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On foot through Norway's national park: luggage towers and drunks
by Arthur Gamsa und Jannik Kaiser
On foot through Norway's national park: a test of endurance for man and material
14.8.2019
Translation: machine translated
Support: Patrick Bardelli
Arthur and Jannik are two trainee photographers. Last winter, they set off on an adventurous expedition to the north of Norway during the sports holidays. This is their travel diary.
Tuesday, 12 February
After changing trains nine times, we reach Røkland, the destination of our train journey, surprisingly on time. On Tuesday, 12 February at 7.48 a.m., after 43 hours of travelling, the moment of our arrival has finally arrived.
As we step off the warm train onto the snow-covered platform at Røkland station, heavily laden and lightly clad by Norwegian standards, we leave deep tracks in the snow. We get into our snow trousers, then the luggage is strapped onto the pulkas and made weatherproof. Before setting off, we cooked a last bowl of soup on the gas cooker at the railway station and started our first stage on foot at around 9 a.m.: 12 kilometres along the E-6 overland road to the border of the national park.
The road is frozen and we make good progress. After a few kilometres, we meet a group of snowshoe hikers on a parallel road. They first speak to us in Norwegian. In conversation, they then tell us in fluent English about their failed tour to the viewing platform on the opposite side of the valley. They warn us about the unusually deep powder snow that spoilt their tour. With a few more worries, we continue our hike along the busy E-6 motorway.
A little after 5 p.m., we are at the border of the national park. The sun has long since set and we set up our storm tent in the last light of dusk. We are a little exhausted and although we have only eaten energy bars since midday, we decide not to cook any more today and go to bed, or rather "to sleeping bag". Each with a ration of trail mix from the local Migros in our sleeping bags.
Wednesday, 13 February
The next morning we get up quite late after a long sleep with many interruptions. A train passes through the valley every few hours, never without honking its horn extensively. Still pretty sleepy, we cook ourselves a double ration of NRG 5 dry food for breakfast. And then just manage to take down the tent before the first rays of sunshine break over the valley. Our ascent begins in ideal conditions and along a wide road with relatively little snow that is passable in summer. Today, we hope to cover 400 of the 850 metres in altitude that we have to cover on our ascent to the Bukkhaugbua hut.
A few hours later, we finally reach the train tracks - the first milestone of this stage. A glance at the GPS (only 178 metres in altitude) shows us how far we are from our destination hut. Nevertheless, shortly after the train tracks, we come across a sign that gives us renewed optimism.
Shortly after 4 pm, the weather deteriorates drastically and we see the sun for the last time for a long time. We are very exhausted and a little frustrated, and are in our sleeping bags shortly afterwards. We don't even bother to check the sky from time to time. Even if the Northern Lights were to appear, we would have no chance of observing them, let alone photographing them, due to the heavy cloud cover.
Thursday, 14 February
We don't climb out of our sleeping bags until 9am. The day begins with the shocking realisation that it has rained overnight. Unlike our mood, the temperatures are well above freezing.
Reasonably fresh and relatively rested, we continue up the mountain. At lunchtime, the altimeter on our GPS reads just under 250 metres and we feel pretty shitty. The gradient exceeds 20 per cent in places. Yesterday's light and airy powder snow is now damp and heavy from last night's rain. Our plan to reach the hut seems like a naïve dream of times gone by. We curse and pause more and more. The atmosphere between us is now tense. We feel the oppressive exhaustion and the feeling of having failed. We hardly speak until the evening.
By the time we set up our tent, it's already dark and bitterly cold, but that's not enough to stop Arthur from shredding cheese. We are happy to do without a toilet, heating and running water, but when it comes to preparing our beloved pasta, we make no compromises.
Friday, 15 February
On Friday night, we are surprised by heavy rain in our tent. After a while, we realise how the ground beneath us is getting soft and think about how our journey should continue without rain gear, apart from non-breathable rain ponchos. It rains for most of the rest of the night. Fearing that the floor of our tent might give way to the moisture, we sleep very badly. When we set off early in the morning, it had stopped raining and the cloud cover seemed to be thinning. The joy of this is short-lived, however, as the snow is now so heavy that we barely make 100 metres of progress in the first half hour.
When the rain starts again during lunch, we decide to throw in the towel and make our way back. The rain continues until after sunset. Although the snow, where it is still there, is now extremely heavy, we find the descent much easier than the ascent. We almost always have the pulkas in front of us and slow down with our snowshoes. As the rain doesn't stop, we continue walking until shortly after sunset. The weight of the pulkas starts to take its toll on our knees, so we take frequent breaks. At around 5 pm, when the rain still hasn't completely stopped, we are forced to pitch our tent in the rain, which has been wet since Friday morning. Our spirits are low and we sleep without cooking first. We curse ourselves to sleep in our damp sleeping bags before 6 p.m.
Saturday, 16 February
The morning train wakes us up at 7.48 a.m. on the dot, honking its way through the valley from Trondheim. We lie in our sleeping bags for almost an hour before getting up and tackling the last section of the descent after a hearty breakfast. Although the outer tent has only let the rain through in places, our inner tent is almost completely soaked. For fear of not reaching Røkland before nightfall, we take steeper paths than on the ascent. Another night in the tent would be dangerous, as our equipment is too wet and we are too weak. So we stumble towards Røkland. When Arthur's strength seems to fail him after a particularly steep section, he climbs onto his pulka without further ado and significantly changes the progress of the descent with his discovery.
We become more and more daring, toboggan more and more and move very quickly towards the valley. We soon reach the E-6 motorway, which runs alongside the valley, and follow it towards Røkland. People in passing cars keep giving us looks: some pitying, some admiring, but most of all confused. With our fully packed vans and our faces now rather expressionless from fatigue, we don't look like tourists. And so we are not surprised when no car responds to our thumbs up - and even if they had, we would have found room in a larger minibus at best.
In our trance state, we almost overlook the sign for the Nordnes Campsite, which is located to the east next to the E-6 motorway. Like zombies, we stumble across the icy car park and into the reception hut. The campsite owner offers us the best cabin, with heating, shower, toilet and kitchen. Although we are delighted, given the circumstances, we can't afford the hut and are forced to turn it down. After listening to our story and marvelling at our wet luggage, he surprisingly offers it to us for the price of the simplest hut. Of course, we gratefully accept this rescue in times of need. In the hut, we spread out our wet gear over all the radiators, cook ourselves a two-course "feast" and go to bed.
The mood is at rock bottom, morale is down. We'll tell you how we dealt with this defeat in the next part of our travel diary. Stories from the deep snow in the middle of summer
What has happened so far:
How Arthur and Jannik came to write about their experiences for Galaxus can be found here.
We are two photographers in training at the F+F (School of Art and Design) in Zurich.
Since we are very fascinated by nature, we are much in the mountains and forests of Switzerland on the road. Mostly with camera, tent and a gas stove in the luggage.
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