MNM and Norwegian mountains

In the end of August I spent one and a half week in the middle part of Norway. The first weekend I compeeted in the regional championship held a few hours drive south of Trondheim.

Friday’s sprint was held in Røros, where I ran my first WC race (in 2002, finishing 6th). Unfortenately the race this year was not held in the historical centre (on the UNESCO list), but in a combination of a slope with forest and a desert (the biggest in North Europe). Not that type of terrain I prefer for a sprint, and also a too long course, but still a nice race. I did mainly a good perforformance, but lost the lead to the last control, and finished 3rd, 5 seconds behind Magne Dæhli.

Saturday’s Long distance was held in a interesting area east of Os, with several different types of terrain, but tougher physical than it looks like because of undervegetation und rough ground. I did OK in the beginning, except a huge (2.30 min) mistake to the 7th control because I didn't trust my orienteering and stopped 30 m before the control. The last half of the course I was very tired, and did also several mistakes in the area from the 24th to the 28th control. Bjørn Ekeberg won, and I came 8th, far behind.

Sunday I skipped the relay (held on yesterdays map, but in a partly different area), and did in stead a long run from Røros, throgh Møllmansdalen, and over the mountain to the arena of the race. I did also parts of a relay course as training, and was in totalt running 33 km in 3 h 30 min. Pictures from MNM.

The first part of last week I spent in Trondheim, before I went to the mountains for some days. Wednesdays evening we drove to Rondane, and walked to Ronvassbu. Thuesday we hiked to the top of Rindeslottet (2179 m.a.s.l.). It was nice, and not too though. Pictures from Rondeslottet.

In the evening we drove to Turtagrø, and Friday we hoped to climb Store Skagadølstind, Norways third highest peak (2405 m.a.s.l.). The weather was nice and we got a great hike. But because you shold have climbing equipment, it was some ice one the rocks, and clouds on the skies we skipped trying to get to the highest peak, and turned after the North peak. The view was anyway great, as you can see on the pictures from Skagadølstind.

This week I'm on WOC 2014 training camp in Italy with the Norwegian team, and I will hopefully make an update in the beginning of next week.