Powder Day on Blåbærfjellet

It was both a bit awesome and frustrating seeing the snow pile up outside of our window. When I first arrived at Tamokhuset there was a weak layer in the snowpack and after weeks it was finally gone only to have almost a meter of new snow and more coming in the forecast. At the time we were quarantined next to the Blåbærfjellet trailhead as one of our members had caught the Corona virus and we kept watching group after group skin by before we decided to head that way.

It was around noon before we walked out of the house and put our skiis on. We had cleaned the snow off the car on the left the night before and it was once again covered in snow.

Our plan was to head for the lower pipes and just make the most out of the day. By then there was at least 4 separate groups on the mountain and before long we hit a junction in the skin track. We could either head to the left hand side or the right, we chose to head off to the right.

Since the snow was deep we decided to follow another groups skin tracks through the trees and once we started climbing they rode past us in one of the gullies. Watching them ride by it was blatantly obvious that the snow was good and there hoots and hollers just confirmed it.

Once on the top of the tree line we could see that the previous group went to the left so once again we focused our attention to the right. There was more then enough terrain for each group to have fresh tracks.

Jukkis and I made a deal that each lap we would trade off who took photos so I dropped down about 1/3 of the run and set up for shots. Soon enough I saw his blue jacket with powder clouds billowing behind him.

Arriving at the bottom of the run we decided to put in our own skin track. While the old one was direct it was a bit steeper then we liked so we put in switchback after switchback before arriving back on top of treeline.

Once back at our old transition spot we skinned a few meters higher so we could traverse out to another gully. Once we chatted about what line to ride Jukkis laying down some nice powder turns and I counted to 60 before dropping in.

For our third run we had spotted a gully right next to our skin track that was still untouched. On our way up we had quickly chatted with another group and we all agreed “That is your zone and this is our zone” and everyone was happy to not worry about others tracking out the gullies next to there skin track. Before long we dropped into some steep trees knowing that the terrain opened up below.

Throughout the day we could hear groups shouting in excitement as they made there runs but it was eerily quite as we made our way up for our final run. Knowing we would be riding all the way to the house we decided to ride to the right to minimize traversing down low with Jukkis dropping in first to take photos.

There is something special about riding powder mid storm when it hasn’t had a chance to consolidate. There had been somewhere around 20 people on the mountain yet we barely had seen anyone throughout the day. If it wasn’t for hearing people shouting we would have thought there were only two groups in the area but that is the beauty of Blåbærfjellet. Not only is it some of the best tree skiing around but it is so wide that you can easily find a zone to have all to yourself.

Thanks For Reading this and here is a link if you want to check out more

Ski Tours in the Tamokdalen area

Options for Other Ski Tours Tours Abroad

Snowboarding in the Cascade Mountains

Japan Powder Pilgrimage

Ski Tours in New Zealand

Exploring the Khibney Mountains of Russia

Lyngen and Lofoten in Northern Norway

And Other Random Places

Huge Thanks to Jarkko, Christel and Aadne for having me help take care of the Tamokhuset.