trollheim triangle, norway 2020

[t-$]

hey all!

i came on today cause this morning i saw a pic from my trip to norway in march and it reminded me i never posted a trip report. thanks to the norwegian here contingent for giving me some good tips and places to start in exploring that awesome place.

sooooo....where to begin....

i flew into to trondheim in the morning on a saturday. nice and sunny, and cold and snowy! i remember noting so many people carrying ski bags at the airport. anyways, i caught the train into town easy enough, and got off at trondheim central station to do some shopping. maybe a half hour trip from airport to the city. i needed food for the trip, ski wax, and perhaps most importantly, a map. and i had about 2 hours to catch my connecting train...it was gonna be close. got the wax first as there were a couple sports/ski shops in town of course. that was easy. the map was a bit harder, and i finally found a camping/outdoors shop that had one. the girl working there was so nice, and she had to really dig into their reserves to find the one map they had of the trollheim triangle. i also picked up a camping spoon since i forgot mine at home.

i'm sure they are used to it there, but i felt pretty dum with a ton of gear and my skis walking through the grocery store! it was a humbling experience, and i may have knocked a few things off shelves by accident. thankfully no broken glass. anyways, all provisioned i walked back to the train station to wait for a little bit.

my airbnb host was a dude named sebastian, and to say that he is awesome would be an understatement. before i arrived in norway, he picked up the hut key i needed from the tourist center since he knew the people, and i didn't have to even put down the deposit like normal. then, he drove 80km one way to pick me up from the station closest to oppdal where he lives. being a saturday, that was the closest i could get by train, so he was nice enough to pick me up. i got off and waited in the dark for about 10 minutes and then he showed up. beautiful! then on the drive to his place i saw the only arctic fox i've seen in my life! ran in the road in front of us and he also noted what a rare sighting it was. but yeah, sebastian is awesome and we are now sortr of friends and i plan on staying in his places again in the future. i recommend looking him up on airbnb if your going near oppdal!

so i have his place all to myself for the night. got the woodstove fired up, grabbed a beer, and started my shakedown and final packing for the ski. the plan was sebastian was going to pick me up in the morning and drive me the 10k to the official trailhead at a local groomed ski area. however, that night it snowed like crazy and he had to spend the morning plowing. so, i got up and left early since i now had 10 k extra to ski that day. there was supposed to be a trail not far from his house that would take me to the official trailhead, but i couldn't find it so eneded up ski/walking up to the ski area.

i finally made it to the ski area to catch the trail. first i took a break in the hut and had some coffee and a muffin and wamed up. the trail out to the first night's hut didn't look too bad on the map. mostly flat on the edges of a lake.

of course i got turned around in the groomers near the resort hut, so i put on another 5 k or so doing circles until i just decided to take a bearing and head cross country to find the trail. all in all i put on about 30k that first day and i was totally exhausted. saw a dozen or so people ski jouring on the trail in, but they slowly tapered off until i was alone. beautiful day of skiing really, but tiring. there was a young couple practicing their turns on a little hill next to the hut when i got there. i thought i might have company for the night, but they were just leaving. she was doing her masters in outdoor rec, and was working with the association to update and revamp some of the huts in the area. she suggested coming back in 5 years and they should be even better than they are!

had a nice candle lit dinner alone each night. the huts were so amazingly nice. stocked with lots of wood, pots and pans, and blankets. everything one could ask for really. the second hut also had a fully stocked food pantry and i kicked myself for carrying so much food! oh well, better safe than sorry...

the second day of actual skiing started out so nice. beautiful sunny morning, i had around 25k into the mountians. basically straight north through a couple connected valleys with only one saddle to crest. not too shabby on paper. i decided to go counter clockwise around the triangle, and try to avoid a steeper climb and traverse to the westernmost hut. just to get my legs under me, so to speak. anyways, halfway thru that great day things started to get a bit harry. i had found a real old set of ski tracks that i assumed was going where i wanted since they followed my "trail". but, by early afternoon the half decomposed trail i was following was completely gone and it was apparent i was off course. the peaks were not lining up like they should have, and i came upon an unexpected steep escarpment. so, after another extra 5 k and climbing up the tallest peak near me, i finally found my corect route again and was back on track. only now, the weather was turning and it looked like a pretty good snow storm was heading in from the northwest. by this point i was exhausted and getting a bit nervous about being in a storm and not being exactly sure precisely where i was. so all picture taking stopped and i just slogged through to find the hut.

