Do you want to build a snow cave?

I debated writing this story at all, but it seemed disingenuous to edit my life and experiences too much. I also hoped the writing of it would prove to be therapeutic.

I planned to do a ski trip to a cabin the first weekend of February. I’d heard that Norwegians did this kind of thing — skiing from cabin to cabin in the mountains — and it sounded like a lot of fun. I wanted in. I was a member of DNT (Den Norske Turistforening or Norwegian Trekking Association) which has cabins all over Norway. I’d scouted out the map of Norway and after flying over what I believed to be Snøhetta, a mountain in Dovrefjell to the south of Trondheim, I was determined that this would be my next trip. I had a map of the area from DNT and the route from Kongsvold train station to Reinheim cabin. I convinced a colleague from work that this was a good idea.

My first mistake was thinking that the ‘5’ on the DNT map (not the map above) linking Kongsvold to Reinheim meant 5km, when in actuality it was an estimate of 5 hours and turned out to be a trail of 15km. By the time I’d realised this, the tickets had been bought so I resolved to be as prepared as possible for the trip. Looking at the contour map of the route, after an initial climb, the rest of the looked like it would be mostly flat. In summer, at least, it probably is quite flat. In winter, with huge deposits of snow and ice, it proved to be very tricky terrain.

We got off to a slow start on Friday after the train left us at a shuttered Kongsvold station. We took much longer to ascend on the first bit of the trail, but spirits and morale were still high. After several hours, progress was still slow and morale was dropping. By the time it was dark at around 17:00, we’d reached a cabin (not the one we wanted and sadly it was all locked up) and were not even halfway to Reinheim. We kept going, doggedly trudging through snow and ice (if one can trudge with skis on, we were doing that). Using head torches, we could barely make out the terrain in front of us and had to navigate over huge slopes, avoid sharp snowy cliff faces and stretches of ice. I spotted the reddish glow of a tent in the darkness, some distance away. I was tempted to ski straight for it and beg the tenant give us shelter for the night. After an hour or so more we had only just reached the half way point and we realised that our attempt to reach the cabin was futile. We needed to use our remaining energy to build a shelter to survive the night.

One of the biggest mistakes made by people stranded outside in winter is not preserving enough energy to make shelter, thinking that there is sufficient time and energy to reach the intended destination.

We backtracked to a place we’d identified earlier as a potential place to build a snow cave. I’d prepared myself for the journey by reading up on how to identify avalanche conditions and build snow caves, among other things. Using a shovel, we excavated a trench from an existing snow pile and used a ski to carve out bricks of compacted snow which we stacked across the trench to serve as a roof, balanced on my skis and ski poles. The danger with our approach was finding suitable snow to ensure the structure did not cave in on us while we slept. It took a lot of energy to build the snow cave, but by 22:00 we were mostly done. We used a ‘wind bag’ as a ground sheet and had thermal inflatable sleeping mats and heavy duty sleeping bags. It was cramped in the snow cave, but at least we were warm and sheltered from the wind. Dinner consisted of gluten free pancakes with the texture of scrambled eggs, covered liberally in butter and strawberry jam, cooked over a small gas burner stove.

We already realised that an attempt to reach Snøhetta was impossible so we agreed that our plan the next day would be to return to Kongsvold. I had researched a backup plan for the trip: Kongsvold Fjeldstue (a kind of hotel) should be open and had a promising restaurant menu. We could recover there on Saturday night, maybe even spend a pleasant Sunday morning to go look for musk ox before our train back on Sunday night. Morale had recovered slightly.

When I awoke the next morning, everything was still mostly intact, but spirits were low. I recalled that I had forgotten to take my ski boots inside after my bathroom trip the night before and they had to be dug out from a snow pile. Unluckily for me that meant a day of wet feet. We had to pack up all our things in 10m/s wind and snow and dismantle our snow cave camp. We started out just before 10:00 and made good time with the wind pushing us from behind. Despite aching muscles and chilly wind, when the sun decided to peek out, we were treated to splendid views of the Norwegian wilderness. We also spotted some musk ox in the distance — and some crazy guy with a tripod chasing them. Morale was slightly improved.

We reached Kongsvold just before 14:00 to discover that everything was closed until 1 March. Our options were somewhat limited. I briefly considered trying to hitchhike back to Trondheim or to call someone to come and fetch us, but was at a bit of a loss of whom to call. We trudged (this time without skis) to the train station to await the next train. Luckily the waiting room was open, where we spent the next 4 hours next to a tiny heater until the train at 18:37.

We arrived back in Trondheim just before 21:00. I was severely dehydrated, but otherwise alive and in one piece.

I had made several bad assumptions and embarked on an adventure that was way too ambitious. This was only my 4th time putting on skis and skiing with a 20kg backpack is quite a different challenge. There were times while skiing in the dark across treacherous ice where I kept falling down and getting back up, trying to keep myself from crying and panicking. You might have noticed how much I mentioned morale in this story and that’s because mental wellbeing on a journey like this is of vital importance. The challenge of keeping myself calm mentally far outweighed the physical toll taken on my body.

As my Norwegian colleagues told me:

That which doesn’t kill you, makes you more Norwegian.

The area is really beautiful and I plan to complete this route in summer when the terrain should be more accessible.