Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

A long time ago Wooderson (or lilCliffy?) asked me to put up a post of what gear we take on our northern pulk trips. As I am packing for Norway/Swedenright now I finally did it.

Sleds

Pulk: Jet Sled Jr, 20"x43"x8" (108x50cm) , 6.2lbs. (2.8kg) w/cover. modified with: fiberglass traces (poles) with ball-joints attachments to sled and harness. 4 webbing straps added across the top cover.
-We created a flat, square stuff-bag with a velcro closure along the length of the open edge- when we park the pulks for the night (and stake them down) we put this bag over the hip-belt/ harness on the end of the poles- this way we don't have to fiddle with reattaching the harness to the poles in the morning and messing with the metal pins etc., keeps it dry and the ice off it. We also keep the Bgreg in it to keep it dry. Anything you can do to avoid even simple taks is useful, in winter camping even simple tasks can be annoying, eliminate as many as you can, breaking camp is a big enough pain the ass.

Shelter:

-T
https://www.outinunder.com/content/mart ... washington
-Bothy Bag: 2 Person wind-shelter with vinyl window and tubular vents, can pull two pulks together sit on them and shelter from high winds- for map reading, eating lunch. making out. etc.) Bothy means lean-to in Scotland. You need good wind protection in Scandinavia the wind is frequently extremely strong and can blow for several days, it can be quite deranging if you can't take a break from it. Norwegians carry another kind of wind sack- see pic.
-Bivy bag: OR Helium lightweight GTX bag to keep sleeping bags dry in tent if we get in a situation we are dragging too much snow in with us and for use in a snow-cave if need be.

Sleeping:

-Bag: North Face Goose-down mummy bag. This is from way back when North Face actually made good gear (before the dude sold it). It weighs 4 lbs. in size long, has massive loft but I have no idea what the temp. rating is as I cut off all the tags in 1996 when I bought it at Gary Neptune's mountain shack. I don't know what model it is. I have used it at 70° North with no problems.
-Pads: I use three sleeping pads-
The first is 1/4" closed cell foam that is scored in the middle, taped, and folded over- this pad was trimmed to form-fit in the bottom of the pulk and serves as the floor of the pulk- this reduces noise, insulates the contents, and reduces shock to the cargo. In camp it folds out to +/- 2 meters long and is the first layer of sleeping pads.
The second pad is an Alps Mountaineering Z-pad, very thick, thicker than Ridge-rest (their new one is not). This is folded so it fits under the top-cover of the pulk and runs the length of the pulk- this allows us to sit on the pulks comfortably and cushions cargo from roll-overs, keeps things from protruding through the cover etc. We pack the pulks so no destructibles are lcocated in the middle section where one sits. At night this is the 2nd pad.
Third we have a Klimat Insulated Static V Luxe SL air mattress rated at 6.5 R-value (they are lying). These are wide enough so the two side by side take up the complete width of the tent, they have bands to hold them together and eliminate the center draft. Very comfortable.
-Misc: Pillow case for use in cabins (they have pillows) and in the tent stuffed with down jacket etc.

Cooking

-Stove: An Optimus Crux gas cannister stove designed for an inverted, mixed-gas (propane-butane) cannister. It has a heat exchanger pipe near the flame to warm the infeed gas, VERY IMPORTANT- when you light it make sure the Primus gas cannister is upright or it will shoot flames- you can invert the cannister after a few seconds. Works great at all temperatures that we have encountered. You do NOT need the more expensive Primus "Winter Gas". I asked Primus- the winter gas is the same gas misture as the summer gas- the difference being they built a fabric mesh inside the winter gas cannisters to increase the surface area for the gas to convert from liquid- the heat exchanger on the Crux does this far more efficiently rendering the winter gas redundant. So use standard canister gas- Primus, Coleman, etc. Thier Winter Gas cannister is good for upright cannister stoves. I hate liquid stoves, fiddly priming, dirty cleaning, spare parts, messy fuel. I also carry a spare stove a really ultra-light Primus, burns like a Jet-boil that is why it is the spare stove- I hate Jet-boils.
-Pots: a 3.7 liter pot/lid, a good size for melting snow. Two plastic dishes (with sides) nest in it- one on top and one on the bottom that protects the pot from the contents banging around inside- it holds the two stoves, a Primus gas cannister 2 plastic spoons, a light Swiss=Army knife (with corkscrew!!!) and two deep Scandi cups, and four plastic shot glasses.
-Thermos: 2x1 liter each + an insulated Nalgen bottle
-Misc. Two folding cups for on the trail. Two larger knives from Scandinavia (for swagger). A squeeze tube.

