Roaming in Lom

This past weekend, my friend Andrew and I ventured to Lom to do some hiking in the surrounding mountains. Lom seems to be a sort of outdoor adventure capital in Norway. It is right on the edge of 3 national parks, Jotunheimen (home of the highest peaks in Norway), Reinheimen and Breheimen. It also is home to a stave church that dates back to the 12th century.
We rented a little cabin on the edge of the town that was originally built in 1715 and was so cute and cozy.
To get to Lom we took a bus ride of about 6 hours from the Oslo Bus Station (I will never stop being impressed by Norwegian public transportation). When we arrived, it was 4:00 in the afternoon,

which at this point in the year means that the sun was about to set. We dropped our stuff at our cabin and then wandered around the town for a while, visiting the Stave church and generally just taking it all in. The rest of the evening was spent eating, chatting, planning for the next day and playing some riveting games of Yahtzee.
On Saturday morning, we woke up before the sun had risen and had a pancake breakfast before embarking on our first hike of the weekend. We decided to try hiking up the biggest mountain in our immediate vicinity. This was made slightly more difficult by the fact that it was actively snowing and the trail was a bit slippery. We walked through a spruce forest for a while, which felt similar to wandering through northern Minnesota in the winter. Eventually we got out of tree line, which would have perhaps been even more beautiful had we been able to see things other than clouds. Getting out of tree line also meant that we were less sheltered from the wind and snow. We kept

going for a while, but after the snow picked up even more we decided the risks of being on top of a mountain in what seemed like it could turn into a blizzard were not worth additional views of gray clouds and turned back. Going downhill was extremely fun since it involved a lot of moderately controlled sliding.
Back at the cabin, we had some soup and hot chocolate before setting out for the afternoon's adventure, which was a hike up to the ridge between Lom and Jotunheimen (supposedly with the potential for a view of Galdhøppingen, the tallest mountain in Norway). On the way up, we traveled through spruce and aspen forests and played some great games of icicle hit icicle (we were not successful). Eventually we made it out of tree line again, except this time the snow had calmed down and we could actually see things! The top of the ridge had gotten a lot of snow (at least knee deep in some places!) and we had fun watching the way the snow cracked in either what seemed like little avalanches or circles around out feet when we took steps. On the

way back down we found several educational signs in Norwegian that I am not yet skilled enough to understand and did more sliding down hills (sometimes intentionally, sometimes not). We ended up getting back to Lom right as the sun was setting.
After a day full of romping around in the snow, the hot chocolate, warm shower and sweatpants in the cabin were incredible. We again spent the evening in lovely conversation.
On Sunday morning, we woke up to clear skies and a small group of deer outside and had another pancake breakfast before setting out on the last hike of the weekend. On the way to the hill that we would hike up we crossed a river that was in the process of freezing up and was completely fascinating to watch (the way the ice broke up and rejoined other packs of ice, the back-currents, chunks of ice flowing underneath the frozen surface, the color of blue that seems specific to very cold water...). Getting to the top of the hill and actually being able to see our surroundings through clear skies was an amazing way to conclude the weekend. Before departing on a 2:20 bus back to Oslo, we had a pancake lunch (pancakes were a theme) and wrote in the guest book of the lovely 'hytta' we had gotten the chance to stay in.
On the bus back, we realized how surprisingly sore our legs were and

how long 6 hours in a bus feels when you don't have an incredible weekend to look forward to. I passed out almost immediately upon arriving back home, very tired and very content with another weekend in Norway well spent.