A Few Observations on Hut to Hut Touring

Having just returned from my first hut to hut tour, I jotted down a few thoughts while the trip was fresh in my mind.

Boots

Scarpa T3. Much has been written in the pages of this august journal about the merits (and otherwise) of T3s. here's my two- kroner's worth.

The first time I used my T3s was to ski (in the dark) from Finse station to Finse hut, carrying a huge sac, on new skis. By the time I reached the hut (all of half a kilometer), I was already doubting the wisdom of using brand new boots for this trip. They felt very tight, hurt my ankle bones, and rubbed my heels. However, that was as bad as they got. With padded ankles and heels, the boots got more and more comfortable as time went on. The inner boots compressed a little, and became a very good fit after a couple of days. I didn't get any blisters at all, wearing the boots day after day for 10 days. They continued to press on my ankle bones, and I think I'll take them back to Braemar to have them boiled and stretched a bit.

Overall, I am very pleased with my T3s. They give excellent control on downhills, keep the feet warm and dry, and the inners are ideal as hut boots. They are just as good as my soft, old, leather boots for diagonal stride, and they are also ok for skating in. The main problem is noise. They squeak nearly all the time while skiing, and it's impossible to put them on or take them off without making a lot of noise - a problem for other people trying to sleep if you need to get up in the night to visit the inconveniences. I also found them a bit restrictive for herringboning and side stepping compared to lower boots, because there is no side to side flexibility at all at the ankle.

On balance, I'm convinced of the merits of the T3 for touring, they aren't perfect, but for me, they are a very good pair of boots.

Weight

Too much Despite packing several times for this trip, I still ended up carrying the best part of 40lb on my back. Unfortunately, having reviewed what I took, everything would go again. I wore all of the clothes that I took, and the only things that I didn't use were emergency items like sleeping bag, mat and bivi bag. It wasn't carrying the weight that was the main problem, it was the effect on skiing confidence on the downhills. With that much weight on your back, any mistake is much more serious, as the sac drags you off balance. Uphill and on the flat the weight is less of a problem. I don't think there is any answer to this, other than to take downhills more cautiously - I certainly have no intention of skiing with a 40lb sac on a dry slope for practice.

Hut food

Is remarkably good. Boiled potatoes feature strongly on the menu, and the puddings are generally uninspiring, but apart from that, we were well fed. Evening meals are a fixed menu, breakfasts a typical Norwegian buffet. Even in the remote huts there was cereal and milk, bread, meats, cheeses and jams. The most memorable meal was at the one unserviced hut we stayed in. Jayne & I produced a magnificent concoction from frozen tins of meatballs and bacon and beans, which strangely did not seem to attract the same appreciation from the rest of the group as did the salmon steaks in the next hut. This was also the only day that all the vegetables didn't get polished off, as if there's something wrong with dried carrots! There's just no accounting for taste... The serviced huts all sell essentials like chocolate, so there is no need to take stocks of that.

Navigation

We were usually following 'kvisted' or sticked routes, so navigation was generally easy, though we did of course have all the usual electronic gadgets so that we could disagree about position and altitude. The sticks don't always go the same way as they are marked on the map, so continuous navigation is important. You need to make sure that the way you want to go is actually sticked. One route marked as being sticked on the maps wasn't. We later discovered that it was only sticked from early April. DNT do publish dates of when all the routes are sticked. Even following sticks requires caution. In poor visibility sudden drop-offs can be invisible, until the person in front suddenly vanishes (as happened to us on two occasions). At one point I couldn't see the next stick due to fogged goggles, and shortly afterwards fell over while standing still because I couldn't tell whether I was moving or not.

Waxing

We went through quite a range of waxes: green, blue, wet snow, klister and back to blue. I was using Swix 'cera' hard waxes, which purport to stay on the ski better, and pick up less rubbish than the standard grip waxes. They stayed on the ski reasonably well, even on single cambered skis, but seemed to be harder to apply. I don't remember ever having any trouble applying blue extra in the cold, but the blue cera wax was very hard to put on out in the cold. Keeping the wax warm in a pocket helped, as did corking the ski before waxing. Better still was waxing in a warm hut, but that's not always possible.

Skis

Morotto Dolomiti These were much wider skis than I had ever toured on before. Dimensions are 71-59-65, and they have quite a soft camber. Despite this, they held wax well, and have good straight line stability, as well as excellent turning ability. They are not as fast as my old Asnes MT54s on the flat, but the increased control on downhills more than compensates for this. They are soft and wide enough to be quite adequate on piste. Overall a good ski for mountain touring, and a good match for the T3s, though the combination may be too heavy for some.

author: Nick Davies
publish date: May 1998

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