[t-$]

con't.

so after getting to the second hut and getting the fire going, i read for a little bit and then passed out. got woken up in the middle of the night to an intense wind storm. what woke me up was actaully the front door blowing open! i thought somebody was seeking shelter from the storm outside, but it turned out it was just the wind. then it was so strong and the windows were rattling so bad i couldn't get back to sleep. figures.

anyways, the next day the wind was still raging, and looking west up the valley i was supposed to ski it was just a wight out with all the blowing snow coming down the valley. i didn't have an updated weather report. and, after about 60k of skiing over the past 2 days my body was telling me no!!! so i made the executive decision to just stay put in that cabin for the day and see what tomorrow brings. it was a good choice. i skied all over around the cabin and down to the lake. took some turns on some nice long gentle slopes. got some photos of the crazy wind and drifting snow. ate a bunch of food and drank a bunch of water. dried my clothes....it was fantastic. i'm glad i stayed.

[t-$]

last part...

so after my relax day (!), i got up on morning 3 and the wind was still raging and it was grey and super cold. but i needed to start heading out or i would miss all my deadlines and i didn't want to get snowed in back there alone. so, i just got bundled up and started heading south into what was the worst headwind i have experienced in a long time. it was a miserable morning. but, since i was just retracing my steps from a couple days before, at least i knew where i was going! took about 6 hours for me to get back to the first cabin again where i was staying for that night. after the weather settled, the last bit down to cabin is about 5k of gentle downslope and woods trails. that was probly the best skiing of the whole trip as it was mashed taters and warm!!

still nobody around and the cabin and the hut was just as i had left it. i had dinner, looked out at the lake and relaxed. it was so nice.

the next morning i did the 10 k or so back to the groomed ski area and the trailhead. tried calling sebastian to see if he could come and give me a ride by any chance, but he was working and could come out for a couple hours. so i said i would head back towards his place by ski and we could meet up along the road somewhere. so that's what we did and about 5 horus later i was back in front of the woodstove at his place. we sat down and had a beer together and talked about the trails and conditions. i hit the hay pretty early as you can imagine.

the last day there was no room on the train, so i had to take the bus back to trondheim. that was beautiful. norway has that dark magic feeling that i love so much in artic places. i can't wait to go back and explore some more. until next time all, have safe and healthy ski season!

[Woodserson]

Effin right! Little talk, all action:

Tee-Money says, "I want to do this thing"
Tee-Money puts together a plan
Tee-Money executes plan and does thing

I love it! My spring plans got obviously totally squashed! You made it happen Indie Jones style sliding under the door!

[Woodserson]

Oh man, the Scandi wood bowl/mug thing too!

What skis did you bring here, Eon waxes? What length and how much you weigh and how did it work out?

[CwmRaider]

Hi,
Thanks for the trip report! I was wondering if you had come in the end. It looks like you had an authentic experience! A pity about the wind, but it is good you played it safe and decided to not cross over to Trollheimshytta. Wind increases with altitude typically, and I think that in the winter strong winds are the most dangerous weather condition here.
Hopefully you'll try more trips in the near future! Come back

[t-$]

Oh man, the Scandi wood bowl/mug thing too!

What skis did you bring here, Eon waxes? What length and how much you weigh and how did it work out?

yo woods!

hahaha, yes, i barely got this in. the world seemingly changed a lot in the few days i was alone! thankfully i was able to make it work....it was a real gem of a trip.

and yes, the wax eons...185's, bc's and alaskas. i don't weigh a lot...probly 140 soaking wet! i have no problems with these skis as you may remember, in fact i love them. best ski i've ever owned. on some stretches the wind scour had left just ice and these guys performed as best as i could hope for in those conditions. my waxing game was on point, but admittedly i didn't have the range of waxes i needed, even though the temps didn't fluctuate that much. mostly it was about varying snow conditions between spindrift, ice, and fresh fallen.

i have been hoping to get back to norway this winter and do something along the swedish border, but given the state of the world it looks like i might just have to stay in germany and try to go to bavaria for some backcountry.

we'll see, but i'll post another report if i'm able to make a trip happen this year. i do miss living in northern mi just for the daily skiing i was able to do. now, my winter consists of gray skies and rain oh well, i've gained a lot in that trade so i shant complain! hope you are well man