So here is first shot: RR productions proudly presents: Stranda 2007 – the sunshine edition

P.S. if you have not read the story, it’s still available.

• Food 71.30
• Lift tickets 104.08
• Beer 17.30
• Gas 51.30
• Car cleaning, etc. 16.50
• Accommodation 43.34 – we got a good discount due the small issues with cabin
• Flights 47.62
• Total: 385.66 euros

Not bad for 7 days of powder

The total drive with the car was ~2500 km (of which I missed 250 km due to flying) and 175 l of diesel was consumed.

So the expectations were high when we arrived. The first disappointment was that the road was not exactly all the way to the door; well, close enough – only 20 meters was separating the car and the front door, but there was plenty of snow and cross country ski tracks in between. Anyway, we got the gear into the cabin with almost dry feet.

Then, the quick exploration of the cabin revealed that we were lucky not to have a party of 12 skiers There was enough space for 4 people, but not for many more, and the critical facilities (like kitchen, toilet, shower) were definitely not planned for 12 hungry and sweaty explorer.

The next observation was that it was really cold inside. Luckily, we had ordered some fire wood and the fireplaces were working. So the situation was not desperate… Anyhow, Line from the agency arranged us two brand new electric radiators, but when we turned those on, the fuse blew almost right a way. It took a while and couple of calls before we found the fuse panel (you would not have ever believed that the fuse panel can be hidden on the very low attic) and the spare fuses.

And the fuses kept blowing… Until we called Line again, and she ordered electrician to check what’s going on and that lead to a good project local contractor: in the end there were 3 fellows working for a day, when they changed the fuse panel to a modern one and replaced the old wires.

Now everything was fine for couple of days, but then on Friday morning, the water pipe was frozen. Thus, we had to revert to smelting snow to get the morning porridge and tee… Well, it was again time to call Line and order plumber. It turned out that the pipe was frozen inside the building (which tells something about the heating and insulation). Anyhow, problem solved and we got warm shower also after a nice day.

Despite some minor defect on the accommodation, I have to say that the flexibility and “let’s fix it” attitude of Storfjord Booking was excellent. I could rent a cabin via them again…

Btw, now there is full photo set from the Stranda tour in Flickr, check out and get amused

… but Today it required a bit more work; since the only lift running was Furset-trekket (see the map) and all the good snow from there was skied yesterday, we took the hike. We walked all the way from down station of the Roaldstrekket to the top station of the Roaldshorn Fjelltrekk (765 meters vertical in total). Despite of the -20 degrees temperature that was a sweaty exercise, but a rewarding one!

The snow was perfectly conserved and we were the first ones draw the tracks to the virgin snow all the way from the top of the Roaldshorn to the cabin – almost 800 meters vertical. And all that in perfect sunshine

Yesterday was not so bad either: Egga Fjelltrekk was open for the first time after the snow fall and the whole top of the mountain had to be skied. Plenty of nice turns in powder while sun was shining…

First real skiing day of the season done and what a day! Stranda showed is best qualities to us again. The rain we had while arriving at 1:30 am had changed to nice snow fall during the night. So we had to track virtually virgin powder for the whole day The best Norway can offer; already now its clear that the trip was worth of the trouble!

After a full day of excellent skiing it is fulfilling to sit in front of fireplace, take a long sip of beer, and watch how snowflakes float down outside… Seems that we well have long day ahead of us also tomorrow

Anyway, time to take excellent packing list by Janne to the hand and start to gather the gear to the sack… Stay tuned for more