 Poster: A snowHead
|
(Apologies, this looks as if it's going to be VERY long - brevity is clearly a skill that continues to elude me. I guess it's going to end up one post per day)
I'd first heard about trips to northern Norway about 5 years ago: sailing along the coast in a tall ship, then touring up from the beach and skiing back down to maybe a different beach to get picked up and taken along to the next one. This sounded a perfect kind of outing to me, but I wasn't convinced my skiing was up to it at that time, so put that idea on the back burner - but it did introduce me to the name Piste to Powder. But now I'm of a standard where I can really enjoy this kind of skiing, I was interested in picking up this thread again.
In the intervening years things have moved on a bit though. The "tall ship" has gone - and it seems as if that was romaticising things a bit from what actually sounded like a bit of an adventure trip in its own right, and Graham Austick (the owner of Piste to Powder) has now built his own log ski lodge across the fjord from the Lyngen peninsula, just a bit north of Tromsø, http://www.lyngenlodge.com . So this January I had a week in St Anton skiing with P2P to check them out and let them check me out, with a view to finding a few more details about the Norwegian trip. Any attempt at critical evaluation went completely out of the window though after about the first photo I saw in the brochure - where do I sign. Eventually I thought to find out how much is was going to cost, and while it's not at all cheap, I've got a VERY big birthday this year, so it was clearly justifiable as an early birthday present to myself.
So March 21 saw me on a plane to Tromsø. First surprise was how long it takes to get there. While there is a direct flight from Stansted, the preferred timings were via Oslo. The Heathrow to Oslo leg was just under 2 hours - which was in itself about the same time as to the southern side of the Alps, but then it was the same time from Olso to Tromsø - until you check it's very easy to forget just how BIG Norway is - it's the same distance from Olso to Tromsø as it is from Oslo to Rome  . OK so I should have expected it, as it is at about 70degrees North, inside the Arctic Circle, but it really didn't register until I got there. Most of the flight it was cloudy so I couldn't see much, but as we got nearer Tromsø there were tantalising breaks in the clouds, and I could see some really tempting mountains.
(That's actually a photo on the way home, but you probably want something to look at by now, and it seems like I've got some more rabitting to do before we get onto the skiing). One minor point of interest, given the chaos caused by a few inches of snow here in February, was that we landed at Tromsø in a snowstorm, and the runway was completely coated in hardpack snow - and the plane was delayed a few minutes while the ploughed a way through a couple of snowdrifts on the taxiway to allow us to get to the terminal.
While it's only about 60km from Tromsø to the lodge, there are a couple of fjords in the way, and the ferry timetable wasn't playing ball, so we took the long way around and it took nearly 4 hours in the 4x4 to get there. During the drive we were eagerly checking out the scenery. The overriding impression was of Scotland, but more so, and with snow! There were the odd valleys that could just have been Glencoe, and several mountains that could have been the Torridons - just bigger. But as we got near to the lodge the mountains sharpened up quite noticeably. Also, being so far north, I was expecting it to be quite desolate and remote, but (while it was nothing like southern England) there was a surprising amount of activity - like we passed a car or lorry every few miles  . It was only a bit later that I realised this was the main road to Nord Kapp and Russia, so I guess the 'heavy traffic'  was not too surprising
We then settled in to the lodge, met the rest of the staff and each other. In contrast to a surprising dearth of medics on a Alpine Coaching course I'd been on in December, where the closest we got in a group of 30 was one dentist and an equine "therapist", it turned out that my group consisted of a Scottish-Liverpudlian GP, two German anaesthetists, the babies of the party were an Army (ex regular, now TA) medic now working in the City, along with his (also ex army) City boy brother, and the old lags were a dentist, a brummie architect and me. The other group also included two more consultants, a nurse, another German couple and a couple of City girls. The lodge itself was definitely rustic luxury (piccies later), and well staffed; other than Graham and Paul the two guides, there was Lizzie the Lodge Manager, Ali her assistant and assistant chef, and Anette the head chef., and the selected wines with each course of the evening meals were very palatable indeed - clearly this was going to be a touring week with a difference  !
