Storstolpan (27.04.2019)
| Endpoint | Storstolpan (974m) |
|---|---|
| Characteristic | Randonnée/Telemark |
| Duration | 3h 53min |
| Distance | 8.7km |
| Vertical meters | 808m |
| GPS |
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| Ascents | Storstolpen (975m) | 27.04.2019 |
|---|
We started our trip a bit later than we thought and left the car around 6.45pm. The sun was strong and the snow was slushy and there was no wind whatsoever. Once we came to the hill before the lake, we could see tracks traversing the upper left hand side of the hill. We decided that, with the stable snow conditions, we would traverse instead of losing elevation down to the lake and up again. The traverse took a lot longer than we thought, we ended up taking our gear off twice to walk over patches of rock and grass. Pretty annoying for Alex on a splitboard.
We could see that around 3/4 of the way across, some snow had begun to melt off a slippery rock and had triggered a small slide, but we weren't sure how old it was. The tracks we were walking on were definitely fresh from today. Once we got closer, we could see the slide was on top of the tracks we were following, and decided it wasn't safe to cross the path. We decided to continue towards the slide as far as we could, then ski down and across as quickly as possible, instead of doing a long traverse in the run-out zone. After we started gaining elevation again, around 10 minutes later I heard a crack, and we looked back and some of the ice on the top had loosened and slid again. Definitely taking the lake route next time....
It was already after 8pm and we still had a big chunk ahead of us. The views were absolutely jaw-dropping as we watched the sun set into the ocean. As the sun started getting weaker, Alex noticed the snow began icing up really quickly. As we got closer to the top and everything became gradually more and more hard. This trip was the first time I've been in really icy conditions so I was pretty nervous. I was unlucky enough to have my bindings unclip during a kick turn on the ice, and as they don't have stoppers, my ski slid down a few meters before I managed to catch it. I was feeling pretty uneasy at this point and the final hill before the summit had turned into icy concrete, and of course today I left both both ski crampons and regular crampons in the car (thinking the whole mountain would be slush after the warm days recently). By now it was around 9.30pm, and I had to stop painstakingly close to the top as I kept sliding down with every step. I was really disappointed not to be able to continue. Alex headed to the top, but had difficulties coming up and down on the last egg as he also hadn't taken crampons.
The trip down was for the most part survival - skiing on the rock hard ice, with a few smaller sections that were somewhat slushy. Alex had a great time finding steeper lines and hopping over rocks. Looking forward to my next trip, definitely a bit earlier in the day, to make it all the way to the top. Takk for turen Alex!
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Written by uglefisk 28.04.2019 12:37skal ta deg med helt opp neste gang jeg :D