Vakkerstolen

We keep a log of our days in the hills, taking turns in writing it, yesterday's was basically a copy of my entry, below is Rob's entry for today.

Vakkerstolen to Pyttbua

What a wonderful old fashioned hut Vakkerstolen was, we even had a fire in every bedroom so you can imagine it was a bit of a wrench to leave the place. Heavy wet snow seems to be our curse so far this trip so with 700m of ascent in front of us it was going to be tough!

The ski across Ulvadasvatnet was fairly good but then we hit the hill with very deep snow through the scrub trees. Mick did a sterling job trail breaking most of the way, then above the scrub things got slightly easier. At about 1100m the skis came off as the ground steepened, but soon we were back on skis and making our way to the top of the pass. Here I (Rob) had a sudden attack of cramp and couldn't move for about ten minutes, after a good drink and some dioralyte I was on the move again.

A few remnants of the old glacier were seen near the top of the pass, yet another victim of global warming! We had a few fleeting glimpses of the summit of Lagtunga and perhaps on a better day we may have found ourselves on the top.

The descent to Pyttbua certainly had its moments, very little visibility certainly did not help! Traversing across the slopes we eventually got down but not before we had performed some very acrobatic falls. The hut as always was immaculate and very modern. I think I missed Vakkerstolen just a little, however with a good strong hot cup of coffee in our hands and a roaring fire to warm us it was our home from home in the mountains and the wind could howl all night if it wanted!