Good and bad news on snow conditions. It had been snowing a fair bit the previous week, and we expected more for the first few days, followed by clear weather for the rest of the week. The bad news though was that with the recent snow, and it still being a bit windy, the snowpack was not too stable - basically 3 all week - so we'd have to stick to fairly gentle slopes and some of the more adventurous routes would be out of bounds.
Bring on the morrow!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
Day 1 - 22nd March 2009
So Sunday dawned a bit grey but with the odd break in the cloud. We had all (allegedly ) done a reasonable amount of touring and back-country stuff, started off with a quick transceiver search exercise - essentially to reassure Graham that we did basically know what we were doing. The snow out the front of the lodge was somewhat deeper and softer that I expected.
(picture by Graham Austick)
We then went down to the jetty and onto the rather fun Lodge launch to take us up the fjord to the island of Oløya, with stunning views across the fjord to the mountains on the Lyngen peninsula itself.
Since it was Sunday, everyone in the harbour village was either in church (or bed), and the very quaint store at the harbour village was closed.
Actually, the place was completely deserted - a complete ghost village - but it was confirmed as being inhabited by the other group who went there the folowing day. Before starting up the mountain, we took a quick look down at the racks by the shore where thousands of fish heads were drying.
You can't really get the full effect of this, as there isn't an olfactory attachment to the SnowMediaZone , but I guess you can contain your disappointment at that . The current economic climate means there's demand for the local fish is so low it's hardly worth catching it now, and the racks are virtually empty, but demand for the dried heads is still strong in the Far East, where they're ground down into a powder for medicines and/or soup.
So eventually it was skins on the skis and we started climbing, through trees up to about 400m, and then onto the wide open slopes, with the fjord opening up behind us.
(picture by Graham Austick)
After about 3 hours we got to the top of Kjelvågtinden, just over 1100m (by my watch). So we'd averaged just over 350m/hr. While not particularly fast for experienced tourers, this is normally just about my limit (certainly at the beginning of a trip), but doing it from sea-level is just so much easier, and even given that it was first day we had hardly broken sweat.
(picture by Graham Austick)
The views from the summit were great, looking down to the sea all around us, and the craggy drops off on the East side, appearing intermittently as the light clouds briefly parted and then coyly reclothed their delightful prospects (as in Gerard Hoffnung's 'French Widows' ; ) ). In more stable snow conditions, Graham likes to do the complete traverse of the island, down the steeper east face, but today we were going to go back and have a play in the powder on the west face that we'd just climbed up.
After a short ski down from the summit, we had another small ridge to get over before getting to the main descent. A few steps up this showed that the snow was way too deep and soft for sidestepping or bootpacking to be practical, so skins back on for a quick 10 mins or so. And then we got to ski down a wide open slope. Light was a bit flat near the top, but we got a bit more contrast lower down, and could open things up a little .
(picture by Graham Austick)
This was my first outing in my touring boots for about 3 years, as I've been using the alpine boots for recent day touring and I've been skiing in progressively stiffer boots recently, so getting back into the softer boots was a bit of a shock. While working out what these slippers could do, I think I claimed the first fall of the week, pitching out forwards as I overpressured the front of the boot on a high speed turn.
Still it was rather fun in the super smooth snow, and finished off in a gentle gulley as we headed back to the trees, and then a fun bit of bushwacking to finish off with
 
until we hit the beach. It had probably taken us under an hour to get down, but it really was cracking skiing. Touring may not give you quantity, but sure can make up for it in quality.
This beach shelved a bit too gently to get the launch right up to the shore so we had to use its inflatable dinghy to get back to the launch.
 
(2nd photo by Graham Austick).
All in all, a pretty good day!
Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Tue 5-05-09 9:25; edited 1 time in total
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
|
GrahamN, wow. Beautiful.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
Great post
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
(just wait guys - you ain't seen nothing yet - although today's not too much to get excited about)
Day 2 - 23 Mar 2009
Another rather grey day - actually rather greyer than yesterday. The wind was up a bit as well. The other group had the use of the launch today, so we were off a few minutes down the road in the minibus to climb Sorbmegaisa ("Some geezer" - 1288m). The initial 400m through the trees was fine, but once we got onto the open slopes the low vis was clearly going to be an issue.
