Escape to Dividal

All quiet in the morning, and even some blue sky, so we're off to Dividalshytta today. With the sun and blue skies in front of us there were some nice photo opportunities early on, but looking behind was a different story.

It certainly turned into a changeable day. As we were crossing from one valley into the next over Jalggohas we had poor visibility, but while searching for a descent route it cleared enough for us to see we'd strayed too close to Bumannsberget and there was a line of cliffs barring our descent to the valley! A wee dog-leg to the north found a more suitable route.

The sun then shone again and we had a "compulsory" stop to enjoy the view. We must thank AkkuV for the help he gave us while we were organising this trip, but one bit of advice he gave that was oft repeated among us was to take time to enjoy the mountains and not just concentrate on getting from A to B. So in the lee of Stuora Nanna we had a wee AkkuV break, watching the spindrift fly off the top of Jerta. We knew that once we rounded the corner that wind would be meeting us head on.

So off round the corner, into the wind, then up through the cleavage between Jerta and Little Jerta (after a while in the wilderness you start having these fantasies!). An excellent navigational effort from Kathy and Rancidand with the odd interjection from Mick got us through this and round behind Little Jerta and in view of Dividalshytta. There was just a wee problem though it was 150m below us, through deep snow and birch trees. The next forty minutes was just great farce as we each individually tried to find a decent line down and all failing completely - great fun!

Today was the day of the reported Severe Arctic Storms that brought Northern Norway to a halt. In a Norwegian version of the report the rescue team leader was reported as saying "no local would have ventured out with that weather forecast". Mmmm, just as well we didn't have a weather forecast then.

Today's photo is of the ascent of Jerta's cleavage.

Rancidand's Version