Wicked Weekends Part 1

A couple of weeks ago we had a huge hoar frost in Trondheim, so I included a few photos of the ice laden trees.
Looking out our front window, brrrrrrrrrrrrr. It was about -20 and very damp!

White trees everywhere
While the weather in Trondheim continues to be miserable and rainy, we have managed to escape for the last two weekends in a row into the mountains. The ski tracks round Bymarke (where we live) are up to no good and the streets are slippery and wet, so getting away is the best thing to do right now.

Our first trip was a Norsk Skialpinisme Sammling (Norwegian Ski Mountaineering Group Training). We know a couple of the guys in this group through the Wing Orienteering Club and they kindly allowed us to tag along and borrow some fancy ski gear for the weekend.

We drove up to Kårvatn, a small farmstead set in a very steeply sided and pretty valley. There we stayed in a DNT Hytte which is owned by the farm, and also the location of Gudmund Kårvatn's extremely impressive ski barn, where he bases his ski business.


A little shed on the Kårvatn Farm
On Saturday morning we set out on a 'cruisy' trip up the mountain. We climbed up through the trees, across some fairly steep slopes which I had no idea how I was going to ski down, and into a big snowy basin. The sun was out, but it was still pretty cold. We had a quick sandwich feed, before heading further up the mountain to a ridgeline. The others headed off on their own, leaving Chris and I to have a go doing some runs between the top and the lunch spot.


It was a beautiful sunny day, but still pretty cold!

The group pausing to take in the view

At first I was terrified and sure I was never going to get down....but after a few turns I realized that these skis actually wanted to turn, and the difference between skis with proper boots and using fjellskis with a liftable heal is huge!

We had some great runs in some pretty soft powder before heading down through the trees. Skiing through them was quite scary, I was glad to have a helmet, and I ran over a couple of small ones!

That evening we had a technical relay round a short loop; put skins on, run up hill, take skins off, ski down hill, take skins off and attach to pack, run round a cone, put skins back on again. Our skills were somewhat lacking....but it was very entertaining anyway (-:


Chris was a little anxious before the race


Starting the little competition...Ola takes the lead


The stressful skin removal
The next day the others had a race which I watched and took some photos. Chris had a fun time at the back of the pack blasting up the hill, then so much time on the skin changes and down hills. In the afternoon we went for a short trip, before it was time to pack up and head home!


Chris shows his skills on the downhill

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