-24.09.2021-
Before I left, my mum warned me: ‚Don’t go into the mountains in fresh snow!‘
And of course the first time we went we woke up to see the whole world covered in snow and mist. Our 3 day-trip around Dovrefjell and over Snøhetta was literally buried. The receptionist recommended to go from Snøheim to Reinheim and back the same way, which only took two hours and was an easy hike. However, after we had arrived in Reinheim, I decided that going back the same way was a bit boring and we would walk to the road instead – depending on what we would wake up to tomorrow. The snow had melted again during the day and I could see into the beautiful valley that we would walk through. I was so excited!
We woke up to bits of snow and ice and a beautiful, fiery red sunrise; the sky was blue. When we left two hours later the sun had hidden behind a thick layer of clouds and snowflakes started dancing around us; the path was clearly marked and easy to find.
After maybe fifteen minutes (the ground was covered in snow by now and the fog made it impossible to see the mountains surrounding the valley), the dogs started to smell something very interesting. I tried to locate it, but the snow was coming straight at us, and felt like little pieces of sand flying into my eyes. Eyes pinned to the ground, we climbed up a small hill, and then I saw them: 4 musk oxen – two adults and two calves. Right on our path!
I slowly backed away, dragging the frozen (pun intended) dogs with me. We walked around the hill, through a swampy river bed. Luckily the snow protected us from sinking in, and my shoes from being soaked. Once we had passed them at a safe distance, the path had led to several hundreds of metres filled with rocks and stones – only: there was no path recognisable any more! Reluctantly and very carefully, we hopped from one slippery, snow-covered stone to another – Flower really didn’t like this adventure.
Successfully, we passed this difficult section, and found what looked like the right path – but it started leading up a hill to the right, and from the map I knew that we had to follow the valley. Thanks to a Norwegian hiking app and GPS I found out that it was the wrong path, so we climbed/slid down a steep slope, crossed multiple little streams and walked in the general-ish area of the path. Occasionally I thought we had found it, but then lost it again, and the few cairns were almost impossible to spot amongst the other snowed-in rocks.
At some point I threw my obsession to be on the exact path into the wind and concentrated on the rocks and direction I had in front of me.
After two thirds of the way over river beds, through stone fields, swampy areas and the forecast-predicted eight centimetres of snow, we reached a grass plain and finally found a hollowed out trail. The rest of the path was now easy to find, but due to the stronger, colder and snowier wind on the plain, it got little uncomfortable.
Five hours and about eighteen kilometres it took us to get to the road in Grønbakken where we had been offered a pick-up by a Danish co-guest from the cabin (all of the others had walked back to Snøheim). The road greeted us with an enormously long line of cars that waited in front of a barrier. Upon asking I found out that the section going in the direction of where our van was waiting for us was closed because of snow and a car was standing on the road and had to be towed. We were also an hour too early, so we decided to start walking the eight kilometres along the road. Despite all the searching for the path, the uncomfortable weather and difficulty walking through the snow, this bit on asphalt was actually harder than the rest. Half way to the car we go picked up by the Dane which all three of us were very grateful for!
In hindsight this endeavour was probably a bit risky – walking 23km in unpredictable, snowy, foggy weather. Alone with two dogs in the musk oxen’s realm. But it was definitely worth it, and I would not have wanted to do it without the dogs. Both played an important part in us arriving safely. Eistla was very good at pointing out the wild animals and Flower could be relied upon to find the safest and driest path and they sometimes found the marked trail before me. So thank you to the dogs for sticking with me on these crazy adventures, that are maybe sometimes a bit too big.
What I have learnt: one does not always have to stick to the given path in order to arrive.
What I am grateful for: my brave four-legged partners.