Norwegian Mountains, Sogn og Fjordane
Stedjeåsen on skis x 2, Jan 21 & 22 2012
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Our route, as seen in Google Earth
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Jan 21 2012 (evening):
Anne and me wanted to spend a night in a tent, and plan A was to have a camp-site on Voggebreen, but for various reasons we had to lower our ambitions and in the end we ended up with Stedjeåsen above Sogndal. This choice of destination allowed us to start later in the evening, and by 7pm, we were on our way up the forest with backpacks in the 17kg range. Given the steep forest and the amount of snow, the ascent was very strenuous!
On the way to Stedjeåsen
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Honestly, I can't remember the last time I was this tired. It was not just the backpack and the ascent that made the trip strenuous - it was also the fact that I had been all day in bed with neck pain. This was not the optimal way of returning to life, but it was all forgotten when we started to put up the tent - two hours after leaving Sogndal. After a late dinner (Drytech - yum), it was time to call it a day. I fell asleep like a baby. Tent life is good...
Building camp
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Jan 22 2012 (morning):
We woke up to an amazingly beautiful day, and it felt like a crime to leave the forest/mountain. But there was little else to be done up here. The original plan was to descend to civilization and go to a different mountain, but my neck/back suggested that the Sunday should be of the laid-back sort...
Good morning!
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After breakfast (Drytech...) we broke up from the camp site and had a short ski-trip around on the Stedjeåsen meadows. Man - it was beautiful up there...
Walking about on Stedjeåsen
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It would be fair to say that I enjoyed the descent more than Anne - who had brought regular mountain skis. They were not quite compatible with a rugged forest such as this one. But we made it back down - safe and sound.
Down the forest
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Jan 22 2012 (evening):
As said, I enjoyed this forest very much and when darkness began to fall, I got my skis and headed up Stedjeåsen one more time. The ascent was significantly faster than 22 hours earlier, and I reached the top within the hour (or so). As I was removing the skins, I damaged one of the bindings, which resulted in at least 15 repair stops during the descent. That did however not ruin the trip and by the time I returned, Anne had prepared a delicious meal. I'm just spoiled rotten...
Stedjeåsen in the evening
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