Back in Norway- a Partisan abortion

Since Marmolejo I had a few weeks travelling back to Norway: Santiago, Buenos Aires, New York City, Montreal and Stockholm within 2 weeks, I felt like some sort of jet-setting businessman except that instead of a briefcase I was lugging around a busted up ski bag and instead of a suit I was clad in a duct-tape patched ski jacket.

Arriving back in Narvik I was happy to discover that the the snow is unseasonably deep, with some early season storms bringing snowline close to sea level. In the five days since I got back I've had 4 tours, with a total of 4700 metres. The most noteworthy outing was today's attempt on the celebrated Partisanleden with Micke (the guy who wrote the guidebook for skiing in the area- literally) even though we ended up bailing on our intended route.

This is the view you get with one hour worth of skinning from town

After finishing work at 8am I went home for a quick snack then met Micke at the base of the mountain at 9:30, we skinned up the closed ski runs at a decent tempo, reaching Tredjetoppen in less than 1.5 hours. From here our first descent was on a few inches of dry pow, wind affected in many places, but surprisingly good for this early in the season.

A few soft turns from Tredjetoppen (the sun doesn't get any higher above the horizon at the moment).

Enjoying the view into Skamdalen from the top of Moskočohkka.

Reaching Moskočohkka our assumption that the snow was thick and firm enough to allow us to downclimb without a rope was called into question. With only a few inches of sugary snow coating the rocks in the steep sections, the idea of continuing seemed rather foolhardy. So we turned around, and enjoyed a nice descent down to Forsnesvannet.

Beisfjordtøtta as seen from the start of our down climb.

We turned around at this point because the prospect of down climbing this cliff band coated in a thin layer of snow seemed a little sketchy.

 Even though we didn't follow through with our intended plan, I had a really good time, got to ski some nice descents and got a good workout with 1700 metres in about 4 hours. Looking forward to getting back there with a rope and a few stoppers in my pack.