Silly Billies Return to Roam

Spring melt water makes for impressive whitewater Disclaimer: If you have had enough of the words snow, mountains, lemmings, skiing etc then read no further! (-: Yes, it was to be another snowy weekend in the mountains. We had three days because of 'Himmelfarts' day so we took off on Thursday evening heading South through Oppdal and then along the road which leads to the Troll Wall. Before we reached that however, we hung a left into the Tafjordfjella mountains. The spring rivers were running very high and there was some spectacular whitewater on the drive in. We found a grassy spot by the river to put up our Quechua 'ten second tent' and had a nice sleep with some little baa-ing sheep for company. Sheep on the road into Tafjordfjella The following morning we put all our ski equipment on our packs and headed up the hillside. Clouds were hanging fairly low in the valley. After no more than one hours walking and one convenient snow bridge crossing we were already at the...

In preparation for this crazy race: http://www.merakertiltopps.com/26-Peaks-Extremity-Race.html which Chris has been persuaded to compete in July he thought he had better do some running. 100km sounded like a gentle ease in, don't you think? Problem was I had a bad cold on Friday, and wasn't up to much on Saturday morning, so we lounged around, organising stuff and generally mucking about. Then it was 4 pm and we decided we had better get going. So, we drove to Oppdal and he ran while I cycled about 20km and 700m climb into Orkdalshytte on a high plateau beside the Orkdalsjøen (lake). We arrived at the hut at about 10pm, and were eating dinner round midnight.....the em and chris timetable in its full glory! Chris on the run in to the hut Cycling across the plateau with a heavy pack Arriving at the hut in the evening mist We slept in late. Of course! We were tired from being up so late the night before. A sprinkling of new snow on the tops with the sun peaking through ro...

This weekend we took off on Friday night for an overnight trip with our mad keen ski friend Bård - the aim was to try and find some more snow before it all goes. We drove out to Stjørdal and met Bård there, then onwards towards Meråker. After that we crossed the Swedish border and headed into the Snasahøgarna mountains. The weather was a bit average - cloudy with patchy rain. We were able to ski up a river that was still full of meters deep snow - even though the surrounding land was completely snow free - it was some kind of lee valley where all wind blown snow must accumulate. There were great cracks like crevasses where the thick snow was slowly falling into the river. Bård pokes the snow crevasse - it looks more dodgy than it was The craziest thing of all on the way up however was the lemmings! The little furry creatures were scuttling everywhere, and there was also a multitude of dead ones sprinkled about on the snow. Bård told us they carry a disease and you shouldn't touc...

Our fantastic 'Rorbu' in Koppangen We still had 5 days in Lyngen to explore and enjoy the fantastic peaks. The days flew past, each day we had a different adventure and before we could really stop to reflect again we were winding our way back along the rainy highway into Tromsø to catch our flight back to Trondheim on Easter Monday - bound for the realities of work the following day. Since then the weeks have flown by, spring has truly sprung in Trondheim and the snowy summits of Tromsø seem far away. But I will always remember that magic place and our amazing Rorbu in Koppangen and the days skiing from snowy tops right down to the lapping shores of the fjords. Below I have written a little story about each of the peaks we climbed. We calculated that by the end of the week we had climbed (and skied down) over 9000m! The fish (~ 35 cm) This looks a lot like the one I am talking about Well, this wasn't actually a mountain. Rather an incident. I went out onto the jetty to wat...