Storestølen to Geiterygghytta, 23 km.

Storestølen is actually within reach of a mobile phone network so I called home this morning. Meanwhile, the group continued discussions about the state of the lake ice. Finally we got an official verdict from local experts: the shortest way straight across the lake was not safe. We were to be transported by a minibus to the dam at the east end of the Strandavatnet and start skiing from there instead.

At the dam we were met by freshly prepared ski tracks which took us around half the lake, in a couple of hours of fast and easy skiing in beautiful sunshine.

After reaching the western end of the lake, we headed up in between the mountains. Looking at the map, this stretch of the route seemed to be mostly flat but somehow there were surprising amounts of uphill skiing for such a flat place… It was heavy going. My “uphill muscles” did not feel tired today but simply just weak.

The sun disappeared and the wind picked up just as we left the lake. We had a brief first lunch standing in the wind, but didn’t want to stop for long in the cold. (Brief, standing lunches, huddling in the wind, is turning into a definite pattern for this week.) Later we passed a wind shelter where we had a second, less hurried lunch. It’s a good thing we had the shelter – normally hot drinks would keep us warm but the supposedly hot saft from the hotel in Storestølen was disappointingly weak and barely lukewarm. That hotel is a place to avoid in the future if possible.

Later in the afternoon the sun returned just in time to give us stunning views of a wide snowy lake and then billowing, wind-blown hills of ice. The photos can’t do them any justice. This is the kind of moment that I’m here for, and it’s easily worth an entire day of uphill slog!

By this time I was getting quite tired, though. We had an easy start in the morning but it didn’t quite compensate for the long day – at 23 km this was our longest day yet. After the sunny photo opportunities, we still had some long and tiring icy hillsides to traverse, and the wind in our faces, too. When we finally came around one last hill and had the hut flag within sight, there was still another big, wide curve ahead of us! By the time we got to the hut it was past 5 o’clock and I was knackered.

The hot chocolates and hot showers at Geiterygghytta were very welcome. And soon after, the lovely, entertaining hosts served us a fantastic dinner: a rich, creamy vegetable soup, followed by a barley “risotto” and then an apple and blackberry crumble – all of it rich and bursting with flavour. The other meals during this trip weren’t exactly bad, but they were nothing compared to this. I wish I could personally have thanked the chef. (I tried, but was told he was having his dinner, so I couldn’t.) Geiterygghytta was by far my favourite hut on this trip.