SAU

This past Saturday I ran the Swedish Alpine Ultra. An amazing day in the mountains to put it mildly!

SAU is a 105km point to point run through the mountains of northern Sweden, there are no aid stations and there isn't even any road access to anywhere on the course apart from the start/end. If you reach the half way mark at Tjäkta pass and decide you aren't really feeling up to it it doesn't really matter because there's no faster route back to civilization than continuing to the finish line. On the one hand this makes it a more daunting task- bailing simply isn't an option, on the other hand this is makes it a surefire way of ensuring you complete the race.

A safety net of sorts is provided by the staffed cabins located every 12-20km along the trail, if a runner is injured or exhausted they can always recuperate in one, or use their sat phone to call for a chopper.

Being my first ever 100+km run, I was hesitant to set myself a time goal, I figured on about 15-16 hours, but decided to bring along enough food for 18-20. Adding to the uncertainty were reports about conditions on the trail itself. On account of a particularly cold spring there is quite a bit of snow up high. One of the winners of last year's race did a recce of the course the day before and reported many km's worth of postholing in rotten snow and multiple creek crossings up to waist deep.

I was strangely unapprehensive at the start line, I think mostly due to the fact that I was going into it not with a racing mindset, but rather simply having a goal of crossing the finish line with a smile on my face.

The weather was perfect: sunny with a slight breeze and temperatures of around 12 degrees in Nikkaluokta. The first 19km up to Keb went by smoothly, the trail is really flat in this early section and my legs were fresh enough that the rocky, technical sections were really fun. After a quick pit stop in the Keb fjällstasjon to use the bathroom I was off again towards Singi. This 14km stretch is the most spectacular of the whole run, with awesome views of Tuolpagorni rising above the valley- this peak alone would justify a trip in here on skis during the winter.

Kjetil and Tuolpagorni

Crossing a marshy area a few kms after Keb spelt the end of dry feet, for the remaining 80kms my shoes remained waterlogged, but I managed to get through without any major blister issues.

By this stage I had settled in to a steady pace and was running with Kjetil from Beisfjord, the only Norwegian in the race. We cruised over the mellow but rocky pass and in to the Tjäkta valley together. 

Albino reindeer

closing in on Singi

Another 5 minute bathroom stop on account of some stomach troubles and we continued up to Sälka, passing a few runners on the way. Just after Sälka we encountered the first continuous snow bands and having Kjetil as a running partner really paid off, as we were able to help each other scout the best route over the rotten snow with numerous indistinct tracks from early season hikers. The snow coverage wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared, but it was so slushy, with about 20cm of water underneath a foot of snow, that it was tiring both physically and mentally. Our pace slowed necessarily at this point, but when we crossed Tjäkta pass, the high point of the route and also the halfway mark, our energy levels were still pretty good.

Heading towards Tjäkta pass

Soggy conditions as we neared the pass

The view north from the pass- a few more kms of snow to go

cold!

The snow continued on for a few more kilometres worth of wet, cold, tiring post holing after the pass, and it was a huge relief to finally reach dry trail conditions again and cruise on towards Alesjaure. We had a 10 minute break here and bought a can of coke from the cabin store and even a small bag of chips before continuing on.

Finally back on dry trail and getting close to Alesjaure

By this stage, a little over 80kms and 10 hours in to the day I was starting to really feel the effort, my calves were feeling pretty hammered and my joints were sore. This section of the trail beside Alisjavri was quite muddy and seemed to stretch on forever. I made sure Kjetil knew not to wait for me, and put some music on to help distract myself from thinking of the remaining 35km, fully conscious of how pointless any negative thoughts were going to be.

Running along, alone in the mountains glowing in the dramatic evening light, listening to Kishi Bashi and Arcade Fire something clicked and I had one of the real high points of the whole day. My pace probably only quickened imperceptibly but it suddenly didn't feel as hard as it had a short while before and for a few miles couldn't wipe the grin off my face. Everything was flowing along nicely and I was revelling in the moment, simply stoked to be where I was and happy that I was still feeling so happy.

On the descent to Abiskojaure, my stoke started wavering as I found it increasingly hard to lift my legs over the rocks on the trail and run with any sort of fluidity or economy. I started feeling clumsy and tired again and opted to swap over to walking for a spell. The final 15km were definitely some of the hardest of the day, my energy levels were at an all time low and taking in food left me feeling nauseous. I plodded on however and interspersed running on the flat, easy sections.

