Kjell's Trip to Blåfjell 2015

The old man has made his yearly ego trip.

I left Oslo 17. July for Friisbua where I normally camp in the winter. There I found a pair of snowshoes that I had forgotten under the snow in April. Spent the night in a tent there and left the next day for Gjevsjøen. That is, not without problems, because when I woke up at six it turned out that the battery of my car was flat. I paced back and forth on the road in wind and rain for one and a half hours before a man turned up and could connect my jump cables to his car. A long drive to Gjevsjøen, endless stretches through no-mans land both in Norway and Sweden. Especially the Swedish countryside has been depopulated. I was picked up by the mountain farmer Nils Gjefsjø and his son Christian who first gave me a boat ride across Gjevsjøen to their farm and then by 4WD ATV with my luggage to the boathouse on Livsjøen where they let me store food and equipment. There I spent the night in a tent and rowed across the lake where my hike to Holmtjønna started. I had planned to carry two loads to my campsite. I thought I had trimmed my backpack to a minimum, but when I weighed it, my scale showed 47.5 kgs, far too much for an old man. I picked out all my fishing equipment and other stuff, so that my pack weighed “only” 35 kgs. No problem in getting this load to my camp site at Holmtjønna where I established my base as before. The next day back to Livsjøen to pick up the rest of my food and equipment. Once more my backpack weighed 35 kgs.

Even though the weather was lousy, it felt good to be in place. Fishing was good, so I had enough food for dinner. There were two periods of two days continuous heavy rain and strong wind, when life in the tent became a bit troublesome. I had two sets of rainwear, so that I could get out and move about, and then again get inside the tent to change to war and dry clothing. No risk of being bored, with radio, audiobooks, Kindle book reader and music.

Then there was a longer stretch of weather with a blue sky, but with strong winds. At one point, when I had caught so much fish that there was no point in fishing, I headed against the wind for a mountaintop in the south. The wind was so strong that I had difficulties staying on my feet, so found it safest to return what I was half way.

I did not see many animals: I saw three starved reindeer, a beautiful red fox at short range and quite a lot of ptarmigan. A mouse stared helping itself to my dry food inside my tent, so that I had to keep it in the inner tent during the night. Problem solved when I managed to kill it with a sandal.

I caught a lot of trout, but much of it a bit small. The biggest was 0.6 kgs until there was a period when the fish began striking in a half-hearted manner, just nipping at the hook or letting go before I could land it in my net. The day before I stopped fishing altogether I had just lost two fine trout, when a big one struck. So I ran it very carefully for ten minutes before I could land it. Definitely the absolute highlight of the whole trip.

I met only one single human being during the whole trip, a youth who set up his tent on the opposite side of Holmtjønna.

At the end a started running out of food. Bread, muesli, fish soup and coffee among other. Pipe tobacco and brandy barely enough until the end. I routinely drink one small glass of brandy after I hit the sack. Thus I have something to look forward to the whole day.

26. August I took the second and last turn down from the mountain. My backpack, with some additional fish and cloudberry felt incredibly heavy and I struggled to get it on my back. I stopped for fifteen minutes halfway during the four-hour hike back to the boat and picked half a litre more of cloudberry. When I finally made it back to the boathouse, I weighed it and found that it was 50.8 kgs. I do not quite understand how I made it: It was painful and not very wise. Nevertheless I was happy to note that I have not yet been fully debilitated.

I do not know anyone crazy enough to go alone and establish a base for a lengthy period in the mountain. Most people are more lightly equipped and move about more. My project is more like an advanced camping trip. I feel it is necessary to have good equipment, varied food and a little luxury. Then the load to carry quickly becomes too heavy to carry.

I aim at repeating my adventure also next year (when I hopefully will be 75), if my health allows it. My back and legs seem to keep up, but my head is not quite there. Lacking short-term memory keep me looking for misplaced items most of the time. We shall see. The mountain farmer Christian Gjefsjø talks about getting a horse in a couple of years. Then I can possibly rent it to pack my stuff to my base.

Conclusion: Another successful holiday.