Sylan Ski - Easter 2019
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17-22/04/19
A glorious week in Sylan and Skarvan og Roltdalen with my wife. Sometimes over 30'C warmer than my Easter in Sylan last year!
We started at Storlien Train station, Sweden, and skied to Gresli, Norway, where we took the bus back to Trondheim. We started with friends, but after the first night we parted ways. We had initially considered skiing north towards Meråker (and getting a taxi from the end of the road to the station) but changed plans to ski south to Gresli. We had stunning weather and were even in shorts and t-shirts at times. We stayed at hytta (mountain cabins) at Blåhammaren Fjällstastion and Storerikvollen, on the second and third nights, and camped on night 1, 3 & 4.
Day 1
We took the train from Trondheim to Storlien. A and I were sharing a pulk (sled), as were Kj and Ka. With food and gear for two in the pulk it was heavy, but not as heavy as when I started the trip over Hardangervidda a few weeks ago. We were expecting much easier conditions, staying in cabins some nights, and able to re-stock food along the way if needed, saving a lot of weight.
We put on our skis at 1900, enjoying the much lengthened days. We had a nice ski up to our camp spot, but Kj and Ka struggled on the icy snow. A and I managed fine with our skins (initially short skins, but I swapped to long skins for part of the climb as I wasn't getting quite enough grip to pull the pulk on the short ones), but Kj and Ka did not have skins, and Kj had never tried the second hand skis she had just bought - they were too big for her. We had a very pleasant evening together, cooking and chatting as the last of the light faded, and the head torches came out.
Day 2
We awoke to a stunning morning, with views across to Snasahögerna. As we ate breakfast, Kj managed to get in touch with a ski rental shop in Storlein who were able to hire her skis for the week, and Ka could hire skins. Ka and Kj skied off as we finished packing our pulk. We decided to head for Blåhammeren as planned, and got a nice surprise to see a group of reindeer as we rounded Rekdalshöjden. We got a great view from the top of Rekdalshöjden, before descending gradually, watching Blåhammaren grow very slowly ahead of us.
The ski up the steep wooded slopes of Blåhammaren, through deep snow, was hard work, and I was very glad of my long skins. Without a pulk to pull, A was fine with her short skins, and able to plough ahead, creating tracks for me to follow. A little above the tree-line, A decided to try pulling the pulk for a while - her first time pulling one. I did not complain about having a break for a few min, but took it back after a few hundred meters.
A couple of kilometers before reaching the cabin, we joined the marked trail from Storlien, and the skiing got a lot easier as the snow had been compacted. We made good pace, and got to the cabin in time to get our gear sorted before enjoying a fantastic three-course meal. It was quite probably the best meal I have eaten in Norway or Sweden. After dinner we enjoyed sweating in the sauna, watching the setting sun through the window.
Day 3
After a hearty breakfast we set our course towards Norway. Our day's ski started with a long decent, and would soon join up with part of my route from my ski with a friend the previous Easter. With skins replaced with wax, we enjoyed a quick decent, but the day was warming up rapidly. Shortly before we linked in with my previous Easter's ski route we stopped, and I stripped down to t-shirt and "shorts" (rolled up trousers), and we switched from wax to klister. Now on familiar tracks (for me), we continued enjoying the glorious weather and views over Sylan Massivet. We paused for a snack, and to re-apply sun cream, at the site of last year's first camp site. Last Easter had been just as glorious views, but much colder. When I was last at this spot, it had dropped below -25'C overnight, possibly as low as -30'C, today we were skiing in shorts and t-shirt at around +6'C!
Unfortunately the warm weather did mean that rather than enjoying great grip with Swix Blue Extra wax (everyone's favourite), we had to use horrible, sticky klister (everyone's least favourite) - but it did the job. Before long I was back in unknown territory, headed towards Storerikvollen hytta.
Just before we arrived we were overtaken by dog sledders, with the same destination. We arrived at the cabin at around 1500, and decided to call it a day there. The snow quality was deteriorating with the warm weather and sun, and the cabin was looking very welcoming. We relaxed for a little while, sitting outside enjoying the view, but I did not feel like I'd got enough skiing done, so headed out for a pre-dinner jaunt out onto Esandsjøen.
We enjoyed a hearty dinner, and had a nice evening relaxing at the cabin, comparing notes of our current and previous trips with others there. I also spend a while outside enjoying the sunset and moon rise, chatting with the dog-sledders, who were the only others choosing to spend any length of time outside rather than sitting by the roaring fire. The snow was getting a good crispy top, which was encorraging for the next day's ski.
Day 4
Another glorious day, we enjoyed a sociable breakfast at the hytta, and headed off towards Ramsjøhytta. Others had been considering heading in the same direction, but in the end we were the only two headed in that direction. We had had a good rest yesterday afternoon, and were right in the rhythm, and made good progress. I took A's backpack on my pulk for most of the morning to make our progress even easier.