Clothing

-Base-layer: 2 silk undershirts, 2 merino wool briefs, 1 or 2 pairs of merino wool long-johns, 3 pairs of omni-wool socks (thick), 2 pairs of merino wool liner socks, 2 Craft wool-blend shirts with short zips- can be doubled.
-ski pants: Arcteryx soft shell pants with suspenders. I thought these were crazy expensive when I bought them for AT Touring in 2006, but it looks like they are going to outlast me. Super comfortable.
-Sweater: Thick Norwegian wool sweater with short zip, replaced a 300 wt. fleece North Face Denali Jacket which I do not miss. (better to have a full zipper sweater)
-Jacket: Norrona Svalbard Cotton Anorak with a fur ruff (Coyote, i hate those fuckers, one ate my cat). This is so comfortable to ski in, both my wife and I have them and wear them 60 or 70% of the time when we ski.
-Shell: I have a Goretex Pac-Lite Plus shell for bad weather- a slightly over-sized Patagonia Calcite jacket and Mountain Hardwear Exposure pants. Fits on over my anorak or over a lofty down coat. Works! and I like Yvon Chouinard's environmental policies and honesty (his prices not so much)- plus the missus knew him back in the day, before he disappeared down the multi-millionaire hole.
Sanctuary-Jacket: Montane down jacket, over-sized, very warm- lots of fill, Pertex outer fabric for water resistance. Best hood ever! This goes on over everything whenever we stop for any period of time. Super warm and fairly light weight. Sheds snow fairly well. Montane makes nice stuff.
-Gloves: I have a light pair of gloves with leather palms from Decathlon, 20 bucks and 7 years old going strong, well made. merino wool glove liner phone-freindly finger for navigation.
-Mittens: Handmade very thick ,carded Lovikka wool mittens (Sweden) for extreme cold. Swedish Army Surplus wool mittens- medium thickness ($8). Lil Sport (Norway) outer shell mitts with leather palms, very resistant but not 100% water proof, they have great breathability- never gotten wet in snow with them. Spare shell mitts- DLX membrane mitts, water-proof to 10,000mm. sometimes I bring very light work gloves for Sweden because in their cabins the wood is only cut to 1-meter lengths so you need to saw it- pisses me off because I am Catholic and do not suffer from the Protestant work ethic. In Norway the wood is stove-ready, kudos Norway, the Pope thanks you!
-Headwear: Wool hat with windproof ear-band, Lowe Alpine Mountain Cap- the classic. best flap hat ever- you see it all over Norway, light breathable, totally protective and also ugly as sin- wear for that real dork look. Balaclava- I have two one has nose protection, depends on where I am heading. Buff, I carry two. Headband.
Gaiters: Yeti gaiters (GTX over-boots) fitted over my Alpina Alaska boots.
-Camp/Cabin clothes: US Army M-65 insulated pants liners- super comfortable 10 bucks so ugly they are cool. They probably add 8 degrees to my sleeping bag, synthetic insulation booties- from Wiggy's- I pimped them with a mukluk lace system, Helsport Footbags, waterproof thin mukluk-like thingies that go over the booties when you are walking around camp in the snow or leaving the cabin to take a leak or gawk at Aurora Borealis. I love me footbags.