A few km out from the finish

Getting to the finish line in Abisko was a happy moment. In the end I spent 15:07 on the trail, enough for 5th place in a field of about 40 people.

These were my splits to the various cabins (in/out)

Nikkaluokta- 0:00
Kebnekaise- 2:05/2:12
Singi- 3:55/4:00
Sälka- 5:50/5:55
Tjäkta- 8:10/8:10
Alesjaure- 9:50/10:00
Abiskojaure- 13:10/13:10
Abisko turiststasjon- 15:07

SAU prep.

Three days left 'til the Swedish Alpine Ultra, a 107 km run through some of Sweden's highest mountains which I've been training for for quite some time and which I am pretty excited about. The course starts in Nikkaluokta at 8am on Saturday and ends in Abisko (hopefully sometime later that day), following the northern portion of the Kungsleden which is Sweden's most popular long distance hiking trail.

For the first time in about a decade I've continued with some running through the winter months, in an effort to maintain a bit of running specific fitness and tendon/ligament strength which I always lose with a 6+ month ski season. I wasn't running much, only about 30km/week, but it was enough for me to start running some more volume in late april and stay injury free.

One of the big challenges of the race is presented by just how early in the summer it occurs  (by arctic scandinavian standards atleast). There is still a lot of snow higher up in the mountains, and this record cold spring hasn't really helped matters. Infact I was able to ski as low as 650m. in the mountains around Narvik as late as last week. As a result of all the snow in the mountains most of my training up until a few weeks ago was happening down at sea level. This has been nice, and the flatter types of runs I've been forced to do are definitely more specific to the course which has a pretty mellow profile (only 2000ish metres of elevation gain over 107km)- but I'm really looking forward to plenty more alpine runs over the next couple months.

Below are a few photos from training the past few weeks.

The Rallarveien down to Rombaksbotn a week ago.

More Rallarveien- one of my favourite runs in the area

Summer has been late this year- but its arrival dramatic as always down below treeline

From an outing with Bjarte on the northern section of the SAU course a week ago, where winter hasn't entirely let go.

The photos below are from the first and only other time I've run the SAU course; over two days with Clément back in August 2012. All photos from Clément- cheers!

The race website (in Swedish): www.swedishalpineultra.se

Another report coming after the race.

Hinterlands Traverse

The idea was to make a 2 day traverse starting in Håkvikdalen and finishing at Katterat with an overnight at Lossistua. Our intended route was pretty exciting- sticking in the alpine for about 72 of the 75km route, following a few ridgelines, crossing a couple glaciers, descending a few couloirs and some open faces. The forecast for bluebird weather was encouraging in the planning stage as decent visibilty was going to be a key factor.

The luxury of DNT cabins means that traverses like this don't require lugging a bunch of heavy camping gear along. The 7 gram key effectively replacing the need for tents, sleeping bags, pads, stoves and fuel. So the only difference in my pack contents was some extra food and a sleeping bag liner.

All the gear for a 75ish km and 6000ish metre skimo traverse

As is want to happen, we were forced to abandon our perfectly planned route on day one on account of the weather never really clearing. This was pretty frustrating at the time, but in hindsight its just this sort of forced improvisation which makes traverses like this one start feeling like some sort of adventure.

Day one: a traversing traverse

The bus driver on the 7am bus up Håkvikdalen was nice enough to take us a little bit further than the scheduled route, dropping us off just near the trailhead. A few hundred metres of walking brought us to snowline and we were soon skinning up Sandviktind. There was still a bit of cloud cover about the summits, but we were pretty certain it would clear up within a few hours. By the time we reached the summit of Sandviktind, 1300 metres and two hours later, visibility was down to about 10 metres and our proposed route down the south face, which involved skirting around a cornice and skiing a reasonably steep unknown face, suddenly seemed pretty foolhardy. We waited around for about 10-15 minutes hoping for a quick clearing which would give us an overview so we could start the ski. 

Skinning into the white

 The weather window never came and we made the decision to ski back the way we had come up and figure out another plan. And so began an arduous few hours of traversing through "north norwegian trouble terrain", rotten snow, thick stands of birch trees with interlocking branches- the whole affair was a real drain on my motivation and at one point I suggested to Micke that we just call it quits and head back to Narvik and get an early start the next day and do a longer day trip. We continued on, more in resignation than excitement, from Håkvikdalen over to Skamdalen and up to Nihkejavri and over the pass directly west of Kuniarcohkka and then a traversing descent down to Lossistua. The day involved about 40-45 kilometres and 2800 metres, of which about 1/4 was spent skiing fall line.