By lunchtime the day had again warmed up, and I sat with bare feet drying them off, with my socks on the end of my ski poles. A couple of times I went to stand up to grab something, forgetting I had bear feet, and plunged into the snow. It had got so warm, and late in the year, that we were joined by a butterfly at lunchtime! With strong sun, warm weather, and considering camping rather than staying at Ramsjøhytta, we decided to fill our empty bottles with snow. This was very effective, with a lot of the snow melting, and saving us time in the evening, with fewer litres of snow to melt.
At the bottom of the hill up to Ramsjøhytta, we spent quite some time with "skirens" wipes, trying our best to remove all the sticky klister from the bottoms of our skis, so that we could attach our skins without ruining the glue. The pech up to the unstaffed (selvbetjent) cabin went quickly, and we still had plenty of energy and sunlight (it was only 1600 and the days were getting long). We had a quick chat to some skiers sitting by the cabin - they were on a day trip from their private hytta in the area - before heading onwards, along Ramsjøen. The fact that there was no one else at the cabin made staying there less tempting, and I was looking forward to another night away from civilisation in our tent.
The views over Fongen from Ramsjøen were great. At the far end of the lake we passed some ice fishers on snowmobiles before starting the last climb of the day, up Ramskardet. We continued a little past the high point, down to what would be the shore of Ramskardtjønna when the snow thawed, set up camp, and got to boiling snow and cooking dinner. It was nice to be back out in a tent, deciding for ourselves exactly where we would set up camp, and enjoying the familiar winter tent-life.
Day 5
We awoke to a foggy, drizzly morning. The steep cliffs of Fongen which had toured over the campsite last night were nowhere to be seen. As we packed up our soggy camp - and wrapped my pulk in our wind shelter (/survival shelter/vindsekk) to keep water from leaking in through the seams - I felt like the best of the skiing was behind us, and we were now on the home march, with little to look forward too.
Although the visibility was mostly better for the rest of the day, it was grey with drizzle showers. There was some fun skiing, but it was a bit of a slog, and A found it challenging descending on moderately steep terrain through the trees. We needed to make the bus at Gresli the next afternoon, and did not want a rush on our final day. It was mostly the determination to have a stress-free final day that pushed us up the hill between Melshogna and Ruten. Half way up we found a patch of completely clear ground, and decided that I had had a great winter season, but spring was now encroaching, and I started to look forward to warmer times (see picture below of A in a Y on a rock).
My spirits rose for the last few kilometers and we found a lovelly campsite by Veltjennin. The weather cleared along with my mood, and we sat outside to make our dinner. We were chased into our tent by a rain shower, but returned to our seat to boil the last of the water - which we had been able to fill from a nearby stream which had opened already.
Day 6
What a contrast from day 5! It was glorious weather when we opened the tent, but we were slightly alarmed to see how much the small lake that had been a long way from our tent had grown! Fortunately it still was some way off, but the fact that there were some shrubs around our level was not enough to be safe, as we could see some sticking out the icy water. The night had been fairly mild and the snow was already soft, but we got good grip with the short skins. We were rewarded with stunning views as we climbed. From the map we knew that there was going to be some steep terrain, and we soon found ourselves approaching an alarmingly steep face. Fortunately it was not as steep as it looked, and the soft snow made it quite easy to climb it with a slight traverse. At the top we were rewarded with a great panorama, and I had to strip down to a very thin t-shirt and lather on more sunblock. As we descended, the patches without snow became more frequent, and at moments it started to feel like we were picking a route between snowy patches on a largely clear hillside. Before starting our final descent we skied up Greslivola (walking the last few meters) and got a view over the valley below, where it was very clear that spring was well underway. We knew we had to get to the bottom of the valley to catch a bus, and the idea of walking most of the rest of the way did not appeal, with a pulk and skis in tow.
After passing Greslihytta the track got very steep and narrow through forest, and we both chose to walk for a while. When it widened out into a landrover track I decided to put my skis back on, and had a big speed (and effort) advantage over A, who walked. I was (again) very glad of the break system I had rigged my pulk with as the track was too narrow to control a pulk on a rope-drag without it - occasionally the snow got so narrow that I had to lift one ski for a meter or two before the snow cover widened again. Quite suddenly, about 1 km from the end of the track, the snow came to an abrupt stop - I had truly skied into spring!
We spent some time re-packing everything from the pulk as much as possible into our backpacks, and strapped the four skis, tent, spade and pulk onto my pack. A also had a full backpack, but it was only a day bag, so had less capacity, and ended up carrying the pulk top-bag with the sleeping bags in it. It was a bit of a pech down to the road, where we wished there could be a shop selling ice cream! We had a couple of hours to wait until the bus to take us back to Trondheim, and passed the time lying in the shade of some trees, as it was too hot for us in the sun!
The trip was great, and the weather fantastic. We could hardly have have had better conditions for A's first multi-night ski trip, and it was a very enjoyable way for me to round off my season.
