During that trip, I met an old couple who run a campsite at Annamo in Skaneland. They said that in their 25 years of running the site, I was the first person to walk straight off the mountains and into their campsite. Their normal customers are those who arrive by car or camper van. I was unique in their eyes and they invited me to come back in the winter time so that I could learn to ski. So in January 2005, I got in touch with them, arranged dates and booked my airline tickets.  Not a good start Disaster As I placed my weight on it, it folded over with a very audible "click". The pain immediately after was not something I could wish on anyone, it was excrutiating, it literally left me gasping for breath. Somehow, though, my momentum just kept me going. I don't know why I didn't stop and examine the foot, but eventually the initial the pain died down to an ache that I could limp on for the last 2km back to my car. I didn't know whether it was safe to drive on it or not, but after starting off, I tried doing an emergency stop. I decided that if it was too painful to place my foot on the brake then I'd go no further. Thankfully the pain was fine, and I continued back home that night. Somehow my spirits were really very high - it had otherwise been a very rewarding weekend. The next day I went to hospital, I thought after the X-Ray they'd put a support bandage on it and tell me to give it some rest but no... They said that while no bones were broken, they suspected a torn ligament, and immediately prescribed my foot be placed in a plaster cast. That was a dreadful prospect. Not only was I on crutches & forbidden to drive, but I was told not to take public transport, have a bath/shower, nor put any weight on the cast. It seemed to me that skiing was cancelled. I was depressed, going to the toilet & coping with immobility was hard enough, but dealing with "cancelled opportunity" was harder, and watching the same daytime TV schedule every day is enough to motivate anyone back into work! I had travel insurance, but it covered medical, rescue & repatriation expenses only. It didn't cover cancellation, so on the off chance I phoned British Airways to see if my tickets could be refunded or deffered, they couldn't. Thank god I didn't cancel. Because I was due to go on holiday, I had a checkup appointment with the hospital three days later - the day before I was due to fly out. They took my plaster off, and I could feel my foot moving without significant pain. So after telling me to walk about, and putting my foot into various awkward positions, they told me I was fit to walk again. Woohoo!! There was still pain, but after a fair bit of walking that day, I could walk without a limp. The doctors even told me I could go skiing "since modern ski boots were very supportive". Well, that evening I drove off down to my friends in Manchester, ready for my flight the next morning. Friday 11th March
Landing in Oslo, the runway was sheet white. It was impressive seeing how efficient the Norwegians were at managing snow. If this was Heathrow, the whole airport would be closed, but here, flights departed on time as usual. My next flight took me back to Harstad Narvik Airport. I was hoping to see more of the country on this flight, but heavy cloud persisted right up to the descent and then the cloud started breaking up. The sight was a wonder, an arctic cloak of snow deeply covering the mountains. You could see plumes of snow being blown off the ridges, frozen lakes in stark contrast to ice free Fjords just a few hundred metres away. And then Stetind came into view. In just a few months time I'd be climbing that mountain.
Coming into land, the cloud broke away even further, it was a fine day up north. I was greeted by Paul Huber at the airport, and after collecting my bags, we drove back to his & Bodil's house in his two small wheel drive truck. Even though the airport was right next to the sea, the snow was 1 metre deep. Just 100m above sea level and 10km further in, their house had 2m of snow with even deeper snow drifts around it.
The roads were ice-rinks, even walking across the airport roads I felt like crampons would be a good idea, but his truck like every vehicle up here, had studded tyres making light work of these roads. Roads here don't get ploughed, the snow's simply too deep for that. Instead snow blowers suck up the snow and blast it several metres either side. You find that getting off the road requires a grade 2 snow climb! Arrivng at his house, I was greeted by Bodil. It's nice to feel the warmth inside their buildings. They are well insulated and kept comfortably warm by a single wood stove, there was no need to wear anything warmer than a T-Shirt. In England, my rented house needs so much gas and even then it still feels cold. Even though the night temperature fell to -15 degrees the following night, there was no need for anything warmer than a thin duvet. It was peaceful here, there was very little traffic and the wind was simply dead. Combined with a distinct lack of bird song, the silence outside was complete. Inside, we sat down to the first meal of my trip. In Norway, the main meal, usually involving fish freshly caught from the Lake, is eaten mid afternoon. In the evening they have bread. I was pleased to see that granary bread is baked here as well as in England! That evening, I went for a small walk above their house along a snow track to take it all in. It was there that I remembered that my injury hadn't gone away. On flat surfaces, I could no longer feel pain, but on awkward surfaces I was reminded that the foot still hadn't fully recovered. Saturday 12th March
After getting my rucksack packed, expecting a big day out, Paul settled me down by saying it's too early to learn to ski. Up here, people take it easy and only go out when the air temperature has warmed up. I thought nothing of -12 degrees and donned my fleece, jacket, hat, gloves, winter boots & sunglasses and went out for another wander. I went down to the Lake, taking a walk along the tracks which went out across the ice. This was a reservior and during the winter, the level steadily drops. The ice eventually meets rocks underneath the surface which thrust sections of ice into the air, exposing the rocks underneath. It is here that you can see how thick the ice actually is.
