Gråtinden skitopp (27.01.2013)
| Start point | Leirstrandvegen |
|---|---|
| Endpoint | same |
| Characteristic | Randonnée/Telemark |
| Duration | 3h 00min |
Today's trip to Gråtinden was with a relatively large group comprised of friends and friends of friends. We met up at the car park by K1 at about 9.45 before beginning the drive towards Straumsbukta. It felt a little chilly when we were stood around in the car park, but as we drove out of town it in fact got chillier, reaching -16 in places. I started to wonder whether I had dressed myself properly for that sort of temperature or not.
It warmed up to -14 by the time we reached the pocket by the side of the road where we parked up, but even that was 6 degrees colder than in town. Oh well, I could only hope that maybe it was going to be one of those days with warmer temperatures at the top of the mountain than at sea level. The low level fog and clouds lingering around seemed to suggest that there was a temperature inversion going on anyway.
Fortunately we had arrived quite early and there was only one other car parked up when we arrived, so there was no stress for trying to squeeze our cars in the space. It had been a bit chilly to stand around waiting for everyone to get ready, some seemed to be having some problems with bindings etc, so Kristin and Nora set off ahead of me. I was quite glad to be getting a bit more familiar with getting my boots connected to the front of the binding now so I was at least not the one keeping everyone waiting today ;-)
Finding our way up through the forest was not too hard since there had already been some ski tracks made by people in front of us, but it didn't seem like the nicest forest to ski back down through so I was not particularly looking forward to that part of the descent. I tried to forget about that for the moment though and just enjoy the wonderful views behind us. Already there was a beautiful pink-orange glow of sunlight on the tops of the mainland peaks and on the top surface of the clouds lingering in the direction of Senja. I had a feeling it was going to be one of those days when the light was simply magical!
Kristin and I ended up at the front of the group, even though we were not going at a brisk tempo, but even when we stopped and waited to catch sight of the others there seemed to be no sign of the guys. Nora, Kamila and Kinga came into view every now and then but they were still a little way behind. It was too cold to wait until everyone caught up so we decided to just carry on slowly. At least when the sun peeped out from behind Bentsjordtinden, it was a lot warmer and comfortable to pause and take pictures while looking out for the rest of the group.
There was a little more zigzagging up towards pt. 707, but since it was not very steep it wasn’t too much work. I was more surprised by the fact that there was actually quite a handful of other turfolk congregated at the skitopp when we reached it. Was this it? The finishing point of the ascent already? Now I was confused because Gråtinden was still maybe 1-1.5km behind the skitopp, and it looked perfectly accessible to me. It seemed like no one was going there though, and neither Nora or Kristin wanted to continue further because they thought the other side was exposed.
I was admittedly a bit disappointed that I couldn’t get anyone interested to go a little bit further with me to even see how the conditions were. The views and the sunshine were small consolation for not actually going to the proper summit. Three of us waited for at least 15 minutes before Kinga and Kamila appeared from the other side of the skitopp, but there was still no sign of the guys, so we started making our way back down while Kamila and Kinga took off their skins.
Nevertheless, we had a fantastic nedkjøring back down, one that ended all too quickly. Amazing powder, almost untouched so we had free choice of snow to ski without having to ski someone else’s tracks. That was a great feeling; gliding down at speed toward the fjord, swishing out easy turns in the sunlit snow and lapping up the fantastic views around us. Living the dream? Oh yes. The forest was a bit of hard work to negotiate but quite surprisingly I managed to stay on my feet until we were back at the car again, so that was an improvement. A short trip, but magical anyway!
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