This photo shows what much of the terrain for the next few hours looked like...

Proper maze skiing, piecing together patches of snow in Skamdalen.

Finally in the alpine again, skinning up Skamdalsbakken

A murky Kuinarcohkka and our pass on the lookers right.

Day two: the reward

In stark contrast to the previous day, perfect conditions made for an awesome day which was memorable due to the quality of the skiing and the terrific views rather than the lack thereof. We skinned up to Storsteinsfjellet- the highest mountain in the region, and booted up the steep summit slopes. Our hopes of rapping from the summit were foiled by the cliff being about 30-40 metres and our rope not being long enough, so we wandered down the east ridge for about 200 metres from where we could ski the NE glacier. This was a fantastic ski descent, close to 1000 metres of rolling glacier, it ought to be skied a lot more often, but its remote nature means it doesn't see a whole lot of traffic.

Lossistua- our home for the night.

Micke skinning towards Storsteinsfjellet- Kuinarcohkka in the background

Fitting crampons for the bootpack up the slopes to the summit of Storsteinsfjellet.

Looking west from the summit of Storsteinsfjellet

And to the east...

The awesome NE glacier of Storsteinsfjellet

Another skin up the south side of Ristacohkka was followed by a short but engaging ski into the western bowl. Then a final, short climb up to the northen summit. We skied the famed Sørlenning down to Hunddalshytta and then skate out to Katterat for the train ride back to Narvik.

Skinning up Rista, with our glacier descent directly behind Micke

Ristacohkka from the south

Our silly line into the western bowl of Ristacohkka (if you look carefully you can see Micke just below the crux)

Nearing Ristacohkka, the last peak of the traverse

Micke in Sørlenning

Micke making Sørlenning look easy on tired legs

Pretty good ski conditions in Sørlenning for mid May.

 Stats for the day were about 2500 metres and 35 km. The map below shows the route we actually ended up taking.

Lappviktind Couloir- putting the bootpack back in bootpacks and skintracks

The alarm went off at 3:30 this morning for an outing with Micke to Lappviktind in Sør Skjomen. Our plan was to ski the main couloir line first skied by Andreas Fransson and a few of his friends four years ago.

Firm conditions lower down made for efficient skinning and the bootpack up the main couloir was straight forward. We topped out 1:50 after leaving the car. A short bootpack from the top of the couloir brought us to the summit of Lappviktind, an airy little perch with a 300 metre cliff on one side and views of the fjord on the other. Its a pretty good vantage point for checking out the other choice lines of the area.

The line itself is a classic open book style couloir characteristic of Skjomen: Gagnesaksla, Middagsfjellet etc. All the mountains in the area seem to have couloirs of a particular flavour, with a gigantic cliff looming above you on the skiers left, whilst the right side is more mellow. The pitch a sustained 35 degrees is just the right angle to be super enjoyable but not so steep that it requires white-knuckle concentration or any pause between turns. It is just plain fun.

This impressive face holds three unlikely ski lines- none of them visible from the road.

Gagnesaksla looks like it'll be in for a couple more weeks- though the mid-section is probably a down climb.

Micke slaying some nice dry snow on the sheltered side of the couloir

Once I got home at 8:45 I quickly realised that the keys to my apartment had been left on the ground where the car was parked. So I got to enjoy the scenic 130km drive to Sør Skjomen twice.

Shame Valley Chute

Got back into Skamdalsrenne today with Mike, it was the first time I've skied it in years and I was reminded of the reason why I've always referred to it as the greatest couloir in Norway. It is mythic. So ridiculously deep that to take photographs of it I ended up having to use the panorama mode in a vertical setting.

The snow left a bit to be desired. Wind affected and slabby in places, firm bed surface from some dry loose slides in other places; in the lower section the left hand side was sun affected and spring like whilst the right side was shaded and held cold, dry wintery snow. Every turn was different, but the immense granite walls towering above were enough to keep the stoke level pretty high.

On top of Tverdalsfjellet the views aren't too bad.

The entrance was more filled in than I've seen it in the past, rocks lurked centimetres below the surface though, so side stepping was called for

We were back at the car a little after 11, so we were even able to squeeze in lunch before heading to work.