What: Self Organized Cross Country Ski Trip

When: March 2nd-4th, 201

Where: Tjørnbrotbu

Ridiculously challenging and ridiculously rewarding is how I would explain this weekend. Even though it was physically a challenge, out of all of the ski trips that took place in the last three months I think that I would have to say that this one was by far my favorite. We started off with a pretty sturdy set plan but, like all the best things in life, it became spontaneous and we ended up just ~going with the flow~. (Which has been my motto ever since week one of being in Norway)

What we thought was supposed to be an 8 or so kilometer ski trip, ended up being a 15+ kilometers to our DNT hut. For this trip, we were meant to get in groups and choose to either ski and tent or do a hut to hut sort of ski trip. We all apparently had the same idea-all 24 of us. So day 1 we all started in Hovden as that’s where a majority of the good ski trails begin and it is a bit of a central point to get to most DNT hut to hut trails. The guys were just a few meters ahead of us and the rest of us girls set off behind them. The first night we all planned to stay in the Tjorbrutbu hut together. We again had our 70+ liter bags on our backs, multiple layers on and wax on our skis. At the beginning, the ski conditions were very nice. There were few hills and mostly steady flats to ski along. Our group was a bit too large for navigating though. When navigating the mountains or just navigating in general there are always different routes you can take and we were bumping heads about what which way would make most sense. A few of us would head on the path that we knew would lead to the hut while the others kept second guessing and would discuss if this was the way or not. The few of us that went ahead weren’t keen to take our time as we knew we had a ways to go still and that it would be getting dark in a few hours. Also, from experience we knew that the weather could change in an instant and we didn’t want to be trekking up the mountains in a blizzard…we spoke too soon. And that is exactly what ended up happening. The further we went on the more icy the snow became and just was worse off piste. We got to a junction where we had to choose the harder route in order to make it to our destination as it would take far too long to go around. The wind began to build up and the snow fell faster. We were all skiing over small icy peaks in the snow and soon we couldn’t even see but a few meters in front of us. As time went by it got very cold so we only took a small break to catch our breaths and chug some water. It is so easy to get dehydrated whilst skiing in the mountains as you don’t think about it or are just too cold to stop. We passed a sign that told us we were 3 kilometers away from the DNT hut. We estimated that it would take us around 1.5 hours to get there due to the worsening ski conditions. Little did we know that it had only just begun. In the far distance we could see the guys at the peak of the mountain top but they were struggling. We assumed the hut was just past them. (We learned after this trip-never assume anything) Finally, there came a point where we were in the home stretch and the only thing that led us to the hut were small tree branches sticking up from the snow. At this point I was (somehow) in front of everyone. I looked up and saw before me a pretty extreme steep hill and as I started up it i realized that it was just pure ice. I looked behind me to see my 14 or so classmates and the adrenaline kicked it. Head down, I started to herringbone my way up this tregerous mountain side. The wind was blowing heavy at 30 miles per hour, cold icy snow was hitting my face and I couldn’t see but 2 feet in any direction around me now. I had my buff up and my nose was just running like crazy. The weather was so bad that the snow would cling to my eye lashes and it would start to close them shut where at times I could barely see at all. I had to keep covering my eyelids with my wet gloves to try to thaw the ice off as I kept pushing myself up this hell of a hill, all while doing my best not to take a wrong step and slide back down. Most of the time when I looked behind me I couldn’t see a thing and it felt like just me on this mountain. You couldn’t just stop or turn back, there was no option but to push through and do your best not to slip because if you did it would be a long slide down the wet hill and 10x harder to get back up again. I was looking down the majority of the time so I wouldn’t think about how far I had to go to reach the top(although I had no clue) what felt like hours later, I suddenly looked up and could barely make out a black shape which i knew was the hut in the far distance. Seeing the hut-even if far away gave me the boost i needed to just put my head down and muster on. Sam and I (the great Americans) were the first to arrive at the hut and everyone was so shocked…as were we. I’m definitely not a strong skier and have to work a lot harder than others. BUT, I made it. I threw off my skis, went inside and for some reason immediately took my outer layers off. Thankfully since the boys were ahead of us they had started the fire. Although I could hardly see as the ice was basically covering my eyes, the guys were so excited for us and I was so happy to be done skiing that Sam and i just started laughing. 

Coming from Nebraska I haven’t had much ski experience and never had cross country skied prior to coming to Norway so although it may not seem like much to other experienced skiers, this ski trip, mainly the last part coming up the hill might have been one of the most difficult things I have ever had to physically do. The nest couple days consisted of Sam and I exploring our surroundings on our non so trusty skis. It was like trying to ice skate but on 2 sticks instead of skates. So instead of having a terrible time trying to ski far, we just toured around a bit, enjoyed the wonderful scenery of being on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere, and of course the good ol’ cabin life. On Sunday evening us and a couple others decided to ski down to Hovden and head home as the weather had really cleared up and the trails didn’t seem as icy. Going down is ALWAYS better then the trek up. Had to get past the off piste icy hills that had formed. But after we made it on the soft, newly paved trail it was smooth sailing and we were back in civilization in less than 2 hours.