Skadet på Sydalsfjellet (23.03.2013)
Written by hmsv1 (Hannah Vickers)
| Start point | Gravermarka |
|---|---|
| Endpoint | Søre |
| Characteristic | Randonnée/Telemark |
| Distance | 7.0km |
| Map |
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| Ascents | Svarttinden (736m) | 23.03.2013 |
|---|
After having had a short trip on our first day in Lofoten, Aline and I were super-enthusiastic to have a longer ski trip. Sydalsfjellet turned out to be the only ‘full’ topptur option, since the other trips which were being run on the Saturday were either skogskjøring or ski/surf combination. Fortunately both of us managed to get a place on the Sydalsfjellet trip before the sign-up list had filled up. Unfortunately the weather didn’t look all that promising in the beginning of the day when we met up with our guides Marius and Bjørn at 9am at the Henningsvær Bryggehotell. Altogether there were 13 participants on the trip, so it was a relatively large group. Null visibility and light snow was not at all inspirational, but we clambered on board the minibus anyway with a dash of hope that it was just a passing snow shower. The drive from Henningsvær to Gravermarka, where the route started from took something between 30-45 minutes (at a guess), and as we approached Sydalen the weather had already improved quite noticeably and we could actually see across Gimsøystraumen towards the mountains on the western side.
View across Gimsøystraumen:
Before we started skiing, a short time was spent testing that everyone had a skredsøker which was working properly. Then finally we started the climb through the forest. It was the least fun part, especially being particularly dense and steep, although I had expected it to be much worse. It was in fact not too terrible, but it did take up some time before we were above the treeline. The weather closed in again temporarily between the forest and our lunch stop and a light snow shower followed with nothing but fog to see. When we stopped for a short lunch break below Steindalsheia, the fog had disappeared and the sun shone for a little while – long enough to see the summit before we set off again, bearing east for the ridge. The gradient here was easy-going and I guess the ridge would have had an airy feel to it if we’d been able to see anything around us, but unfortunately the fog had closed in on us during the last kilometer (maybe less) of the trip to the summit but we did get a glimpse or two of a view across Gimsøyfjorden when the fog disintegrated briefly on the top.
Since we’d been quite efficient, the guides suggested that we wait a little while for the chance that the visibility might improve again and the fog would disappear which would make the nedkjøring a little easier. So we waited. At least half an hour passed chatting and eventually shivering in the white-out while we waited for the fog to disappear, but it never happened so we ended up beginning the descent anyway. Even though the visibility was really terrible and the wind was quite strong in places, the snow conditions were actually really nice for skiing down and I was quite enjoying myself in comparison to the previous day’s trip on the difficult fokksnø. Our route back to the minibus was slightly different from the route up, and our descend route took us down the northeastern side of Sydalsfjellet towards Trolldalsvatnet. The gradient felt comfortable despite how bad the visibility was. It all seemed to be going pretty sweetly even though the conditions were not ideal.
The latter half of the descent is another story. Having approached a slightly narrower passage leading down toward Trolldalsvatnet, I was making some extra turns and generally skiing as slow as possible. I was aware of more rocks to both sides close to the route we were skiing down but as with trees, they can usually be avoided with extra care and concentration.
Unfortunately I wasn’t aware that there were hidden rocks as well as the ones I could see! It was my bad luck then that when I making a turn my skis caught one of those rocks which were only buried under a thin layer of snow. I fell immediately and it was the upper part of my right leg which hit down on the rock pretty hard. The pain was completely indescribable. Unsurprisingly I yelled for some time. Admittedly it was a rather girly yell which I can’t say I am too proud of but I don’t tolerate severe pain so well so it felt justified at the time.
Fortunately there were still one or two others in our group who were behind me and realized that I had fallen and was not getting up. Next thing I knew (while still yelling) our guide Marius had also come up by foot from where the rest of the group had stopped so he could check my leg out. Quite fortunately he was also an anaesthetist so his medical knowledge was a bonus (I recall the classic line ‘you can trust me, I’m a doctor’ being used). After establishing that I’d probably not broken anything but injured the muscles a quite badly, the realization that I still had to get down the mountain sank in. So, after wiping away my face clear of tears I got my act together and salvaged a little bravery to get up and move myself. It was painful. Excruciatingly painful. Marius had kindly taken my skis and somehow or another I managed to hobble a little way down by foot.
I discovered soon that I’d fallen before the steepest part which turned out to be quite a narrow channel of snow, so I think I was actually a little relieved to have had an excuse not to even try and ski it. After some time the gradient lessened and Marius encouraged me to get the skis back on again. His opinion was that it would be easier and possibly gentler to cover the rest of the distance on ski than to try and wade through the snow for the last few kilometers. I was still skeptical about putting the skis back on again and felt nervous that I wouldn’t be able to control my speed or make turns with an injured leg. But I gave it a go anyway (my reasoning being that ski guides generally know what they’re talking about before handing out advice) and surprisingly managed to finish the rest of the descent with the skis on my feet. It was however finished with burning pain and additional tears but on reflection there probably could have been more agony in the muscles trying to walk down the rest of the way instead of skiing. After we’d made the road trip back to Henningsvær, I realized that it was fortunate that I’d been more or less forced to keep the leg moving. It was a mission to get out of the minibus again after sitting down for only half an hour!
Despite having some back from the trip injured, it wasn't all a nightmare to forget. At least we'd had some partially good views, nice snow (when it wasn't too shallow) and really excellent guides.
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