HARDANGERVIDDA 2025

John, Lukasz, Stanislaw, Matthew, Roma, Tautvydas, Peter, Kestutis & Ine Lill

DAY -1, OSLO / Brynje

Busy day in Oslo. Everybody meet up at the central Station before getting into action.

As always, we had the Brynje Flagship store as our Basecamp. Apart from being centrally situated, it also has every bit and bobs we may have missed out on, besides the mesh underwear we all (almost swear to.

After buying food, it was down to packing, chatting, briefing, and getting ready for the train tomorrow. The only one missing was Ine Lill herself. She is already up at Finse, so Sindre, Kathinka, and Johan were at hand for the day. Then Johan will join in on the train ride.

Stay tuned.

DAY 0, OSLO TO FINSE

This morning, everyone gathered at Oslo Central Station. Sindre (nr 2 from the left) waved and wished everyone good luck as they boarded the 11:45 train.

Around 16:30, they will arrive at the historic Finse Station, the highest point in the Bergen line at 1222m.
A gentle breeze, -1°C and a bit of sun will greet them. There Ine Lill will meet them and they will get down to work to be 100% ready to go tomorrow morning.

Stay tuned!

Day 1, Monday, Finse

Last prepare before take of! The team spirit is reported to be very good this morning. It is snowing with some 4ms easterly wind and m-5°C.

Apart from partly reduced visibility, it is back to a great winter again after last week’s storm and rain.

Wish them a great crossing!

Day 1, N 60.509048° E 7.615757°

Team Arctic Squirrels are happy in the tent after a good day of skiing in the snow and wind. 13 kilometres is a good distance in 12 centimetres of snow and a good little breeze from the east!
We did not stress and are enjoying the skiing. Unfortunately, Peter chose to leave us halfway through the day. He will ski around Finse for a couple of days.

Tomorrow, we will wake up at 6:00 and start skiing at 9:00. It seems like another day of light snow :-)

day 2, 60.419322, 7.526686

A very happy and impressed Ine Lill enthused that the Arctic Squirrels were all good to go two minutes to nine! That is mighty impressive for being the first full winter camp morning.

They worked hard through the day in deep snow, soft dunes, and pretty steep up- and down-hills. It snowed less than expected, the wind was gentle, and they even thought they saw a glimpse of the sun!

Now for a relaxed evening and diiiiiinner!

Stay tuned!

Day 3, N 60.270191° Ø 7.528553°

John is writing:

The day started as usual at 6am. Coffee and Børge’s delicious porridge, then prepare everything for the day, pack and ready the pulls.
Started out with low clouds and some fog with a gentle breeze and snow.

A steep climb over a saddle meant we needed to take the skis off be on just boots for the climb.
Back on skis we made good progress at 3km/h.  Another long, icy uphill climb to the high point then down to the road by Dyranut Hut.

The cafe was open so the team voted for a quick coffee and cake.

Back on the trail, the weather clears and into a much flatter and wide open plateau. What a fantastic afternoon. Blue sky, sunshine and no wind. What a special and stunning place!

Now camping under clear skies and a full moon.

Day4 - N 60.148301° E 7.322774°

 Matt is writing:

Crisp morning today with some cold toes after -20° last night. A solid first half of the day with some long flat sections to pick up some good distance, and then the hills started… after 3 hours of pretty much nonstop climbing, we had a  long ski down to a picturesque lake and quickly set up camp for the night :-)

From Ine-Lill:

The first two nights in the tent we were ready to go at 9 am. Today we started at 8.30 am! The team is really getting the hang of winter travel, and efficiency is uppened every day.

We set up camp around 5 pm, that way we get a little bit of sun on the tent before we eat dinner.

Sticks that normally mark this route are not set up yet; we make tracks. Great feeling. But a bit more work and, but so much better for increasing navigation skills.

Stay tuned!

Day 5, N 59.982927° E 7.215228°

On March 14th we skied 32 km! We were somewhat behind schedule and decided to push a bit. So, we extended the day by two hours and got two fantastic sessions in the evening light and a full moon. Magical and completely unforgettable.
A tired group decided to take up camp at Hellevassbu.

Tomorrow is the last day towards Haukeliseter – but by the looks of it, in completely different weather conditions. Moderate gale from the west with gusts at 19 m/s and light snow await tomorrow.

Wish us luck :-)

Day 6, Haukeliseter – the end!

Tautvydas 16 years old is writing:
Today was the hardest and most challenging day out of all. We started early because we slept in a hut, which was very nice, but my legs were really sore and tired.
At first it was very nice and mostly flat or downhill but then we began climbing a very tall mountain and the problems began. My sled was not balanced properly and constantly tipped to one side, so it made climbing the mountain very challenging. I had to walk most of it walking straight up and even then, I was having a very hard time.
My mom really helped me out to balance, which was really nice.
After that, we had only downhill left which was also a good adventure with my sleigh rolling a couple of times, but it was fun. After arriving and having a good beer we finally got the long-awaited shower and awesome burgers for dinner.

Postscript drom our 16 years old:

The trip in itself was very interesting, fun and quite challenging. The skiing in itself was very enjoyable most of the time with some very beautiful views and a lot of good pictures but the hard part of the trip was the setting up tents and boiling water and handling other equipment. We spent a lot of time and effort organising everything and it was always stressful because we had to constantly rush to be able to start on time or boil the water before it gets too dark. Overall the trip was a tough but very good experience to go through that everyone enjoyed to at least some extent.

Ine-Lill postscript:

An amazing trip is over. Hardangervidda gave us everything we wanted in terms of challenges and fantastic nature. Wind and a lot of snow, whiteout, sun and perfect light snow, uphill and downhill slopes, fantastic sunrises, skiing in the full moon, and many animal tracks. Temperatures of minus 22 gave us a real feeling of polar expedition. Thank you for a wonderful trip with ‘Arctic Squirrels’!
P.S. We saw no other traces of squirrels than our own.

postscript from lucas:

So we finished the Hardangervidda crossing.

Ine-Lill lead us and gave us the vital information through the journey … what to do to survive and have fun at the same time. The plateau means that you go up and down constantly, except of the lakes where the tempo rises. From 6 to 11 hours of skiing and pulling the sled. Up and down.

And 10 min breaks with Ine warning ‘two minutes left’ start bukling up. Time only to chew on the chocolate and dring a gulp of water …

But the experience was great. We had all kinds of weather snow on the first days, then extra ordinary sunshine and blue sky and the last day gale wind. Temperatures reaching -20-25 during the night. I could feel ice forming on my mustache while sleeping. But the sleeping bag was comfortable and I was cosy and warm. The scenery was magnificent and the tempo was just right (I am not an ultra marathon runner 🤣) to enjoy.

Great experience but you need to feel comfortable on tour skies to go down the slope with a heavy sled in deep snow.

Day 3 was the most difficult, but on day 6 I got used to the rhythm so I could go on and on …

And night skiing with the amazing moon rising up from behind the hills..

Great adventure

Thanks to Ine and all the team ‚Arctic Squirrels’