With snow falling and wind still up, the snow wasn't at its more stable, so we were continually stringing it out watching for avvy danger. The north wind was blowing straight in from the sea, so brought a continual succession of squalls - one minute we could see right across the fjord, and then only a few minutes later we were being snowed on again.
Yesterday, Graham had complained that we were all a bit quiet, just getting on with the job of skinning and skiing. So at our first break, our brummie architect serenaded us in his very presentable light baritone with what he informed us was Vivian Stanshall's favourite limerick, as follows (warning, adult content)
There was an old Bishop of Birmingham
Who buggered young boys while confirming'em
He knelt on his hassock,
and lifted his cassock,
and pumped the episcopal sperm in'em
This was greeted with various sniggers and gentle chortles, but there was one person completely pi$$ing himself with laughter. I couldn't work out who it was to start with, but then much to my surprise I realised it was one of the German anaesthetists. A German with a sense of humour! Afterwards it also struck me that, while his English was clearly very acceptable, this lyric was beyond what would be exected of any normal foreign student of our rather idiosyncratic mother tongue. On querying him at dinner that evening all became clear when it turned out that his father hailed from Sheffield. Anyway, this rendition did rather set the tone for the week, and most ascents were punctuated with various ribald songs, much to the amusement (and envy) of some of the other group.
Eventually, at about 900m, Graham decided that the snow was getting just too dodgy, with a bit of soft slab forming and we were about to get to some slopes prone to wind loading, so we knocked the ascent on the head and headed down. Fortunately, there was not too much cloud at our altitude, just fairly flat light so skiing wasn't too difficult, although the vis wasn't good enough to allow us to let the skis really run. But once we got into the trees we could let go
(picture by Graham Austick of our demon telemarker)
Having turned round so early we were back at the lodge by lunchtime, so had our sarnies there, and then headed out for a second trip in the afternoon - just a brief jaunt up the lower slopes of Storehaugen, the mountain directly behind the lodge.
(photo by Graham Austick)
Having taken the ascents a bit easy so far (we were running about 400m/hr this morning), and this being only a short trip, clearly Graham (and Ali who joined us for this afternoon) decided we needed a bit of a workout, and we made about 550m/hr to our target at about 500m, a short distance above the treeline. This did get a bit of a sweat up, not helped by there being a bit of a crisis on at work and I was on my mobile phone to work for about 15 minutes of the climb trying to talk my boss through the problem...."OK - gasp - so now - gasp - go to the - gasp - registry editor, look for - gasp - HKLM slash - gasp" etc. Somewhat surreal!
After getting our breath back, the descent was great. There was enough vis to enjoy the brief section above the trees, and then all sorts of whoops and hollers could be heard trhoughout the trees as we (mostly) found the gaps. Graham has done a little bit of tree clearing around the lodge leaving gaps just the right size for interesting navigation at a reasonable speed - although I did find one route where the only exit was to take a couple of straddles, making a quick selection of the youngest saplings available
I've never really worried about ski-in/ski-out, but skiing back into the lodge was a bit special.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
Day 3 - 24 March 2009
Still north wind, cloudy and a bit squally. Time for some more tree skiing, as the light's going to be just too flat for anything useful on open slopes, and the avvy risk is just too high on the more exposed sections. So we're heading about half an an hour north of the lodge to Rotsundalen. As we only have transport for one group at a time, the other group get to go first today, and we have a bit more of a lounge around in the lodge, and then Graham takes us through his avalanche awareness presentation. I think we've all been to a few of these, and we all seem to have the right idea, but you can never get it drummed into you enough. Then into the bus and off to the hill.
As the other group have been there first, we have a nice 8-man track to follow, which is just great because the snow is pretty deep, the sides of teh track coming well up the sides of our boots in places. Graham several times mentions how much he's loving Paul (the other guide) for saving him having to break trail today. Just as we get out of the trees, we see the other group coming down.
