Fastdalstinden (15.02.2014)  

FSG had organised a rekrutteringstur this weekend in Nord Lenangen. Since I had managed to recruit with me both Johanna, Tim and Ellen who all are fairly new to the fjellsportgruppa I was 'allowed' a place on the trip also :-) After arriving at the rorbu on friday evening, we had a short discussion about which mountain we'd actually end up on and it looked more or less like it would be Fastdalstinden since there appeared to be very little snow on this side of the peninsula. Storgalten had more or less been ruled out because the majority of the group didn’t have skarejern or crampons.

Saturday morning started fairly early, and we were treated to a beautiful sunrise over the peaks to the south of the rorbuer. Beautiful sunrise soon gave way to crystal clear blue skies. Couldn't have been a better start to the day. We left Nord Lenangen at around 8.30 and headed for Lyngseidet which took another hour or so. The drive towards Svensby confirmed how little snow there was on this side, some parts of the ground at sea level were even free of snow which had most of us feeling a little concerned. We crossed our fingers that the decision to head over to the other side would bring a little better snow cover!

Fastdalstinden came into view a few kilometres after we'd left behind Lyngseidet and turned left for the road to Koppangen. Snow cover there was. And it looked a lot more promising than the peaks around Svensby. The usual route up starts from the power station at Rottenvik, so we drove up to the parkingsplass at the end of the road before joining the trail which leads fairly quickly towards Rottenvikvatnet. The snow was hard and icy from the end of the trail and up the river valley. There were several who chose to take off the skis and go up by foot since it was time and energy-consuming to walk up without skarejern on the skis. There was a fair bit of waiting until all had managed to overcome the worst snow, but it was a comfortable temperature to have to wait in and the views towards Kåfjord were superb, so there was nothing to complain about.

After we'd all met up again we continued on our way in towards Fastdalstinden, a good 2 km or so in level terrain and softer snow. There was almost påskestemning in the air today, lots of sun, chatting and photo-taking. We took a lunch break by the side of Rottenvikvatnet before the next part of the ascent. Cloud had started to drift in over Store Kjostinden and Istinden, and it looked like the weather could be about to change, a bit disappointing but not totally unexpected.

Most people had started to feel a bit chilly after lunch so we were all eager to get going and warm up! Nevertheless, we continued at a steady and comfortable pace, although it was soon decided between Harald who was leading the trip and Ole Jacob (medturleder) that the group would split up to allow for the different paces we were going at. Ole Jacob stayed closer to the back with Sara and Tor-Erik who appeared to be helping to carry Sara's snowboard.

The rest of us carried on up on the southern flank of Fastdalstinden. Some of us had already noticed that the snow quality was proper gjennomslag and it was not going to be offering superb skiing on the way down. Both Kamila and I were already dreading having to face the descent! Anyway, gjennomslag soon became icy as we traversed across a slightly more exposed slope and up towards a sort of shoulder where the gradient flattened out a bit. After a somewhat short but chilly break here, Harald seemed a bit sceptical about whether it was really worth continuing from hereon to the top since a wave of fog appeared to have swept in and diminished the visibility. As things turned out we went on for some 10 minutes more before about half the group decided not to bother going further, partly because of the terrible sastrugiføre and also because visibility had disappeared.

Five of us - Jørgen, Jon, me, Johanna and Tim pushed on anyway. My own motivation came from the fact that I was feeling too cold to stop and faff around with taking off skins at that point, and also because I really hate leaving a mountain without having gone to the top - the exception being unless it would be life-threatening to continue. And besides it was only fog, it wasn't like there had been gale force winds and snow as well. Another few minutes after leaving the others, Johanna and Tim decided they'd also lost interest in going to the top and so there was only three of us who appeared to be eager enough to forge on. I got vague memories of last year's trip to Fastdalstinden when there had been a little bit of fog obscuring the summit, but we'd been pleasantly surprised when it disappeared within seconds and we'd got superb summit views. Perhaps it wasn't too late to hope that the same might happen today?

Well, unbelievably the fog DID start to break up and glimpses of the summit under blue sky started to emerge. Fantastic! Suddenly all three of had become super-ecstatic over the prospect of a fog-free summit experience and Jørgen was on flying form (literally running up on his skis) for the final 50 metres. Enthusiasm was back and we were treated to excellent views of nearby Istinden and the rest of the peninsula to the west and north of us . I personally could have spent a verrry long time appreciating the views but it was hard to ignore that my two trip companions were efficiently de-skinning their skis and getting ready for the nedkjøring. I got the hint. They weren't intending to hang around too long.

After some picture taking, and a maybe a little too much gazing at the sun/fog/mountain combination around us, I finally got around to setting both skis and boots into nedkjøring-mode. The snow for first 100 metres of the descent was super. Not pudder, but not uneven sastrugi, gjennomslag, or ice either. Just a thin layer of good styresnø.

After enjoying this glorious 100 (height)metres of styresnø, we hit the sastrugi and it was as tough as I imagined it would be. The technique for tackling such snow? I have apparently not yet acquired that. We eventually reached Harald close to the shoulder where the slope steepened up again and he sikied behind the rest of us until we met up the rest of the group by Rottenvikvatnet. Fortunately, the steepest part of the descent here was not covered in sastrugi or very bad gjennomslag snow. It was a little heavy steering-wise but more than OK to ski. I nearly enjoyed it. But not quite. The rest of the descent was not all that fun, a bit too flat from Rottenvikvatnet to the start of the river valley, and when we did reach the river valley it was just ice. On the plus side, at least trying to steer skis on ice is easier than on gjennomslagsnø ;) It had been a good trip overall, although I still think last years trip wins in terms of weather, snow quality and pace. Having said that, we all agreed that the decision to drop Storgalten and come here instead had been very well-evaluated.