25th Anniversary Appeal Expedition: Day 35

25-anniversary-expedition-day035Nordpå Fjellhotel to Schulzhytta. 43km 9 1/2hrs. After a perfect nights sleep in a luxurious cabin, my friend Håkon from Trondheim met me for breakfast with the plan to join me skiing for the day. It’s my first day of human company and what a stunning day! Håkon tells me he doesn’t do bad weather skiing anymore so if the forecast had been different I would have been on my own. We start from Nordpå following the route taken by a retreating Swedish Army in 1719. The route is named after this body of men, who after failing to take the fortress at Trondheim were ordered back to Sweden and travelled this route in the dead of winter and tragically were caught in a storm. Of the 5-10 000 men only a couple of hundred survived and returned to Sweden. The remainder perished in the bitter winter storm. The landscape is open, gently rolling and in the sunshine and still, cold air, absolutely stunning… but it’s not difficult to imagine how deep snow and strong winds could turn this heaven into an inhospitable and shelterless trap. I listen to Håkon’s stories as we ski, side by side, and cold thoughts shoot shivers inside. It’s not easy skiing initially, windswept and thin snow cover, until we descend and enter the woods above Græsli. The woods hold the snow and we sweep and cruise to the valley floor. Big smiles. Now for the afternoon… into the Skarvan og Roltdalen national park. The snow is perfect, 10cm of cold powder on a firm base. The views make your heart ache… we enter a remote valley where there are no roads even in summer-it’s protected from development. After a long day we reach the Schultzhytta just after night falls, smiling, satisfied, and ready for a that log fire and hot meal