(picture by Graham Austick)
About 150m above the treeline we decide to stop, and start taking off the skins, but then see a hut perched up on the hillside so skin over to take a look.
At one end there's a window, and inside there're two beds, a gas heater and small kitchen counter, straight out of the '50s (Unfortunately the photos I took of this didn't really come out). We decide it's probably a shepherd/goatherd's summer hut.
Then it's down through the trees again
without any close encounters of the arboreal kind this time.
...and back up again to do it all over again, with the sun trying to come out
Graham's obviously still trying to find out what we're made of, and this ascent is even faster than yesterday at 650m/hr. Unwisely I stop to take a picture part way up, just as it starts getting a bit steeper, and along with a couple of others find it really tough to get back in touch with the rest at this speed, although I'm not dropping too much further back. As we regather near the treeline, I hear (again from out brummie architect) the ditty of the day - I really don't remember it quite like this when Perry Como sang it:
Remember the day
We lay in the hay
Without any clothes on
You picked up a stick
And tickled my dick
And gave me a hard on
Magic moments....
Above the treeline, we got a mixure of windy squalls
and clearer patches for some more wonderful views
(picture by Graham Austick)
Once back at the lodge, by now we'd developed a routine of having a pre-prandial beer in the hot-tub on the verandah.
(although these two seem to be missing their beers). Again there were the odd surreal moment: luxuriating in the hot-tub, looking over the fjord to those mountains, beer in one hand, phone in the other calling back to work, with snow falling on my lightly frozen hair. Some of the more foolhardy even then went for a roll in the snow, but just getting from the door to the tub was cold enough for me. After dinner the sky had cleared and we got to see the Northern Lights. This is about the worst year in the last hundred for solar activity, but the green swirls in the sky were eerie, if not as spectacular as you often see in the publicity shots.
But the clear sky is promising for tomorrow
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Excellent. Looking forward to reading more.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
What a cracking start to my day, thanks for a great TR!
Is the snow 'normally' that nice?
regards,
greg
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
|
GrahamN, Wow, can't wait for the next installment. Norway is a much underatred country IMHO. Can you fix the double width pic please
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Day 4 - 25 Mar 2009
So Wednesday dawned, and I could hear a moderately stiff wind around the eaves of the longe, so it was a bit of nervous peek out the window. I needn't have worried.
Shame the photo didn't come out quite as I well as it could, but what a view from your bedroom window! The wind being out of the southwest a trip across the fjord was in the offing, and after the late start yesterday we paid with an early start today.
The route would be straight up the valley in the shadow of that pic, aiming for the 1395m peak of Tafeltinden, the central peak. The wind had whipped up a little bit of a chop and the journey over was a little bumpy, until we got into the lee of the mountains.
This side of the fjord was sufficiently steep that we could get the launch right into the shore and climb directly down the bow steps right onto the stony beach.
Once again, Graham had made a perfect route pick for the day, and this side of the peninsula there was hardly a breath of wind, and the steep bit of the ascent would be in shadow, so nice and cool to avoid getting too sweaty. Then it was straight up the throat of the valley. Every now and again you had to remember to look back and take in the fantastic views
It was still fairly steep, and obviously a good route for any descnding avalanche to take out hapless tourers, so we kept well to the side of the valley. Good place to refine your kick turns, and I lost count of the dozens we made up this section.
Eventually we got out of the valley and it opened up a bit - but again it was important to look back
(picture by Graham Austick)
Now not to be outdone by our brummie architect, the Scottish-Liverpudlian GP revealed he had a fine low tenor voice, and regaled us with his Ditty of the Day
Monday I touched her on the ankle
Tuesday I touched her on the knee
On Wednesday I must confess I lifted up her dress
On Thursday I got to see it
Friday I put my hand upon it
Saturday she gave my balls a tweak
And Sunday after supper I rammed me  up her
And now I'm paying thirty bob a week.
I don't want to join the army
I don't want to go to war
I'd rather hang around Piccadilly Underground
Living of the earnings of a high class lady
I don't want a bayonet up me back bottom
I don't want me dangly bits shot away
I'd rather be in England
Merry merry England
And fornicate my effin' life away
We also got some gem about the Liverpool Medical School (with some disparaging comments about the Manc's IIRC) but it was way too complicated to remember for later rendition.