I took my photographs, it was amazing to see the same mountains I had wandered in last summer. But this time they stood proud and white, silent observers watching over me. Paul told me that he had seen some big avalanches here, some of them ripping out every tree, and then going part way up the other side of the valley. It was 20 years ago mind you, but I never saw any big avalanches, nor their effects, during my 12 day stint here. Later in the morning, it was time to replace hat with helmet, Paul was taking me on his Skidoo to his summer house. I had never been on such a machine, but Paul describes it as being like a motorbike, just more difficult to control off road. Such machines were noisy, and I clinged on for dear life as it tilted and bumped along every hidden contour. We stopped on an exposed promotory, here the wind was biting, I was glad of my mitts. I took a few photographs, some of the best for this trip. We carried on to his summer house perched next to the lake at 300m. It was colder here, while the main house was basking in temperatures of -5, just 200m higher up, the air temperature was -12. Inside his cabin, it was -20. After visiting some neighbours, we went back down to the main house for lunch.  New moon rising over Trangdalsfjellet In the afternoon, I had my first try with skis. It was an experience that made me feel rather pathetic. First skis were some very long thin Nordic skis, complete with Ski Shoes (no grip underneath). The shoes connect at the toe with the skis. Nails slot into holes in the shoe and a footwear is then clamped down. I didn't even move before my ankles folded over again, even my good ankle was having problems. It was most disconcerting. Eventually I moved, but I couldn't cope with anything more than a flat surface. Considering that the ski shoes had no grip, walking was very difficult. Enventually I slowly managed to ski down an ever so slight gradient, but still with lots of falling over. All the while, I had been doing this without instruction apart from the odd comment like "bend your knees". That evening, I went out for a walk along the road. The temperature was dropping rapidly, at -15 degrees my 350g down jacket still kept me warm. That night, the temperature went down to -27. The visitors who were up at their cabin reported temperatures down at -40. Sunday 13th March
Arriving at Riksgransen, a familiar place to me, the temperature was bitterly cold. It was probably -10, but the light wind and the fact that we were in the shade took any warmth away in an instant. Driving across this landscape is a surreal experience. All around is an inhospitable arctic wilderness, shaped and sculpted by the wind and yet we drove across it with an ease that seemed out of place with the landscape. Life here should be difficult, but it isn't. Arriving back at Annamo, I went out skiing again after lunch. This time I was given a pair of telemark skis and boots. Much better. With skis being wider & boots having more ankle support, the my ankles had less chance of folding over and with a proper grip on the boots, I could walk when I couldn't ski. I tried out my skis on some small shallow slopes, with some success. Then I would try a higher or steeper slope until fell over in a heap at the bottom of the slope. Then I would go back to the smaller slope and build my confidence up again. This was something I would practice over the next few days. Monday 14th March I had another problem, although my skis were waxed, I constantly fell flat on my face when trying to walk uphill. The wax said "dry snow" and indeed that was what I had. I put more wax up and this did help on the snowmobile slopes anyway. However, going further a field on to new slopes with little traffic, and my wax had little use. That evening I tried my hand at turning a corner. In the campsite, the snowmobile track makes a gentle downhill descent followed by a turn to the left before going down the steeper slope to the lake. I tried my hand at the corner. It seemed that turning, as well as surviving descents should be on my syllabus. I was no good at it to begin with - going straght on, it would be my goal to get that corner turned.
Just before going to bed that night, Paul & Bodil called me down. The northern lights were in full swing outside, they were amazing. My instinct was immediately to rummage around for my camera and then go outside. After 10 seconds though, sense prevailed and I came back inside to put boots and warm clothes on! Then I went outside to gaze at the sights, ribbons of light could be seen dancing across the sky, quite quickly. They were tough photographic objects, an exposure time of 20 seconds was needed, during which time the northern lights are constantly changing. Despite that, I got some photographs of the lights, but you really need to stand outside and watch them for yourself. Tuesday 15th March Later that morning I skied right across the lake for the first time, following some tracks on slopes the other side of the lake. I was quite distant from the road, 3km, but the views from here revealed a further mountain that was previously hidden. The summit of ........... In the afternoon, I tried exploring the tracks on the slopes behind annamo. This gave me an opportunity to try skiing downhill, though I was always quite timid, crouching down all the time. I fell over a fair bit as well, and the wax on my skis always gave way - I had to ask for some different wax.
