A Dream Autumn Adventure in Finse

A few weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to do a weekend backpacking trip in Hardangervidda. The original plan was to take the Bergen railway to Finse and spend 3 days hiking around Hardangerjokulen, a large glacier on the edge of Hardangervidda national park. I advertised the trip to OSI Fjell, the mountain touring organization hear at the University and got 6 others to agree to come with me.

First, a few notes on Finse and Hardangervidda. Hardangervidda a

large plateau that is the largest national park in mainland Norway. It is home to a lot of wildlife including the main population of reindeer here (did you see the news story about approximately 300 reindeer dying in a single lightning strike? That was in Hardangervidda!). It is also a place where Roald Amundsen used to train for his polar expeditions. Finse is a tiny town on the edge of the national park. The only way to reach Finse is by rail, there is no road that goes through Finse. Finse is where the scenes on the winter planet Hoth were shot for Star Wars. Cool stuff.

As with every adventure, not everything went according to plan. First off, one of the girls that planned to join us missed the train, which was sad. The main thing that changed our plans was a discussion with some of the people who worked at the hotel in Finse who told us that many of the summer bridges over rivers around the glacier had been taken down for the year, and that crossing many of them would mean a nice swim in a glacial river in temperatures hovering around freezing, which somehow didn't seem like a great idea. The other issue was that the railway in Norway (NSB, which essentially holds a monopoly here) was on strike. Though we got to Finse on the train we had booked tickets on originally, we were advised that our train

back might be cancelled, which in a town only reachable by train is a bit of a problem.

On Thursday afternoon, the majority of the group got together on the lawn outside my dorm to split up the group food and gear. We tried setting up the tents we were bringing, which was actually pretty confusing since the 3 person tent we were bringing had 4 poles but only 2 places where poles seemed to go (which turned out to be because the pole sleeves were designed to have enough room for 2 poles each in high winds and inclement weather). We then went down to the train station together to begin our journey. On the way there (about a 4 hour train ride), I had a nice conversation with the only Norwegian who ended up joining us (Bror) about our past wilderness experiences. He had spent the last year attending a folhehøgskole (“folk high school”) in Tromsø studying friluftsliv

(outdoor life), which sounded like it mostly meant going on trips in the wilderness around Tromsø all year round, skiing, hiking, hunting, ice-fishing etc. which sounded so lovely. It was really interesting to talk to someone who has so much experience with Norwegian nature in all seasons.

We arrived in Finse around 8:30 p.m., which at this point in the year is after sunset. We hiked a little bit away from town to set up tents in the dark (you are allowed to camp essentially anywhere in Norway as long as you are over 150 meters away from a building). As we were setting up our tents, I think we were all grateful that we had tried them out back in Oslo. At this point, we were all pretty cold and tired, so we went to sleep, with plans to figure out exactly what we would do over the weekend the next morning.

Friday morning was when we realized that hiking around the glacier

would not be possible. We decided that on Friday, we would hike up to the glacier and look around and then hike up into the mountains on the other side of Finse to camp and prepare for more mountain exploration on Saturday. Both of these things turned out to be wonderful decisions. Seeing the glacier up close was amazing, and we had a lot of fun climbing up a big boulder and taking pictures. I don't know why the view is so much better 3 meters higher, but it definitely is. We got into our camp up in the mountains around 3 in the afternoon. I found a spot that was a little bit sheltered from the wind, and right on the edge of a beautiful mountain lake (which just happened to be covered in about 4 inches of ice). After eating a big rice and beans dinner, it was quite cold, so we all piled into the larger of our two tents and played some card games (which I lost horribly) before motivating ourselves to go out and watch the sunset, which painted the sky an incredible shade of cold weather pink and reflected beautifully in our ice covered lake.

