Section 02. Breheimen

February 27, 2026

Day 05. Pollfoss to Sota Seter. 24 km. 8 hours. 440m up. 330 m down. It was bright and sunny when we woke in the somewhat overdesigned hotel room. After breakfast we set off down the track we had come up yesterday. It eventually led to a small hydropower station and the local farmer had spread grit on the snowy surface so we had to walk for 1.5 km until we reached a junction in the pine woods. Here we left the gritted track and immediately crossed the mostly frozen river on a bridge to the SE bank. There was a snow-covered track here where someone had been skiing a week or two ago and we followed their tracks which had been largely obscured by a few smaller snow falls.

Initially my skis and skins worked well and I got some glide, and Stuart got a great glide and shot off. However as the temperatures increased the snow started to ball on the thin mohair skin under my skis until it was impossible to ski. There were huge clods of snow compacted onto the underside of the skis some 5-10 centimetres deep. It was like walking on platform shoes. I stopped and took the skins off but even with bare skis there was still enough stickiness in the snow to stick to the residual glue of the skins and some old wax, and I had to scrape the skis to stop it compacting on the underside again. It was slow hard work and I was sweating just in a shirt in the plus 5 celcius temperatures.

After 4 km I caught Stuart up as he had stopped at Framrustiseter. It was a stunning collection of some 40 old wooden buildings, all made of logs, which had been used as summer farms for centuries. Their gnarly log walls shone golden against the white fields that surrounded them, and their turf roofs were covered in snow. It was here we were to leave the track and head up a much smaller snow covered track over the ridge to the Ostri Valley. This track was not long, perhaps 4 kilometres but it involved 100 metres of ascent and 150 descent over a saddle at Bråtååsen. The climb up was immensely difficult. The snow was rotten and the ski poles could go in half a metre. The skis luckily only went half that before the sugary snow was compressed enough to take out weight. We took it in turns to plough a furrow up here in the warm temperatures and blazing sun. Every step was a huge effort. Even without skins I was getting enough grip in the sticky snow to push my moving foot forwards. Soggy snow even stuck to the tops of the skis. It was like wading through treacle with diving fins on. After a good hour we reached the saddle just 1.5 km from the junction and started down the other side. It was much easier now and soon we came across someone else’s ski tracks. We followed a zig-zag of tracks leading to past working farms to the main road in the Ostri valley.

There were some 5-6 farms here in this rural hamlet. They smelt of sillage as humming machines kept the sheep inside the barns ventilated and provided them with fodder. I had hoped to also ski the road here, but it was bare wet asphalt for 2 km until the end of the public road and we had to walk to the turning place at the barrier where the private track continued up the valley. This track had not been salted and was still covered in a layer of compacted snow about 5 cm deep where the machine had cleared it. It was difficult to ski on as the skis just went sideways as easily as forwards. However initially there was a lovely kilometre descent where the track gently dropped SW into the valley, which came up to meet it. We kept our skis on here and flew down.

Once on the valley floor through there swift easy section was over and we still had some 12 km to go on this track to Sota seter. We tried various combinations of skins on and off, wax and even taking the ski off and walking. All seemed of equal speed. Occasionally there was a longer downhill section where it was worthwhile putting skis on for the effortless kilometre but by and large it was easiest to walk. When we reached the north end of Liavatnet, where the outlet of the lake was spanned by a beautiful old rustic wooden bridge I decided to walk while Stuart continued with skins on. He was only marginally faster than me. It was a long and somewhat tedious walk on the compacted snow road but there was enough interest in the small cabins along the road and the views over the frozen lake. Towards the end we were also rewarded with views up to the south where the giant monolith of Tverrådalskyrkja, 2088m, loomed above everything. After a tiring day we at last reached the cosy lodge at Sota Seter where we were to spend the night.

Sota Seter is one of the DNT flagship lodges and it is staffed. Its old buildings are arranged around a yard with about 10 buildings in all. It was once the biggest summer farm in a collection of summer farms and its outbuildings were the traditional collection of a stabbur (larder), fjosset (barn) as well as the bake house and blacksmith workshop which were always separate in case they caught fire. There was another group just arriving and they were sleeping in the stabbur. They were doing an avalanche awareness course. We were shown a more perfunctory, less traditional building with plenty of space and great bunks.

Later that evening 3 Norwegians arrived. They were all in their 60s and exceptionally strong, active sportsmen. They were a group of friends who often did tours together and they had a vast knowledge, great humour and were typically modest like many older Norwegians. They were a delight, and we and them shared an affinity as we sat together for dinner. The only thing worrying us was the weather forecast – it was just too warm and the snow would be melting for the next week or so, certainly below 1200 metres. However these 3 exceptionally experienced Norwegians also wanted to ski to Nørstedalseter. We would follow in their experienced footsteps after we all took a day off tomorrow.  It was set to rain and finding a way out of the forest would just be too exhausting in the rotten sugar-snow.

Day 06. Sota Seter weather day. 0 km. 0 hours. 0m up. 0 m down.  We had decided to have a day off at Sota Seter as it was forecast to rain. It was overcast and 5 so it was not unlikely. It was extraordinary weather. The last time I was here was also in March, 8 years ago, and then the temperature was minus 39. The three very experienced Norwegians were also taking a day off as one of them needed to repair a binding. However the 8 or so younger people on the avalanche awareness course also staying here decided to go up the hillside through the forest in the direction we would be going tomorrow. If nothing else they would make a great trail for us tomorrow, although in these temperatures the snow would still be wet and sugary.

Breakfast was not until 0800 and it was a large buffet type breakfast. I ate well knowing this would be lunch also. Thereafter Stuart, myself and the 3 Norwegians, Anders, Terje and Erik sat in the cosy smaller living room and chatted for a couple of hours. The three Norwegians were very accomplished but they were modest and you had to extract their achievements from them, but the also shone through. We had a good natured chat with the occasional look out of the window at the others breaking trail up the hill. It was poor weather and the expecterd rain was indeed gently falling in some of the most unseasonal weather I have ever seen.

In the afternoon Stuart went for a small ski while I did the blog and other office work and then we chatted with the 3 Norwegians again. It was a very convivial afternoon chatting infront of the birch logs burning quietly on the open fire. A few more people arrived in the evening just as the drizzle was turning to snow which was a good sign. I was still worried about the climb up to Fortuns Glacier tomorrow and the descend from the bottom of the glacier on the south side but we should be a few hundred metres higher and hopefully the snow was not so rotten up there. Dinner was again at 2000, which was relatively late, but it was woth waiting for. There were about 20 of us at the table now, most when to bed soon after but I stayed up to write a bit more.

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