06.03 – 08.03 (Friday – Sunday)
Self organised skiing trip to Langeid
This weekend Katja, Adele, Will, Luke and I spend in Langeid. We took the bus to Langeid and walked up the hill as the snow was too bad to start skiing right away. Unfortunately even in the higher region the snow was not really good, it was too warm and the snow was sticky. But we skied to the first hut and had nice weather.
The way was really good marked so we didn’t have to do lots of navigation. We found the hut (Tjønndalen) and had a nice evening together splaying cards and eating dinner. The hut is very small and it was really comfortable.
For the second day we had planned to go to Gaukhei hut and spend the second night there. On Sunday we wanted to go 30k back to the road. But the weather was really bad on Saturday. We had a big snowstorm and a lot of fog. You weren’t able to see very far. So we decided not to make the way to Gaukhei, because we were not sure if we could do the 30k back on the next day than in these bad conditions. We planned a day tour instead and started. But the weather was so bad, that it seemed to be too dangerous to go around the mountain because we saw that some avalanches had went down. So Adele and me stayed outside, the others spent the afternoon in the cosy hut. We skied around the hut not going too far away and just played in the wind and snow. It was really hard to ski uphill against the wind, the wind was so strong it even blew us back. But going back was even more fun because even in the flat areas the wind pushed us to very high speed. So we spent the day playing outside. And we met a man who carried out wood to the DNT huts and he told us, that he wasn’t able to deliver Gaukhei with wood because of the bad weather. He said we were lucky that we didn’t go there because you couldn’t see anything behind this area. So we were very happy with our decision. It is really important to adjust the plans to the conditions and to let go a originally good plan. I was really sad that we didn’t do the 30ks because I felt this would have been a good practice for the snow hole trip. But sometimes you can’t change it.
On Sunday morning the area looked completely different. A lot of the snow melted over night and we saw a stream right in front of the hut that hasn’t been visible the other two days. By going back we decided to go around the lake because we weren’t sure if the ice was still strong enough. We had a great day and skied back under the rainbow.
10.03 (Tuesday)
Kindergarden visit at Bragdøya
My group had a visit in an outdoor kindergarden outside of Kristiansand. The island is called Bragdøya and we went there by ship.
Area
The area is part of the island. The kindergarden has a house at the coastline in Kristiansand but the children come out to their outside playground with their teachers every morning. They can use the whole island but they also have a part of it for their own use. There are no fences and no marks. The area is about 500m2 and includes parts of the coast, some rocks, a small stream, a fireplace and a hut. The hut is the only building but it is mostly used for storage. Most of the area is open, but there is also a part with trees, where the woods start. Apart from the building there are some playing buildings as a wooden house, a tipi and a kanu.
The children know, where the fences are, even if they are invisible. They are not allowed to leave the area on their own. But the area is still big enough so that the children can be out of visibility. The area is very diverse, the children can run, play with the water, climb on the rocks, use the trees and play on the flat ground. It offers a lot of possibilities for all kinds of plays.
Facts
Monday till Thursday from 9:00 till 14:30.
On Friday they are in the kindergarden indoors.
18 children, 3 teachers
Parents can chose that the children should be in the group that goes outdoors.
The role of the leader
There are only 2 rules for the children: Don’t leave the area and don’t go into the water of the stream (because it is too cold). It seemed like these rules were easy managed by the kids. The day is not planed or structured. Every Wednesday they go out for a walk over the island and the children learn something about the war and the buildings that are left over. On the other days the children can play whatever they like. There is no lunchtime, the children decide when they eat and drink. So the teachers are mostly watching, are around and help when they are needed. They try to watch the children, but not giving them a feeling of being controlled. When the play gets too dangerous or risky for other kids (playing with sticks as weapons) they interfere. Also when children are crying they go there and help. If they see, that a child is on their own, they try to include it. They don’t want children to be left out and everybody has to have a friend. On this day one of the teachers offered to make some Easter decoration and the children could go there and make it together with the teacher.
They do not use a lot of toys, most they have is stuff from the nature as wood, sticks and rocks. They have some shovels and toy cars the children can take out of the building. But they don’t use it a lot.
