Easter at Skåpet

Easter is a magical time here in Nowray and our trip was one of the best ever.

Ragnar, Anita, her delightful 16 yr. old son, Christoffer, Knut and I took a 4 night, 5 day trip to mountains on the South side of Lysefjord. We went to the tiny "turistforening" cabin called Skåpet.

We took off on Thursday morning and drove just an hour or so to an area where we had taken hikes in the summer, but never been there on skis before. We drove up a narrow tractor road to the top of a valley. From there we hiked in with skis attached to our packs for about 2 1/2 hours. It was a new experience hiking with skis sticking up from my pack. Every time I walked past a tree I had to bend over to get the skis under the branches! Several times the skis hit branches and I almost lost my balance. We didn't know if there was still snow at the little tourism cabin up there and it was raining as we left the car. Nothing new in this district, but we still hoped for the best. As we approached the cabin the rain turned to sleet and there was snow on the ground, albeit with a very hard and icy crust.


The cabin is one of many many cabins in the mountains in Norway that are available for anyone to use for a nominal fee.

This one is so tiny thay we had to reserve it and pick up the key in Stavanger before we left. We had been there last summer so we knew what to expect: An outhouse, no electricity, no running water - only a nice stream about 15 yards from the house. It had one main room with 4 bunk beds along one wall, a table with two benches in front of the only window and a wood burning stove. There was one narrow room along the short side with two short bunk beds and a table with a gas cooker, some plates, pots, pans and utensils. Along the outside was a long dark uninsulated hallway for storing wood and jackets and such. The building was over 100 years old.
As we arrived, the wind picked up and a regular snow storm set in. It was nice to be inside that night listening to the wind howling and the snow blowing outside. Anita had brought a chicken and rice dinner for the first evening. When we woke up the next morning there was a foot of fresh, soft, white snow everywhere. It was too good to be true!

So we got up, had some coffee, ate a good breakfast of oatmeal and dried fruit, packed a lunch, extra sweaters, thermos, loads of sun cream, pads to sit on, other necessary things and set off - on skis!

The snow was perfect and the mountain sides were all ours. Not a soul was seen the enitre trip. We got out the map and found a good route for the first day, Up and down mountain side after mountain side.

In all we covered about 12 kilometers and had a wonderful day. By the time we came back, it was past 6PM and we were tired, hungry and very happy. Knut talked Christoffer into rolling around in the snow in their underwear - taking a "snow bath" (Norwegians!)



The second day was very similar. We covered lots of distance that day too, all the ski tracks we saw were made by us the previous day.




On the way home, Knut and Ragnar decided to try to get to the top of the highest mountain top near the cabin: Skåpnuten, 948 meters over sea level.




The three of us decided to wait and see what they thought. We were too tired to climb 300 meters straight up. So we went back to the cabin and prepared my dinner of dried Hungry Boy's dish and home made tortillas. It was a hit :) (thanks for the tips, Cornell)



The guys came back as happy as larks, insisting that we could make it up no problem - so the plan for the next day was made: Start by climbing Skåpnuten and take a good hike after that.The good weather didn't seem to be changing and the third day was just as good as the others. A nice long ski trip during the day, followed by a delightful evening in the cabin. This time Anita made steaks and fried potatoes with a mushroom sause. We ate like kings. Then the usual cribbage game or two, a shot of whiskey and early to bed.On Easter Sunday the clouds started to come in, but still the weather was great. It was nice to not have to worry so much about getting sun burned! That evening Knut spoiled us all with his fantastic Bacalao dinner. Yummy. That evening it warmed up and started to snow again.Monday morning we woke up to rain/snow and much warmer temps. But no matter, all we had to do was pack, wash out the cabin and get back to the car. There was enough snow now to make it at least half way down the valley on skis. The trip home went much faster as we were skiing and the packs were no where near as heavy. It didn't really start to rain hard until we were safe and dry in the cars, so we couldn't have been more lucky.


If you look carefully at the center of the picture, you'll see the tiny red cabin. That's where we stayed!

I love Easter in Norway and now you all know why.