Botnfjellet (29.12.2012)
| Start point | Håkøybotn |
|---|---|
| Endpoint | same |
| Characteristic | Ski trip |
| Duration | 3h 30min |
| Distance | 9.0km |
| Map |
|
| Ascents | Botnfjellet (844m) |
29.12.2012  |
|---|
Today I was on another trip with Aline and Christian, but not for a hike this time - this would be our first proper ski trip of this winter! With both me and Aline being quite new to skiing, we sought out some of the classic beginner-trips around Tromsø before we finally decided on going to Lille Blåmann. Not only was it really close to drive to, but the starting point in Håkøybotn didn't exactly prove hard to find either; there were already a chain of 4 or 5 other vehicles parked up at the bottom of the route. So that saved us some time looking around! In addition to that time-saver, we of course had the sheer luxury of following beautifully carved-out ski tracks which had been made rather efficiently by the skiers ahead of us. This was really beginning to seem like the perfect convenience-trip! The sky was cloud-free and pinky-purple (although we knew that a storm warning had been forecasted from early in the afternoon) and the temperature was only -3. I think it would be fair to say that we were all really looking forward to a bit of gliding action over new powdery snow after what had been a very dry 5 or 6 weeks without hardy any precipitation at all.
So up we went, following the tracks and enjoying both the views behind and in front of us. While I was secretly jealous of Aline and Christian being on randonee skis, I also realised that having relatively lightweight fjellski boots probably gave me easier work to skin up the mountain. The gradient seemed just right for the majority of the way, steepening only in 2 or 3 places along the whole 4 or 5 km. There were still some patches of ice here and there, but all in all not much. Unfortunately as we approached the military installation the wind had already up in speed quite dramatically and there was snow being blasted across us by the time we'd only got about 200m further past it. I also got a bit concerned about Aline's left cheek when I noticed a white-looking patch, and started to think that it was the beginning of a frost injury. With both that and the strong winds blowing both us and the snow all over the place, we decided there was not a lot of point continuing the last 50m or so of height to the real top of Botnfjellet. Instead we switched direction and tried to make some swifty progress downhill until we could find somewhere with a bit of shelter from the wind where we could pause to take off the skins. At around 500 moh the wind was light enough to be able to talk to each other again without yelling and both Aline and Christian de-skinned in preparation for speeding up their downhill journey. Admittedly, I had rather enjoyed the comfort of virtually walking down on the skis with the friction the skins provided, and felt a bit scared about going down any faster than that! As a result, I quite stubbornly continued on my way down with the skins on and decided that maybe next time I would actually try and ski - and not just walk!
It was a nice little trip though, good to have a bit of fresh air forced into our lungs again and quite inspiring to know that I could at least get up a mountain quite easily on skis, even if the downwards part didn't work out so straightforward!
User comments
Amazing how much
Written by mortenh 30.12.2012 18:17Amazing how much light there still is in this socalled mørketid up north. I imagined the darkest couple of weeks would be quite a bit darker than what your photos show.
That's pretty cool a british lady taking on a couple of norwegians with downhill skis on a pair of cross-country skies with BC bindings.