27 Sept – Norway has weather

My internal alarm clock woke me up at 5:30am in the sleeping cubby #6 of the dormitory room. A peek around revealed about 10 other inhabitants. I adjusted my phone “Ta Da” alarm to a silent vibrating mode (so as not to be “that girl”) and returned to slumber. The air was surprisingly fresh and cool for a hord of people sleeping (and in one case snoring) the night away. There was one other girl awake when I re-awoke at 7:15. We were both secretly changing clothes in our sleeping bag, not disturbing the others. I packed all my stuff up and headed off to breakfast.

Whew, was it windy and chilly out! Layered in long underwear top and bottoms, hiking pants, fleece shirt and jacket shell, I went to the dining room. The hut breakfast was right on par with my weekday buffet, except this one had yummy oatmeal , homemade jams (vs store bought), and significantly better cheeses. Once my belly had enough fuel for my hiking frenzy, I checked out and headed to the boat.
The boat has two stops in the summer; One disembarks on the far other side of the long lake at another hut (which is now closed) and the second stop discharges at the ½-way point for the Bessenggen Ridge hike. Once that other hut closes, only the Bessenggen destination is reachable, and even that ends next weekend. Once down at the dock, there was water mixed in with the wind. It was impossible to tell if it was water spraying off the lake or if it was coming from the clouds. It was that windy.

The boat departed at 9am with a whopping 15 passengers. The prior day there was such a crowd, two boats were used to transport the hiker crowd, per the conversation with the girls. They also said that right in the middle of the 6-8 hour hike a woman broke her leg. This tidbit will come into play later in this entry. So, the nearly empty boat braved the open lake’s 2-3 ft swells for fifteen minutes before turning around. The mate came into the cabin to report in Norwegian that it’s too windy. Oh phewy! Too windy for an ocean-faring vessel?! These Norwegian captains are complete wimps.

Up the hill I went to hike Besseggen Ridge hoping to make it to the mid-point in 3 hours, then turn around. The weather was tolerable for the first 20 minutes. Once the trail started to reach the ridge and turned into the wind, my clothes were flapping, my face was getting acupunctured (or is that the rain pellets?), and my legs on the ground just weren’t trustworthy. Then I too, turned around… unable to navigate through the forces of air. Wimp, I know!

There was a Y in the trail that I originally passed up, and now took it, figuring I might as well hike here versus finding another spot roadside. Along the trail I passed the rest of the canceled boat passengers, exchanging “Hej” along the way. The mountain blocked the trail from the ridiculous wind, making it a pleasant walk. Once it climbed up to the ridge and past the mountain, it turned ridiculous again. I turned around, again. After two nights in huts and two days of real weather, relaxing in a warm hotel room with some food and my knitting project was starting to sound luxurious and delightful.

The hotel room was warm, the shower was fabulous, the food was good and the movie was OK. My knitting project is a cable knit hat. My hats were all in Tahoe, so I brought some yarn and needles to make one. I’ll need it in another two weeks with the temperature dropping, so it’s now on my priority list.

Monday morning I hustled to work after a great night’s sleep and went through the normal routine of settling into the desk, logging onto the computer and reading the email traffic of events from CA. The office window overlooks the main building entrance, so each morning I observe the team’s arrival patterns; So-and-so waves, this person is slow, that person is frazzled, etc. This particular morning one coworker darted to my office after entering the main door. He is not the “darter” type by any stretch. He immediately looked at my legs… confirming they were still in one piece. Other coworkers made similar observations throughout the day. That woman whom broke her leg on Saturday on Besseggen Ridge made the television news and my coworkers were hoping it wasn’t me. When someone is injured on a popular hiking trail four hours away, it makes the news! Prior to coming to Norway, I thought Norway could be that small. After all the driving, experiences and people I’ve met, it’s really not. Perhaps the Norwegians are just that caring and considerate for their fellow Norges.