Jotunheimen sufferfest day I: The long traverse

Bessheim-Besshø-Surtningssue-Glitterheim

                                                         “Make friends with pain, and you will never be alone” Ken Chlouber, creator of the Leadville Trail 100

 

- I think this was the hardest day of my life… - says Achim from pure exhaustion. 

I think all of us share the same feeling. It is 3AM in the Glitterheim DNT cabin. We are having dinner next to the fireplace trying to get warm and dry, still digesting what we just did; 41km distance, 3000m positive elevation gain, and 17 hours out. All with not the lightest skiing gear and our backpacks could also be lighter (12-15kg). Legs are burning, backs hurt and the feet… better to not look at them. A nice collection of blisters that are gonna be our inseparable companions during the rest of the trip.

Achim suggested that we could have a rest day in Glitterheim after the long first stage but I refused to spend one day chilling in the cabin not doing anything. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea after all. We are all dog tired and our hopes of attempting the second very long stage tomorrow are minimal. We have spent weeks discussing all details of our genius plan and now we realize that we don’t really have a plan B. Glitterheim cabin is quite remote in winter. Giving up and going back to the car is not an easy task and we only have two options: 1) take the same 41km route or 2) take the boring and flat 30km fjellski route back. I cannot imagine myself doing that. It seems non-sense to spend many hours skiing on flat terrain carrying the feeling of failure. There is a third option but I don’t want to bring it up yet. First, we need a good night's sleep and see how we feel tomorrow morning.

Route plan. Day 1: Skiing Bessheim to Glitterheim 41km 3000m positive elevation. Day 2: Skiing Glitterheim to Krossbu 34km 2500m elevation. Day 3: Skiing Leirdalen to Krossbu 12km 1200m elevation and cycling Krossbu to Lom 43km. Day 4: Cycling Lom to Bessheim 75km and 1200m positive elevation. Total: 208km and 7600m vertical elevation.

This morning we all felt quite energized by the idea of attempting to cross the entire Jotunheimen massif on touring skis in our very own style. Jotunheimen is home to most of the 2000ers in Norway. The official route crosses the national park from east to west in 5 days sleeping in DNT cabins every night. But this year, only one cabin is open. First, we thought of bringing all our camping gear to do it in 4-5 days and camp outside each of the cabins, but the idea of skiing with a 25kg backpack didn’t sound very tempting. Instead, after a lot of back and forth and changes in the route we chose to do it the “fast” way. Now, we are aiming to complete the four stages from Bessheim to Leirdalen in two very long days (at least for us) and the third day do only one stage from Leirdalen to Krossbu. 

- Cool! We have a plan guys! – I say enthusiastically while sitting in my home office and looking at the map.

But how are we gonna get back to the car that will be 120km away from Krossbu? Good question. After a bit of thinking I come up with the idea of cycling back to the car. Isn’t this genius? After 3 long days of skiing, we are just gonna roll downhill with our bikes. I am so looking forward to it. Still remains unknown how are we gonna sleep in Leirdalen after the second day…

Bike depot at the parking at Krossbu; the end of the Jotunheimen Høgruta.

- We can throw our tents, sleeping bags and cooking gear in Leirdalen before starting the route! – again with one of my ideas.

All decided then. Wednesday morning Achim, Carsten and me leave from Bergen with Maxi packed with skiing+mountaineering gear, camping gear and our bikes. 6 hours later we are in Krossbu locking the bikes together in the parking and 1 hour later we pitch the tents and leave all necessary gear for the second night in Leirdalen. So far so good!

We arrive at the cabin in Bessheim where the trip starts around 8PM, prepare tacos, drink a few beers and go to sleep. Tomorrow is gonna be a looooooong day, though we can barely imagine how hard it will be.

Setting up camp in Leirdalen on Day 0.

