Hardangervidda is Europe’s largest mountain plateau. We were based in Geilo and drove half an hour up the valley to Haugastol then into Hardangervidda. The area is vast – covering over 2000 miles. A popular spot for those training for expeditions. Once you see the place it is easy to understand why. We got up there and it was windy! Really quite windy, and we were low on small kites having expected light breezes. I went out on a 9m Frenzy – on the verge of too much power, but good enough. We cruised about all morning, finding our snowlegs and getting used to the terrain.
You get warm fast snowkiting, however if it is windy you get cold real fast once you stop. We sat and lunched in the car. We decided to try round the corner at another spot to see if it was a little less gusty. Within 2 minutes of moving it became apparent we had a flat wheel. The rental car had no spare. Not ideal on a mountain pass on a Sunday afternoon with barely any internet. After a load of phone calls and trying to find someone we had arranged for the car to be towed. I figured I would just go kiting.
The wind had mellowed, I found some nice terrain to play on and it was all good. The rest of the group had arrived and joined in. I cruised back towards the road to see how the car situation was going. There was no car. I checked my phone only to find a couple of missed calls and a text saying they had been towed back down the hill and that hopefully I would find a lift down. Luckily I did.
The next day there was only a light breeze forecast. We headed back up onto the plateau only to be met by no wind. After waiting around for a bit and a few false starts it kicked in suddenly. I went from unable to get the kite in the sky to hanging on in a few minutes. It was fun to use the kite to climb the hills, then pack down and ride back down.
This aerial shot shows how much space there is to ride!
Here is a quick edit from those two days of snowkiting
Norway is a cool place. It feels so different to France or Austria. The people were nice. Everywhere seemed pretty tidy. The Hardangervidda plateau is the best snowkite spot I have come across in many ways. There is no doubt I will be back – despite the whole £7 a beer issue.
Red Bull Ragnarok
This is what we were in Norway for. It is a pretty big kite event by anyones standards with 350 racers. I did not enter – endurance events are not my thing! I had hoped to capture some great drone shots but that turned out to be a nightmare. It was too windy to start with. The main issue was all the radio interference caused by all the beacons, trackers, radios etc. I almost lost the drone twice before I called it a day.
Read my Red Bull Ragnarok report on Ozone UK.
