DAY 1
We started our trip towards Syrtveit at 9.30am but before we could leave, we had to help another group to kick-start their car. Due to the warmer temperatures it started raining but the ground was still cold which led to black ice. This made it impossible for me to reach their parking spot with my car, so we had to push the car down the frozen driveway. Luckily it all went well and as soon as we got out of Kristiansand it started snowing. It took me a bit to get used to the road conditions and as a snowplow got in front of me I needed to overtake it which was a quite dangerous endeavor.
In the end we got to Syrtveit safely, or to be more precise: TrollAktiv. They have a huge area with huts to sleep in and many options for outdoor activities. We split up into two groups consisting of 10/6 persons for the huts. There was just enough time to move into our rooms before we met outside again, fully clothed for the first skiing lesson. We got divided into two groups depending on our height and learned how to wax and prepare our skis for the snow. Getting onto the skis was a struggle first but as soon as I learned how to handle the bindings, it got much easier. After learning the basic ways of turning while standing (star-turning, kickturn) we began to walk with our skies on and created some slopes. As we added the poles to complete our set, we had to remind ourselves to do smooth movements and not to get into a rush. So we started skiing around the whole place, we learned how to get up small hills and how to drive them down as well. The most important thing is to bend your knees to keep balance. We had a great time practicing this by going downhill and being low enough to pass through under a ski pole.
After a short tea break we went out into the woods and up the hills behind the TrollAktiv area into some fresh, deep snow. Getting uphill in this area was different to everything I experienced before. The uphill-technique is called tacking and it means that you have to go up in serpentines. We started creating downhill slopes all over the place that got longer and longer the more we drove in them. This was also the first time I got in contact with telemarking which is a special way of driving downhill; I will go into detail about this later on. Towards the end of our session I could feel my loss of power because I started to fall over more often and my knees did not bend the way I wanted them to.
In the evening, before cooking dinner, we had waxing lessons. The first thing I learned that is really important was: Grip is better than glide because we are going backcountry skiing and not cross-country. Apparently you can layer the wax on your skis to help with the grip and make it long-lasting for a daytrip and even mix different kinds of wax to make sure you get the best movement out of your skis for the trip. Especially when the temperatures are getting warmer it is hard to know which wax is the best to use because the snow crystals undergo a metamorphosis as it is getting warm and cold again. If this happens and the snow becomes icy you have the opportunity to apply Klister to your skis. It works like glue and that also is the main reason no one actually wants to use it because due to this characteristic it is a pain to remove it. If you want to remove the wax layers on your ski, you have to scrape them off and this can take some time depending on which wax you were using and how many layers were applied to the ski.
The skis we are using are different to cross-country skis; they are broader and have the reputation of being “Scandinavia only”. The main use of these skis is to go uphill without any prepared tracks and using the Telemark-technique which has been invented by Norwegians in the 19th century. Since, on Backcountry skis, only the front part of the foot is fixed with a binding you have to bend your front knee and put your weight to that foot while the heel of the back foot is raised. When doing curves it is important, that the ski closer to the valley is in the front to lead your descent.
DAY 2
During the night I realized that it is unnecessary to heat s small room with 4 persons in it unless you want to sleep in a sauna. We were meant so leave at 9.30am and so I got up one and a half hours earlier which definitely was the right decision. Everything takes bit longer with 10 persons in a house and especially applying two layers of wax to my skis took me longer than I expected. Since it had been snowing the whole night we had to move our cars and defrost them a bit so the roads could be cleaned. We got told to free walkway to our accommodation of snow due to safety issues and that worked very well over these 5 days, there was always at least one person keeping it clean.
After that we went off in small busses to the skiing area Høgås near Evje. As we arrived there, we split up into 3 groups and got going. My group learned how to slow down whilst going downhill. The easiest way to do this is by forming a pizza slice with your feet to break. This was the first day we went skiing in prepared tracks and the feeling was totally different compared to the deep snow skiing we did before. When we were finished with this little session we went searching for some steeper hills on which we practiced getting up the hill. There are several ways of doing this: Tacking, as I described before, but also sidestepping to avoid slipping and gliding back down or the classical herringbone which is basically a turned down pizza slice and the way most people would walk uphill with skis on their feet. On the way down we tried switching our front foot in telemark position what worked out more or less. Even though we all fell down many times, the mood in the group was really good and that helped me to stay positive as well.
Following on these exercises we went on a cross-country track and with the wonderful sunshine and only a soft breeze it was beautiful to just ski in this snowy landscape. We switched the leading position so everyone broke track at least once and had the opportunity to relax after that. We had our lunchbreak in the deep snow and some of us used the break to renew the wax on their skis. It is a challenge to put your skis back on when you sink into the snow waist-deep.
On our way back we got taught about orienteering only using the sun that is standing very low at this time of year. Thanks to the Australians in our group we also talked about the differences that occur when you are trying to figure out your position in another hemisphere. Since we still had some time left we began to practice another way of going downhill, slalom. This was really hard to accomplish and even though some people went downhill skiing before, with these skis they had struggled as much as I did. Because they are so broad and have a carving which is straight, the Backcountry skis are harder to turn and it takes a lot of practice to manage it.
This was the second day and I really appreciated the shower back home with some warm water to relax my muscles and help me relief the stress in my body. In the lecture later on we got taught about the essentials you need to pack in your backpack when going for a daytrip. There are two important things I learned that evening: Reflectors can save your life! If you ever get lost and the rescuers are searching for you, a reflector helps them to see you up to 10 kilometers earlier. The other thing I learned at that made me quite happy was that chocolate is important! So if you go out, take some sweets with you. They will cheer you up, taste good and even give you some energy.