We got 5cm of new snow overnight but now the weather is amazing. We start hiking at 8:30AM heading to Besshø (2258 moh); the first mountain of the trip. The temperature is quite nice for skiing (around 0ºC), but after a few hours going uphill on an east face it feels quite warm in the wind-sheltered sections. After just 2 hours I start feeling pain in my feet. Blisters? These stupid boots again… They should be called Scarpa Blister Maestrale. It takes us almost 4h to get to the summit, we don’t want to go too fast because we know we need to be smart and save energy for the end of the day. The last 200 meters to the summit are hard for me. I feel pain in every step, and for some reason I feel weak. Dehydrated? Not enough sleep? Probably a combination of both. I didn´t sleep much the last days because of some deadlines at work and now I am paying the price. If I am already so tired, does it make any sense to continue? It would be a shame to turn around now after only a few hours after so much planning and months talking about this trip. I join Achim and Carsten at the top. We take a summit selfie and discuss the way down. The suggested route goes into a quite steep colouir (>45º) southwest of the summit. Carsten starts skiing down in that direction but at some point we stop to discuss.

Achim and Carsten skinning up Besshø.

- This way doesn´t look good man. – I tell him. It looks very rocky and steep. I don’t think I want to go down there.

One problem with ski traverses is that most of the time you don’t get the chance to see the face or colouir that you are gonna ski down. It is really hard to assess whether the terrain is suitable for your downhill skiing skills, and you don’t get any information about the conditions of the snow on that particular slope. It feels quite adventurous but also a bit distressing to throw yourself into the unknown, hoping that the snow coverage is enough and that the snow is stable. It is not fun to end up tumbling down the slope hitting rocks or triggering an avalanche.

Besshø summit selfie. Only 30km to go. 

We decide to look for an alternative. There must be another less steep way down this mountain. After traversing back quite a bit on the ridge we find what looks like a decent colouir with enough snow. Achim goes first, and after seeing his first turns both Carsten and I have to smile. Ouuuuhhhh yeaaaaahh!! The snow looks good!

Achim stops mid-way to take some pictures of us. Now it is my turn. I hope that now the fun starts. I start skiing down and immediately feel that joy of connecting G-turns on perfect spring slush.

- Yihaaaaaaa!!!! – Fuck! This is why we ski. Perfect slope, wide enough, 35º, the reward for the 4-hour skinning uphill.

Skiing down one of the chutes in the south face of Besshø.

We are all really excited after the downhill. This was good and very necessary for our mental state. Perfect timing for a shot of adrenaline. We take a break in the sun to eat something, and I remove my boots and socks to look at my feet, just to confirm my fears. Some nice blisters are coming to life. This can turn the rest of the trip into a fucking nightmare. I get some thin nylon socks from Carsten to try to minimize the damage and put tape all over my feet. From down here we can look at the recommended colouir in the Jotunheimen Høgruta website. It is quite steep, bad snow cover and very rocky. Glad that we didn’t try to go there.

Carsten skiing down the same line with Bessegen ridge in the background.

The next 4 hours are not exactly my idea of fun skiing. We traverse lakes, ridges, small hills, all of it with our skins on. The downhill sections are really short and it is not worth making any transitions. The only thing that keeps us entertained is the amazing view surrounding us. We are in the heart of Jotunheimen surrounded by steep mountains, beautiful frozen lakes, glaciers and nice-looking ridges. And all for us. There is no one else out here. It feels nice to be out in the wilderness again. At this point we have two options to go up to the next summit (Surtningssue 2368moh): we can go straight up and cross the glacier below the summit or take a detour following a long ridge. Our hopes of taking a short way vanish as we get closer to the glacier. It looks steeper than we initially thought and we can see a number of big crevasses, so we aim for the ridge.

Achim and Carsten discussing the best way up Surtningssue. Straight on the glacier or hit the ridge?

We have been skiing for 8 hours and we are just past the beginning of what would be the start of stage 2 of the original trip. We have a long ridge traverse ahead of us. Better not to think of the distance to the cabin. We find a bit of everything on our way up Surtningstue: an exposed and narrow ridge section where we have to walk carrying the skis on our backpacks, we skin up a quite steep face where we can see signs of previous avalanches and finally a long, rather flat, last section to the summit. It is more than 9PM by the time we reach the summit. The sun is coming down, it is starting to get cold, and it is quite obvious that we are not gonna be able to reach the cabin before it gets dark. We got headlamps but we are tired and a bit worried about how the terrain ahead of us is gonna look like.

