Christoffers Eventyr: High Camp Turtagrø 2011

Nothing short of a fantastic weekend.
The largest group of Danes yet participated in this years version of High Camp at Turtagrø Hotel in the Hurrungane mountains of western Jotunheimen.

Amund en-route to Lauvnostind (Photo: Kim Johansen)

High Camp is a very relaxed and cool ski touring event hosted by Norwegian ski magazine Fri Flyt.
Around 600 ski tourers including nine Danes enjoyed the mostly nice weather and skied all the classic peaks including Dyrhaugstind, Lauvnostind, Steindalsnosi, Fannråken and Ringstind.
High Camp is also a great place to meet up with old Norwegian friends and make new ones. The ski touring community is quite small, even on a Scandinavian scale.

My good friend Kim Johansen took some beautiful pictures. Enjoy some of them here.
Our group arrived at Turtagrø Thursday morning after a full night of driving from Denmark. We needed a beer and an hour of sleep before we could put on the skins for the first tour of the weekend; A nice afternoon warmup on Dyrhaugsryggen.

We set up camp outside the hotel at 884 meters above sealevel, and after an hour and a half we de-skinned at around 1200 meters, skied back down to the campsite in time to check-in at the event office and get the black wristband providing access to lectures, workshops and loads of sweet skis to demo.

Friday our mission was to ski Lauvnostind, a classic peak where the skinning starts at 1000 meters and tops out where the summit ridge narrows at around 1950 meters.
The slopes gives untroubled skinning and a nice cruiser ride all the way back to the road.

Saturday morning we woke to the sound of heavy wet snow transforming into rain drumming on the fly of our tent. Not exactly a motivating factor to get out of the warmth deep in the sleeping bags. The most eager skiers of the group ventured outside and started preparing breakfast as the rain got weaker. at 11 a.m. most of the group had boots on their feet and skins on their skis. Half an hour later all nine left camp without high expectations for the outcome of the day. All doubt was made a shame when the sun broke out an hour or two later and we had a truly beautiful day with magnificent views of all the classic peaks in Hurrungane.