The Plan

The plan was to ski from Tjornbrotbu to Berdalsbu over the course of three days. We would be covering 35km and would be camping for both of the nights. Unfortunately, due to the weather conditions, which were very cold, windy and snowy we decided to go hut to hut instead.

Day One

We set out at midday for the first cabin, we had 13 km to travel. The weather started sunny and clear but the snow was old and Icy. In the first stretch there was a large amount of uphill which in the conditions were very difficult. Everyone looked like they were on treadmills rather than skis. The route to the cabin on the first day was fairly straightforward. It was well signposted and there were lots of prepared tracks around. The main drawback was that we were in a very large group and this slowed our progress down quite a lot. People wanted to stop for snacks, water breaks, chats and to look at the map so before long a lot of time had past and we hadn’t covered as much ground as we would have liked. To make matters worse there was a blizzard coming in.
The final 2km of the journey was entirely uphill and just as we started climbing the winds picked up and snow started hammering down on us. It was sleeting sideways and soon turned into hail. The terrain beneath our feet was extremely icy and we were all falling down. It was tough battle up the hill, the weather only getting worse and darkness settling in. Honestly, it was a bit scary. By the time we got to the top we were absolutely drained and it felt like a real victory to be safe in a warm cabin. It was a snug night with 22 of us in a cabin for 10 people.

Day Two

We started off by splitting into groups of six to make navigation and communication easier. We set off early in overcast, cold conditions. Even with the snow fall from the night before the ground was still too icy to ski on easily. The wind had created waves in the snow that had turned to ice and trying to ski over the uneven terrain was near impossible. We ended up walking and two hours in had covered around 2km of our 13km journey. Fortunately, we got to a point where we could put our skis back on and managed to push on fairly quickly. The day was slow and frustrating but pretty uneventful. We navigated well and once we were on skis were making good time. The only curveball came when we thought we had reached the cabin and actually we were a couple of km away and those 2km were through a lot of trees on a steep downhill. Once again, we were taking off our skis and wading thigh deep to reach our destination.

Day Three

The sun decided to come out for the final day and we only had 7km of downhill to cover. It was a very easy and enjoyable ski down the mountain. We were down in no time and even had time to make a skiing snowman 😊.

Things I learnt:

– Working in very large groups can be difficult for communicating and making fast progress. When working with groups or going on expeditions, being in smaller groups is preferable.

– Always prepare for the worst weather! The blizzard came in very fast and the cold set in very quickly even though we were fighting our way up the slope. In a matter of minutes visibility went from good to bad and we were pelted with hail. We were very lucky we had a hut to go into.