Expedition Snow Crown

[Captain Maltese]

Part 1

My want was simple. I just wanted to go hiking for a few days this summer. My problem was also simple: I live in a place that this year has received enough rain to make Noah look like an amateur. Finding a couple of days and nights free from the downpour took July... August... September... and now, when the forecast is FINALLY astonishingly free from rain clouds for more than a single day, it is bloody middle of October. Forecast night temperatures up in the mountains: 15F. Yay. I wish it would be warmer and earlier, but as the old Scottish saying goes: If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

On the other hand, sub freezing point has some advantages. And disadvantages. On the plus side, this late in the year it is actually legal to make an open fire, and I get to test out quite a bit of cold weather gear I've amassed since the last cold weather hike.  On the negative side, I have to carry it. I also have to drive on winter roads. And prepare for really early evenings; the last of daylight could be gone by 6pm.

Destination, then: The Dovre mountains, which are the tallest mountain chain in Norway. It's slightly less than a five hour drive from home, has a nice parking spot and wifi(!) and not much else, but also a conspiciously open and barren area where you can see an entire mountain range along the horizon. Every last of those mountains will be white with snow, but fortunately I am not aiming for actual climbing. It would literally have killed me, one way or another. Instead I intend to walk along established paths as long and as far as my legs and lungs will let me, put up my tent and make a fire, then bring up the coffee mug and my tin flute and let eerie tunes be carried on the breeze. Hopefully a breeze is the worst I will have to deal with as every notch of stronger wind means a drop in temperature. I have spent a night here before, in early summer, but slept in my car as I was on a longer trip. But I saw those tantalizing paths lead away from the parking spot and knew I had to come back. One great advantage of going there is that as soon as I leave the car I am already in the wilderness. How far I can or can't walk isn't very important.

Some bits and pieces of equipment I will bring along. (Not a complete list).
Jacket: An anorak of 1950s vintage and Swedish Army origin. It was white when I bought it but is now after careful recoloring a mottled dark gray with a few stone colored buttons and a fresh layer of rain repellant.
Rain garment:A brand new, untested flecktarn-pattern nylon poncho of the folded rectangle type. It is big enough to cover both me and my backpack and  will also work if necessary as an emergency shelter.
Boots: As yet undecided, but I have an old pair of Alfas mountain boots that I found on a yard sale that I have wanted to try out for some time.
Camping stove: With the cold weather in mind I am once more bringing out my Optimus white gas stove. It is absolutely reliable in any temperature, and highly effective.
Cooking stuff: After some consideration I am going for one of my larger sets this time. Expecting a lot of fireside time on this trip I am going to be ambitious and try for some actual cooking, not just adding hot water.
Axe: rarely brought on my trips as open fires aren't normally allowed, but this time it comes along. It is a vintage axe I have restored and should work fine. I might bring a folding saw too.
Knife: Another vintage and restored item.
Tent: A brand new Helsport Nordmarka 2 tunnel tent; I have put it up once to check it out but never hiked in it, and am curious.
Sleeping bag: I have 1, 3 and 4 season bags. The 4 seasons ones are military and good for temperatures down to -22F. I will bring one of them even if it is probably overkill.
Sleeping pad: With a big pack in mind I have chosen the smallest option I have, a simple inflatable one that folds up to drinking bottle size.
Backpack: An old but huge Lill-sport pack I was given by my dad. Could be as much as 95-100L with the optional side pockets; it is the biggest pack I have and chosen because winter hiking takes volume. He has used in on hikes, but this will be the first time I use it.
Tablet: obviously a luxury item, especially if I go outside wifi range, but even then it is a huge step up from typing on a cell phone. This will be the roughest conditions I have tested it in.
Bladder: Unlike most of my hikes I am expecting to be some distance from water (unless there is sufficient snow on the ground to melt, but I don't think there will be) so I have a one gallon plastic bladder I'll fill up in addition to my canteen. It should suffice for cooking and drinking.
Sundry clothing: winter cap, gloves and scarf are mandatory. I will add a set of long underwear and a sweater for when I am sitting still.
Phone: I have a brand new Samsung now with a much better battery than its predecessor. But I will also learn from earlier cold weather experiences and keep it in a pouch near my skin, so maybe it won't turn into an icicle this time.
Binoculars: A set of high quality, expensive Opticron Natura 8x42 binos, which I had the outrageous luck of finding in a second hand store for a tenner. They are relatively heavy and bulky but the mountain vista I'm heading for makes it worth it.

I have informed relatives of my whereabouts during the trip, checked that the weather will be good and the roads are open, packed, all that's left now is to get going. I better not oversleep tomorrow or I will arrive after dark.

