Another interesting feature at Krækkja was a mass of upwardly pointing icicles outside the main entrance. These have obviously come about from people standing their skis in the snow at any angle other than 90 degrees. When it has subsequently snowed over night in freezing temperatures, the snow/ice has remained after the skis have been removed from the snow. I tried a number of times to take a photo that captured the sight and keep it looking impressive, but seem to have failed dismally.
They just looked so much more impressive if you were there!
So, anyway, we were again making an early start as we once more had a not inconsiderable distance to travel today. The routine was becoming pretty much second nature by now. Get up, wash, get ski kit on, strip bed, pack gear, get breakfast, wax skis and go. Breakfast at Krækkja was pretty much the same fare as Finse, though not quite as lavish a spread. This was probably more to the size of the establishment than anything else, but there was certainly more than enough to eat. I went to check out and, at the same time, checked on weather conditions. Our slightly grumpy looking landlord assured me that conditions were good to travel. Today's weather was again promising to be overcast with the sun possibly making an appearance mid-afternoon with a slight wind which we would be skiing into. There had been fresh snow overnight, enough to cover all the tracks left from the previous day's toing and froing, but nothing that would cause us any problems. All I needed that I didn't already have was an additional tube of wax, the colour for the day being a most definite red, or so I was told by the landlord and, like I said, they know best.
Before finally leaving, a visit to the WC was required. As I walked across from the main building I noticed one of the other guests stood half way between the two buildings apparently transfixed by something only she could see. On my return to the main building I was surprised to find her stood in the same spot, only this time Sean was stood beside her, and they both appeared to be filming something. When I asked Sean what he was looking at it all became clear. Perched on the roof of the nearby dormitory block was one of the elusive animals we had seen plenty of evidence of, but never actually seen in the flesh, a "Ripa".
We had heard about them, were shown photographs of them by Bankt on our first night at Hallingskeid, had even seen their footprints in the snow, but had never actually seen the living thing, until now. I'm sure once you've seen the photographs no explanation is needed as to why they are so hard to see in this white wilderness. Bankt also had a tail to tell about how women riding on the backs of motorcycles used to be referred to as "exhaust ripas", though I'm assuming something got lost in translation there, I must look into that tale again.
All kitted up, waxed up and ready to go, we said farewell to Krækkja and its trusty guardian.
Clearly, the "trusty guardian", a huge huskie, was not so oblivious of what was going on around him as he appears to be in this photo and neither was the invisible man travelling with Sean and Emma as it would appear above. You have to wonder in future years, when the kids ask "where was dad" on such and such an occasion, whether they stop to wonder who it was stood patiently on the OTHER side of the camera!?
When I had last made this journey it had been in an almost howling gale with Hanne. We had left Krækkja together with a German couple whom we had met at the hytte and found out we're also heading for Tuva. The wind was at our backs the whole time and we seemed to spend the whole day travelling through a perpetual sea of snowflakes. The plus side was that we had to put no effort whatsoever into our skiing as were were quite literally blown from A to B. The down side was that we saw pretty much nothing and, if we had to have turned around, we would really have been in dire straits. We had been very lucky indeed.
Today's journey was far more pleasant a proposition altogether. Although a little grey, visibility was excellent and the wind really was negligible.
The only negative thought I had was of lugging that bloody MacBook halfway across Norway again, just another of those unexpected chores of parenthood. In all fairness, Sean offered to bear the burden for the day and he's a strong enough lad, but that would have just left me feeling guilty for the day. The skiing was going great though. Emma had really found her rhythm and Sean was like an old hand. The only real hinderance today was that, as the temperature rose, the snow was becoming quite wet which is not conducive to get any sort of glide going. This situation saw not only the air temperature rising but, as the sun made a more and more constant appearance and we were putting more and more effort into our skiing, so too was our body temperature rising.
Before we knew it we reached a main road that we had to cross and which declared we were nearly half way to Tuva.
