Hiking in the snow storm

One morning J had the idea that we should hike to Norway’s highest situated hut, at 2038 m. This is a GREAT idea in most situations. But at that moment I didn’t feel that it was the world’s best idea. The reasons for this being:

·         We would start the hike in the late afternoon (4.30) and not like I prefer – start in the morning. Normally it would not even be possible, due to the lack of light, to start so late. But that is of no concern so far up in Norway since it is light almost around the clock. But still – it is a bit late to start a hike. The hike was expected to take 4 hours in “normal” conditions.  

·         It is 1200 altitude meters hike, which is in most cases regarded to be a VERY tough hike. To start a TOUGH hike in the late afternoon is NOT my favorite thing to do.

·         We were informed that it was a lot of snow on the top which would make it hard to walk – you sink through the snow to your thighs.

·         We were not fully prepared. We hadn’t bought any snacks and/or light food to bring along to the hut.

·         The weather didn’t look the best.

·         We weren’t sure that the hut was open. It was supposed to be, but when we called the phone number, the phone was turned off. There was a risk that we had to hike directly back down.

But J can be pretty convincing and seldom takes NO for an answer. I know this after 17 years as friends. So off we went.

It started out quite OK, but after only 1,5 hours hike we realized that is was not going to be an easy hike - It was sometime very hard to find the track, since it was hidden in the snow.

J on the way up, before the bad weather

View on the way up

Then it became misty and started to rain. As a hiker that is what you are prepared for, but when you already have things working against you it is not so easy to take. To not see where you are, not see where you are going and hike in wet rain clothes all adds up to a rather tough hike.

But it didn’t end there - after a while it started to be really windy and as soon as you stopped walking you started to freeze, since all the clothes at this time were soaking wet from rain and sweat. It was time for more clothes, which makes it even harder to move.

You would think that all this would be enough, but NO. The next thing was SNOW. The combination of snowy tracks, mist and “snowstorm” didn’t improve my already quite bad mood. I mean, who enjoys not see where you are or where you are going, freeze like he.., sink through deep snow and have no idea if you were close to the hut or not. The hike was supposed to take 4 hours, but after 4 hours I realized that we were not even close. My altitude meter stated that we should have at least 400 altitude meters left (which is a big difference compared to the distance 400 m). At this point I started to scream several times “Where the h… is the fu…. hut???” and “I hate this”. So it is safe to say that I was in a bad mood.

Then suddenly, after 5 hours if hiking (9.30 in the evening) the hut appeared. It was just a few meters ahead of us. When we finally reached the door I fell into to the hallway stating “that was the worst thing I ever done”. Of course it is not totally true, but in that moment it felt like it.

As you understand by now – the hut was open. And it was serving food. Lucky for us – according to my pulse meter I had burned 2800 kcal on my way up, so my body screamed for energy. I started with a bag of chips (your body craves salt when you have been sweating a lot) and then we continued with Lapskojs (a traditional dish in Scandinavia). It is NOT my favorite, but by now anything would be good to eat.

After the late dinner and some drinks., they told us that we were NOT supposed to sleep in the hut were we were eating. We needed to walk another 200 m in the snowstorm to get to the dormitory hut. I was not too happy with that information, but you just have to face the fact and get out in the snowstorm again. *sigh* Of course the toilets were not in neither of the huts, but in a hut in between. So the toilet visit required yet ANOTHER tour in the snowstorm. You couldn’t see one hut from the other, since it was so misty and snowy. But you adapt and accept the situation and do what you have to do. And as soon as we crawled to bed we feel asleep like babies.

I looked happy in the morning in the hut.

View from dormitory hut, the toilet is the small one to the left and the "eating hut" the big one on the top.

The hike down the next day felt like a piece of cake after the hike up. The weather was not perfect in any way, but at least it was not snowing and we had only mist around the top of the mountain.  It took us less than 4 hours down, even though we stopped and talked to a lot of the people going up the next day.  So in comparison it was a very, very easy hike.

On my way down

 

 

View on the way down

But still – it felt like we have had a real adventure, that we had challenged ourselves. So the food and the beer that we got when we came back to the starting point tasted extremely good and in the middle of it all - I felt quite proud that we, the office rats, had managed a "winter" hike to Norway’s highest situated hut.