The role of the kids
The kids are playing self organised the most of the time. They find each other together and decide what to play. 6 children were playing on the rocks, they climbed up and threw things down and watched them falling. They played there for more then one hour. 4 girls played in the hammock and had a good laugh by pushing themselves. Some children played cooking and family in the tipi and some were climbing in the ropes. 2 girls found an earthworm and played with it. They tried to make it swim in the stream and probably killed it. But the teacher didn’t interfere. All of the children were motivated to play and they all had a lot of fun. Some decided to make the Easter decoration and some of them didn’t. We saw one child eating. 2 girls wanted to play the game 4 wins and the teacher helped them to understand the rules and played with them. They didn’t ask her to join, but they needed her for explaining.
All children wore warm and waterproof clothes and got really wet and dirty. But as this is normal it was no problem.
Motor skills:
– running
– climbing
– balance
– coordination
–
Other skills:
– self organisation
– find a game
– social skills
Risky play
A lot of the children did risky play. They jumped down from the rocks and went higher each time. They also encouraged each other to go even higher than before. In the hammock the girls were pushing each other to go faster and higher. Some children played with sticks and used them as weapons. They chased each other and tried to fear each other.
13.03 – 15.03 (Friday – Monday)
Holmenkollen
The drive to Oslo on Friday went well, not many cars on the road, easy to find. We started at the Fram Museum. It is a really nice museum and it is build around the big FRAM, the most popular ship in Norway. It is really impressive to see this old ship. You can go into it and visit all the rooms and equipment. It was Nansen’s ship and he used it for different explorations. Later it was used by Amundsen to win the race to the South Pole. Amundsen was the first to navigate the Northwest Passage, the first to reach the South Pole, a navigator of the Northeast Passage, the first to fly to latitude 88⁰ N, and the first to fly across the Arctic Ocean. He is one of the big idols in Norway. The exhibition around the Fram shows everything about the race, pictures, equipment and more. It was impressive to get an insight about how hard conditions have been at that time and what big risks people took to reach such a big goal.
In the afternoon we arrived at the campsite of Holmenkollen. This was so different from everything we expected. The Norwegians all seem to use the same kind of tent: a big tipi in od. Around it they build sitting benches out of snow and have a big fire going. Everybody was drinking, listening to music and enjoying the sun. It seemed to be a big festival. We enjoyed the atmosphere and had a look around.
On this and on the next day we saw different pre jumps at the jumping area and watched the 50 and 30 k race of women and men. We felt really Norwegian and it was great fun to cheer with all the different people.
The Holmenkollen museum was also interesting. But I preferred the Fram Museum. We saw a lot of different types of skis and the development of the Holmenkollen jumping area.
On Sunday we used our free time to visit Oslo. We had really nice walk around the town from Vigelandsparken to the Opera.
17.03 – 20.03 (Tuesday – Friday)
Göteborg
Adele, Katja, Zuzi and I organised a little trip to Sweden, Göteborg. We drove there with the car, took the ferry from Sandefjord to Strømstad. Göteborg is little but charming town and while walking trough the city and enjoying the good weather we went to some little shops, had a good cup of coffee and enjoyed the sights. On the other days we went to Slottsskogen park, to an animal park and to the district Haga. At night we tried to see some northern lights because the forecast was really good, but unfortunately it was too cloudy.
We had a really good time and enjoyed our time in Sweden. It was also nice to have a real city tour without camping and cocking in a real kitchen.
23.03 – 26.03 (Monday – Thursday)
Snow hole trip
On Monday morning we met at the starting point to Berdalsbue and where divided into two groups, one with Len and one with Tim. I was in Tim’s group together with Katja, Adele, Petr, Jannis, Steve, Roman, Wytse, Sharon and Sven.
Most of us were really excited as this seemed to be the hardest and most challenging trip for us in the whole semester.
We skied to the hut, settled down, looked for snow hole areas, skied around, and stayed at the hut for the first. We had a good sleep and were able to prepare for the next following 3 days.
On Tuesday morning it got serous. We skied to the area some of us found the day before. It was proved, that skiing to the area was already a little challenge for a lot of us. We went a lot downhill in deep and sticky snow. The big backpacks weren’t helping… But finally we managed the way and started building 2 snowholes, 1 iglu and 1 sigg igloo in our group. Tim gave us a lot of theoretical inout and explained everything really good. It was intressting to learn so much about snowholes and it took a way most of my fear. I have been occupied the most of the time with the Sigg igloo as we were divided in smaller sleeping groups. In the evening we had a fire, but we didn’t manage it to work really well because it was too deep dpwn in the snow and couldn’t breath.
