Saturday I was prepared for a cloudy day with "flat" and boring light, without any contrast. After a couple of days with heavy snowfall and wind, Thursday came with warmer weather, + 4-5 degrees celsius. Saturday, the rain had stopped and we got less clouds and fog. It was no wind and the temperature was around 0 degrees. Anyway, no excuse to blame the weather and sit home. We found our backpack and skis and out we go.
Because of the mild weather and rain the snow was a little wet with a thin layer of ice on the top. Under such conditions it is difficult to wax. Short skins under the ski and you can go without any trouble. Not so fast downhill tohugh.
As you can see there is still cloudy, with a little lightening ahead of us.
Even the snow was quite firm after days with higher temperatures Nero still sank and preferred to go behind us. The only reason he is ahed of us is because I stopped and watched the sunlight in the mountain in front, and of course had to take a picture.
When we came further inward the mountain the cloud cover eased gradually and the low sun striked the landscape.
The light got quite nice under the heavy clouds, shining on the little peak in the background.
As i said it was no wind and a mild day. Even the birds startet to sing in the woods. They may got an easter feeling like us. But that is just a trick, within few days it can be bitterly cold again.
A touch of green in the middle of the white. Maybe some candidates for Christmas trees :-)
The hike got more and more enjoyable, stroll skiing inward the mountain looking at the sunny landscape.
We had several days with lots of wind and snow. The road crossing the mountain from Norway to Sweden was closed almost five days. The wind packed the snow, and formed drifts on the leeward of the terrain. When the temperature rose and the rain came, the snow sank and got more packed. The result is lots of snow waves. The waves make the landscape quite special and fascinating.
I could not find a English word for this great snow wave, in Norwegian we call it "snøskavel". Is it snow drift.. or?
The track you can see to the left is from a wolf just crossing, or more likely our dog Nero as had to check something around the small trees. Maybe smell from a grouse.
The promise of lighter and warmer days in the future. As mentioned in yesterdays post, this was my first sight of the sun this year. It felts veeery good.
A small group of birch in the sun.
More stange waves in the snow. The low sun brings out the shape.
On the way back home we followed this little valley...
...to this lake. Here is the pattern in the snow a little different and less "wavelike"
At the at the small headland, we took a little rest, drank water and eat some peanuts. Before we went from home we thought the weather was not the finest to sit down, but there we thought wrong.
The water was open at the inlet of the lake. Probably because of periods of rain.
A snow feather.
The last view of the mountains before we went down from the mountain. A beautiful day out, and 8 km skiing in untouched snow.
Hope you enjoy skiing and have a great day.
Best regards
Harald