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.

Narvik to Straumsnes- a few photos

 The past weeks I've been making a transition into running again in preparation for the summer ahead. There is, however, still plenty of great skiing to be had in the mountains, with the decent snow cover and longer days now is the time for enjoying some longer tours.

On Friday Mike and I skied from Narvik over to Straumsnes. Highlights included 30cm of dry pow on the Forsnesvatn ramp, some sunbaked avy debris in the picturesque Isvattenrenne and hitching a ride back to Narvik with the first car that drove by. I've skied these lines many times in the past, but never got any proper photos of them, so here they are.

Mike enjoying 30cm of dry pow on the descent to Forsnesvatn. Not bad for late April.

Mike on the ramp. Forsnesvatnrenne in the background- which we skinned up half an hour later.

Skinning up the path where I got taken for a ride last year.

Mike nearing the top of the Forsnesvatnrenne. Our last descent clearly visible in the background.

Inspiring views of the Hunddalen peaks on the descent from Beisfjordtøtta

Mike cruising over Isvatten after skiing the obvious couloir down from the saddle.

A bit more dry snow to go with the pretty views on the last descent down to Straumsnes.

NarvikRando- a track setter's perspective.

The inaugural Narvik Rando went down this past Saturday, with about 55 skiers (31 in the race category/ 24 in the tourist category) toeing the line. From most accounts it seems like everyone had a pretty good time and are psyched to return next year.

The whole event has been many months in the planning, with Micke at the head of a troupe of volunteers (myself included). Plenty of meetings, lengthy online discussions and countless hours went it to the whole thing and it was a relief that it all went roughly according to plan.

I was responsible for setting the track (but got a LOT of help from Andreas, Micke, Jon and Mike) which was necessarily carried out pretty much at the last minute. A few days of very stiff winds (gale force above tree line the day before) followed by a night of heavy precip (which came as rain below tree line) created some real challenges and forced some changes in the course even in the last few hours leading up to the race.

I’m not making excuses, and the following is really just a record/call for comments to draw on in the future in order to make next year’s race even better.

• Flags. A ski mountaineering race like this (1650metres of vert.) eats up a LOT of course marking flags. Next year we need about 2x the number we had this year. Or better yet 3x as many. I think composite sticks would be more durable than bamboo sticks like we had this year, but maybe a bit more expensive.

• Hi-viz spray paint works well when you don’t have enough flags. But they are certainly no replacement as it gets covered by windblown snow and isn’t visible as something poking above the skyline.

•  Skins tracks should be mellow and bootpacks should have steps that even short people can comfortable manage. I feel like this aspect was done okay, but a few sections of the skinner were on wind scoured slopes and the booter had some sugary sections which made it tricky to maintain much consistency.

• Transition zones ought to be on flat terrain. The skin to boot transition this year was all off-kilter (because I didn’t have time to shovel it level).

•  These signs are pretty sweet.

•  Track setting (at a reasonable standard) is a bigger job than I had anticipated. Ideally an even bigger crew should be involved and an even earlier start is probably wise.

•  Last minute changes to the course (due to weather/avalanche hazard/ surface conditions etc.) are stressful and create a shit load of extra work. Having a course which can be skied in any sort of weather/snowpack would likely mean that the course is not sufficiently challenging, so a certain degree of flexibility is of course necessary. However having a very firm plan at least two days before the race starts will ensure a lot more efficiency in setting the track and lead to it being of a higher quality.

All things considered I think it went pretty well and I’m psyched for next year and making the event even better. I didn’t get a chance to take any photos during the competition. But there are some photos and reports in Norwegian from FriFlyt here and from Kondis here.

Below are a couple photos from some other outings this past week, ‘cause a blogpost without photos ain’t much apparently.

Lapping the backside of Linken with Damien and Sarah from Schweiz

Mike's first ever skin to Tredjetoppen

Mike scoping lines from 3de.

Some decent turns on solar aspects earlier this week- this is in one of the 5 fingers.