DAY 3
Today’s morning routine was way better than the day before even though I could already feel yesterday in my muscles. In comparison o the nice and sunny day before this day was all grey and snowy but that didn’t affect the group’s motivation the slightest and this joy spread all over the place.
We got together in the same groups as the day before but this time we chose the paths we wanted to take. Today our instructor taught us the basic movement of gliding in a flat area, first without and then with poles. It feels a bit like exaggerated jogging and it takes many hours to perfect but the flow was easy to get behind. After that the search for some more hills began, we wanted to do some downhill skiing after all. I really like the idea of “searching a place to play” it is such a light sentence that just assumes everything you do is playing in nature. Once again we realized how steep some hills can be as we had to go sideways to get up the hill.
For Lunch we built an emergency shelter with the shovels we brought with us. We found a perfect spot under two pine trees that protected us from the falling snow and even from the wind to a certain amount. Whilst building the shelter we even found the time to build in a bench to sit during lunch and got a fire started in a small fire place we prepared. The snow couldn’t stop us from starting the fire since there were some birch trees around and with the bark of these and some cotton out of the tumble dryer it is quite easy to get a fire started.
After our lunchbreak we started to explore the surrounding area and to avoid falling into a “food coma” and losing the good spirit we fooled around in the deep snow by jumping in there in various ways; head first like an ostrich or fidgeting like a salmon on land. This gave us more than enough energy to keep on going and as we saw a snow covered, frozen lake we had to cross it of course. Even though the snow was waist deep we checked if the water was definitely frozen enough to hold us by ramming our poles through the snow. Since there were no routes across that lake we had to make our own which was way harder than originally expected. For the last hour we went downhill skiing again to improve our telemarking technique and some people even built a ramp to do some small ski jumping.
This evening’s lecture was about first aid on ski and frost injuries and how to treat them. Of course we were introduced to the right way of calling the emergency and also how to handle it as a group to keep everyone warm, alive and as happy as possible. One of the most important things we talked about was the personal first aid kit. It is very important to have your own with the medicine you would most likely need so, if anything happens, people can use your kit to safe you. A good first aid kit should contain a space blanket, plasters and stereo strips, disinfection, safety pins, wire, antiseptic crème, bandages, compression and the drugs/painkillers you are likely to need.
In our free time we were either preparing food in our dinner groups or doing some group activities. It became a nice habit to have some group yoga sessions in the evening that lead to some moaning and laughing. Someone even brought a guitar along and so we had the opportunity to sing and some of us began writing a little song about our time in the outdoor education class. So the mood in our apartment was really good and full of respect and empathy for each other.
DAY 4
Day 4, the day of the big tour. On that foggy morning we put our blue wax on one layer of green wax, which is made for even colder snow and began our tour at the same point we started every day up to now, Høgås. The big difference this time was that we would not return to this point but to a parking lot in the valley. In contrary to the weather report the snow was really warm and so the whole group was just slipping and sliding all over the place. After 10 minutes we stopped to put some purple wax on our skis that is made for temperatures up to zero degrees. Sadly it only got slightly better but that lead us to the opportunity to learn another type of movement: skating. This is a good way to move forward fast and still safe some energy. The other method was called punting or double poling and basically means that you push yourself forward with the energy of your muscles and the right technique. Adding onto the fact that I felt like I had no friction at all came the really bad vision and even some thin rain/snow mixture.
There was always a pair of students leading the whole group with a map and a compass. The map was really hard to read because we could not use the specific parts of the landscape to orientate ourselves. Luckily we had our group leader with us to help us and give us some really helpful tips and information about the area. On our way we had to go down some really steep, long hills and due to the bad friction I stacked many times. That really began to grind my gears and I started to lose the faith in my abilities when my group came along and started building me up again. Without their optimism and support that day would have gone in a different direction. As we swapped the group leaders I also learned some helpful things. I t is very important to look after the whole group when leading and always making sure everyone is ready. While skiing you have to pay attention to the width you spread and it is good to keep one of the leaders in the back of the group so the front can stay in contact with them. On the smaller hills Ruaridh did some little games with us that did not only cheer us up but also helped with the balance and coordination.
As the prepared tracks ended we met up with the other group and we had to navigate through deep snow. Aggravating to this whole situation it started snowing and winding badly. The best way back lead us over a black run, which is the color for the heaviest tracks, which was not prepared and it was a fight going up and down the steep hills through the deep snow. Muesli bars and chocolate were the lifesavers during this last part of the trip and as we made it to the meeting point I could feel the relief in our group.
This evening we did not have any lectures but a Céilí instead. That is a traditional party from Scotland, but in our case we used it to present some traditional dances, songs, jokes or anything entertaining from our countries of origin. We danced the Scottish folk dances, sang the German party songs, played English games and went crazy with the Australians. An evening full of fun and games to get to know each other’s culture and molds us together as a group.
DAY 5
Our last day In Evje and what would you do besides cleaning the apartment and packing your stuff? Skiing of course! We were really lucky with the weather on thus able to ski until 3 in the afternoon. The main task today once again was navigating in the back country and making tracks through the deep snow. Sadly I couldn’t enjoy this last day to the fullest since I had some really bad nights before and so I felt the lack of good recovery. Hopefully for our future trips I will be able to avoid this happening because it has a heavy influence on your personal well-being and concentration. Once again I have to shout out to our amazing group here that was always in for some jokes, if it was to heat people up or distract them from the pain in their muscles you could always count on them. Overall that last skiing session was a really good summary of the whole week and everybody felt that they really learned something during this time and started to feel more comfortable standing on these long sticks on their feet.
Just as we left TrollAktiv in our cars it started to rain heavily. Even though we had to deal with aquaplaning and some slippery roads the whole group managed to get home safely. This week will definitely be stuck in my head for a long time and I am sure I learned things in that time I well never forget again.