Other Gear:

-Eyewear- Sunglasses (with leash) and bright yellow ski googles. One pair of extra sunglasses per party.
Shovel: one each
-Light: headlamp- Petzl high power. Tent light. I bring a sexond headlamp- lighter, lower beam, for around camp, reading, etc. - I save the more powerful one in case I have to ski at night- shit happens..and has.
-Ski stuff- Universal glide wax, Glide wax for warm snow, skin wax, skins short and long, scraper, brush, Voile Straps (lots), ski poles- BD adjustable two piece with 120mm baskets
-Repair kit: To fix everything from pulks to bindings, poles, bases, etc. Rope, thick accessory cord, many uses including pulling the sleds if the traces fail (they never have to date).
-Navigation: Suunto Global base-plate Compass (adjustable declination) declination matters, paper maps, map case, Samsung XCover 3 waterproof phone with two change batteries running GPS app with offline maps, back up GPS- an old Garmin watch.
-Emergency- Garmin InReach Mini in latex housing, First Aid Kit, Pint of Cognac in plastic bottle. A DVA if needed, I have never needed one on my Nordic trips.
-Packs: Rab 120 Liter duffle with padded detachable shoulder- straps (I can put this pulk on my back to walk across plowed roads, etc.). This takes up most of the pulk but a 20 liter OR square zip stuff-sack rides in front of by the bow, the thermos bottles fit in the rear behind it- so if we need a drink the other skier can ski to the back of your pulk and get your bottle for you. I could carry +/-200 liters of cargo max without being too top heavy..
I have a 25 or 30L Burton backpack I wear sometimes other times I strap it above the cover of the pulk- my down jacket is in it snacks the Nalgen bottle different hats and gloves etc, I have a smaller one from Go-Lite I take if I require less space.
-Food- We have carried up to 3 weeks of food between two people. For longer than that an ice fishing rod and rifle would be more useful We bring Freeze-dried food like MH, some some ground beef and mixed vegetables we dehydrate ourselves (1 pound of beef weighs 3 oz after the process), we make shepherd's pie with that + instant mash potatoes (don't forget the Worcester Sauce!), A nice thing about pulks is you can bring some fresh food too- we bring sausages to cook on a stick over a fire, and bacon which we cook if we are in a cabin. Some good supermarket foods are in the USA- Stove Top stuffing, Bacon Jerky- If you are in Europe- German Knödel from Knorr in all their varieties- great with gravy on them, Austrian Kaminwurst (dried sausage)- absolutely the best trail lunch, Speck from the Sud Tirol, Squeeze tubes of fish and cheese in Norway.
-Toiletries (I do NOT saw off my toothbrush)

I am sure I certainly forgot something, I always do....

Oh yeah- the new field-toilet which we call the B-Greg after the inventor- Monsieur BGregoire, A great idea.

randoskier wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 07, 2022 12:34 pm

A DVA if needed, I have never needed one in my Nordic trips.

And the wife knows about this?
(Found by Google…)
.

Stephen wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 07, 2022 4:28 pm

randoskier wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 07, 2022 12:34 pm

A DVA if needed, I have never needed one in my Nordic trips.

And the wife knows about this?
(Found by Google…)
.
43D19874-58AC-4F42-9291-E787E001C666.jpeg

No she uses this one, an older one but it still works fine.

I knew I would forget something...TOILET PAPER!!!! Don't leave home without it.

@randoskier Great list, thanks! Reading this helps to get new ideas and insights.

For context, how often do you stay overnight in a tent (vs huts)?

tkarhu wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 09, 2022 3:26 am

@randoskier Great list, thanks! Reading this helps to get new ideas and insights.

For context, how often do you stay overnight in a tent (vs huts)?

