We were five persons in the group for the self organized hiking trip. As two of us went skiing the weekend before and the other two joined us spontaneously, I was in charge of planing the route. I have planed routes before but it was the first time that I was of on my own to do it.

I had to consider that there were very strong and fast people as well as slower ones. Moreover I had do check for snow and the weather conditions as well as a spot which was nice to hike in. I really liked being responsible for all of this although we changed the route a lot during our hike. Now, after the trip, I am more familiar with the hiking pace and the daily distances in a heterogenous group. Moreover I learned to talk to the inhabitants at the place because of snow conditions. For myself I note that I prefer to walk in a slow pace so that I can enjoy the nature hence it is not important to me to walk long distances. To me hiking is something calming and relaxing, to others it is more of a challenge and a type of sports.

changed route card

Day 1: Dirdal to Kvernatjørn Øvre (16km) change: to Kvitlavatnet (8km)

View over the Fjord

The beginning was quiet steep hence we took a lot of small breaks which was nice because we were right above the Fjord. After this we had to walk through snow to get to a valley. Walking through snow is exhausting because you sink in at least knee high.

Taking another break we lost Ozzy who kept on walking. In the end Moritz found him on a mountain top. The answer to our question why he was up there: “I don’t know!”. We were released finding him because it’s never a good idea to split the group like this.

Mountain Fitness

Dinner time

In the evening we found a nice spot for our tents which was close to a lake and not on wet ground.

 Day 2: Kvernatjørn to Fossankrå (19km) change: Kvitlavatnet to Dirdal (9 km)

The next morning was foggy so we stayed in our tents until 11h. As the view didn’t improve then, we started to find our way up to the mountains. Everyone chose it s own path and we serpentine uphill for approximately an hour. Up on the mountain we decided to walk straight back to the cars because there was snow everywhere and a longer turn would have been really exhausting considering these winterly conditions. We were changing the track breaker and followed each others steps. The nicest part of this day was when we went downhill to hit the old path. I sat down and it was like sledging! Back in Dirdal it started to rain so we decided to drive straight to Orre.

At Orre beach we spend the night and on the next day we decided to have an easy day. Everyone was free however we ended up walking along together. The group didn’t want to separate.  At an old bunker we stopped. We girls had a relaxing time in the sun while the guys were building a stairway up on top of the bunker. Can there be seen a gender related behavior taking influence on the group dynamic? I must admit it was  kind of a cliché situation. Furthermore once they were done building part of the group wanted to head back which we did although we didn’t need to stay together.