![\"Hoth\"](\"http:\/\/propstore.loc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Hoth.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAs a seasoned explorer of many STAR WARS filming locations, Brandon was accustomed to having to find these tucked-away places, so Kohler\u2019s warning wasn\u2019t discouraging; it was a challenge. Making it even more exciting was the fact that, as far as Brandon knew, no STAR WARS fan had yet made the pilgrimage to Finse. He and his traveling companions Stephen Lane and Andy Goulding were due to fly out of London and into Oslo, Norway and they were so charged up, they felt like they could pull the ears off a gundark.<\/p>\n
When Brandon arrived in London, he and the rest of his expedition were able to meet location manager Phillip Kohler (a Londoner himself) in person, where he shared stories from the production of EMPIRE. Kohler told them that he had first visited Finse in the summer of 1978, as part of the initial scouting \u201crecce\u201d (reconnaissance trip). The recce consisted of approximately twenty people, including Director Irvin Kershner, Producer Gary Kurtz, Special Effects Supervisor Brian Johnson, Production Supervisor Norman Reynolds, and various other department heads. And the hazards they would face while working in Finse would make themselves immediately apparent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went up [on these trails] when we were on the recce, on snow cats,\u201d Brandon recalls Kohler telling him. \u201cWe told the driver in front, \u2018If you don\u2019t know the way, don\u2019t leave the route, don\u2019t let the guys tell you they want to go to the left\u2019, because it looks safe! So what do they do? We see the snow-cat turn left, turn right, and it suddenly stopped. And the director got out and went straight down on his right leg. We said, \u2018told ya, it\u2019s all crevasses.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoping to get a better idea of just what they were soon to be getting themselves into, they pushed Philip for more details on the hazards of the weather in Finse.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou couldn\u2019t go anywhere, you see, you had white-outs. You had to be very careful if you got a whiteout there, because there was no horizon. We had a [set] painter who loved riding Skee-Doos, and one day someone wanted something back at the hotel. So he said \u2018I\u2019ll do it!\u2019 and he jumped on the Skee-Doo and took off. And it was a whiteout! And he took off and disappeared\u2026 He had to be shipped back to England with a broken arm or something like that, or a foot. He just took off, couldn\u2019t see anything, and went straight down.\u201d<\/p>\n
After regaling his expedition with more stories from the shoot, Philip produced some detailed maps of Norway and showed Brandon, Andy and Stephen the trails the location crew followed to reach the shooting sites that were not directly outside the hotel Finse1222, a central landmark of both Finse and the Hoth shoot. The adventurers had already hired a guide (though perhaps Sherpa would be more apt) who had worked on the filming and was still living in Finse. Now, armed with Philip\u2019s maps and directions as well as their guide\u2019s own well of knowledge, the group was optimistic. Within twenty-four hours, they\u2019d be trudging through Hoth themselves. When they arrived in Oslo, the customs official was a bit suspicious of the foreigners\u2019 short three-day stay. The team decided it was best to classify the trip as a skiing vacation rather than using photos of AT-ATs, Snowtroopers and Snowspeeders to try to explain that they were looking for some mountain seen in the background of a twenty-five-year-old science fiction movie.<\/p>\n Looking out the large glass windows in the terminal of Oslo International, the expedition members saw exactly what one should expect to see in Norway\u2014snow. Lots of it. Oslo is Norway\u2019s capital, situated very near the eastern coast of the country. There\u2019s no driving to Finse\u2014the only way in or out is a four hour ride on a hundred-year-old railway\u2014so was a pretty good place to hide a rebel base from the Galactic Empire.<\/p>\n The expedition boarded the train and set out into the mountains. The journey to Finse was very scenic, traveling high into snow-covered mountains where the small town sits at the highest point along the Oslo-Bergen railway line\u2014a whopping 1222 meters above sea level. As night fell over their train car, the Finse-bound adventurers played cards, imagining the isolation that the production crew must have felt when they set out on the same journey for the first time in 1979.<\/p>\n When the expedition had set out from the urban center of Oslo, they were dressed a lot like most of the passengers around them: jeans, warm coats and sneakers. However, when the train pulled into the station at Finse, the out-of-towners suddenly realized that they were suddenly the only ones not decked out in head-to-toe arctic survival gear. They watched with amazement as passengers exited the train with packs on their back and skis on their feet, skating straight off the landing platform and down the snowy hillside, disappearing into the dark of night. The sight, something out of a James Bond film, knocked the groups\u2019 adventuring egos down a few pegs, but they were still extremely excited to finally be in Finse.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nAt 8 AM the next morning, the expedition departed London\u2019s Heathrow airport, bound for Oslo, Norway.<\/p>\n