Buren (21.02.2014)  

Quick trip up Buren alone today since there had been rumours of pudder on the mountains and this I thought was worth further investigation. Yr had forecasted pretty fierce winds from later in the afternoon so I thought Buren would be an ideal short trip to try and make the most of the sunshine while it wasn't too windy. Started from Susannajorda at around 9.30am and the first few hundred metres through the forest were somewhat icy as I'd expected but the snow became progressively more enjoyable. Lighter, fluffy and more pudder-like. Excellent. Fresh ski tracks were visible all the way up towards the ridge so it was obvious I was not the first to come up here since the new 'snowfall'.

I later caught up with another solo-skier but since I became a little preoccupied with taking pictures I didn't end up going past. And he was making such nice tracks anyway that it seemed in my favour to make use of them ;-) The wind started to blow pretty hard while on the way up the ridge, and some parts were icy where the new snow had been picked up and transported away. Most of the new snow wasn't particularly well bonded to the old icy layer underneath anyway, so I guess it wouldn't have taken much wind to remove it.

Seemed like I hadn't quite made it out of the house early enough to avoid the rather refreshing wind today. It continued to blow harder the higher up the mountain I went, so eventually I had to stop and put extra jackets on. Shame. I had envisaged a nice comfortable lunch stop on the top with fantastic views over Ersfjorden (fantastic views I got but comfortable weather it wasn't). After reaching the ridge at the upper end of a broad couloir I took off my skis and skins and wedged the skis between a rock and the snow.

The rest of the ridge I went by foot since it was mostly rock. It was an airy 10 minute-walk from where I left the skis. Not just because the drop to the north side of the ridge was so great, but mostly because of the wind. I regretted not having something to cover up my chin with. Good thing I didn't have to talk to anyone at that point because I doubt I would have managed to move my mouth, it was so cold. Anyway, apart from the wind being a bit sur the views from the top were every bit as nydelig as they usually are. Took a 'selfie' and then got back on my way to where I'd left the skis.

Some panoramas

For the ski back down I followed the couloir back down towards the ridge, more or less the same route we'd used back in December for the svarte natta fjellsportgruppa trip. I consider myself to be very privileged, having felt nice swishy powder snow under my skis again. This I hadn't actually expected, but I came back down feeling very smug. And I didn't even have to worry about crashing into anyone since there was no one else around! Surprisingly the snow in the final gryte was still quite icy in places. I imagine whoever had skied down there earlier had taken the thin layer of new snow with them, it didn't seem like it really wanted to stick to the icy layer underneath. I got back to town in time for lunch and a little bit of work in the afternoon. Good end to the week I think.