Pictures, pictures and pictures!

[JB TELE]

From last week - got some turns in on shallow show before the sun baked everything into a crap crust.

[Erik H]

Nice! the San Juans have been pretty great lately, I was at Andrew's lake the week before last and it was quite nice

[JB TELE]

Erik, have you skied this spot yet?
https://maps.app.goo.gl/rD7Au6jve3JJMmfH6

[Erik H]

yes! started skiing there last season as well as the small mesa to the east. I found them to be especially nice with corn snow. lately i've been skiing in the trees just to the east of both of those as the terrain in there is a little bit steeper.

[JB TELE]

Nice, east of the smaller mesa looks like a nice way to get up to Snowden meadows. Going from Andrews lake up to Snowden meadows can be a bit steep in places.

[randoskier]

Planning the first Norway ski tour of the yea- this will be the last cabin we sleep in- then we have an easy 20km ski out to a trailhead in Snåsa, last 15 km on that unplowed dirt-road in the vid. Starting the tour from the the railway station in the copper-mining town Meråker.

[telerat]

Nice Randoskier. I hope you get a nice tour. We have finally gotten snow now, after a prolonged period with warmer weather than normal.

My grandparents lived in Meråker, in a green house (not a greenhouse) just over 300 meters south of the railway station you will be starting from. My grandfather worked at Elkem Meråker:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elkem_Meraker

It lay in Kopperå, which got its name from copper. Copper mining was first started around 1300 AD as the oldest known in Norway, but stopped in 1895. The microsilica production at Elkem Meråker started up in 1898 and stopped in 2006. I assume it was to use the existing infrastructure and smelting works, and for many the smelting works was what defined Meråker.

[randoskier]

Nice Randoskier. I hope you get a nice tour. We have finally gotten snow now, after a prolonged period with warmer weather than normal.

My grandparents lived in Meråker, in a green house (not a greenhouse) just over 300 meters south of the railway station you will be starting from. My grandfather worked at Elkem Meråker:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elkem_Meraker

It lay in Kopperå, which got its name from copper. Copper mining was first started around 1300 AD as the oldest known in Norway, but stopped in 1895. The microsilica production at Elkem Meråker started up in 1898 and stopped in 2006. I assume it was to use the existing infrastructure and smelting works, and for many the smelting works was what defined Meråker.

Hi Rat,

Do you ever ski there? That's a cool family history, a lot of miners stay rooted to where they mined. They seem to have very close communities. I lived near a former coal mining community in the French Alps by the Massif des Ecrins (la Mure) and in the flat north of France in the "bassin minieur" and they were almost insular (but mining in France France has a real hardcore union CGT atmosphere, us vs the world). Along the Autoroute on the way to Belgium there are mountains of huge, black, slag heaps on each side of the road, they were going to dispose of them, but the miners rebelled and got them classified as historic monuments- I remember one saying in the paper- "We took that out of the ground and you are not going to put it back in!".

I think like Sulitjelma there is maybe some discussion about mining other minerals (for batteries and cell phones) at theses sites? In Kirkenes there is talk of reopening the iron mine, but investors are balking because of it's proximity to Russia (5km). The reindeer range of my Sami friend in Lonsdal is threatened by a Chinese mining project for quartz in the middle of the Ranafjellet right by the historic Nasa mine which is on the Swedish side which had a horrible history of abusing Sami labor- it would entail several of thoes giant dump-trucks per day and a dust-cloud of 10km. Right now it is on hold, but he says it is too quiet....

I have skied north from Meråker twice, and hiked from there once. This is a repeat tour, doing it with a Scottish friend who has not been in the Snaasa mountains before. One of my favorite tours, just beautiful, and some history (Operation Rype).

Meråker is nicely situated if you ski south from it- you are in the well known (and very popular) ski touring area of Sylan with all the cross-border trails between the Norwegian and the Swedish cabin systems. It is also great for me because I can fly to Trondheim and get on train and ski from the train- though we will take an (expensive!) taxi to the Ferslia DNT cabin and ski from there.

We are skiing north up the border seam via the Vera lake and then up the Stigådalen and spending a night in each of the four remote fjellgard in Snåsa- Gaundalen-Holden-Gjevsjoen-Gressamoen. Holden is DNT/Statskog now. Then out at the Andorsjohytta. One of the fjellgard got 15 cm snow the other day, the second in a couple of weeks- his lake was clear for skating but now that is over.

We might not see any other skiers on this tour, last time saw two, but going the other direction. I did meet one ice fisherman camped on an island on Holden lake with his dog- he gave me a trout.

In addition to the remote fjellagrd (farms without road connections) there are several interesting cabins we will use along our ski- route- in the Stigådalen- the fancy stove ones are the Lakkavassbu (Verdalbruket), and the other ones are pics from the natl. park people- the Statskog cabin at the Seisjoen- a real classic cabin with a carved out staircase.

[telerat]

Very nice mood in the pictures! I have only skied shorter daytrips from my grandparents house and from Grova, as well as some short hiking. My grandfather was from Hitra, an island on the coast, while my grandmother was from Selbu, and they settled in Meråker due to work opportunities. The Elkem smelting works was the cornerstone of the municipal in Meråker then. By the way, this year the snow in Fonnfjellet melted completely. It was close to gone in 2014 for the first time since 1937: https://www.nrk.no/trondelag/fonna-i-fo ... 1.11969285

I think mining towns like Sulitjelma, Skorovas, Røros and others was quite special, as they were often isolated and far from larger towns. The status of workers were also very low compared to foremans and functionaries, so there was a very divided society. At Sulitjelma the owner decided the laws and owned everything. At Røros peasants settled within the "Circumferensen" was obliged, against "basic payment", to sell their goods and offer transport to the mining company, but it also meant income for those living there. There is a drive for more mining in Norway now after many years with reduction, but it is also quite some resistance due to environmental impacts. Meeting the concerns will make the mines not/less profitable though.

Back to pictures. I will try to add one this evening.

[randoskier]

Very nice mood in the pictures! I have only skied shorter daytrips from my grandparents house and from Grova, as well as some short hiking. My grandfather was from Hitra, an island on the coast, while my grandmother was from Selbu, and they settled in Meråker due to work opportunities. The Elkem smelting works was the cornerstone of the municipal in Meråker then. By the way, this year the snow in Fonnfjellet melted completely. It was close to gone in 2014 for the first time since 1937: https://www.nrk.no/trondelag/fonna-i-fo ... 1.11969285

I think mining towns like Sulitjelma, Skorovas, Røros and others was quite special, as they were often isolated and far from larger towns. The status of workers were also very low compared to foremans and functionaries, so there was a very divided society. At Sulitjelma the owner decided the laws and owned everything. At Røros peasants settled within the "Circumferensen" was obliged, against "basic payment", to sell their goods and offer transport to the mining company, but it also meant income for those living there. There is a drive for more mining in Norway now after many years with reduction, but it is also quite some resistance due to environmental impacts. Meeting the concerns will make the mines not/less profitable though.

Back to pictures. I will try to add one this evening.

Roros village is a nice living museum! re the ics: I took the top one and the bottom 2 the others are from the Natl Park.Inatur, I could not find my pics from the Seisjoen kogstua. I just found some of its stair case nicely hacked out of a log-