Ski Krukkistua to Bolnastua via Raudfjelldalskoia

27 km, 320m Ascent, 300m Descent.

Conversation between Fiona & Mick. "So we've had a 21km day followed by a 6km day, a rest day, a 5km day and now you want us to do a 27km day - any chance you could plan it a bit better?"

Yup, today was a big day, but a half way stop at Raudfjelldalskoia, basically just a shelter with no beds could be an option if required.

We're away at 7:00 and it's not promising. It's snowing. The snow's deep making trail breaking hard we're navigating along a flat valley before hanging a right and climbing up towards Raudfjelldalskoia, but then the sun comes out and the group is working well together. It's definitely hard work for trail breakers and pulk pullers. The extra assistance provided by the skier roped to the front of the puller is proving beneficial as is the push from behind by those that can coordinate skiing and pushing with a ski pole. Not my forte, I'm just a packhorse at heart. Anyway we've reached Raudfjelldalskoia by 13:00 and there was certainly no talk of stopping there.

In the hut log book we noted an entry from a group of four who had spent last night there having done the reverse of the route we were doing today but only managed half way. They were making a point of how heavy their pulks were - we felt so sorry for them! On the way up we'd noticed a set of tracks quite a bit off our route that appeared to be following the river systems and not cutting the corner as we had done which for a downhill party didn't seem quite right.

We carried on to Bolnastua and arrived at 17:50 almost 11 hours. A long but excellent day.

We only found out a couple of days later, but while we were nicely tucked up in Bolnastua, a rescue was going on outside - this is how it was reported in the papers (with some dubious translation by Google):

Mayday from Saltfjellet storm - rescued after six hours.

A "mayday" distress call most likely from a phone app called "Spot" was picked up in the U.S., and passed onto Trondheim and then to Bodo at 16.15.

Police in Helgeland launched a search operation in colaberation with Rana Red Cross, Norwegian People's Aid, several rescue dogs and two experienced local people who work in government inspectorate. They set up their headquarters in the Norwegian People's cottage at Bolna.

The Red Cross sent a crew of 14 with seven snowmobiles. In addition, the police sent one scooter and Statskog two scooters. Operations manager at Helgeland Police reported that patrols were sent into the Saltfjell area between Raufjellelvdalen and Bjellådalen at 19:30 with knowledge of a route and position for the party, but conditions were difficult, with deep snow, and poor visibility and with large amounts of snow falling in the mountains recently there is also the risk of avalanches.

The missing party were a group of four people were on a ski trip heading north. One was from Trondheim and the other three are British.

From the area where the snowmobile patrol went into Saltfjell was around two miles to where the signal came from. But heavy snow made it difficult to get around, and it therefore took more time than expected, but at 22:30 the four are found in good condition and were transported down to the E6 by scooter.

The reason for the mayday message was that one of the persons in the party - a British citizen - had been having problems. He had a bad cold before he embarked on the trip and hadn't felt very good. He was completely exhausted, said The Duty Rescue Leader. According to emergency management Herstad they arrived at the E6 by midnight and were subsequently transported to hotels in Mo i Rana.