15-18/03/23: FVMC Member XC Skiing in Norway, Hardangervidda Region.

Europe may have been struggling with poor winter conditions for our sports but there was plenty of snow in Norway!

BR arrives at his City Box digs in Bergen for some Nordic touring action in the coming days.

Having left Bergen by train on 15/03/23 at 09:30hr, BR arrived at Finsehytta (Finse Cabin) at around noon, allowing a few hours for a wee ski tour. This pic looks NE, at Finsehytta and the surrounding buildings, upper centre right, about 3km away. Although the name suggests a ‘cabin’, in this case Finsehytta is a large capacity and very comfortable staffed hostel…with excellent food.

Heading NW to the NE side of the Hardangerjokulen glacier – looking mid right, the little Appelsinhytta can just about be seen.

Having skied up past the big buttress on the right of the previous photo, BR arrived at the base of the Middalen, an outflow of the Hardangerjokulen glacier. The waymarked route can be seen going up over the centre.

Final pic for the day looking back to Finse. As time was getting on it was too late to climb the remaining 280m to the Jokulhytta @ 1790m, on the edge of the glacier.

The following day, 16/03/23, a short tour was planned to go from Finsehytta to Klemsbu in the NE. It was a distance of 8.5km there and 6.5km on the way back, going in an anti-clockwise direction to avoid the brunt of gale force winds and heavy snow that had been forecast for the afternoon. This pic was taken about 3km after the start looking back SW to where yesterday’s trip was…and the bad weather coming in!

The nicer weather was to the north…but that would soon change – here, a couple of French dudes show very impressive speed using their canopies to propel them on skis.

After a spot of lunch at the closed Klembsbu hut’s refuge, BR headed out for the return journey of 6.5km, following the marked trail…it was just as well that the wind was not as strong as it sounded – otherwise a night spent on the floor of the empty refuge would have been on the cards!

Arriving back at Finse Station after a very pleasurable descent from Klemsbu.

Blowing a hoolie outside…pic taken from inside warm Finshytta looking out the window to the annexe - whilst sipping a hot cup of lemon tea.

The next day, 17/03/23, BR decides to get some snowhole digging practice about 4km to the west of Finsehytta.

It took about 1:20hr to dig and would have provided safety in an emergency, and good enough for some lunch.

The last tour of the holiday was on 18/03/23. It involved leaving Finse in the direction of the northern tip of frozen Finsbergvatnet about 14km away to the SE. The objective was a junction on the trails that lead either to Kjeldebu hut in the SW or the Kraekkja hut in the SE. This pic looks back NW to Finse.

The final pic of a great four days of skiing, taken looking SE along several frozen lakes that needed to be traversed before reaching the junction on the northern tip of frozen Finnsbergvatnet.