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Monday 19th February Day Four Got up early while it was still dark and packed all our kit up, which wasn't very pleasant. Just as we were about to leave Jo collapsed and could not stand up, it must have been because of dehydration. So we used our water to make her something to eat. Because there was now a good possibility that we were not going to move today and have to camp again, me, Joe and Ben started to make a snow shelter so that if we did stay another night it would be more comfortable than the previous one, plus by working it also kept us warm. After a couple of hours we had virtually finished it, and went back to sit with the others, Jo was still not feeling to hot, but was able to move, it was decided that her and Jim would go back to the road, and then back to civilization and the rest of us would carry on. So we set off for the hut at about 11:00 which meant that we might not make it to the hut before it went dark. The going was pretty tough because I had nothing to eat in the morning and had no liquids to drink, just 2 cups of tea which we shared between 3 of us before we left. The route had three major climbs followed by short descents each one leading onto a froze lake. I got so thirsty that I had to eat snow, something that you shouldn't do, luckily the weather was not to cold so it didn't chill me out. The wind was quite breezy taking the top layer of snow off and shooting it across the ground like a powder white river. Near the end of the day I was feeling very weak because of the dehydration and found it a real struggle to keep my balance. When we got to the top of every hill I was preying to see the hut in the next valley and every time it wasn't, until one particular steep climb when I could hear Ben shout and point in front of me, the hut was at the bottom of the next hill, YES! The only problem was that it was quite a steep descent and because I was quite tired and had a heavy pack on my back it was a struggle to keep upright. At the hut in Rauhellern we lit the fire got our equipment dry and had plenty to drink and eat and finally went to sleep still tired from our 18 km day. Tuesday 20th February Day Five We got up looked out of the window and saw that the wind was very strong and decided that if it didn't settle down by 10:00 we would stay in the hut for another day. We went to the larger cabin to use their toilet facilities and on the way back it was quite a struggle to see where we where going as it was blowing straight into our faces. The weather from then only deteriorated further so we had to stay in the hut all day. At about 4:00 I needed to go to the toilet so I decided to get snow in the bucket for our water the same time. I was only out for about 2 minutes but the wind was so strong and cold my hands turned blue. Later in the day we all played a game of Ludo because there was nothing else to do and both Joe and myself rolled 5 sixes in a row, we worked out the probability of doing this to be almost 60 billion to 1. We also now had to adjust our route slightly to compensate for the lost day, this meant that one of the options involved a 28km day. But we would have to see what tomorrows weather would be like, if it was the same as today more alterations would have to be made. It got so bad later on that we couldn't go out for a pee so we had to use a bucket. Apart from that, what else can I write about staying in a hut all day. Wednesday 21st February Day Six The weather is worse than what it was yesterday so we had to stay in the hut for another day as it would have been impossible to travel in these conditions. We decided that we all needed to go to the toilet hut which was about 150 meters away, just kitting up was like a major expedition. When we opened the door of out hut we were greeted by a wall of snow which we needed to clear before we could get out. We couldn't even see the building that we were heading for because of the snow and wind but knew which direction it was in and made it safely. After we had finished our business there it was time to set back, again we couldn't see our destination, so I just headed in the general direction of the hut. The wind in my face was so strong it was difficult to see and breath, the wind chill factor was -62 degrees C which after two minutes made my exposed skin freeze, Bens nose was covered in ice. Back in the hut we now had to plan a different strategy, we were unable to ski the Hardanger and had to find an escape route back to civilization because our flight leaves on Sunday so it was decided that we would ski to Tuva tomorrow whatever the weather which was a distance of 26km, if we didn't make it we would have to camp out, even if we did make it there was still a 90% chance that we would have to camp out as all Tuva is is a cafe where we could get some tea. From here we would then ski to either Ustaoset and get a taxi to Geilo or directly to Geilo if the weather was OK. Whatever we do it would still be a tough two days especially if the weather didn't improve. We finished the night off by having the hut Ludo championship of the world to decide the ultimate Ludo champion.
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