Surprised at the progress we were making, we decided to stop as soon as we found an appropriate location for both a bite to eat and to re-address what we were wearing. We were all three now absolutely sweltering hot and need to strip off one or two layers of clothing. When we did stop at some exposed boulders to sit on, we were taken aback by the vista surrounding us. The area really is quite breathtakingly beautiful! Seen from the Hardangervidda, the high mountains surround you and appear more like rolling hills than the high mountains that they are. I know it's a real cliché, but whoever coined the phrase of the appearance of the landscape being like an iced cake couldn't really have put it better. After our last couple of days of greyness we were now blessed with the sight of the Hardangervidda in all its glory. Quite often, the photographs don't do the area any justice because you lose all sense of proportion.
Refreshed, rehydrated and reclothed, we set off for their second half of the day.
After having crossed the road I mentioned earlier, we had picked up the trail of a snow scooter which helped our progress immensely.
As we were getting closer to Tuva, we were seeing more and more patches of vegatation appearing through the snow and exposed rocks. This allowed us to see many of the markers for the DNT's summer routes which are basically large rocks, or a cairn, with a large red 'T' painted upon them.
Just as we all started feeling a little tired, after all, we had by now had two long days of skiing back to back, we joined on of the many prepared trails around Tuva. These are tracks that are cut into the snow on a regular basis for cross country skiers, either for exercise, training or leisure purposes, and made the going that much easier.
In the photo above you can see our destination in the distance, Tuvahytte, a very welcome sight. We pulled up outside the front of the hytte and I was surprised to see a woman we had seen at Finse a couple of days ago. I had last seen her walking across the lake toward Geiterygghytta on snow shoes, so was surprised to see her here. It turned out that she had actually taken the train from Finse to Ustaoset and then walked up to Tuve. Lightweight!! I walked into the hytte to see the landlady, Aileen, who recognised me straight away. There IS a story to be told there, but I will save that for tomorrow. She rushed off to get her husband, Peter, and he too welcomed me back. Not only that, she was so pleased to welcome me back, and to meet Sean and Emma, she treated us to a waffle each. Now, one thing about Aileen's waffles, they really are the best in the whole world. I don't mean the best on the Hardangervidda, or the bests in Norway, I mean, THE BEST IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!! We dug into them and the kids quickly agreed with my opinion as to their tastiness.
No embellishments to the waffles are required. No jam, no brunost, no cream needs adding, to do so would spoil the waffle and probably upset Aileen.
Although there were only three of us at the hytte, Aileen informed us that there were a party of 22 school kids turning up later in the afternoon, though they would not be staying inside. Only the three accompanying teachers would be resident at the hytte and joining us for meals, the 22 kids would be sleeping outdoors in snow caves. That is something I have always wanted to do, so I was really looking forward to see what went on later. In the meantime, we showered and sorted our gear out in our room, which was a very pleasant, good sized room with four bunks. I also took a few minutes to relax outside with an ice cold beer and take in the surroundings.
A sudden flurry of activity marked the arrival of the school party and all three of us watch the ensuing meleé as they unpacked their gear and began cooking up their evening meals outside before beginning the task of digging there snow holes. The instructors went around surveying the area with Avalanche probes, checking the depth of the snow and identifying suitable places to begin digging. Then came out shovels and ice saws before several hours of frantic digging began. It has to be said, digging a snow hole is a time consuming process. It is not a quick fix survival technique by any means, it is more a scenario of identifying the danger you are in at an early enough stage and making early preparations. If you were travelling through worsening weather and trying to push forward as far as possible before stopping, a snow hole is not by then what you will have either the time or energy for, though there would be other options. Snow holing is both time and energy consuming though, and we had ample proof of that as we watched the activity outside. Happily, our entertainment was interrupted by a lavish two course meal prepared by Aileen.
The activity outside continued late into the evening as students came in and out of the hytte asking advice of the teachers, who were also rushing in and out checking on how their charges were getting on. It was exhausting watching them.
We eventually retired to our room with mixed feelings about heading back to Oslo tomorrow. I could happily stay in these mountains for a couple more weeks if I had their choice.
