Hardangervidda

Here is day to day updates from Hardangervidda. We have had an fantastic time there but also very challenging. The spring arrived early this year and the rivers are full of water. We have been lucky to be able to cross some ice bridges and other rivers we had to run across and get wet. Now the question is what's next? Our plan was to continue to Finse and över to Breistølen. But the skiing conditions aren't great and the rivers are getting worse so maybe we need to change the plan and send our skis home and walk to Hemsedal.

Day 14 Haukeliseter-Hellevassbu 22,55 km Today we started over Hardangervidda, the mountian plateau that almost killed Roald Amundsen and his brother in 1896 when they became the first people to cross Hardangervidda in winter. Roald Amundsen became later the first person to reach the south pole. Strong winds and freezing cold temperatures will not be our challenge but the rivers that have opened already and snow that has started to  melt. We didn't leave Haukeliseter until after  lunch time because is was so foggy in the morning that the sight wasn't good, it cleared up just before we started and we had an fantastic day on ski with sun and no wind at all. It was ALOT of upp hill and the first 5km was a lot of on and off with skis before we gained some altitude and reached good snow. I'm not a pro on skis and with a heavy backpack on it is even harder. I manage to survive all the down hills but  instead I had a fall once going uphill when both skis slipped backwards really fast and there I was laying with the backpack over me and couldn't get up. I also manage to sit down in a water paddle after we had a break and I was going to taken my backpack on me and lost the balance backwards and stamble few steps before I fell over.  It was lots of laughing...

Day 15 Hellevassbu-Litlos 19, 05 km Less hills today than yesterday, but not flat though. Today's challenge was the last river we had to cross at end of the day. We had to walk across and of course we got really wet as we walked across in our ski boots.

Day 16 Litlos-Sandhaug 26,89 km We had alla different type of weather today. The morning was super foggy, but it didn't take long until it cleared up and the sun came up. It was so warm that I skied in my sport bra and in the afternoon it was back on with waterproof, light rain for an hour or so before the fog came back and then sun again. Today was again less hills. Few rivers to cross. We had to walk over two ice/snow  bridges and the last rivers we had to walk across and got really wet again.   

Day 17 Sandhaug-Trondsbu 17 km Today was wet and cold! The rain was pouring down all day and we had 3 rivers that we had to walk across with water up to our knees and the second last river was deeper than that. We walked across with the ski boots so it was just to continue for another 2-3km in boots full of water before we reached a cabin that we decided to stay the night at. First the plan was to continue for another 10km but in this weather and after all the rivers we had to walk across we decided to stop here and start early tomorrow morning.  We have now crossed Hardangervidda and maybe we were the last skiers over Hardangervidda for the season?!

Day 18 started with a 13 km walk down to the road to pick up our food depo and decide what to do next. Our friend left us a gift with our food depo. A beer haven't tasted better! 

Ups & downs from the week. 

Gina, 

Ups: The beautiful views. 

Downs: The cold rivers to cross.