Haugastøl and kiting


Last Thursday, Pancho and I took the train to Haugastøl where Idar's family has a cabin. Idar arrived by train about an hour after us, so Pancho and I helped ourselves in the cabin first. Since it was already getting dark, we spent the evening watching movies and vanlife videos on youtube.

Friday we woke up to overcast, but lots of powdery snow, so Idar thought I would like to try randonee skiing...hiking up the hill with downhill skis on (with "skins" to get grip) to ski back down. More my style downhill skiing to avoid the busy alpine resorts and my fear of crashing into people. However, the skis he thought I could borrow did not have skins that would fit for them, so I had to use a pair of cross-country skis that were barely wider than mine and were technically called mountain skis...a load of bull haha The wax wasn't working for me to go uphill, and the skis were too skinny for me to navigate the downhill. Don't get me wrong, I had fun even though I fell a lot, but it was not fun when I couldn't get back out of the deep snow drifts. Pancho also found it exhausting. Having to wear glasses that weekend was an added handicap.

That night, Idar's friend Bertil arrived and we had a late dinner and played games. Saturday we decided to try snow kiting. Usually you use the kite to pull you on downhill skis, but as I am too inexperienced with downhill skiing I opted to just try to get the kite up and maneuver it while standing still. Idar had to hold the handle behind the harness so that I wouldn't get lifted up too high in the air from the kite. The wind just wasn't consistent enough to do much and my toes began to get very cold, so we packed up and went back for dinner.

After a little time relaxing we decided to take a night cross-country ski trip on some prepared tracks. Prepared with charged up headlamps, we headed out. The conditions were great! Much more my kind of snow activity, and Pancho preferred the prepared tracks as well. I decided to turn around before the guys to get a head start on the downhill and after about 100 meters heading downhill, the cold made my headlamp go out. I saw nothing. I stopped and yelled, but I don't know if they heard me, so I continued down the path cautiously and eventually they caught up to me and Idar had to light the way for all three of us. We survived!

Sunday I decided to stay at the cabin, pack up and sit in the sun while the guys went on another ski trip with Pancho. It was a beautiful sunny day. This has happened to me every time I have gone to the cabin at Haugastøl and Geilo...always a beautiful sunny Sunday.

P.S. Monday I got lasik surgery and now I don't need glasses or contact lenses anymore! Went much better than I could have hoped.

Pancho the Polar Explorer

A bit of gear to unpack for snow kiting.

Digging out a shelter from the wind.



Idar got the kite up, Pancho is slightly concerned


Pancho is making sure that Bertil doesn't fly away.

Cross-country skiing in the dark.

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