The Maul is a hazardous highland region near Hävasshütte whose jagged rocks, fissures, and concealed chasms turn navigation into a matter of survival. In the investigation, it becomes more than a forbidding patch of wilderness: Harry Hole and Mikael Bellman identify it as the likely approach taken by the missing snowmobile, then search the surrounding snowbound terrain for its tracks.

Terrain and Name

The region lies northwest of Hävasshütte. A Danish hotel manager warns Harry and Bellman not to stray too far in that direction, because they could enter the area known as the Maul. Its name comes from the rock formations scattered across the high plateau, which resemble rows of teeth. Fissures and abysses run through the ground, and in poor weather even moving across the plateau can be life-threatening for anyone who does not know the terrain.

The Maul as a Suspected Route

Harry and Bellman approach the avalanche site by making a wide detour west around Hävasshütte, taking care not to drift northwest into the Maul. Around midday, they look down toward the chimney protruding from the avalanche debris as clouds gather from the west. With the sunlight gone, shadows and contours disappear. Harry reasons that the missing rider must have come from a particular direction, since otherwise they would have heard him; Bellman identifies that direction as the Maul. The exchange makes the region a working part of their reconstruction: its difficult terrain offers a plausible route while also making movement and detection uncertain.

Searching the Snowbound Ground

The search is equipped for dangerous mountain travel: they have a snowmobile, a map, climbing rope, a rope brake, an ice axe, and a pickaxe. After searching the terrain slowly from south to north without finding a snowmobile trail, they take a break as light snow begins to fall. Later, they advance in short bursts of no more than a hundred metres, sweeping snow from the suspected route with a brush before proceeding. A line in the left runner track, probably caused by an accident, confirms that they are following the right snowmobile. The tracks are clearer in some hollows and on exposed ridges, but progress remains cautious: Harry twice warns that they have come too close to an abyss. As the afternoon darkens, they move farther from Ustaoset, and at half past four they lose the trail. The Maul thus marks both a suspected passage through the mountains and the hazardous landscape that constrains the search.