The Narvik ski tour, 6-15 April 2023
Days five to seven. Mini-expedition.
The next three days we spent in the wilderness: on the first day we skied to the hut, then we did a circular tour, and on the third day we headed back.
The blue, red and black lines show our track on the first, second and third days of the trip, respectively. Shift-click on the track link will open it in nakarte.me.
Day five: the hut
It was already springtime in the valley. We even had to take the skis off and walk on the ground in some places.
There were lots of birch trees by the roadside...
... but the steeper slopes had mostly pine trees.
We followed the tracks of a very large moose.
A stream.
We got out of the forest onto a plateau and skied across some pristine snow fields.
There's snow, mountains and not a soul around but us.
Luna in flight.
It was still a long way to the hut. After a steep section, the ascent was gentle.
Untouched wilderness.
Sunlit mountains.
A rest break.
We skinned up to a ridge that overlooks the frozen lakes.
Now down to the hut! What a wonderful snow it was there!
If you kept the speed up, you could go over the ravine without stopping.
This is the hut, or rather two, plus some outbuildings. There were not many people living there, so there was enough room for everybody. The hut was very comfortable, with electricity, a cooker and a stove. Water had to be made from the snow, which we had no shortage of.
Day six: climbing the Pyramid
We called this peak the Pyramid, because of its regular shape. It was a sight to behold. That's where we decided to go.
The weather was wonderful. We stopped for breaks by the rocks so that we could sit on them.
Closer to the summit, the slope became steeper and the snow harder. Sometimes the skis slipped and had to be hammered harder into the slope.
The view from the top. It was well worth the climb!
As at every summit, a breeze blew in so we put on extra layers and had some snacks
The view to the other side. Luna left lots of footprints on the snow.
View to the west. Small avalanches are visible on the far slopes.
Below the summit there were many rocks on the slope. We went down a little so as not to run over them, and then we could go down at our own pleasure. Yasha was the first to ski out. He would go down a hundred metres or so. Then Magda would let Luna out, and then the rest of us would join them..
We descended into a small valley, from which we then had to skin up a ridge and then ski down all the way to the hut.
Victor and Lova skied down even further, but then they had to skin back up again.
Back to the hut.
Day seven: back to civilisation
The next morning we set off on our return journey. There were several other groups sleeping in the hut that night, but there was enough room for everyone. One last look at our hut.
We had about 20 kilometres to ski. We first skinned up a fairly wide valley.
The wind blew and the snow began to blow.
For a break we hid behind a large rock.
Enjoying the mountains.
The snow was quite hard in places, but Luna didn't care.
Nuorjjovárri mountain ridge.
On the way home we skinned up an unnamed peak, an extra 200-300 metres of climbing, but then a lot of fun. Apparently the winds here could be quite strong.
We had no regrets: all around us were untouched mountains of snow.
Snow cornices on the summit.
The descent was also interesting: at one point we skied over blue ice.
The lower we descended, the less snow remained. Once we even had to take off our skis because all the snow had melted and we couldn't ski through.
Then we drove out onto a snowmobile road in the forest. It was already quite the spring here.
We are waiting for the car. Our little trip is over. We would have loved to stay in the hut for a few more days. There were many other places to visit.