How to build a snow hole:
The area has to be an overhang and at least 3m deep vertically and horizontally. Then you can start to dig a ‘door’. This door becomes a tunnel by digging horizontally into the hill. When the tunnel is big enough you start to dig to the right and the left side and carve out 2 caves. These are then the sleeping plateaus. You can fit 4 people in. To be protected from snow and wind you have to close the entrance afterwards. The easiest way is to put big snow or icy blocks over each other.
How to build a sigg igloo:
The sigg igloo was invented by a German while the world war as a method to get people under the earth out of the snow and cold in an emergency the fastest as possible. Tim proposed us to build one of these to learn the method. First you dig a hole down into the snow on flat ground. It should be at least 3m deep. You dig it like a circle and put the snow around it like a circled fence. You can also start to curve it out under the walls. Then you have to dig a tunnel towards the hole and connect it. To build the roof at least 3 people have to stand into the hole. They hold a tarp or parachute over their bodies and form a rugby circle. The others have to dig as much snow as possible on their bags. You should shovel for at least 7 minuets. This time is critical for the people inside the hole because they feel like being buried alive. They have to be mentally strong and it’s a good idea to have a leader and clarify the outgoing order. It is also helpful to have somebody in the tunnel to communicate between the people. A soon as the roof is stable the people can leave the hole through the tunnel and the building of the roof and the carving inside can be continued.
How to build an igloo:
Building an igloo is not really complicated. With the snow saw you saw out big and compact blocks of snow and ice. They have to be stapled in an oval shape and when you start the second row be aware of displacing them like a wall to make it more stable and move the blocks always a bit more to the inside to create a roof. To have an entrance it is the best to dig a tunnel into the igloo this protects it from wind and snow and doesn’t take away any stability from the wall.
We had a lot of fun while building the different sleeping places. We were blessed with a lot of sun and it was warm and cosy. We could have breaks in the sun and prepared our snow holes until the evening.
In theory the sigg igloo takes not more than an hour. But ours took way longer than the snow holes. So other people started to build an igloo and a fireplace. But in the end our sigg igloo was the most comfortable place to be.
We went to bed before we got too cold and I had a really good night sleep. It was really warm, comfortable and cosy in our sigg igloo. I had one moment in which I was scared of the roof coming down, which Tim described us as one of the biggest dangers. But I really enjoyed the night and was really.
In the next morning we started with delay, which wasn’t really good for the group cohesion as some people were ready in time and others weren’t. This is really unaware and annoying because people who are ready stand around in the wind and snow and get cold. On this day we had awful weather it was stormy and windy snowed all the time and was really uncomfortably. Tim took us out for a tour and we practised map and compass work, which was exhausting in the bad weather. We had a break in an emergency shelter. It was warm and we got out of the wind, but it was too tight and small to have a recreating break.
After some avalanche theory and practice, snow layer theory and telemark turns we were allowed to warm us up in the hut for one hour. This was nice, but I think it was even harder to go back into the cold afterwards. In this night we couldn’t have a fire and went to bed as quick as possible. Unfortunately I got really cold hands while filling up water bottles in the stream. I was shocked how cold my fingers and then my whole body turned, I could feel my fingers anymore, couldn’t go back into the glove or grab the bottles properly. This showed me how dangerous the cold winter can be when you’re in an emergency or bad equipped.
In the next morning we were snowed in and had dig our way out of thee sigg igloo. Unfortunately we had to leave our area and pack the stuff together. Until this day I really enjoyed the trip and I could believe how scared I have been before. It wasn’t hard at all. It was uncomfortable at some points for sure, but I had fun and I enjoyed the time in the snow. But for this night we had an emergency shelter planed. So we skied out of the area, which took again some time. Because of the snow storm at night the snow was really high and new and it were tough conditions to ski in.
Tim told us that we have 20 minuets to dig out our own emergency shelter. We were supposed to suggest being apart from the group in really bad weather. The only chance to survive was coming under the snow. We were all scared about sleeping alone. But we dug out our holes and were prepared to spend the night in there. Tim went around and told us if we would survive in there or not. But before we were all freaking out, he announced that the weather would be too bad at night and it was too dangerous to let us sleep all separated. So our trip came to an early end and we went home on Thursday instead of Friday.
The snow hole trip is one of my highlights of this semester.