Great question. Each trip is different. That depends largely on four things-

1. The route we are skiing: Are there huts? How many cabins/huts are there along the route we plan to ski? How far apart are they? The DNT in Norway has a cabin system with over 500 cabins in it- one key opens them all! Superb! But there are also regions up there with few or no cabins- Senja, Borgfjell, Lierne, parts of Finnmark and Troms, etc. If we think we will only do cabins we can get away with a backpack with no tent and bring a 3-season sleeping bag which is warm enough for the huts (most have woodstoves), and in case of problems is just warm enough to sleep with in a snow cave with a bivy sack over it.

2. The weather- it is always nice to have a tent in case the weather goes north and you can not make the cabin (usually due to whiteouts/blizzards). It is not fun building snow-caves day after day.

3. Terrain- Can you pull a pulk in the anticipated terrain or are you better off with a backpack? Pulks can go a lot of places but not everywhere. On the other hand- carrying around an 8lb. 4-season tent, the associated camping equipment along with two weeks of food in a pack is not so much fun on your back.

4. Length- If it is only few days long you can go with a pack and tent. If you are young you can go for two weeks. Also as incredible as it sounds- some of the DNT cabins that are unattended have a pantry full of all the food you will need, mostly canned + oatmeal, tea, coffee, etc. You take what you need write it down and pay when you finish your trip via bank transfer. If your route follows those exclusively you can go very light- 3 season bag, no food but lunch, and standard gear. That system can probably only work in Scandinavian countries. A few year ago a German homeless guy went up there wondered the cabins a long time eating the food and never paying- they saw his pattern and staked out a cabin and nabbed him! @Musk Ox Mo I Rana Vice in action?

For example our first two tours this year will be:

I. February- Blåfjella-Skjækerfjella: (northeast of Trondheim) 11 days skiing, beautiful rolling terrain. We hope to stay in a cabin or at a remote mountain-farm (fjellgard) each night. We are pulling pulks as the terrain allows it (been there before a bunch)- this lets us take more fresh food and we have full autonomy no matter what happens and can go wherever we chose. There are plenty of cabins we can unlock (fjellstyre) and four farms- two still inhabited.

2. Beginning of March I will ski the new Lapplandsleden in Sweden, end-to-end by myself (anyone want to go? easy-to-get-to start). This is a brand new trail just built last year, looks beautiful, navigation is simple (Swedes over-mark winter trails). I think I will be the first Yank to ski it end to end (maybe a Canuck should come along?). It is 197km long and quite up and down, so I reckon 10 or 11 days skiing. It has four cabins that one might be able to stay in- I say might because the cabins are small (about 6 to 8 bunks) and it is first come first served. About half the trail is also a snowmobile route (not heavily used, but used none the less), the county says in the cabins the skiers have priority over the bunks- not sure how that works- "Mister you are lying on my bunk!" Drunken snowmobiler breaks beer bottle over me head. So f I can stay in the four cabins- I will have six to seven days of tenting. Anyway i am prepared to camp every night if need be and will have the correct amount of fuel to do so.

Even in the summer in Norway I always carry a tent in case I have to bivouac unplanned- my wife and did this once before we carried the tent- we tried sleeping in our GTX shells with mosquito head-nets on, between the mosquitos getting under the net and buzzing around outside it and the 24 hour light (it was pissing rain) we gave up after two hours and wound up walking 27 hours straight (including the 2 in "bivouac") to a cabin we could sleep at. Only in the Narvik mountains!

When we took a boat up the Tysfjord which was freezing over, and skied up from the fjord end and into the Narvik mountains. W we got hammered by blizzards- over the first three days we received in excess of one meter of snow each day and had constant winds during the snows at up to 19mps, Normally the first day we would have reached the first hut (Roysvatnhytta) in about seven hours from the fjord- it took us four days to reach it. Good to have a tent.
https://ut.no/hytte/10400
I have skied it in the other direction- cabin to the fjord in 5hrs (can't anymore because they built a stupid gargantuan wind-farm up there in the pristine arctic landscape, now there are service roads there grrrr..). We camped un-planned three nights in a row- one day we only skied 3/4 km when the wind kicked and the white-out ensued and we pitched again. To get out of the Roysvatn cabin my wife had to squeeze out the top window and go around and shovel out the door two days in a row, I could not get out. It was amazing and beautiful (when you could see). The pics below are from that trip, those little cabins are great and free (and unlocked) there are three of them in that area- each has two beds, sleeping four total per cabin, a wood stove, firewood. The other is Sherryl glamping Norwegian-style.