We then got onto a long flat section over the Strupbreen glacier
(picture by Graham Austick)
During the hour or so it took to get across this section there was the odd reservation expressed about how much fun (not) it was going to be pushing back across it on the way back down  . We were not to worry though, it's a different way down. As we got towards the latter half of the crossing, there was some icy high cloud giving the sun a stunning halo.
(picture by Graham Austick)
Eventually, after circling around the summit to attack it from the rear we hit the final ascent. This was pretty steep, and super wide spacing (a good 100m) was very much the order of the day to avoid overloading the snowpack.
(picture by Graham Austick)
Interesting that, given the summit is at 1395m, all our watches were reading exactly 1500m  , and we'd all set them to zero on the beach. It had taken nearly 5 hours to get up today, so a pretty low rate of ascent - but that was primarily because of the hour spent crossing the virtually flat glacier. The summit itself had a quite narrow ridge leading down from it
but gave a fantastic panorama
and a great view down to where we had climbed up, where the second group was now in sight
(picture by Graham Austick)
The descent started with a bit of an interesting pitch - starting with Graham having to clear the cornice by simple expedient of kicking it away.
After a careful sideslip down an short rather exposed 45 degree slope, the first pitch was great fun (the younger of the Army boys here putting in a few turns of the right of the picture)
(pitcure by Graham Austick)
then there was a short traverse, the drop over a col onto a glorious powder pitch
The rest of the descent had the great views we had been looking at behind us on the way up, but was rather flat. So there was a reasonable amount of pushing, a bit of half-walking, and a good test of how well the wax was holding up on the skis - and it seemed as if our Anglo-German telemarker and I won on that score (to the extent that the quarter block of wax I'd brought out with me was soon purloined and ended up on Graham's and the British Army's bases). This was definitely a full-on tour; five to six hours of skinning and traversing for a just a couple of fantastic skiing pitches (extreme case of quality not quantity), and absolutely breathtaking views. Then finally back to the beach for our pickup
(picture by Graham Austick)
and a bracing trip back across the fjord
Then back in the lodge lounge,
the weary but stoked travellers spent a bit of time looking through the excellent lodge telescope at the tracks of our day's work, before sitting down to another excellent meal.
A fantastic day, capped by a pretty decent show of Northern Lights, which my little point'n'push camera was completely incapable of recording .
Last edited by Ski the Net with snowHeads  on Tue 5-05-09 9:33; edited 1 time in total
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
that does look a lot of fun, although I was a bit put off by the cost. but since it's a very nice special birthday present!
|
|
|
|
|
|
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
|
|
Wow.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
True snowHeads Gold!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
GrahamN, have only breezed through this (i.e. cheated) and what a stunning thread! My only descent to a Norwegian fjord was from Riksgransen when there wasn't enough snow to ski it (late May) so we just hiked down, but what memorable scenery. Your experiences look really magical ... and very hard work. Really you've a definite magazine feature there - very well done.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
Day 5 - Thurs 26 Mar 2009
Another glorious morning. So after yet another breakfast of smoked salmon rolls (did I mention the food yet...mmmm), made up my sarnies of Brown Cheese (the Norwegian equivalent of Duct tape - can stick together any two surfaces you care to name), and picked up our thermoses of Trolljuice we were raring to go. The other group got the launch today, so we headed to Sobmegaisa again, keeping its watch behind the lodge
The ascent was absolutely glorious, in fantastic weather: clear sun, but enough breeze to keep us cool, and stunning views all the way up.
(We'd actually spent the entire week looking longingly at that couloir running down the left side of that mountain in the background, but we knew that the snow conditions meant it was out of court - one slide and there would be no escape for anyone in it until getting dumped unceremoniously in the fjord. Still, something to come back for.)
