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| Lander enjoying the pow in the forest. |
02/02/2020 kinda curious date but nothing special in principle. As any other regular Sunday during Norwegian winter, we head off from Bergen on the hunt for a bit of powder. It is a shame that this is gonna be the first day of good snow for me this season. The forecast is looking very good and I am quite excited to finally make some turns in decent snow. But not everything is looking pink... The avalanche forecast is not so good and after quite some discussion in the car, we decide to go to one of the safest option around here: Bjørndalskamben. I have never been there myself so even if I heard it is a donkey field it is always exciting to hike a new mountain.
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| Nad skinning up in the forest in the lower part of the valley. |
Bjørndalskamben (1402moh) is the highest mountain in Myrkdalen and lies on the east side of the valley right in front of the ski resort and the popular Finnbunuten (1358moh). We park right at the ski resort and start our hike from there. The first part goes through cabins until we get to a barrier and hit a cross-country track. We can choose to go through the forest or just follow the cross-country tracks. After 30min of rather flat terrain in the forest, we get to a more open area and the valley turns to the left. If we are lucky we will be able to see the ridge of our objective in the left side of the valley. The weather is changing constantly today and we have sun for 5 minutes then snow and strong lateral wind; over and over. In general, it is quite okayish weather; not too windy, not too cold, not too snowy and not too sunny. After traversing a long hill we finally get to the long ridge before the summit. The weather is worsening we decide to turn around due to the poor visibility, about 150m below the summit. The top section of the mountain is rather flat and not very exciting to ski down so there is not much discussion about going down before reaching the summit. Classic transition from uphill to downhill mode and I am as slow as usual, especially in the first days of the season. Nathan and Nad are patient and wait for me. As soon as we start skiing down it starts to clear up again. The first part is very flat and there is no need to turn but finally, we reach a steeper section and I decide to take the camera out. Okay guys!! It's showtime! I want to see your best turns.
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| Nad doing the first turns of the day. |
Jonathan goes first passed my camera with a good telemark style. Nadine follows with a quite good technique. Shit! These guys are skiing quite good and my technique sucks quite a bit today. I better keep taking pictures of them... Now is my turn to ski down and I realised how good is the snow. A 15-20cm layer of fresh pow. Finally! I am stoked and enjoy this section so much but my legs are burning after 300-400m non-stop.
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| Nadi during the lunch break after the first run. |
We go all the way down to the cross-country track and take a break here for getting some food. The weather is getting better and better and Nathan and Nad are quite excited about the quality of the snow and want to do another lap in a neighbouring 200m hill. I feel quite weak today (got two molars extracted yesterday and feel a bit like a hamster) and first I tell them that I am gonna head back to the car. Finally, after eating another banana, the third today since is the only thing I can eat, I decide to join them. The hill looks really good with some fun forest lines and the snow is so good that would be a shame not to join them.
We are a bit careful on the way up this hill because some sections are steeper (>30º) and the avalanche risk is quite high today. Around 50m before the top, we reached a section with a small steep cornice. Nathan and I are leading the pack and we stop here to discuss which way to go up. When Nadine joins us she decides for us: "Hey guys! We decided to play safe today, remember? We should turn around here". She's fucking right and we both agree. There is still a sweet looking forest line beneath us.
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| Jonathan cruising down the forest. |
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| Happy selfie Nad and Lan. |
Jonathan goes first and he stops halfway and indicates us to take the line to his right. What is he doing? Alright, I see. He's taking the camera out. Now is my turn to try to make some good turns. I start going down through the bushes and the snow is so good, so easy to ski. Yeah! This is what we were looking for and we found it. Fresh lines in the forest, beautiful weather and all for the three os us, we are completely alone here. I try to get very close to Jonathan for the picture hehe. I stop right after me and wait for Nadine. She is also really enjoying these amazing conditions, really nice turns in the forest for her too. Now is my turn to take the camera out and take some pictures of Nathan. His telemark turns look really cool and I manage to get a nice full sequence of him. I wish I could telemark too. Shooting in the snow if more fun than I thought! I should pack the camera more often in ski trips.
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| Nathan posing for the photographer. |
We have another quick break for enjoying the amazing light and landscape in front of us and for taking a few more pictures and then we head down to the cross-country track. This section is quite flat but the snow is still quite good and we find some very fun sections through small forest. Finally we reach the bottom after passing some cabins. We are all very happy about the trip. The winter in western Norway has been quite warm and wet so far and this is the first good day we all have this season. Hoping to have a lot more days like this and to share them with such a good company.
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| Last lights before the sunset with Myrkdalen in the background. |
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