Cunojavri at Dusk

Lossiestua to Cunojavrihytta

(lifted straight from my notebook)

A ‘shorter’ day this time, again in brilliant sunshine.

The day started with a nice little descent into the valley. Leaving the hut without your skins on is a good feeling. Gravity assisted excitement from the word go. Bags are starting to get lighter now which adds to the skiing experience.

DNT Logo

There was a little more wind today so breaks were taken at sheltered spots. Behind boulders were a favourite and we started tucking into the banana cake. It is really good stuff!

The error of the day was trying to cross the outlet of an underground hydro station. The water was warmer as it had been underground and this resulted in a huge uncrossable torrent, sitting in a deep snow gorge. Suffice to say, we went round.

We stopped for lunch sometime after 1pm as it was starting to get pretty hot.

Cooking at lunchtime

There was a mirage as we approached cunojavrihytta in the form of another hut! We went hard and as we got close we realised it was just a wee one and had to ski on further for some minutes in the baking lunar landscape.

There was an exciting section in the middle where we got to choose our own lines through some undulating rocky terrain. We have spent a lot of time just following skin trails, which is a little bit boring sometimes. Its like a string course through the snow without the exciting pictures at control sites. And you have to provide your own sweeties.

All in all a fairly easy day at 4hrs. This should allow us to be prepared for tomorrows beast. I actually just managed to sneak out on my own for some extra. I skied up a wee hill near the hut in the evening sunshing. Pretty nice decent with long sweeping turns.

Cuno at dusk.

Self portrait

Hunddalshytta to Lossiestua

First ‘serious’ day.

Up early and away to escape the insanity of the full hut. It was another blue sky day, but at 8:30am it was -18 degrees centigrade. Welcome to the arctic circle.

There was a cold headwind to being with which froze my trusty sigg waterbottle solid. Luckily, Helen had some water so it was all good.

We knew that there would be another group following out skin track later in the day. We drew a few pictures in the snow for them. My favourite was the classic immature sketch of male genitalia that I drew.

Thankfully there were a few descents, the first one had an amazing backdrop and was more of a cruise than anything else. I enjoyed finally getting my skins off and the feeling of turning with fat powder skis.

Product Placement

Next, we climbed up to a col. Due to the fatness of the skis it means that the skins are also relatively wide. This means you are able to skin straight up fairly steep slopes. This saves you a lot of time, but with a heavy bag buts a lot of strain on the central system. I was ‘poked’ (as my kiwi friend would say) as I reached the summit. Soaking wet. Time to change my thermal.

Lunch break; Had polarbrøds smeared with children.

Children in a tin

Next, I taught Helen how to rip your skins off without taking your skis off. Something which saves an age at transitions.

We skied down the longest descent of the trip making nice lines in the sun baked snow. Heres a shot of Helen in action.

I managed another cheeky sun baked descent to wee loch later in the day. It was cheeky in that I had to do a 15min skin out as a result when Helen just traversed and beat me by ages. I like descending tho; the feeling of slashing the slope was well worth the tiring skin out.

Arriving at Lossiestua

We arrived at Lossiestua before any of the other groups. Beating the large group by 2.25 hours. Total for the day: 6.25 hours.

The wind is getting up as I write this into my little black book. Buffeting the hut; reminding me of the harsh reality of where we are. I feel lucky that the weather has been so good, so far.

I recently went on a Ski Touring trip with Helen. I kept a little diary of the trip so I have decided to put it online as a blog post in case other people are planning a similar trip.

Day 1 – Katterat to Hunddalshytta

We took the train from Abisko Turistasjon to Katterat late morning. Started with very heavy packs and skinned up from the station in brilliant sunshine. Jackets and hats were quickly discarded.

We adopted a travel plan of one hour effort followed by ten minutes rest. This is my standard ‘expedition’ plan as its worked for me before both running and cycling.

After a couple of hours, we caught up a couple who had a little baby in a sledge. The dad was pulling it along, and it seemed content.

A sledge, for babies.

At one point, Daddy decided to ski down a fairly steep slope (35 degrees) with the sledge attached to him. Mummy got quite excited by this as the sledge bouced around which erupted into a mouthful of heated abuse.

It took 3.25 hours to ski into the hytta, arriving relatively early in the day to secure beds. As the day progressed more and more people arrived and the place was properly bursting at the seams when the lights went out.

It was amazing to see the mountains in perfect blue sky. They are truly of the mini alpine category and look like smaller versions of mountains you may see in the swiss and french alps.

Below is a list of stuff recommended for a multiday hut to hut ski tour on randonee skis inside the arctic circle.