One lone tree held out well above the main treeline
(picture by Graham Austick)
and the other group had decided it required special rituals to placate the troll that was clearly protecting it. Unfortunately, they must have got their rituals wrong as it was one of their group who was hors de combat having tweaked her knee, whereas by completely ignoring the troll we escaped scot free .
From half way up, as we stopped for a bit of a bite, we got fantastic views of the whole peninsula
quite breathtaking. It really was difficult working out where to point the camera, every direction had something that left you speechless.
Oh and we had another cracking limerick as Ditty of the Day
There was a young lass from Bexhill
Who humped dynamite for a thrill
They found her vagina
in North Carolina
and bits of her tits in Brazil!
The final stretch was a bit sapping, with a long featureless steady slope that took a good hour or more to get up, and a bit of a breeze to keep our heads down, before hitting the summit ridge
(picture by Graham Austick, as are the rest of todays pictures)
where we rewarded ourselves with a shot of Rusty Nail each - on a specially constructed Ice Bar
After yesterday's rather lengthy descent punctuated by just a couple of interesting pitches, the payoff for a more featureless ascent was that today's descent was a steady slope all the way down, and it was pristine, untracked, smooth, silky (I must stop drooling, I guess you get the idea) powder all the way! And of course the final 400m through the trees. So time to open up and have fun. There's really nothing more to say .
(That one's me)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
Wonderful stuff.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
GrahamN, amazing stuff! Good to see something a bit of the beaten track. Thanks for posting.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
|
Looks great, although beyond my capability (and wallet, probably). Graham Austick gave my kids a great couple of days off piste in St Anton a couple of years ago, and will I hope do so again next year. Good bloke.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
top marks, looks great. Would love to do this sometime, fitness and ducats allowing! Out of interest, what fitness and ski level were this group per the website classification???
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
Day 6 - Fri 27th Mar 2009
Last day - boo hoo! But yet another glorious morning. Today we get the launch and head right up the fjord for about an hour to the island beyond Oløya, this one called Kågan. We get a farmer's jetty to land, with today's target, Store Kågtinden, in the background.
(picture by Graham Austick)
And the farmer had provided a helping hand to any lost travellers
Today was a bit hotter than we'd had all week, and the wind had dropped completely, so the suncream got a bit of a workout today
(next 5 photos by Graham Austick)
Again, it got a bit steeper near the top, and a bit featureless, so there wasn't a lot to break the sequence of kick turns, but this just heightened the anticipation of the descent.
and of course, remember to look behind you!
At our later lunch stop, the views over the head of the fjord were really unrivalled, even in this week
I don't think we had any specific Ditty of the Day today, but had several rousing renditions of our existing repertoire, which may have been leavened with the odd report of activities on the Good Ship Venus.
Finally we approached the summit, with a narrowing ridge threading its way through the surrounding cornices and couloirs
(photo by Graham Austick)
The final 30m section of the ridge was definitely only one man wide, so skis off and bootpack one at a time for the stunning views.
(photo by Graham Austick)
Again, the altimeters disagree with the received wisdom on sumnmit height: we appear to be at over 1300m on a 1228m summit!
And now to the descent! As with Oløya, in more stable snow conditions (generally through May) Graham does a full traverse of the island, descending through the steep couloirs on the far side, but once again we're going for a play in the powder on the West face we came up. With the different (and clearly, in some cases, extremely serious) descent possibilities, it's easy to see why this is Graham's favourite ski mountain anywhere in the world.
I guess you know the score by now. The top 100m or so were a bit windcrusty, but thereafter it was more of the supersilky stuff. So we had a first exploratory pitch, with some excellent photo-opportunities, and then regrouped.
(yours truly having fun again - well it would be rude not to)
"Down in one" says Graham, and heads off over the edge (the slope is gently convex so you soon lose sight of the previous skier for a while, until it starts flattening out) - to eventually reappear about 500m below us. Oh what a glorious ski - with plenty of opportunity for expression of our different styles - from tight "Euromince" powder turns to wide sweeping freeride turns made Mach Schnell. As I seemed to have headed down the Freeride route, I got down pretty quickly and caught a few of the others following us down.