The next morning, I came to the unfortunate realization that although tramping through the snow doesn’t make your feet so cold when you’re doing it, the process of melting the snow with the heat of your

feet and then leaving your boots out overnight leads to boots that are rock solid frozen in the morning. It took me quite a bit of walking around with my boots half on melting them with my feet on Saturday morning before I could even get them on, but after a little while hiking again, my feet were back to being warm and comfortable. We hiked with just a few day packs towards a ridge that had looked interesting and a view point that was marked on our maps. The hike up the ridge took us over lots of snow, and lots of boulder fields, and a lot of snow covered boulder fields! The snow covered boulder fields were quite exciting really as accidentally stepping near the edge of a boulder meant sinking as far as waist deep into the snow. The final bit of climbing up that we did also entailed some good scrambles which got us all using our hands to help pull ourselves up. The top brought us stunning views of all of the surrounding mountains, glaciers, cliffs and lakes, but one member of our group had worn cotton instead of wool socks (something I didn’t know or think to

remind people about) so his feet were quite cold at this point. That meant that our stop at the top was not too long, just long enough for him to warm his feet under another group members jacket.

We were all slightly concerned about getting down some of the things that we had climbed up, but those all turned out to be much easier than expected, and most of the hike down could be best described as a frolic. The weather had gone from feeling like winter in the morning to feeling completely spring like in the afternoon. By the time we got back into camp it was warm and sunny and not very windy at all.

Unfortunately, the possibility of a train cancellation was making a few of the people on the trip very nervous. I was of the mind that really there was nothing we could do to control the rail workers strike, and that the best thing to do would be to enjoy the beautiful mountain

afternoon and wake up a little early to check on the train in the morning. Others though it was important to go close to Finse that night. We had a little discussion and ultimately decided that the other girl who had joined the trip (Alpha) and I would hang out at our campsite, enjoying the beautiful weather, getting dinner ready and letting our boots and socks dry a little bit while the boys headed to somewhere with cell phone service to try to check on the train. Alpha and I were feeling pretty pleased with our end of this bargain as we watched the boys hike away. They had only moved about 100 yards when they all came to a standstill again, had a short conversation and turned back towards camp, realizing that their mission was a little bit futile. We then had a lovely afternoon eating chocolate filled pancakes that Bror had brought for us and leisurely preparing some chickpea and sweet potato curry for dinner. When it started getting cold again, we migrated into the tent for more card games before another sunset viewing (slightly less spectacular perhaps since there was not a single cloud in the sky) and an early bed time.

The night of sleep that we got on Saturday night was made interesting by the fact that the sleeping pad that I had leant to Alpha had developed a hole. We tried to patch it, but I think that that sleeping pad was really past the point of salvageability (it has been with me since I was 14 and was already on its last legs) and about an hour into the night Alpha was essentially sleeping on the ground and getting

pretty cold. Our solution was to have Bror, Alpha and I share the 2 remaining sleeping pads that we had between us. Mine, which is pretty absurdly large and luxurious (thanks mom!) and Bror’s, which is a classic foam roll. I ended up in the middle, with half of my body about 3 inches higher off the ground than the other half, but we were all very warm!

On Sunday morning, we woke up at 6:30 and packed our stuff quickly before heading down to Finse. In fact, the limiting factor for us getting out of camp was the time it took me to get my boots melted enough to let my feet in. We got to hike through the sunrise, which was absolutely incredible, and arrived in Finse around 8:45. We found out that our train was in fact cancelled, and that the only train running would leave Finse at 2:30 in the afternoon, and that that train was sold out. We spent the morning eating a leisurely breakfast and doing a little more wandering around the mountains and walking

around the lake a bit.

The train was completely packed and chaotic. All the seats were full as was the dining car. We got our packs stashed away and spent the first half of the journey sitting on the steps in the space between two of the cars before finally finding some vacant seats. (Not ideal considering that we were pretty tired after our interesting night of sleep and had really wanted a nice nap on the train.)

I was pretty happy to get back to Oslo around 7 on Sunday night and sleep in a warm, level bed and take off the layers that had been on my body since leaving Oslo on Thursday afternoon, and also so pleased with the way the weekend had gone.

It is absolutely incredible to be able to get into such beautiful mountains for a weekend, just exploring and getting to know some new, outdoor adventure enthusiastic people. It is also nice to know that it is still very possible to have a good time camping in the mountains even when it gets cold if you're prepared and have the right attitude (though we also really lucked out with the weather).

This weekend was absolutely an adventure in the best possible way.