---
Got up, looked out the window. Nice. First frost of the year. Some roofs white with frozen dew. Now a couple hours later and with the sun up, the frost is still on all the shadow sides of the roofs. In the mountains it will be quite cold. And as always before setting out I reflect on how warm and cozy my bed is and how it would take no effort at all to just stay home. But this is why I have posted this thread on E and alerted my relatives - to make it more difficult to just back out. Now my pack is packed, 50 pounds at least yay, everything is prepared to the best of my planning ability, and it is time to get going. I'm an entire hour after schedule but even after planned stops along the road I should still arrive a couple of hours before sunset.

[Captain Maltese]

Well that didn't go as planned as all. I returned home with my tail in a sling and my pride bruised. I didn't even last the first night.
But let's go back to the start of yesterday and where I left off.

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It is a good thing I wasn't on a tight schedule. With the various planned stops along the route it took six hours before I arrived at the Dovre plains, and about an hour and half of daylight left. I had been driving through some narrow valleys near the destination, full of short trees clinging to the steep sides. Every branch was black and bare, making the forest sides look like something like a giant porcupine. Slightly unnerving.There definitely wasn't any warmth left; the car thermometer said it was a little below freezing point. I saw no other tents, but another car arrived at the same time as I did and a guy with backpack and sleeping bag on top set out, which was encouraging. Most of the ground that hadn't been windswept was covered with 1-2 inches of snow. I put on more clothes in a hurry and explored the nearest area while the sun sailed toward the horizon. The amazing public bathroom was still there, with water closet and heating and lights and phone/wifi tower, which was a welcome sight. Nothing looked really promising and there was one sign I read carefully, that damaging trees was not allowed in the nearby area. This meant that I could stay near the facilities, or I could go far enough into the area that I could make a fire. I tried to have both, and scoured the area for fallen branches, but all I could find was rotten. You can make rotten wood burn by applying enough petrol, but it doesn't provide any warmth. I made a heap anyway but gave up eventually, the light was waning fast.

Deciding that the facilites were the better choice, I started to set up camp. And got my first surprise when I tried to put down the tent stakes. The ground was frozen solid. Not just that spot, but everywhere I tried. The snow wasn't deep enough to support them either. Uh oh. Now I had to scurry in the dying light to find two trees with a suitable and flat distance between them where I could set down my tent and support it by lines and rods alone. On a hill top, yay, but right then the wind wasn't a major concern. Nor the fact that I was at this point less than 300 feet from my car... This was the moment when I saw the guy with the backpack return, get in his car and leave. Encouraging.

From there things went on routine for a while. I got my sleeping pad inflated, put in the sleeping bag and the pack and all the stuff I had brought along, brought out the camping stove, got it running, put a water filled kettle on top, made coffee and a soup cup, played a bit with the tablet, and felt the air get colder. And colder. By now it was pitch dark too. Once my food and drink had been consumed for the moment, there was now no heat source at all. The stove's blue flame and hiss had been pleasant but I couldn't have it inside the tent. At this point something else had started to loom. My tent, brand new and good quality, has one flaw - I even knew about it from reviews before buying it, but didn't think it was going to be a major issue at the time. The tent is on the small side. Length and width is small but acceptable, but the height is not. I can't SIT in the tent. Not without shoving my head into the roof like a whale trying to break through ice. And with no further immediate tasks to focus on this became a big thing. The cold was one thing, I had good clothes and a great sleeping bag, but spending the next 8 hours in a sarcophagus and not even be able to sit up to drink or eat or read or anything else without leaving the tent was the straw that brought the camel. And since the car was right there I had the luxury of being able to do something about it at once. I broke camp at 20pm, which took about half an hour, stuffed everything into the car in anything but order, and drove home. As I left the thermometer said -20F. Almost five hours later, but at least I got to spend those five hours sitting and in a warm car, and at the end I could crawl into my warm bed.

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So, the expedition was a bust. My pride calls it a failure, that I wasn't tough enough for the challenge, that my planning was crap. All that is probably true. But my prudence say that I didn't push myself into worse sickness than a cold either. And there is one more thing too: if failures are good for anything, it is that they can provide good lessons. So what have I learned?
- for future winter expeditions, come up with some kind of (safe) tent heating. In all the proper arctic expeditions, they rarely just sit/lie there and freeze by plan.
- never a low roof tent again. Being inside a tent a whole day for weather reasons is one thing; not being able to do anything all that time makes everyting much worse.

Some gear considerations. I didn't get to test much of it in the roughly four hours I spent there so it's brief.
- I wore a pair of hiking pants in shell design and made of some fancy material. Very water and wind resistant. Not warm in the slightest. I froze the moment I left the car. However the addition of a good pair of long underwear pants made them comfy and even when I sat in snow I didn't get wet.
- My simple cotton gloves were not good for much at all. Until I put them inside a pair of military-surplus wind breaker mittens, which made them warm and toasty.
- The tablet worked surprisingly well, but I noticed the response to screen touches by touch pen or fingers was markedly slower. It didn't matter greatly as my hands were getting too cold to use anyway.

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I haven't been on my last hike or my last winter expedition. But for the latter, I have to come up with some new equipment-wise approaches first. As for Dovre... I'll be back.