...so, i guess its not too early to ski in Norway...

A nice line to descend below the clouds

Nice colours around here

One of the back-sides of the ski hill:
Such inviting freeride terrain, but not today!

A white picket fence - Norway is full of these.

Dawn-ish this morning

Well, it didn't dump overnight, or clear up, so there was no fresh snow and no further view of the Aurora Borealis, but I was up for some exploring for my last morning, to see if I could get to the summit and see over the other side of the mountain.

I didn't get to look down the more steep skiable face the other side, though, as I didn't get high enough.

It was pretty similar cloud conditions as yesterday, so not so good for photographs. I had hoped to get some stunning clear images from high up, but the clouds were quite moody instead.

Ullr, Norse god of snow lives in these clouds...

Idris, Welsh dragon, snow slayer is here today.

Local industry hard at work

The intended descent

Top lift disappearing into the fog

I stopped climbing up just short of the top of the chairlift, as the cloud was still sticking to the summit ridge, but I did get some fresh air, a nice uphill walk, and a view of the fjord behind, and it was a challenge picking my way down through the variable snow, avoiding obvious pockets of windslab.


I didn't see anyone else around today, but there were some old skin tracks from a few days ago. I guess the locals are waiting for it to snow again.

It turned out that there was a small band of reasonably good snow in the trees  half way down the mountain, maybe for about 150 vertical metres. The top half was pretty icy from being windswept (but low avalanche risk on the pitches where I skied), and the bottom half was icy from the rain crust. It was good, though, and its not always about riding the knee-deep fresh!

 Continuation time: I boarded a bus after dark, and now I'm speeding South on the night train heading for Chamonix, 3500km due South. I have made plans for a daylight mountain stop on the way to Oslo tomorrow for my final day in Norway.

The Chamonix valley looks white above 2000m, so I may get some turns when I get back there on Friday. I'm looking forward to getting back there.

Heading Southwards again