Unfortunately with all my skiing, I never carried my camera, being afraid to fall over onto it. What I did do on many evenings though was to go out on the tracks and find good vantage points from which to photograph the mountain tops. Sadly though, I got no action shots of myself. Wednesday 16th March
I continued with my usual routine of practicing skiing in the morning for two hours. I continued the corner, and tried the steeper slope - trying to turn with the track at the bottom of it. All the while I fell over, probably only getting a 30% success yield.
This was my 5th day of practising, all the while I had neither any intruction nor supervision. I felt that I wasn't developing my skill as well as it should and it was frustrating. I felt I was going on this trip to be taught, but in the end I was just given some skis and left to learn myself. It wasn't like I was being ripped off, I was charged 100Kr (~£9) a day for a room in their house, food, and use of some skis - though I thought I'd be getting instruction too. On top of that, I also made a donation of three bottles of whiskey - complete with paid duty on two of those bottles.
In the end I continued with my practising, I tried pushing the envelope a little each day, but sooner or later a crash in some spectacular, and painful style would cause pause for thought. At that point I thought it wiser to retire back to the house and practice another day. I had five more days of this, and was beginning to feel like I was overstaying my welcome.
Friday 18th March  Late afternoon temperatures When we arrived at midday it was -12 outside but -20 inside. Getting the hut warm was the first thing to do. First things first open the outside doors to let some "warmth" in, rake the ash out of the stove, add some kindling and then fill up with logs. Light it, and then enjoy a bit of warmth on your face before turning your attentions to watching that thermometer slowly rise. When the temperature reached -12, we closed the doors and turned our attentions elsewhere. I went out to try some skiing, there were some new tracks to explore and it was nice to see some other hills that I wondered amongst. After struggling up a hill with the wrong wax, I turned around and tried my most daring ski run to date. A 10m drop over 200 - 300m was my goal. After skiing it crouched down without crashing, I tried skiing it standing up. I went a long way before falling over. Eventually I made the entire run without falling over - my best achievement this trip so far.  Log fires become an obsession! I arrived back at the hut in the early evening. The temperature outside was falling to -15, and inside it had risen to +10, warm enough not to need my down jacket. That night the temperature plummeted to -20 before the cloud came in. The weather was set to change for the first time in a week. I asked Paul if he had ever climbed any summits in the winter time. He said no. He hadn't even climbed his local summits, he regarded it as foolish and dangerous due to the avalanche risk. He quoted examples of avalanches he witnessed 20 years ago and while I accept avalanches are a hazard, I also know that avalanche awareness techniques and weather observations help to greatly mitigate that risk. To say nothing of safe easy routes to the summits, I felt Paul was missing out in experiencing his own mountains fully. It seems that winter mountaineering simply isn't a part of the mountain culture adopted by those who live right in the mountains. Saturday 19th March I returned to the cabin and was shocked to see someone running out of the sauna stark naked and plunge head first into the snow in a plume of steam. Paul had previously invited me to join him in the sauna, but me being British politely turned down the invite. I'm probably no exception in saying that British blokes find it rather disconcerting to sit amongst other stark naked blokes in a sauna. We prefer some kind of cover! I discreetly retired to the cabin to bury my head in a book. In the evening we skidoo'd across to neighbours on the other side of the lake. Owning a log cabin in the mountains is very much a part of Norwegian culture. Many Norwegians have one, and spend the weekend with their families out in the forests and mountains summer & winter. Going back was fast, Paul said he was doing 100km/h across the ice, I was just glad I didn't fall off! Sunday 20th March Apparently it is illegal to travel on snowmobile on Sundays until 4pm. This is apparently to give skiers peace and quiet. Paul says that penalties are harsh (6000Nkr) and he has sometimes seen police doing mountain patrols in the past. At 3.45pm, we loaded up the trailer, tidied the house and left the wood stove on a slow burn. It was time to head back down to the main house. Snow showers had been coming all through Saturday and Sunday, depositing 30cm of snow. Despite that, the roads were always kept clear with snow blowers driving along the road every hour or so.  Finally on my way home Monday 21st March Sadly it was a pleasure to be heading home the next day. While still painful, my ankle was much improved. I was looking forward to having the comforts of my own flat, without feeling a stranger in someone elses castle. The evening I arrived home I booked my airline tickets for my big Stetind trip, and after just two days at work, I was off again with friends to the Cairngorms... The End |
