Mountains, mountains, mountains!

There really are some stunning mountains around here.

I am now above 62 degrees North in Stranda, a small mountain town just to the South West of Trondheim, and in the middle of some amazing fjords. It really feels like North here, like northern BC or Alaska.

  

Look at the lines on this beauty!

Gorgeous fjordland:

I took a bus from Sogndal to Stranda yesterday evening, through many tunnels and around the edge os some winding fjords. There was some of the most amazing steep terrain alongside the road, but it was really dark, so this was the best photo that I could get of it:

The red lights are inside the bus, reflected in the window!

It was almost vertical, and looked like it was already skiable, but probably too rocky, and very avalanche prone. Looks like Alaska!

Stranda has only one hotel, and turned out to be really fancy, not the rustic one that I was imagining. Luckily there is a campground next door with some cheaper cabin rentals, about the price of a hostel (!) so I was ok.

After a restful sleep and clear night, I awoke to find a front approaching, and a great potential snowstorm. I headed up to the closed ski hill to explore and get some exercise for the Idris Chamois skis.

Stranda church

A murky dark sky this morning

The ski hill above town, very snowy

 At over 400m above the sea, the base of the ski hill has a nice snowpack, a bit of crust with some recent snow on top. As I got higher the crust disappeared, but the temperature started rising. It was snowing lightly, so the first line was great in creamy snow.

There are lots of small ski hills in Norway. This is a medium sized one, and Hemsedal is the biggest.

Idris skis lapping it up

Nice line to descend

 After those great turns, I stopped for lunch, but by this point it was raining lightly at the base.

Round two was purely exploratory, as it was now really warm almost to the top of the mountain, and the snow was real sticky. It was nice to check out the other side of the mountain, though, and I could traverse all the way back to town on the nordic track.

Nordic skiing in Norway - seems appropriate

A taste of Northern BC? In Europe! ;-)

Now, as the good snow seems to have descended into crust, I have booked myself on a night train for saturday night, heading north into the arctic to see whats going on there. I'm not sure when my next post will be, but hopefully soon.

Then in a week, I will be back in Chamonix, home of Idris skis!