@randoskier Wow, those sound like real adventures! I am not that experienced in ski expeditions. I have done three 1-week ski trips. On all three, I have stayed single nights in a tent, and the rest in huts. When sleeping in a tent, I have had issues with moisture and sleeping bags getting wet. Snow has filled tent ventilation holes. That is why I asked.

Finnish skiing expedition people normally have gasoline (petrol / liquid) cookers with boxes. With them, they heat tents to 20' C so they can dry stuff and get proper rest. I have only used vapor "gas" cookers. Liquid "gas" cookers would need some education in pre heating and not burning your tent Others have their cookers in metal boxes for safety / suffocating fire in case of 1 meter high flames. I googled your cooker, and results looked like vapor "gas" cookers. But which type is your cooker really, a multi fuel / gasoline cooker or a vapor form "gas" cooker?

I have also spent some nights outdoors in the wilderness without a tent. One time was in summertime, and another in September. Both were in Finnish Lapland. On my first 1-week hike, when I was 12 or 13, our tent was torn to two pieces in a storm. Second time I was hiking alone, and tried to find a cabin in a forest with a 1:100 000 map without success. The hut was marked a few millimeters off in the map, and located in a deep river valley bank. Based on the two experiences, like you I think too that it is good to always have a tent with you on multi day skiing trips. Snow conditions can be unpredictable, like you well described.

tkarhu wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 09, 2022 8:39 am

@randoskier Wow, those sound like real adventures! I am not that experienced in ski expeditions. I have done three 1-week ski trips. On all three, I have stayed single nights in a tent, and the rest in huts. When sleeping in a tent, I have had issues with moisture and sleeping bags getting wet. Snow has filled tent ventilation holes. That is why I asked.

Finnish skiing expedition people normally have gasoline (petrol / liquid) cookers with boxes. With them, they heat tents to 20' C so they can dry stuff and get proper rest. I have only used vapor "gas" cookers. Liquid "gas" cookers would need some education in pre heating and not burning your tent Others have their cookers in metal boxes for safety / suffocating fire in case of 1 meter high flames. I googled your cooker, and results looked like vapor "gas" cookers. But which type is your cooker really, a multi fuel / gasoline cooker or a vapor form "gas" cooker?

I have also spent some nights outdoors in the wilderness without a tent. One time was in summertime, and another in September. Both were in Finnish Lapland. On my first 1-week hike, when I was 12 or 13, our tent was torn to two pieces in a storm. Second time I was hiking alone, and tried to find a cabin in a forest with a 1:100 000 map without success. The hut was marked a few millimeters off in the map, and located in a deep river valley bank. Based on the two experiences, like you I think too that it is good to always have a tent with you on multi day skiing trips. Snow conditions can be unpredictable, like you well described.

I don't like heating my tent with the stove for very long- I am afraid of CO poisoning. My wife got it once in a cabin she lived in in Colorado and is lucky to have lived. I also have asthma. I dig out the whole vestibule of the tent, I excavate about 35cm. I cook there, it also allows you to sit naturally in the open door of your tent with your feet in the hole. I get a little heat from it, not much, but it helps cold air (and some f=gasses) to sink at the entrance- same thing you do when you build an entrance to a snow cave. I try to keep the tent as dry as possible- I have a special square stuff sack I made with 1/4 inch foam pad bottom- we put our ski boots in there then wear only booties in the tent and use footbags over them if we go out again. If it gets wetter than it should be in there we put GTX bivy sacks on the down sleeping bags. Also a pee bottle helps because it cuts down on exits.

