From the 08.02.21 to the 12.02.21, we went to Trollaktiv for our Basic Ski Course.

I just skied twice in my life before (in primaryschool), so the skicourse taught me a lot regarding skiing techniques on flat and hilly areas and generally how to move forward in a resonable way, depending on the terrain, how to stop, how to get back up after falling in deep snow and all over, I learned how to keep my balance on skies. I improved a lot in those five days, using the poles, keeping more balance, riding turns and stopping, getting more comfortable on skies after a few days of struggeling.

Alongside with the practical knowledge, the lectures at night added theoretical knowlegde regarding first aid and waxing skies correctly, mapreading and orientation- knowledge we could test and practice along the trip.

A further outcome of the trip was the basic knowledge about moving around in winterconditions (cold and snowy), gained through practical experiences, which may become even more imporant and valuable while camping in a tent in cold winter conditions, when you can not just go into the warmth of a  hut, having a hot chocolate.

During the past five days,  I learned, that keeping the perfect bodytempreture (being comfortably warm but not sweating) allows my best performance, that sweating can cause distraction, a lack of motivation and concentration. It simply takes too much energy, which I experienced particularly during the last day of the trip.

Scince I (and I think most of us) was very busy coordinating my movements and trying to not fall and balance out on skies the first 2 days, my focus was by myself, less at the group. The excursion gave me the chance, to learn something new, which I enjoyed but which also challenged me to deal with frustration when I lost balance (again). Further, it was hard to follow instructions on how to move my body f.e. to do turns, I realized that I would need some more time than others to go through the movements and reapeat them a few times until I would gain the physical feeling on how to control th skies. For this, it was  very helpful to be in a group of people, who were having  (more or less) the same difficulties as me. Sharing the feelings helped to feel less bad and more motivated again, the frustration gave way to motivation and humour. This group support and development I took notice notably in the third and fourth day, when I was less focused on myself and more confident on skies.

 For this I became aware of  much improvement of some teammembers, we started having conversations about frustration and helped each other more often, shared glances and emotions, which made the group feel more of beeing a group instead of individuals (at least my feeling). Also I discovered some people wanting to be the fastest, and some helping the last ones in the back- a great variety of groupmembers. I had the feeling that over the days and espacially on Thursday, the groupdynamic changed from following individual goals to a group goal: that everybody would have fun and be able to catch up, enjoying the day (which on the other hand could be also result of the improving skiskills).  Therefore, there were more breaks to wait for the less fast groupmembers as a team, there were more cheers to successfull rides and many group pictures and videos were taken.

Retrospectivly, there are a few situations that made the change of the groupdynamic (felt individually) and the bonding oft he groupmembers obvious and observable:  One example is loading and unloading the trailer. While this job was done from 3 to 6 people at the beginning, it was including the whole group at the end of the week, building a chain and passing on skies while laughing and joking.

Another situation to see the developing group was reading maps together. First, reading one map together with 3 or 4 people did not work very well, people would social loaf and others would take over the leading role. Later it worked out a lot better and people would automatically share their maps and work together, talk about a route shareing their ideas and opinons.

One of my highlights of the week was the ski jumping. Wednesdaynight, we got the chance to try ourselves in skijumping. Cheering for and motivating each other to go for a little jump added to an excited, happy and mingeling group mood, all togethter a great group bonding event, which we continued talking about the next days. Further, the bus rides and evening gatherings were qualitiy time to talk to others and get to known each other a bit better. On top of that, we shared the last day of the excursion all together, mixing up the groups and instructors, the first time we were all one big group instead of two small ones.

The advantages of learning how to ski in the wilderness are independence from premade tracks and for that discovering areas independently, as well as beeing able to „hike“ in winter and enjoy remote but beautiful and peacefull areas with great views, that are unaccessable by foot in winter cause of deep snow. Additionally,  the snow makes it a lot easier to find tracks of animals, observe and follow tracks of wildlife. Finding your own track in the snow and choosing different techniques to deal with the surfaces may help a lot staying flexible in thinking and dealing with situations, but also demands a lot more profession regarding techniques, balance and fitness than premade slopes.

All together, I had a great time and enjoyed spending so much time outdoors during the basic ski course.  Especially skiing downhill was a lot of fun, as well as going on a tour with actually controlling my skies. I gathered experience regarding skiing and mapreading, which may help organizing hikes in a summercamp with map and compass. Further, I got to know myself a bit better, leaving my comfort zone and trying out new things. Now, being able to ski, I would like to improve my skills back home, using the nature there more often for skiing in winter (when there is snow).