Ski Stuff

• Ski boots
• Skis
• Skins
• Poles
• Transceiver
• Probe
• Shovel
• Sunscreen + Lip cream.
• Buff x2
• Hat x2
• Outer warm gloves
• Liner gloves x2
• Lightweight Goretex Jacket
• Thermal underwear (Bottoms) x2
• Thermal underwear tops (x3)
• Windproof Salopettes
• Lightweight fleece / jumper
• Warm Socks x2

Personal Items

• 45 L Rucksack
• Tshirt x1 (Luxury Item)
• Boxers x2
• Camera
• Googles
• Sunglasses
• Silk Sleeping Bag Liner
• Slippers
• Normal socks x1
• Sleeping bag
• Down Jacket / Gillet
• Thermarest?
• Toothbrush
• Water bottle / Thermos
• Headtorch
• Book

Food

• Turmat
• Sweets
• Peanut Butter
• Polar bread

Shared Items

• Map
• Compass
• Lightweight Stove x1
• Lightweight Canister
• Lighter
• Toothpaste
• Compeed for blisters
• Simple tools and duct tape
• Little bit of leukotape
• Hut key
• Tiny washing up and sponge
• Mobile Phone

I am starting up a new weekly series called wicked wednesday where I upload something that I think is wicked. I first saw something like this on the nonimage blog so its not totally fresh!

This week we have one of the best trials mountain bikers I have ever seen, riding in my ex home town of Edinburgh.

Danny Macaskill : Next level street trials from brainchild-films on Vimeo.

Off to club med!

Some quality Toyota Landcruisers in Nice

Left the super ghetto hostel. I wish I had got a photo of the owner and the flies in the morning. Went to the boulangerie for a top class croissant breakfast. Got going pretty early enjoying the ‘littlest hobo’ feeling once more. I thought it was going to be a super easy cruise into Nice.

Last ski resort

However I missed the 1500m col that I had to do out of the box passing the last ski resort of the trip. Squeezed that one out (THE LAST COL!) in the morning sunshine then descended for like 30km making really good time.

Col Saint Martin

Stopped for lunch at a top class viewpoint with some friendly tourist information people who listened to my story and gave me free coffee. You could see they thought I was a little odd tho, lycras n all.

Then some further hillside roads and then lots of speedy descending into nice, got a nice photo of some trees.

Long line of trees on the way into nice

The outskirts of nice are traffic hell, there is an insane amount of motorised transport kicking around. About 50% scooters! I thought I was making a mistake coming into nice; tried to get into the youth hostel; it was full. All the hotels were also booked up for some conference. I tried a couple, all booked up.

I thought screw this and found a posh hotel on the sea front. Much more upmarket than I am used to and I had to get a deluxe room also. I did have the best sleep I can remember and the air conditioning was premium.

Going to spend a few days on the mediterranean cost now. Still cycling tho, through Monaco to Menton then onto Italy.

Geneva to Nice! DONE!

A mediterranean sunset

Tanned, bearded and happy

A few cheeky extras

Fiat Panda 4×4 Quality Mountain Machine (can you spot the interesting thing?)

Did some extra cols today (which were actually part of the official grand traverse of the alps but not the route I was following.) As arguably its better to do the bonnete as its the highest paved road peak in Europe.

Big day today – 120km over three cols. Col de Cayolle (2310m), Col de Valberg (1672m) and Col de la Couillole (1678m). Probably, biggest day so far actually. The Cayolle had come ace canyons on the way up. On the way to the summit it started properly raining. I chatted to a dude at the summit who said that he thought the Grand Traverse of the Alps is the best cycle route in Europe. I think I agree in my limited experience. A few other people I have spoke to have thought it funny that in my first venture into the alps I am doing the beast.

Go hard.

I descended from the summit in the rain and cold and sheltered in a cafe where I could use my shit french to get some food.

Self photo!

Stopped of for lunch later in the valley but I was too late for anything. So bought shit-loads of chocolate instead. Then polished off the next two cols in the sunshine.

Col de Valberg

Final col of the day

The final descent of the day was fighting for the descent title. It almost took it but didn’t manage due to the road surface.

Look at the original for the road on the other side of the valley!

Tonight I am in a real ghetto hotel. Most crazy so far. I found eye lashes in my starter tonight (a pile of weird looking spam type meat.) I wrapped it up in a napkin and deposited in my room to avoid problems with the other meagre courses.

I hope I don’t get the food poisoning tonight. Met a swiss cyclist who had a pretty serious crash today on the descent from the bonnete. Something about a stainless steel bridge in the rain which made a mess of his face and head. Helmet saved him; No hospitals here so fire brigade sorted him out!

