This weekend, Ingunn and went to Finse for our first trip on ice since the glacier training on Krossbu early this summer. We were invited to join Adele and Cato Skeie, a really nice couple with 10 and 15 years of glacier experience. We met late this summer on Sota Sæter, where Den Norske Turistforening (DNT) arranged a trip for young children.
We took the train to Finse (1222 masl) and stayed at Finsehytta (DNT) from Friday to Saturday. We were happy to get the last 4 available beds in the dormatory. A lot of people were sleeping on the floor in the living room.
On Saturday we left Finse around 10 o’clock, and headed for Midtdalsbreen via Appelsinhytta. The ascent went mainly on blue ice, and I guided the group through the labyrinth of deep, wide and long crevasses. From Midtdalen we headed west and crossed the highest point just south of 1812-skjæret. We followed the advice from Breføreren (handbook for glacier walking in Norway), stayed away from the difficult descent on Rembesdalsskåka and descended on 09-skaret instead. We locked ourselves into Demmevasshytta around 8 o’clock in the evening. Adele served delicious pasta bolognese, which was consumed with great appetite and a few glasses of red wine.
We left Demmevasshytta around 10:30 on Sunday and headed North towards Finse via the old postal route. The western part of the glacier had just a few cravesses so we crossed the ice with just crampons. The weather did not motivate us this day. It was foggy and +1 degree celcius when we left Demmevasshytta, and after a few hours the rain was pouring down and the wind increased. When we descended from the glacier we were all soaking wet and spent the next two hours heading for Finse unpleasingly wet and tired. We arrived the station half an hour before the train departed.
Now, I’m back home again, warm and dry, stunned by the overwhelming nature we experienced this weekend. It was wonderful to meet Adele and Cato, and I’m thankful for being invited to this trip and the opportunity to leverage their valuable glacier experience.
September 7th, 2009
Looks like an awesome trip. Wish I could have been there!
September 10th, 2009
Hi Guys,
Can you let me have your email address so that I can get in contact regarding your Greenland crossing. I’ve been organising Greenland crossings for many years and in 2010 we are starting a special Greenland Icecap website to follow the progress of all Greenland crossing expeditions. It will be a site where all the different groups can go to find out current information about how the other crossings are getting on. We can also share information about weather and snow conditions on the glacier etc.
September 10th, 2009
The website address is:
http://www.greenlandicecap.com
The new pages will be added soon and will show weather reports and a map showing the positions and camps of every group crossing the icecap in 2010. It will also show daily notes from each group that would like to contribute, or we can take the information from your own individual websites.