Olav Hole's Old Wooden Skis

Olav Hole's Old Wooden Skis are both a practical piece of Harry Hole’s mountain equipment and a material link to his father. Discovered in a basement in Oppsal, the old, broad skis accompany memories of family climbs and Olav Hole’s lessons; during the avalanche at Hävasshütte, their tips become visible through the wire mesh that confines Harry, turning a familiar object into an intimate image of shared mortality.

Identity and Discovery

Jussi Kolkka examines the skis beside the fireplace and identifies them as wooden. Harry explains that they belonged to his father and that he found the ski equipment in the basement in Oppsal. The poles are new, made from an exceptionally light metal alloy, but the skis themselves remain old, broad fjell skis. That contrast sets inherited equipment against replacement gear: the poles are modern and almost weightless, while the skis preserve the physical age and history of Olav Hole’s belongings.

Family Memory and Mountain Lessons

The skis lead Harry back to childhood Easter holidays at his grandfather’s cabin in Lesja. Olav Hole was drawn repeatedly to a particular summit, and he persuaded Harry and his sister, Søs Hole, to keep climbing by telling them there was a kiosk at the top that sold Pepsi-Cola, Søs’s favorite drink. She forgot the story between one Easter and the next and fell for the same promise again. For Harry, the recollection joins the mountain’s difficult ascent to his father’s teasing and to the recurring ritual of the family holidays. Harry also remembers the knowledge his father passed on: rules for behaving in the mountains, ways to use nature as a compass, and how to survive an avalanche. Those practical instructions sit alongside facts Olav taught him about Norwegian kings, Chinese dynasties, and American presidents. Harry says he wishes he could forget some of what his father told him; instead, the lessons remain. The skis give this inheritance a physical form, connecting the mountain equipment to a body of knowledge Harry carries in memory.

The Skis Beneath the Snow

After the avalanche buries the cabin, Harry is trapped beneath the snow and presses against a wire mesh that will not move. In his weakening, carbon-dioxide-affected state, he accepts the prospect of death and welcomes sleep, numbness, and freedom. Then his fingers catch on something hard: the tips of his father’s skis. Harry imagines that the skis will go with him in death, making their final steep descent together. The old equipment, once associated with family outings and mountain instruction, is now caught in the same enclosure as its owner’s son.

Material Reminder and Survival

The skis do not themselves free Harry. As he struggles, his father’s remembered voice returns with a lesson about going into the dark despite fear. Harry begins digging, finds the edge of the fireplace’s protective screen, and pulls until it shifts; the chimney has remained open, and he discovers air before continuing to dig. The scene places the skis and Olav Hole’s remembered guidance within Harry’s crisis without making the object a miraculous tool: the skis register the possibility of dying with his father’s legacy beside him, while Harry’s own movement toward air becomes the immediate means of survival. Once he has reached the chimney, he realizes that until then he had been thinking only of himself.