What I Did on My 50th Birthday
I've been skiing one way or another since I was 8 years old, but in all those years (even the winter I worked at a ski area in Australia) I have never been skiing on my birthday (June 5). So while many people might choose to throw a big party and indulge in excess of one kind or another, I told my family I wanted to keep it simple: just me, family, dog, and a snow-covered mountain -- the last item being not particularly hard to find in Norway in June.
To keep it within a weekend time frame, we chose Blåhø, at 1671 meters the highest peak in central Trollheimen and one we had been near a couple of times without getting to the top. That's it behind me and Sebastian -- not really that impressive but on the other side there are some nice skiable slopes with lates season snow.
We stayed Friday night at Gjevilvasshytta, then hiked up to a campsite at the snow line carrying skis and camping gear on Saturday. Then Molly and I put on our skis and headed up the mountain. On the way up we met this monstrous rock.
It was just clouding in as we made the top, so we couldn't see much. But we had a nice, albeit a bit short, run down.
As Molly was traversing a steep, convex slope low on the mountain, she suddenly dropped completely out of sight! All I heard was her disembodied voice calling for me. She had discovered and 2.5 meter deep 'stretch crack' hidden under the snow surface. She clambered out without any ill effects and we continued down to camp.
My birthday supper was steak cooked over an 'engangsgrill' (disposable grill) in blowing rain, with scalloped potatoes, salad, and a tall-boy of Clausthaler. Luxury!
A few days later Nancy threw me a surprise 'proper' birthday party, with Gunnar and Christophe and their families and our neighbors Sigrunn and Svein Åge in attendance. Very hyggelig!