A cheeky wee stab at the bonette

High altitude graffiti

Amazing sleep in Guillestre then up the Col de Vars. Feeling the strains of eight days cycling in a row. The climb out of Guillestre was immediately viscous.

Living life without a watch right now. Its surprisingly relaxing and everything just seems to fall together. I get to turn my mobile on once a day when I can check the time and often along the way I can check clock towers etc and listen for the number of rings of the bell in the mornings.

Raced an old man to the summit of the col de vars. Smashed him. He was over 60 though Met an english couple and spoke to them about the wonders of carradice saddle bags and got them to take a photo of me at the top.

On the summit of the Col de Vars

I also spoke to them about my plans of tackling the bonnete that day and of going to Italy instead tomorrow. They said that the road into Italy was proper busy and that my plan B of 3 extra cols to the east of the bonnete sounded better. I agreed.

Then I strapped my camera to the front of my bike and filmed part of the descent. I think it turned out fairly well. Next time I do this I will cycle closer to barriers and walls to make it feel faster.

Cruised into Jausiers for about 2pm. It was a cycling town and there was a lot of evidence that the tour has been through here just a couple of months previously. Booked into a hotel, and got some soup and coke to fuel myself up for what lay ahead.

I took the bare minimum up the bonette. Not even tools!

Its the highest paved mountain pass in europe (2802m) although the Iseran is the true king as the built an extra loop around a mountain to take the title. It was a 21km straight climb out of Jausiers; made easier by a lack of touring load but still hard enough! Altitude doesnt seem to be affecting me now.

Summit shot on the bonette 2802m

7.5 hours on the bike today. The descent was amazing, great road surface. Although lower down I was in agony, my hands and back were very sore. The forces that the body absorbs when braking for hairpin after hairpin is quite a lot.

I came my closest to crashing today. A marmot ran out in front of me when I was doing about 50kph but luckily I braked in time.

Tomorrow I am going to sneak in a few extra cols that are not on the official route I am following.

The Izoard

Getting more arid

Left the nice hotel (best so far). Nice easy descent into Briançon. Its a really nice place with a great old town. One of those towns which is encased in high walls.

Went to get internet, the drug of the noughties; But alas, there was none. There are lizards everywhere now. Everything is starting to feel a little more mediterranean. The col of the day was the Col d’Izoard and the temperature was pretty high.

I like pushing it up the cols, pretending im racing in the tour. Pretending im rasmussen; a pure wannabe!

Ascent was tough. Met an aussie at the top with a lot more stuff than me. He seemed both jealous and impressed by the little amount of stuff that I have with me.

Izoard summit tower

Descent was nice with a really good road surface. Then into a viscous steep gorge with huge cliff walls.

Big gorge

Youth hostel was closed so I’m in a not so cheap shite hotel in Guillestre where there is nothing going on. Maybe things will pickup but its pretty boring here right now.

The Galibier and the Telegraph

Galibier Descent

Left at normal time of about 9:30am. I keep it fairly easy wrt starting time in the mornings.

Downhill to begin with then on to an early climb to a mountain village for some photos.

Next, a big descent into mondane ended up getting to terminal velocity on a certain stretch. (65kph) just couldnt get any faster.

Then a downhill cruise into St Michael which was pretty top class timewise. Made good time and good distance.

Had some lunch then prepped for the Col de Telegraph. Onto the climb, it was pretty tough, making me dig deep. The climb was right out of the valley to a pinnacle; wee photo some sweets and a smile to another bike tourer.

Descended into Valloire, another nice looking ski resort. I was supposed to stay here but it was before 2pm at this point. I could smell the Galibier honey.

Next was a testing 15km unrelenting climb. Stopped for a tiny break for biscuits and water; prepped my pockets with haribo.

I took 4 cyclists on the ascent, none passed me. Also, the cyclists I passed didnt have any load! Pushed myself as hard as I could, hardest so far. On reflection, I think that the Galibier is the best col on the grand traverse. It has everything; views, difficulty, length, status.

An english cycling friend made it to the top soon after me. And we chatted for a bit. Im keen to do a summer ascent of mont blanc so spoke to him a bit about it.

After gassing, the time was getting on a bit (16:30), so wrapped up warm and descended after a couple more photos.

Galibier ascent

Descent was a bit frustrating as I got stuck behind a number of cars and then a lorry. Its strange being faster than motor vehicles on a descent. I remembered racing helen into a fjord when she was driving a few weeks previously.

I was supposed to stay at Briançon but on the way there I passed Serre Chevalier 1500 and a nice looking hotel, so stopped there.

Feeling tired but still strong. Pelforth Brun Bier rocks.

View from galibier summit