Breakfast at Geiterygghytta is served a little later than at Finse, 8am instead of 7.30 am. We had had a good sleep, although it was a little chilly in the dormitory, and were up at 7.40 to make breakfast for 8am. Today's intention was to take the slightly longer route back to Finse, a distance of about 20km, so not an awful lot farther than yesterday. Although packed and ready early, the dining room was packed as an awful lot of people access Geiterygghytta by car rather than on skis. They park up their cars and are collected by the proprietor on his snow scooter, so this further swells the ranks of those at the hytte. Breakfast at Geitergghyyta was a similar fare to Finse, there being a large buffet of meats, cheeses, preserves, vegatables and porridge. I am quite amazed at how my son has changed since leaving home for university. He has played rugby union for a local team for years, training once a week and playing a match every weekend. He has always been enthusiastic in his approach to the game, as he has been with other sports he has tried, especially his climbing. Although enthusiastic he has always battled with his weight a little bit. Since going off to Coventry university though, he has discovered rugby league and has ended up playing for their 1st XV. The training regime has obviously paid dividends as there is now not an ounce of fat on him and his ability to shovel food down his throat with no concern to his weight is truly upsetting to see if you yourself have to be wary! By the time we had eaten breakfast and checked out, it was heading for 9.20am before we hit the trail. The sun was shining with some light cloud cover, visibility was fantastic and there was no snow. The wind was about 6 or 7m/s in our faces and we had taken advice from the proprietor of the hytte, Jan Eira, who had said we should have a good day skiing.
On that note we began the climb away from the hytte heading generally to the South and West, back in the direction of Finse. Someone older and wiser than I, AND Norwegian, always gives me the same bit of advice about the wind in the mountains. If you have a strong wind at your back pushing you along, if all remains good, you will have a great day. But always bear in mind that if things turn sour and you have to turn back, you will have a devil of a time fighting that previously beneficial wind. And if the wind speed increases, it could make all the difference between life and death. At least if the wind is in your face, if it does increase in strength and conditions deteriorate, that same wind will be at your back helping you along to safety if you should turn around. Little did we know it, but that bit of advice was to become abundantly clear this day.
As we continued away from Geiterygghytta we were gradually gaining more and more height. The wind picked up a little but, rather than be something to be concerned about, it produced a most beautiful effect. There was still no snowfall, so the only snow in the air was that picked up by the wind, but this snow was only swirling around at ankle height so that it appeared the whole ground was in constant movement. The marked trail continued uphill and it seemed the wind increased in direct proportion to the elevation which climaxed as we emerged onto an exposed ridge. The wind hit so hard that I was blown clear off my feet, not being anchored down by beer this time. The snow was whipped up into a fury, so much so that we lost sight of the next Beech branch markers. No sooner had I got back to my feet than Sean was blown over. Forward movement was nigh on impossible each time the wind gusted and Sean and I were left digging the edge of our skis in across the path of the wind, digging in hard with our poles and bracing our bodies just to prevent being blown backwards. We had only travelled about three and a half kilometres, so had barely even started our journey. One of the cardinal rules of travelling in the mountains, and something the DNT include in all their mountain guides, is knowing your limitations and not to be afraid of turning back. We had reached one of those moments! At best, if it remained as it was, we could fight our way through a murderous wind taking pot luck as to whether we would be able to stay on the trail or not. At worst, we would get hopelessly lost and succumb to the extremes of mountain weather.
I was confident we could make our was back to Geiterygghytta, but was not at all confident in our ability to reach Finse. It is times like this that it is sometimes hard to make the right decision, and I can well understand why people push onwards in the face of such danger and often end up as sad statistics. Physical fitness and a positive mental outlook may give the illusion of ability to cope with what nature may throw at you, but mental and physical strength are nothing when faced with Mother Nature throwing a hissy fit. I could see Sean was very uncomfortable with the conditions as well, so taking everything into consideration it really was a no brainer. Back to Geiterygghytta it was.
That journey in itself wasn't quite so straight forward! Every downhill section we came to, the wind had us hurtling forwards at breakneck velocities, almost out of control and unable to brake to a safe travelling speed. It was then with some relief that we eventually sighted the hytte and re-acquainted ourselves with Jan. We ended up in the same dormitory and the same beds, ate our lunch, drank our hot chocolate and settled in for the afternoon. The only problem with the dorm was that is was absolutely freezing. Although there was a wood burning stove in the room, there was neither wood nor fire starting material about. There were electric heaters, but they didn't seem to be working, they certainly weren't warm and did not appear to have an thermostat type control on them. I so made it my mission to get some heat going. Leaving Sean to his own devices, I ended up crawling around on hands and knees, following electric cables in my hunt for a thermostat.
After ending up going around in circles several times I pretty much gave up and went to the toilet. On doing so I passed two large (2 metre tall) hot water tanks, above which was a fusebox and on the side of that three knobs, labelled with Norwegian that I easily translated as "room 11" (ours), "room 12" and "drying room". Each knob had three settings. I concluded they must be on the lowest setting and so turned up the control for our room, or thought I had anyway. I rushed back to the room and, hey presto, heat!!!! As the weather worsened we huddled up in our vestibule, I blogged and Sean did some revision. Others turned up eventually, some having done as we had and returned after turning around from travelling to Hallingskeid or other destinations. This at least left me happy that I had not made the wrong decision.
Luckily, I had loaded several episodes of "The Vikings", series 2, onto my iPad before travelling. This was a series Sean and I had first watched during last Summers road-trip to Norway and had really enjoyed, so a couple of episodes of the new series kept us entertained for the rest of the afternoon.
Dinner was again at 6 O'clock, NOT five past. This night it consisted of a pasta soup followed by trout and a creme caramel for a desert. Sean was over the moon with the desert as it is his favourite, which then got me thinking of Hanne as it is her favourite too. I couldn't even call her to let her know we were safe as the hytte not only has no WiFi, but the phone signal is extremely sporadic also. After dinner we sat in the lounge for a while, making conversation with quite a few different groups of Norwegians. And here is one fallacy that I want to completely destroy. In many texts describing Norway and the Norwegian people, Norwegians are described using words such as cold, aloof, shy, reserved and similar such adjectives. Rubbish! You cannot meet a warmer, more friendly, group of people. If you have to stereotype a race, then as far as the Norwegians are concerned I would use the following; friendly, helpful, accommodating, warm, inquisitive. I think maybe the negative descriptions may date back to an older Norway where the amount of people able to converse freely in a foreign language was less, when Norway was not such a wealthy country, being the poor man of Europe, and her people less confident as a result. Now, as a shining light to the rest of the world in terms of economy, standard of living, etc. maybe the Norwegians are left feeling more confident in themselves and proud of their countries achievements, so much so that those older, negative adjectives, are a thing of the past.
Most surprising was the one couple we met who, when they asked where we were from and we told them (fully expecting them to raise their eyebrows in question), they went on to explain how they had holidayed in Llandudno several years ago. It really is a small world!
We again had an early night, hoping against hope that the weather in the morning was going to improve, but at least feeling a little warmer thanks to my investigative efforts with the thermostat.
