Ski Touring 6:30:00 [3] 24.51 km (15:55 / km) +564m 14:16 / km
ahr:121 max:193
H-F Day 1 Haukeliseter- Hellevassbu
Snowing lightly and v low vis as we set off up the steep climb out of Haukeliseter. On the plus side it wasn’t cold and the wind was light. Skins were pretty essential for the first climb, but we soon reached the first col and some easier gradients. Following the kviste, but checking the map, compass and gps as we couldn’t see any distance ahead. All good until we reached a point where the kviste marking seemed to just stop in the direction we thought we should be going. Followed the still marked trail a bit further up the valley before confirming to ourselves that we needed to climb out of the other side. We could see crags and cornices, so picking a line was not trivial. Fortunately it worked ok and we were happy we were back pretty much on line. Another long climb up a re-entrant to a col before we took another bearing to head diagonally down the other side. Sometime around here J took a tumble and snapped a pole - onto the spare set rather sooner than we would have hoped. After a long steady descent we found ourselves back at the start of kviste marking again ( subsequently discovered there were landowner issues in the middle section). From there it was all straight forward to the hut, but a very long way . 8.5 hours start to finish for 25km!
Massively underestimated how tough this was going to be and a wakener for what might be in store . Kids were amazing though. Arctic fox outside the hut in the evening was well cool.