Well that was so much fun, "skins back on" calls Graham, and we go back up to do it again. By now the German anaesthetists are really getting into their stride and charge off after Graham, leaving the British Army for dead, trailing in their wake (and us old lags even further behind ).
(picture by Graham Austick)
We call a halt after about 380m and set up for another powder-fest. What a tough job!
(picture by Graham Austick)
At the bottom, the farmer is around so we embark from the beach to avoid presuming on his generosity by using his jetty. It seems though that we needn't have worried, as Graham is detained in conversation with him, having to politely decline his invitation for the group to come in for tea! Finally on the launch on the way back, we get to see our handiwork laid out on the mountain for the world to see.
And as we were a bit late down (possibly why the launch skipper, Petter, seems a bit grumpy this evening), the sun, never high in the sky at this latitude, gives us another glorious sunset to round off a superb day, a fitting end to the week.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Conclusion
Saturday it's time to go home - but the week has gone so quickly it's difficult to believe. This time we have a small coach to take us back to Tromsø, and go via the two ferry crossings. And it's another good day, so there's still more snowy mountains, fjords etc to see. It still takes about 3 hours to get to the airport, and by the time we approach Tromsø the week's clearly catching up on some of us and several of us are catching a bit of a doze. Then the two flights back, so it's quite a long transfer, but that gives plenty of time to readjust to seeing people again .
What a week! Would I recommend it? If you're into touring....of course!. But despite the luxury, and the lodge is undeniably luxurious, it's still touring. There is zero artificial uplift, so you earn every single turn. Ascents were typically 3-4 hours climbing per day, with maybe an hour's stop for breaks and lunch at the summit, then probably little more than an hour's actual (downhill) skiing a day - so if the downhill is your only enjoyment, you shouldn't be doing this. But that skiing was absolutely fantastic. Because of the snow conditions, we didn't do anything particularly steep or exposed, but I've never experienced such consistently smooth snow throughout the vast majority of the descent, from just below the tops right down to sea level. The tops were a bit windcrusty, but get away from the summit ridges we were then into this endless silky powder. As the climate is maritime, I think the snow has a fair moisture content, and I've skied lighter, fluffier snow in the Alps, but I've never had the feeling of this quality of slightly resistant powder smoothly flowing past my boots, like water or very light sand. Absolutely no idea how typical this is, but I suspect the moderate climate should mean it's not too atypical - and the most likely issue is going to be wind creating windcrust (and of course windslab). Later in the season, the snow becomes more springlike, and from late April Graham turns the day around, skiing in the midnight sun from 11pm to 5am as the snow gets a bit slushy during the day.
We saw maybe two other groups of skiers the whole week, so we had untracked snow wherever we looked. As we looked back up at Store Kågtinden, we did see another two or three tracks down the rather steeper south face. These guys looked as if they must have been really flying, as there were about five turns in the whole 1000m descent - but we never saw them (I guess they got up while we were making our first descent, as there were no other tracks near the top when we were there). Because of this we were probably not as good at farming the slopes as we should have been (our first descent of Sorbmegaisa we really trashed the whole slope - shame for the group for Frenchies we met on the way up - but they should have got up earlier ), but got better as the week went on.
All those at the Lodge also played their part in making this such a fantastic week. Graham's a fantastic guide, hugely motivating, and combining a super fun go-for-it attitude with great route selection and appropriate balancing of fun and safety. The lodge is kitted out with no expense spared, but not to the extent of fussy luxury. Lizzie and Ali made wonderful hosts, and Anette and Ali provided us with fantastic food all week (including some great Sami recipes - the reindeer went down very well with the carnivores, and the mushroom version for us veggies were truly scrumptious).
