How cross-country skiing in Norway became a chilling page-turner

A trip into the winter wilderness – building his own igloo every night – left our writer feeling out of his depth. But it also set him on track to write his latest novel

I was exhausted. My gloves were wet and the sweat had started to freeze on my skin. No hotels for miles around. No houses. Nothing but a barren, treeless, snowbound landscape. The roof of the igloo had collapsed and it was getting dark. I didn’t know it at the time, but my despair and discomfort would come in useful 17 years later when I sat down to write my new novel, Where Blood Runs Cold. The book tells the story of Erik Amdahl and his spirited daughter, Sofia, who embark on a cross-country ski trip deep into Norway’s Arctic Circle. For Erik, it’s the chance to bond properly with his remaining daughter after a tragic accident. For Sofia, it’s the proof she needs that her father does care. But things soon go wrong in the white wilderness, and before long, father and daughter are running for their lives.

In 2003 I undertook a cross-country ski trip with three Norwegian friends and my brother, James. I’m half Norwegian on my mother’s side and had spent many childhood holidays by the country’s fjords and mountains. But now I wanted a real adventure. We would start at the station in Finse (the village used for expedition training by explorers Roald Amundsen, Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton) in the municipality of Ulvik in Vestland and make our way across Viken county, following Lake Ustevatn towards the small mountain town of Geilo. Behind us, to the south-west, was the mighty Hardangerjøkulen glacier, used as a location for the ice planet Hoth in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Before us, a moorland interrupted by numerous unseen lakes, streams and rivers covered in ice and snow. We would travel the 39km on cross-country skis, stopping to build a five-man igloo where we would sleep before setting off again next day.