OVER HARDANGERVIDDA 2026
FOLLOW MIKE, JASON, FRASER, TOM, DOUG & ANDERS
Day 0: SOON YOU CAN FOLLOW THE JOURNEY HERE 🤗
Soon everybody will gather all their stuff and head nprth. really far north for this epic crossing of Hardangervidda.
If you in the meantime want to read more about what they have signed up for, follow this link :-)
Day 1: READY-STEADY-GO!
After doing gear check on Saturday, the whole team met up at the central station on Sunday. Logistics is always a bit of work, but we got all our gear on to the train and departed for Finse.
After a quite four hour train ride, we arrived at Finse in wet and rainy weather. Fortunately the appartment is just a short walk away from the trains station. To our surprise, we were met by Børge himself at the apartment. Everybody got to say hello, Børge told us a bit about his expeditions, before headed home to Oslo.
The rest of us got started rigging our tents, packing breakfast and organizing our sleds. Really efficient team, so we were more or less ready by dinner time. Bellies full, we went to bed early.
Today we got an early breakfast at the hotel, before checking the stoves. At 10 o’clock we were packed and ready, and are starting our trip of warm and sunny conditions.
Best for team running caps (Doug brought us all caps from his running club)
Day 2: SPACTACULAR START
After a beautiful sunny morning, the clouds came in around lunchtime. And with it some wet snow on and off. But temperatures were good, and we had visibility over the spectacular terrain around us.
We are now 10 km away from Kjeldebu, and ready for an early start in the morning.
Day 3: first test
Today started out with quite a bit of snow and wind. But as we progressed throughout the day, the snow stopped and the clouds lifted. Close to lunchtime we descended down to Kjeldebu, a really nice DNT-cabin in the mountains.
Today had quite a bit of climbing and steep terrain, but by the end of the day we moved onto the flatter part of the mountain plateau. Hopefully we can make some distance the next days.
Day 4: Hard day’s work
The Team really got tested today. Headwind, snowdrift, and partly whiteout made for hard work, and everybody was happy to camp at the end of the day.
A few feet needed taping, and everybody had to push their boundaries when it came to tackling, understanding, and acquainting themselves with skiing in windy conditions. Very impressive effort from all.
Now they have passed Sandhaug and are heading for Hellevassbu!
Day 5: pushing westwards
The storm that has been hammering the Norwegian west coast has certainly not made life easier for our skiers at ‘vidda’.
Day 5 was again brutal and hard work as they skied into fierce wind with whiteout and snow. But kudos to all. They stood out the full day, even if they needed to dig deep and ended up doing over 15km as they now set their sight on Hellevasbu!
Camp 6
Hard day’s work again as the wind intensified and especially all the snow that has fallen lately ‘dancing’ around them.
So they took it easy and even camped a bit earlier to get some good rest as the plan is now to push on Saturday. This will hopefully set them up for reaching the bus on Sunday ;-)
CAMP 7 N 59.895380° E 7.277455°
As the weather cleared up a bit, the team got in a solid day of skiing, camping some 10km from Haukeliseter. It really seems they have the fire back in their belly now, with their sight firmly set on the end destination.
At 06:30, they were on their skis, intent on getting there in time for the express bus back to Oslo. But they will need to dig deep as they will face a strong breeze from the south with much stronger gusts and snowfall.
They will really have earned this crossing!
day 8 - REACHING THE DESTINASTION
They made it! The ‘rise with the sun (or before it), go for broke, paid off. The weather continued to throw spanners in the works, but after negotiating the daunting last downhill to Haukeliseter, they had a full hour to change, sort out equipment, grab a snack, and board the bus.
The reports have not emerged from the bus ride, but if there has ever been a possibility to sleep on a bus, it must have been on this journey.
We here at the Ousland homebase are impressed. We are happy that the first couple of days showed them a bit of how beautiful this trip is. That they were later on constantly tested as a huge storm battered the Norwegian west coast must go down as a formidable learning experience. They hung in there, kept going, and will have enhanced their skills, their understanding of digging deep, and their mental strength enormously.
Well done and keep pushing! – Safe travel home! 🙏