Will I go back? - undoubtedly. Maybe not every year, as it is an expensive week (all in it was about 2.5 grand), but worth every penny. Up until now my favourite place to be on skis anywhere (for the stunning view, I think unrivalled in the Alps) was the top of the Vallee Blanche, but I think that has to take second place now.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
GrahamN, nice TR! Hope you can put up with Aldershot after all that 
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
BernardC, quite possibly well deeper below our feet, but as the powder was quite a bit denser, you rode more on the top of it. Some of Graham's photos make it look like we were armpit deep, but this is just the trails we were kicking up - we never really got much deeper than boot deep. Maybe some of the turns in the woods in Rotsundalen we got a bit deeper as the snow was fluffiest there. I think I only found one rock all week .
barry, this was probably a 3/4 level group, but the fitness levels were generally pretty high. There was one guy who was quite a bit slower than me, but I was probably marginally the next slowest. I hadn't trained quite as hard as I'd hoped, as I was recovering from a couple of broken ribs in January, and had been doing two or three 4-5 mile runs a week (when not skiing ). The elder of the Army brothers was a serious hard man, having done the Marathon de Sables and recently run the Tour du Mont Blanc. The Germans clearly do a lot of touring, and one of them was sticking to Graham like glue all week however fast he went up. There were also some serious mountaineers there: one guy in the other group regaled us with stories of his trips up big mountains, particularly snowholing on Mt McKinley . Most of us were more normal mortals though, but most had done quite a bit of touring. I was probably one of the better skiers, but less experienced tourers - this was my third full week touring, with a total of about 30 days touring prior to this week. When asked how much touring she did, one of the Germans in the other group said she did a little - she got out every day, but was normally back by 11am .
Sideshow_Bob, it's a bit of a comedown, but at least the only time we have to walk up the hill is when someone kicks the tripwire at the top of the lift .
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
Fantastic.
Combo of sea and ski never gets old.
|
|
|
|
|
|
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
|
|
BTW Mike Pow, was it you that joined us for a day in St Anton in Jan? I seem to remember you mentioning here you having a class restaurant in Wales with about 20-30 covers - which all sounded very familiar .
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Not guilty
Been on the island of Hokkaido for the past three winters.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
Truly wonderful photos throughout the report. Well done! A triumph
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
|
GrahamN, You should definately should package up your write up and photos and send off a CD or two to some of the mags for editing and publishing, the photos are excellent and it is a great story to tell.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
GrahamN, Brilliant read, great pics, and some very nice accomodation, looks like a wonderful place. Worthy for a special occasion.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
Thanks for the compliments guys, but as you see from the credits above, by far the majority of the good photos were taken not by me, but by Graham A. He's clearly a great photographer, and his camera was waaaay better than my little point'n'push. He has some lovely photos of the local wildlife in the summer too. Once of the (many) great things about skiing with him is that you do get a really class record of your trip. We came away from the trip with a USB stick with about 150 of his photos (which I assume he trimmed down from in excess of 1000). We really did spend most of the trip spoilt for choice trying to decide in which direction to point the camera; I took over 200 myself, and I've not seen any of the photos from the rest of the group yet. There was a copy of (IIRC) DMS&S with a spread on them, where they went up Tafeltinden. BTW, Graham also got a call during the week from a VERY big name enquiring about filming there - so watch this space.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
|
GrahamN, What I especially love is the fact it was a reasonable amount of dosh, a treat, and that you had a fantastic time.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
GrahamN, tip-top TR, thank you.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
Fantastic stuff Graham - I think the price might be worth it for being able to ski over the ocean like that 
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
GrahamN, that looks fantastic, a new skiing target for me! Great trip report, only looked at the pics so far but will read it all later.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Superb Jealousy is burning hot in me!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
GrahamN,
That looks absolutely sensational. I really hope to give touring a go sometime and this kind of report just makes me want it sooner.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
| richmond wrote: |
| Looks great, although beyond my capability (and wallet, probably). Graham Austick gave my kids a great couple of days off piste in St Anton a couple of years ago, and will I hope do so again next year. Good bloke. |
I regret to have to report that I need to revise this assessment. I have just learnt that when my kids informed Mr Austick that I was 50 (a couple of years ago), he said that my wife must be much younger than me. I am concerned about a man with such poor eyesight taking people on possibly hazardous jaunts up mountains.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I see, looking at Graham's blog, that the big name(s) I mentioned in my last post have already been there - Warren Miller's crew with Chris Davenport et al. were there the week before last. I guess we can safely say that that's a coup for Graham .
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
