Alpine start and Hemsedal.

The alarm went off at 6am and I hopped out of bed and after getting dressed had a first attempt to wake Callum, which only resulted in a murmur and the sleeping bag getting pulled up over his head, I got our food out the fridge and then had another go and surprisingly he woke up and wriggled forward to come out his warm cocoon. Mission 1 accomplished. We quietly got sorted and went outside into the cold to eat our breakfast, it was sunny but hats and gloves were needed, I try hard not to wake Joyce too much so eating breakfast outside causes the least disturbance, Logan was dead to the world. After breakfast which Callum managed no problem, some find it difficult to eat this early, we packed the rucksack and said goodbye to Mum. We were walking at exactly 6.30am.....a good racing Alpine start for a 4 year old. Mission 2 accomplished.

I like to be up and away early so we could enjoy the rest of the day as a family so an early start is needed, and also I don't like leaving Joyce for too long at the van, there wasn't exactly a huge amount else to do where we were. Callum and I set off, and soon warmed up again. Not long after setting off up the very rough and steep track a VW van came up. It was the sort of van that would be converted into a camper van, but this was a 4 wheel drive model and it sailed by us no problem-I was very impressed indeed, its amazing what the right vehicle can do when driven where it is designed for, definitely not required for the school run in Linlithgow!! I was surprised and curious to know where it was going with its 4 passengers, 5 minutes or so later, it came back down again with just the driver, I thought maybe they were fishers heading up to a lake but they weren't.

Soon the track ended and we were onto the path and there were superb new short sections of path, with huge slabs of rock making progress easy. This hill called Skogshorn is the most popular in the Hemsedal area, hence the huge car park and the path has, over the last 3 years been getting lots of maintenance work done on it, this has been carried out by Sherpa's from Nepal. Erosion had become a real problem on this hill and a project was started to reroute the path in places and repair as required in others, the very same thing happens on popular mountains in Scotland. We plodded on up. now fully warmed up in the sunshine, we could see 4 people in yellow jackets ahead of us making very slow and steady progress ahead of us. Callum was doing great, and enthused when he spotted the path snaking its way up the steeper part of the mountain ahead. After a few km's the path steepened considerably and became very rough in place's and then we were back on more superbly engineered sections, these men know how to build steps!! Finally and after a couple of brief stops for water and a snack we passed by the Sherpa's and had a chat, they were very friendly and mild mannered, their skill in measuring and cutting a stone to the correct size and shape with little more than a hammer and chisel and digging out and preparing the section it needed putting in was superb they were also impressed with Callum's efforts. After our blether we headed up over steep, eroded  and very rough ground for a short time but all that was required was a helping hand to get our little mountain man through this section. Eventually the angle eased back and it was very like the upper section of the tourist route on Ben Nevis, rough and barren but easy walking. The summit cross and letter box could be seen and that was all the encouragement needed for the last short section.


It had taken us 3 hours and 10 minutes to climb 840 meters and cover 6km distance, not at all bad for a 4 ear old (okay, he's nearly 5). 1728 meters above sea level Skogshorn is Callum's highest summit to date. He was chuffed and after a few pictures we sat in a bit of shelter and had our sandwiches and filled in the book to record our ascent, I'm not too fussed about this but anything to encourage youngsters is good in my opinion. We lingered for a good while on the top until fingers started to cool and then we headed back down. Callum needs a hand more on the rough downhill sections more than uphill understandably, legs are a bit wearied and a slip or trip on the rough stuff might be painful but we carefully picked our way back down and we're soon chatting to the Nepali lads again. One Finjo was from the Kumbu area and is a guide when he goes home, another Kunga lived in Katmandu and runs a hotel. They were very friendly and chatted for a while. The other 2 lads were quieter, shy almost, maybe there English wasn't  quite so good but the they were nice and carried on with their work quietly. We left and now started to meet the masses coming up the hill, we had from higher seen the carpark was now very much busier. We chatted to a few on the way down and eventually the angle lessened once more and there was our welcoming committee, Joyce and Logan had walked up and were sitting in the sun. Logan ran up to meet us when we were close enough, its always nice to get a warm welcome after a tough walk. We sat in the sun and chatted to more people. One lady and her children was going up to the summit and also had cakes for the Sherpa's, she was the wife of the driver of the VW van which had passed us hours earlier as we set off, he was a very local Norwegian man who was overseeing the work, and sort of in charge of how and where the new path went, she again was very friendly and clearly loved the area, describing it as "her garden", the locals here do seem very proud of what they have here and the outdoor life is very evident, and (I think-sadly) different from our culture back home.

Again on this very popular hill, there was not a single piece of rubbish to be seen. There were people of all ages attempting this hill, I didn't feel so bad for taking Callum up-I didn't anyway. We were better equipped for it than some, who were perhaps not wearing the best footwear for what lay ahead-this is common with our hills back home, particularly the popular tourist trap hills. There was a young girl and boy sitting by the side of the path who appeared to have no adults with them, they were stripping bark off a stick and sharpening it with pretty big knives (we certainly wouldn't or couldn't do that back home), another man had a knife in a sheath hanging from his belt as he walked up the hill, if this was Ben Lomond some wee ned would take it off you and knife you......lol. I think this must be a fantastic area to bring up a family, sure they will all have iPads and mobile phones also, but they just seem more content and at one with the great outdoors and their natural surroundings, how can WE get that back?

So, soon we were all back at the van and ready to head via Hemsedal for some supplies and an important visit to the tourist information centre for Callum, the Hemsedal Topp 20 is a list of walks in the area, and you can buy a little pin badge to say you have completed your walk, and Skogshorn was one of the routes so Callum deserved his wee badge. Mum went to the shops, and myself and Callum went to get the badge which we did. It's the start of a wee collection and maybe one day, we will return and add to it. We spotted another attraction in the village, a sort of adventure zip slide place and myself and Joyce have now needed to have a chat, so we spending the night in Hemsedal in the more expensive but superb campsite out of the 3. Tomorrow AM the boys will have some more fun before we must make some mileage south. The boys had a good play in the campsite swing park, Joyce upset a local at the laundry but all is good. Homemade curry, beer and not a single peep from the boys once they went to bed, life is good!!