As it was just March and winter was far from being over, we were supposed to go on self-organized fieldtrips in order to improve our skiing and get used to the environment.

Unfortunately, there was no snow to be seen and the next area with skiable snow was Hovden (about 3 hours away). So we got divided into groups of 4, I ended up with “The Potentials”, and we started planning a backcountry skiing trip.

Preparation:

Since none of us had ever been to the area, we informed ourselves about possible places for an overnight camp or DNT huts that were open during that time of year. The Norwegian Trekking Association (in short DNT) is Norway’s biggest outdoor activities organization. They operate 550 cabins all over Norway and make them accessible for hikers, skiers and anybody else touring through the Norwegian wilderness. You can become a member in order to get a discount on your stays but it is not necessary.

Just as we learned in class, we made not only a route plan A, but a plan B and C as well just to ensure that we would be prepared for all circumstances. In order to make these route plans we got maps of the local area from norgeskart.no. This website provides you not only with topographic maps but also with aerial pictures, nautical charts, hiking maps and much more. The detailed maps allowed us to have a good plan and assured that we could orientate ourselves with their help.

To give our preparation the last touch, we met up on the weekend before the trip and went through the whole trip once again. I found this to be slightly exhausting, because it appeared that some people want to change everything back and forth if you talk too much about the same topic. Besides that, we discovered that our tent did not have any pegs with it. This is definitely something that you should check before you pack the tent! It was impossible to search the uni garage for them and texting our lecturer was no option either. To shorten this: We got lucky in the end since another group came back early and we could borrow their pegs. A thing that worked really well was the division of gear and the planning we did for our meals, since we wanted to cook together.

Our original plan was to have a short trip on the first day because of the long drive and after that a long trip to a hut on the second day, before we wanted to return to the car on day 3. But it came totally different…

The trip:

We started early in the morning, it was raining and still dark as we came to pick up the group. Unfortunately we had to change cars, because the skiing gear of 4 persons plus their backpacks and everything is hard to fit in a small car.

After a 3 hour drive through the beautiful landscape of southern Norway, we arrived in a sunny Hovden with warm +2 degrees Celsius. Because of the conditions we started off with red wax on our skis and followed the signed crosscountry ski track. The wax did not work at all; the snow got stuck under our skis and piled up until we basically walked on plateaus. As a result, we spent quite some time that day removing snow and wax from our skis and rewaxing them. It was so frustrating that at one point I took them off and started walking next to the tracks, because it was actually faster. As we had our lunchbreak we decided to go for the long tour on the first day already, because the weather was good and despite the bad snow conditions we were quite fast. Thus said, we kept on going up the hills for our goal was the said DNT hut in 12km distance. As we skied up, the weather got worse and worse. Clouds darkened the sky and a strong wind blew the snow in our faces while everything around just turned white and grey. At a clear junction we reoriented and discovered, that we had gone further than expected and there was no turning around at this point. I definitely learned my lesson from this; orientate more often and stay safe!

Because of the constant headwind, the icy ground and the bad sight it was a real challenge to keep up the spirit in the group, and we tried our best to motivate us and told us stories or played little games to distract us while we were pushing on. Towards 4pm the wind got so strong that we couldn’t even orientate properly anymore and we decided to give it another thirty minutes of searching for the hut, before seeking shelter and setting up a tent. Skiing up yet another hill, we saw a hut in front of a big plane snowfield and decided to head there and use it as a wind shelter. Skiing down that icy hill was a challenge, especially since we all were exhausted and afraid that we could not get back up should we fall down. With shacking knees we made it down and started shoveling snow and ice away behind the hut to make space for our tent. The four of us worked really efficient on this and as we were almost finished another group from our course showed up and brought fresh energy with them, although they were just as exhausted as we were. We made dinner and went to bed right away. This time I got a space in the middle of the tent and therefore had a warm night.

After approximately 13 hours in that tent we got out the morning after, and had a stunning view as the sun was rising into a blue sky over snow covered hills. We discovered that the plain white field in front of the hut was a big frozen lake and decided to ski over it back down the mountains, in order to do our short tour on this very day. I discovered that I forgot my toothbrush, a mistake that won’t happen again, and used my fingers as brush to get at least slightly the feeling of a morning wash.

This second day provided us with amazing weather and as we skied along we took the time to have some short breaks and enjoyed the landscape and the sun. Sadly we had some more crashes that day as went downhill and after the planned tour we decided to head back a night earlier, since my back was hurting and the others weren’t too well either. This being said it is always good to have at least two persons on a trip that are able to drive car, in case the car owner has an accident or feels sick.

Aftermath:

We had all reasons to be proud of ourselves. We did not only manage to ski our planned distance in less time but we also had great team spirit and worked together to make this trip a great experience. Of course we all knew, that we still had to work on our planning and orientating if we wanted to do this with a group of unexperienced people or students, but for now the positive side definitely won.