sam

Does anyone has experience with the Fischer BC E109 skis? I used the E99 before, on relative flat areas like Skarvheimen. But on steeper terrain they became hard to handle, so I wondered if the E109 would be an alternative for a tour with mixed terrain - flat as well as up/down).

In spring 2006, I was trown into a river by an avalanche during a solo trip at Saltfjellet. I escaped from snow and ice, and reached the saving cabin with minimal equipment, having spend the night in a snowcave. A report of this incident is now available in print in some bookshops in Mo i Rana and Bodø (Libris, Ark, Notabene). It's named 'New Moon over Bodø', in illustrated magazine size, and is sold for costprice. Planning a ski trip around Easter? Read the story first.

Short summary in english: The woman was discovered by the crew of the boat "Gjendine" on the lake Gjende, who reported the sighting to the police at 08.30 sunday morning. The woman was located in the lake shore about two kilometers west of Memurubu, in a place known locally as "Vinkjelleren". So, she is found, and now, on Saturday 26, has also been identified. This seems to close the case. I just took out my map of the area, to see where she has been found. I was surprised to have read in a newsitem which suggested that she might have slipped at Bessegen. "Bessegen, that is more than 2 daytrips from Spiterstulen, how could she have got so far?". Then she must have spent a night at Gjendebu or Memurubu. Looking at the map, I think it's more likely that she went for Gjendebu; for some reason didn't follow the trail down into Storådalen but stayed uphill on the trail to Memurubu. Arriving on the steep hills above Gjende, west from Memurubu, she could have tried to correct her mistake by going down by the trail at Bukkelaegret, which proved to be fatal.

Some weeks ago I was attended by a relative on the missing of Marijke Vervoort at Jotunheimen. I got a small newspaper clip, which told that the search would be postponed until conditions would have changed. The reason that my relative attended me on this event was because I have expercienced a comparable incident earlier this year, at Saltfjellet. I was on a solo ski-trip, got struck by an avalanche in a small river valley, I was so lucky to free myself from under the snow and ice and , after spending a night in a snow cave, was able to reach the Saltfjelletstua. 28 hours later I was picked up from this cabin by a helikopter of the 330 SQD from Bodø, 4 hours after the owner of the hotel where I planned to finish my trip has warned the police that I didn't show up. What happened to me is only slightly comparable with what might have happened to Marijke. The main difference is of course: I was saved, she is still missing. But I can easily imagine how identical messages about me could have be read in the papers. My own family has suffered 4 hours of despair, between the moment of first alarm and the call ' he is found '. It was dreadfull for them, but an inconvenience compared with the pain that the family Vervoort is under. I feel very sorry for them. Reading the messages that the members of this forum have posted, I was struck by the quantity of scenario's that they were able to construct from such limited information. You could also say: the less information, the more room for speculations. If this forum has an informative function towards the search parties, it could have been useful, but is that so? I don't think I can contribute much to this specific case from my previous experience, I simply know too little about it. I happen to have visited the same area in winter, coming from Leirvassbu, spend one night in Spiterstulen, went to Glitterheim then and made a day-trip to Glittertind. As the first news that I read, was suggestive towards inexperience of Marijke - false, apparantly -, I could't imagine she would have gone up the steep rises from Spiterstulen. Combining the information in your postings that she broke off a trip up Galdhoppigen and announced no further plans nor signs in guestbooks, I would say thay she concluded not to be fit for the area and intended to return home. But this is just another speculation. The fact that the police has concentrated it's search on the mountain area itself, even glaciers, shows that their information indicates towards different scenario's. From my own experience, I know how they work: from the information of the relatives a profile is drawn of the person: how experienced, how trained, how equipped? Combining these, and f.i. the wheater information, they construct the most likely scenario's. The fact that they researched on such a wide range shows that their information isn't specific either. It can't be ignored here that the absence of a clear tourplan, communicated with the home front and the staff of huts in the area, limits the ability of the police to a pinpointed search-operation. If Marijke really intended to go further into the area, she has overlooked the neccessity to leave such a plan at the cabin. I can imagine that she couldn't make a plan on beforehand - not having been their before, not knowing the exact conditions -. The moment she has decided what to do, she should have left a note. I hope this is not seen as a reproach towards her, it simply is a conclusion. It also says something about ' how the dutch are behaving in the mountains '. May be we are too self-concious. Mountain accidents are an abstraction to us. We are not confronted with them every week. May be we do think too lightly about these events, presuming that they will always happen to others and not to us. So, we don't follow all precautions. I don't need to emphasize here that it's wise to be prepared for the worse when you go into the mountains. I myself thought I was well prepared and highly experienced. Until I met a situation which was new to me, but not uncommon. So I wasn't so experienced at all. This is allways hard to judge, and I think it's true what I have read somewhere else at this forum, that you can only judge your capacities in comparison with others, by going with a group. I do go in groups - I made a trek around Kebnekaise the weeks before I went to Saltfjellet -, but I love to go alone. One of the main rules is: don't go alone into the mountains. But, even after my own experience, I still want to plead for the solo'ist. I don't know Marijke's intentions, I can only tell mine. It's simply so that I experience the magnitude of nature more intense, more impressive, more satisfying when I am alone. Somehow, the presence of a group creates a transparant shell between me and the surroundings. Being alone up there makes me feeling truly alive, truly happy. I can only hope that she has experienced the same.