Skinning up Surtningssue. 

From the summit of Surtningssue we got again two options. It is possible to enter the glacier 100 meters below the summit or we can opt for a long detour following the ridge. Carsten goes first checking his watch to find the less steep way down from the ridge into the face. He stops by what looks like a big cornice. 

- Fuck! Guys, this doesn’t look good! – he yells at us while trying to figure out the way down.

I reach him and quickly understand his concern. WTF! There is no such thing as an easy way into the glacier. We are standing on a cornice. It is hard to see because the sun went down already and it is only the dim dark blue light of the twilight left. I hit the cornice with my pole to throw some snow down the slope and get a reality check. The first few meters below us are a vertical drop and then is just very steep, only to get another few meter vertical section below. Great! At the end of the 100m steep slope that we are looking at there is a vertical drop of around 200m. We look to the right to find alternatives but all we see is an overhanging cornice and a very steep face fully loaded with snow. 

Cold sunset transition at the summit of Surtningssue.

We spend 5 to 10 minutes looking at the face. To me, it is a no-brainer, but Achim and Carsten are willing to try to go down this way, just to avoid the very long traverse on the ridge. Fucking hell! These guys must be quite tired to even consider skiing down here. I am also quite tired and would like to take the most direct way but to me, this looks insane and I can only see a number of ingredients for a disaster. It is getting quite late, it is cold, and we need to move on.

- Ey guys! We need to make a decision. – I say. 

Silence. 

- Okay, I think this is a really bad idea. – I add.

Luckily they agree with me and we continue along the ridge hoping that this way is easier. We skin up another steep section and reach a secondary summit along the ridge. I try to concentrate on not sliding while skinning up. We are moving quite slow but better slow than sliding down the face or losing one ski. The rest of the ridge is a quite flat traverse and we keep skinning. The light around us is amazing. We can see a red glow behind the steep mountains to the west and the first stars start to become visible  Around midnight we reach the glacier that should take us down to the cabin. It is already dark and we switch on our headlamps. There is some kind of magic behind moving in the mountains in winter in the dark. I find it so peaceful. I was a bit worried a few hours ago but now I already accepted that we will have to ski in the dark for at least a few hours. This is so beautiful and relaxing. I switch off my headlamp every now and then to admire the mountains around us. It is time to ski down this glacier. It is cold (around -20ºC)  and we put on all our clothes, including our big down jackets. 

Twilight catches us just before starting to ski down the glacier.

The way down the glacier is not steep at all and it doesn’t take almost any energy to glide down on this powdery snow. Nice to finish the day going down a north face with good powder. Finally some downhill fun. Soon we reach another flat section where we have to traverse quite a bit until we get to a valley that looks rather steep. Carsten checks the steepness on his watch and says he found a good way down. Achim follows sliding the skis sideways. It looks quite steep to me. I go behind also skiing sideways and yes, it is quite steep and the snow below me keeps collapsing down the slope. I guess is too late to complain so I do a jump turn and try to stick my skis on the snow but I hit the rocks below the thin snow coverage instead. I manage to recover and not fall. Good! My skis took the worst part but they are quite old and already quite scratched. We continue skiing down this valley traversing the slope and hitting quite some rocks until we reach a lake. Another transition to skins here. It seems that we are never gonna arrive at this cabin. Carsten says that is only a few kilometers flat to Glitterheim. Only? We have been skiing for almost 40kms and 17 hours. I am ridiculously tired and move my legs by instinct. A number of times I close my eyes and almost fall asleep but I always manage to react before falling. 40 minutes later, at 2AM, we reach Glitterheim. I can’t believe it. This was probably the longest activity I have ever done in one day. And yes. Agree with Achim, probably the hardest thing I have ever done.

2AM. Completely knackered. Just minutes away from Glitterheim cabin.