Jotunheimen sufferfest day 3: The last push
- "Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go." – T. S. Eliot
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| Cycling down from Krossbu to Lom across the mighty Jotunheimen National Park. |
It’s 10AM in the morning and I wake up from the sun hitting the tent and the noise of the weekend warriors that are just starting to arrive at the parking lot in Leirdalen to enjoy a full weekend of good weather, skiing in these beautiful mountains. We haven’t seen anyone in the last two days and it was so quiet and peaceful. It feels strange to suddenly get the opposite experience. A lot of people, noise, a lot of ski tracks and fresh legs. Compared to us everyone seems so fit. I am completely destroyed. We have done the hardest part by far but the only mountain that separates us from achieving our goal seems completely unattainable. In a normal situation it should just take 1-2 hours to get to the last col and then easy skiing down to Krossbu hut back to our bikes, which we hope are still there and in good condition. The reality today is gonna be a bit harsher and is gonna require every bit of mental strength to skin up the 1100m of elevation that we have on the menu.
We have a very chill breakfast in the sun, resting a bit more before we get on the way. We see more and more cars coming and most of the skiers are heading in the same direction that we have to go; up towards Store Smørstabbstindane (2208 moh). I have never skied it from this side and didn’t know it was so popular. I am glad we decided to do the hardest part of this trip during weekdays. I think I managed to get here because of the beauty and the quietness of these mountains but with classic Jotunheimen shitshow spring days, things would have probably gone quite differently.
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| Late breakfast in sunny Leirdalen. |
- Guys, I am completely knackered. I don’t know if I can make it. - I say while finishing my oats and looking and the steep initial slope in front of us.
- Come on! Today should be the easiest day by far. No way you’re gonna quit now.
They are right. We are so close to pulling out this crazy plan that it doesn’t make a lot of sense to quit. Especially because quitting would mean a very very long walk on the road. But I am kinda tempted to try to hitchhike all the way to Krossbu, where my gravel bike is parked. I manage to convince myself that it doesn’t make sense to quit at this stage and we slowly start getting ready. We don’t start skiing until passed noon. The sun is quite high, there is almost no wind and the first slope is rather steep. This is not the warm-up I was hoping for today. I am lucky to meet up with a skier that, at least, doubles me in age and we start a lively conversation. This helps me to make the first 300m of elevation until we get to a section with a more gentle slope.
- I think you would have to wait for me quite a bit today.
- No worries. Although the snow looks really good.
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- I am sorry but I am too tired for this. I don’t think I have the balance and the focus to walk safely in exposed terrain.
As much as they both seem keen on attempting the ridge I think that they also see that I am being completely honest and that I am too destroyed for this. They both decide to join me and take a detour, back down the last steep slope to the flats and traverse with skins all the way around the ridge. I feel a big relief when we are back at the bottom of the bowl. Although I am still really tired it seems that the rest of the day is gonna be easy skinning up about 200 metres and a gentle and enjoyable ski down to Krossbu.
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| Achim with Store Smørstabbtinden in the background. |
1h later we are standing on the pass at the end of the ridge having another break for snacks, pictures and enjoying the views. We are almost done. We do the transition and start skiing down traversing at mid-slope until we can see Store Smørstabbtinden. What an epic view from this side! Now we are all relaxed, it’s all smiles as we are enjoying the amazing landscape and knowing that we already left all the hard, technical and challenging terrain behind us. I skied in this valley a few times before and I am aware that the terrain is very easy all the way down to Krossbu. It is around 5PM and there are so many ski tracks that it seems that we are on a slope from a ski resort. The gradient is so gentle that we barely have to do turns. We just enjoy the views and let ourselves go down the hill. The lower part is quite fun, with easy skiing in between rocks and quite decent spring slush. We quickly make our way all the way down to the parking lot where we left our bikes 3 days ago. The bikes and all our gear are still there and everything looks fine. I can’t believe that all our logistics are working that well!
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| At the depot in Krossbu. Happy to see that our bikes are still where we left them 3 days ago. |
We go to Krossbu hut to ask if we can leave our ski gear in the cabin until tomorrow afternoon when we are supposed to drive back this way on the way back home. They don’t seem very keen on keeping an eye on our stuff so we decide to take everything with us on the bikes. We take our time to prepare the bikes, attach the skis and repack a few things. In the meantime, some groups of skiers that are also just done with skiing and are already enjoying a cold beer approach us and start asking WTF we are doing there with skis and bikes. We explain our trip and they start cheering us and saying how badass that was. They wish us luck for the biking down to Lom and we head off with our heavy bikes. We have to bike about 50 km but the good news is that it should be mostly downhill. In the beginning, we are a bit careful and constantly checking that our gear doesn´t fall but after 5 minutes we start to relax and enjoy this beautiful road. There are a lot of skiers by the road packing the skis in their cars and they all turn around to cheer us as we roll downhill. It is an amazing feeling to bike down this amazing winding road that traverses the west end of Jotunheimen national park. I get distracted in my thoughts and look at the beautiful mountains around us covered in snow and ice. It was so hard to make it here but this is such a gift. We are all very psyched and joyful and cannot believe that everything worked out so far. As the kilometers pass and we get closer to civilization the cheerful fellow skiers turn into stupid angry drivers getting dangerously close to our bikes, honking the horn and screaming at us. Jeeeezzz!! Never underestimate the power of human stupidity. We finally make it to the campsite in Lom, and we start hugging and celebrating. We look terrible; tired, smelly and sunburnt but all three of us with big smiles. We continue the celebration with pizza and beers in the restaurant of the camping and go to bed rather early as we are very tired and tomorrow we still have to make it back to the car by bike, 75km away from where we are.
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| Achim and Lander taking a break to suck in the beautiful surroundings. |
Luckily, the morning after we can leave our luggage in the campsite and avoid carrying all the weight with us. We are well rested after a good sleep in a bed and we are confident that today shouldn´t be a too hard day. We start cycling together from Lom but soon I speed up and tell Achim and Carsten that I can pick up the van and start driving back. When the road starts winding up towards the eastern side of Jotunheimen massif, I start regretting that I didn´t pack more clothes. It is very cold and only have two thin layers so I have to dig deep for about 2 hours on the saddle to fight against this discomfort, but after these last long and exhausting days it doesn’t feel as crazy as what we have done so far. Finally after 75k and about 1000m uphill, I start seeing around the corner the lake next to Bessheim Fjellstue where it all started only 3 days ago. I am really psyched and start screaming God-knows-what to my GoPro camera. I get ready very quick and start driving back to pick up Carsten and Achim that were not very far behind me. We are all supertired but so excited about what we managed to do in the last few days that none of us sleep during the 8h drive back home, after a stop at Leirdalen to pack our tents we are very ready to head all the way to Bergen.
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| Sunset in Lom next to the beautiful Stavkirke (wooden church). |
Takk for turen guys! This was fucking bananas! Thanks for this awesome trip that will be hard to forget. Hopefully we will remember more the beauty and the calm that we experienced these last days crossing these beautiful meowntains, than the constant pain and the feeling of being on the verge of exhaustion. Looking forward to the next sufferfest. Well, maybe not quite yet, but I probably will when this adventure and all the suffering and effort finally sinks in. So glad that all the preparation, the planning and the logistics worked out very smoothly and that we managed to finish this challenge in our very own style: Heavy and slow folks!
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| Completed entire Jotunheimen Høgruta with skis and cycling back to Maxi. |
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