous with all the opening/closing going on. An early night was in order, but, after just forty-five minutes in bed, Mark called the alarm. Northern Lights! We sprang out of bed and outside. It was amazing, an undulating, green curtain of light with tinges of pink and yellow. It stretched from horizon to horizon right over the top of the cabin and our heads. How fortunate on the first night out to see such a quality display.

Northern Lights above Trollvasbu, out-of-focus and doesn’t really do it justice but maybe you can get some idea.

Next day dawned bright and sunny and we pushed on to Nonsbu. It was only about a three hour ski away and we arrived in time for lunch. This hut was kind of semi-detached with two self-contained units joined together.

 

G in the galley at Nonsbu. Note our water supply, the bucket of snow melting on the stove.]

Mark, Jane and Marissa took one side and we took the other. We had a few people drop in for lunch and then a very interesting overnight visitor. Into this hut in the middle of nowhere, a single woman shows up who lives in Copenhagen. Her family owns a seven generation winery at a French chateau in Burgundy. How unlikely is that. She was lightly packed, but had made sure to bring along her custom-made pair of traditional reindeer boots worn by the Sami (Lapland aboriginal people).

These are the traditional Sami reindeer boots our overnight visitor wore.

Each day we had been climbing higher into the mountains. After leaving Nonsbu, we were heading for Skarvassbu, the hut with the highest elevation and the longest ski distance. The weather was lovely, bright and sunny. There was lot of up, but, also a lot of down. Then, we arrived at ‘Killer’, the hill that went on forever. It actually only took about an hour to ‘ski’ up, but, it was up all the way and very steep. Reaching the plateau and the cabin at the top, the elevation was obvious with the very deep blanket of snow surrounding the cabin. From the approach, it looked almost buried in the snow.

G arriving at Skarvassbu, being greeted by Mark/Jane. Note the snow banked up and over the cabin. The windows were completely snow-covered and the trip to the similarly buried adjacent loo was an adventure in itself.

 

View from the top.

View from the top. This photo was taken by Mark/Marissa after they had skied to the summit of a nearby peak on an afternoon outing.

There were only five bunks in Skarvassbu, so, we had it all to ourselves. We had settled in for a quiet evening, the wind had picked up and it had started to snow. It was snug and warm in the tiny cabin. Around 8 p.m. there was a lot of noise and commotion outside. We were startled to see about a dozen snowmobiles roar up to our door. Snowmobiles in Norway are highly regulated and are only allowed in certain areas (Canada take note) and they are rarely seen around Tromsø. It was the Norwegian Red Cross mountain rescue team, out on practice manoeuvres. They all piled into our cabin and we made coffee and learned what they were up to. They were practicing towing stretchers and up to five skiers on a rope behind snowmobiles. This is so, in case of an avalanche emergency, they can get rescuers to the scene quickly and in great numbers. It was a lot of fun meeting such an enthusiastic, active bunch and they quickly roared off to get back to town before dark.

The rescue team suiting up for departure.

 

The rescue team in action.

The fourth day was again bright and sunny. The forecast had been for 60mm of rain, so, we felt really blessed to see a blue sky. It was mostly downhill all the way into Tromsdalen to where we could get on a bus back to the boat. As we descended into the valley and back into the trees, the air warmed up and the snow got softer. Jackets, hats and mittens came off and the last part of the run was an absolutely delightful, effortless coast through the forest. We stopped partway along for a picnic lunch atop a convenient sun-warmed rock.

The weather, scenery and company had been superb, what a great trip and a grand finale to our winter here in Norway. If we were to do it again, however, I don’t think we’d go without the proper ski gear. We knew the gear we had wasn’t really adequate for the conditions we’d encounter as we only had very light, narrow skis and shoe-like boots which are intended for fully groomed tracks with moderate inclines. Back country touring in mountains requires more robust boots and wider skis. On downhill skis, the edges provide a lot of control, on the flimsy skis we had, it felt like there was no control on the sometimes steep downhills we encountered. We actually walked down the last, very steep downhill as we didn’t want to risk a broken limb. On the uphill climbs, I was lucky to have been able to borrow a pair of ‘skins’. I hadn’t heard of these before, they are like a temporary strip of Velcro that you stick onto the bottom of your skis. I couldn’t believe how well these worked, I could just ski/walk right up the hill with no sliding backwards. Unfortunately, we only had one pair, so, G used the old-fashioned method of doing a ‘herringbone’ up hills. A lot more effort is required to counteract the inevitable backsliding.

Norwegians also do a lot of what they call ‘top-touring’ where they climb up a mountain and then ski down. For this activity, they use downhill boots and skis with a specialized binding which adjusts to fit your foot to the incline on the way up, very ingenious. A lot of Norwegians still do traditional Telemark skiing as well. If you haven’t seen it before, it’s amazing and incredibly graceful to watch. There are a lot of deep knee bends involved. I think this is one of those sports you need to learn as a child, not as a 60 year old! It also requires specialized boots and bindings.

G/A loaded up and on the trail.

Now that we have done all the winter activities that we had planned and feel that winter is behind us, we are eager to get on with spring and our departure from Norway. As mentioned earlier, the weather has not been cooperating. It really has been dismal and quite depressing with all the rain, cool temperatures and grey skies recently. We keep hoping we will get at least one sunny day to work outside on the boat, but, it just doesn’t seem to happen. We’ve pressed on with our inside jobs and have made amazing progress. So far, we’ve gotten through the following major jobs:

• Removed toilet and Lectra-San system.

• Installed new toilet and all new hose, tested holding tank etc.

• Installed VHF splitter and AIS transceiver. This turned out to be quite a simple install. We also spent time mapping and tidying up the electronics wiring and cleaning out obsolete equipment etc.

• Installed external Iridium satellite phone antenna. This has improved things immensely and the phone is now a useful tool that can be used inside the boat. Have also figured out how to use it for internet access, although this will be used very sparingly due to cost, but, could prove useful for a quick weather forecast at sea.

• Installed external WIFI aerial.

• Replaced dead battery monitor.

• Installed propane gas monitor.

We’ve also done many other small jobs that have been niggling at us for a while. As a bonus, we’ve been getting a much better understanding of the boat systems although we’re not totally there yet.

There are still a number of jobs that need to get done before departure, but, we’re confident we have the time to get most of them done. Some of the jobs, like touching up the brightwork and the ice-damaged hull paint will just have to wait until we get to a warmer climate. We are so disappointed with all the brightwork (varnished wood) we did last year. It was an incredible amount of work and did look really nice. We followed all the rules and hoped to have it last for a few years at least with only minor annual touchups. If we had been able to cover up the entire boat for the winter, it may have survived. As it is, anywhere that snow sat on it, the water has gotten under the varnish which is fatal to it. It will need to be scraped/sanded back and hopefully we will be able to patch it rather than start over again.

In May, we will be finishing our boat preparation. Sometime in June will see us on our way and out sailing again. A is going to Miami for a few days next week to pick up the new mainsail and track system. There will be some work required to install it as we have to create a new mast gate slightly higher than the old one to accommodate the new track. Hopefully, it will all fit ok and not take too long to install.

One aid to outside work is the rapidly lengthening days. It’s now light at 4 a.m. through 10:30 p.m. The remaining hours are really just twilight. By May 14, we should have 24 hour daylight. G has been getting up at first light, 4 a.m. Don’t know what he’ll do when the sun never goes down…