I wish I had a Hilleberg or Helsport tunnel tent .They have huge advantages. Number one is that the fly is already attached so it pitches with the fly already on (mine is bitch to pitch and can get wet while you are pitching the inner-tent before the fly goes on). They offer huge vestibules or even two huge ones (good to have for > 2 person tents). They make a long tent-bag- like 2 meters (rides on top of the pulk- over-hanging that allows you to take only half the pole out of the arch and to simply roll the tent. So breakdown and set-up are very fast and simple, even in bad weather. A 3-person model is better for 2 people. They cost a lot though- maybe next year!

Have you seen the Piteraq Arctic Bedding. It is bag that holds a sleeping pad, air matress and your sleeping bag- all laid out ready to go you don't pack them up, it also has pockets for everything else you need in the camp- stove, booties, etc. The idea is you pitch your tentand just throw this bag in the tent un-zip it and you are camoing- no stuff bags to unpack and later pack, no matress to blow up. It was invented by a Norwegian guy for his Antarctica trip. They are also about 2 meters long. You see a lot hanging off pulks around Sarek. I might try this on my 2nd tour but my idea is to half-inflate the air mattress and fold the whole thingy in half-then put it under my pulk cover . I don't like the 2m idea and I like short pulks.

This is the Arctic Bedding you can see the long Hilleberg tent sack under it. As you can see it is better foer wide open spaces, not ideal for Bushwhacking!




Even strong tents can get torn in two but you are probably better off in the winter because then you can dig a snow hole or snow cave.

In Iceland last summer up on the Strandir Coast a wind came and blew for two days, some hikers going the other way (the only ones I saw on the entire coast) who were just dropped by a Zodiac told me it was coming. I hiked to a Fisherman's Rescue shelter they have on certain beaches for fisherman who wash ashore. I spent two whole days in it. The wind blew relentlessly never ceased- it was 27mps constant. The wooden shed was rocking but cabled down, the metal sign bbblew off it and into the Greenland Sea. The worst thing was the smell, it was not maintained and had moldy blankets on shelves and fuzz growing on the windows. It was a long two days. The weirdest thing was it was bright blue and sunny the entire wind storm. I have a lightweight Hilleberg summer tent that pitches with two trekking poles- it is a pretty strong ridge-line tent for its weight but it would have been totally destroyed by that wind.

I love Iceland, I want to ski across it- a Polish guy already has I read his trip report. I will be up there next summer too. Love the people!

tkarhu wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 09, 2022 8:39 am

Second time I was hiking alone, and tried to find a cabin in a forest with a 1:100 000 map without success. The hut was marked a few millimeters off in the map, and located in a deep river valley bank. Based on the two experiences, like you I think too that it is good to always have a tent with you on multi day skiing trips. Snow conditions can be unpredictable, like you well described.

It is crazy how in Finland and Sweden people use mostly 1:100.000 topo maps! I met a French party of three in Finnmark (Norway) who had the same problem with their map, it placed the Mollejohka fjellstue (Finnmarksvidda) many km from its actual location, almost tanked their whole trip buta nice guy pulled them skijoring with his snowmobile for about 20km to put them back on schedule. He did this while evacuating me in his trailer me because I had severe food poisoning and had to go to all the way back to Alta! A retired Norwegian AF colonel, great guy.

In the Alps we use 1:25000 maps and in Norway which has broader features I like the 1:50000 map series; which is free on the Hvor? app from the state mapping authority (covers the Swedish border regions too)- on Google Play and the Apple store. (Hvor? means where?). I also have the paper sheets.

tkarhu wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 09, 2022 8:39 am

suffocating fire in case of 1 meter high flames. I googled your cooker, and results looked like vapor "gas" cookers. But which type is your cooker really, a multi fuel / gasoline cooker or a vapor form "gas" cooker?

It is for Primus type cannisters, what you call vapor gas. I used to use liquid white gas et al. But I was very happy to find an alternative that also works well at low temperatures without all the fuss. I think it burns a little cleaner though not quite as hot as liquid.