Rostakulen and Midteraksia - Where is Kyle Miller?

Linking up Rostakulen and Midteraksia

While a small distance away from the Tamok Husset both Rostakulen and Midteraksia offer some of the best easy access North facing slopes in the Tamokdalen Valley. Everytime you ski tour up to Istinden Ridge you have a perfect view of the area. The ridge itself is both scenic and safe from avalanches as long as you stay on the ridge. The season before I had done a similar trip but this time around I wanted to link them up.

We started our trip under cloudy skies but the forecast called for it to turn to blue skies in the afternoon. From the moment we left the car we followed the Cross Country skiing trail before heading into the woods and started gaining elevation while sticking to the west side of the creek basin.

As we made our way towards the Midteraksia Basin we finally got our first view of Rostakulen above. It was hard to tell how snow conditions would be up higher but we could see a clear route to the summit on the upper slopes.

Once getting to tree line we found ourselves on the main crux of the basin. We had two choices of ascent. Eithier we could climb directly up the gully or a longer wrap around to the upper slopes before loosing a bit of elevation. Knowing that the gully was a terrain trap we spaced out made a low angle skin track around and to the ridge area.

By now the weather had improved dramatically and finally we were back in the sunshine. Happy to be past the crux we gathered the group together in a safe place and made our plans for ascending.

After a few minutes it was time to get moving placing in a skin track that minimized exposure to potential avalanches. From our perspective we could tell that it would be great snowboard conditions on the upper slopes.

Once on the ridge we had an amazing view of Háhttagáisi across the valley. The season earlier we had attempted to ski the South Chute but were turned around by snow conditions. It was my plan/hope to return to this mountain a bit later this season.

Making our way to the high point a band of clouds came in and made visibility hard. After waiting for around 30 minutes strapped to our snowboards we had to make a call. We still wanted to climb Rostakulen but time was getting short so it was time to get moving.

With flat light conditions we loosely followed our skin track back down to the base of the upper basin before chatting about our route options.

Earlier in the morning we were thinking we could ride down to tree line before starting our ascent. Looking into the alpine we were able to see a upper route that would shave off an hour and a few kilometers. After bootpacking up an additional 300 feet we did a snowboard traverse to the upper plateau of Rostakulen before switching to skinning.

I had learned the hard way the year before that instead of staying high on a steep sidehill we would stay lower on the flats. Once we wrapped around to the base of the Upper face of Rostakulen we switched over to crampons and planned our route.

It was decided that we would climb next to the rocks to minimize the snowload under our feet and keep us relatively safe while ascending.

We broke the slope down to three different sections and switched off on bootpacking accordingly. I put in the tracks on the lower apron, Titti took the middle section and Jukkis led the way up the final slopes before making it to the top of the North face.

Making it to the top of Rostakulen we switched our snowboards over to ride mode and took in the views. Our plan was to be ready in case the slopes started glowing.

As we made our last few steps towards the summit the sun was buried in a cloud deck. From what we could see there was a small chance that when it lowered we would be able to snowboard in the sunset alpenglow.

30 minutes later when the sun had nearly set we got a faint alpenglow and before long Jukkis was dropping into the main chute. The upper slopes were a bit firm with windpacked powder but we could tell from his speed down to the lower flats the snow improved down lower.

After Jukkis was at a safe place it was my time to drop in. By now we were in a race with the darkness as we still had some tree skiing below.

As we had thought the conditions dramatically improved down lower with chalky steep turns from the top of the chute to the bottom. After a few turns through the rocks I was in the wide open basin below.

After both Jukkis and I had met up it was time for Titti to snowboard down. By know the sun was below the horizon and after a few seconds we were riding back towards the car.

Riding down the upper pleatea we wrapped around the lower cliff band before riding down into the trees. Finding some of the best snow of the trip there we made the most out of the steeper terrain before doing a long traverse back towards our car. In the end our route turned out perfect riding almost directly back to the car on the road.

The trip had gone smooth and it was fun to link up Rostakulen and Midteraksia. Not only was it two classic lines but adding Rostakulen at the end of the day made a much more pleasant exit.