Skardbua, Norway

Another challenging day. After breakfast with a view we set off, skiing down across the downhill piste, to the chairlift. We thought we’d save ourselves some climbing by taking the lift up. However, there were a couple of mishaps along the way. P had a fall crossing the piste, we both fell getting off the chairlift (to be fair it’s not easy when wearing x-country skis and holding a huge rucksack!)

The first two hours were frustrating as there were many trails and it was very confusing. We ended up going a kilomètre in the wrong direction, uphill! The pistes were steep and we had to walk a couple of sections as it just didn’t look possible to ski down it (unless you’re Norwegian of course!).

The weather was mixed with moments of sun, light snow and a lot of cloud. We found the right track and it headed uphill for 5km to an amazing Col, with a small kiosk selling drinks. Very bizarre to come across it in the middle of nowhere. But it had a toilet with an amazing view (see photo) so I was happy. The views here were incredible and it was definitely worth the climb.

The next stage was much easier as it was mainly downhill although the light wasn’t always great. Eventually we started to see some downhill pistes and ski lifts in the distance and we soon arrived at Skeikampen. The x-country piste went straight to the front of the hotel.

6 hours, 15 mins of skiing. 450m ascent, 650m down.
26.2 km