Assignment 2

Self-organized Ski Camping Trip

  • When: 02- 26.02.21
  • Where:Ljosland
  • What: 3 days Ski Camping Trip (+3 days Cabin)
  • 3 words, that describe the experience the best: fogg, personal boundries, unbelievable
  • My Orange (best moment): laying in the cozy tent while listening to the rain on the roof
  • My Lemon (worst moment): loosig the others on a really foggy day
  • What i want to improve on: finding the right decision, when having individual problems within the group

What I really learned from this trip is, that you need to be flexible when you plan a longer trip in the outdoors and changing or shorten a plan doesn´t mean that you fail. It just gives a new perspective and opens new horizons.

This time every group needed to plan and do a trip with minimum 2 nights camping outside on their own. We had a few lectures about avalanche risk, compass and maps, huts and preparation, but even deciding for a region (it could be everywhere in Norway) felt like a challenge. A few groups planned to see the northern lights and flew up to Tromso and did their trip there, but we wanted to go somewhere that is reachable by car within 2 hours.

Planning

1.1 Helpfull webpages for planning a trip:

  • UT.no: tour suggestions and cabins in Norway
  • Kartverket.no : printing maps of specific tour region
  • DNT.no: huts and hiking routs
  • Skisporet.no: Maps and conditions of all ski tracks
  • YR.no: weather forecast

Always have a Plan B.

Check the weather forecast and the avalanche risk regularly.

Write down safety numbers (red cross, 112, Len, local skicenter)

Make sure there are huts or civilisation close to every planned camping spot.

Ask locals.

Better realistic day goals than high goals.

Stay hydrated (Pieps, drink up!).

You need to supplement minerals when you only drink and cook with melted snow.

 

1.2 Plan A: Adneram

Adneram is based in a national park with beautiful mountains and can be reached within 2 hours from Kristiansand.  We printed maps, made expedition route cards for every day (splitting the day in little parts with breaks to estimate the length and the km per day) and started planning the food. First we organised staying out 3 nights and afterwards spending a few days in a cabin with another group but we realised (probably due Corona), that it`s pretty hard to find a private cabin for 12 people.  However the avalanche risk rose day by day in Adneram and after talking to Len, we decided to stick to the plan but avoiding some tracks too close to the mountains with avalanche risk. The weather conditions were bad and so we decided to  become a DNT member and pick up the general key for all huts, to have the possibility to evasion inside.

1.3 Plan B: Ljosland

We planned to stay a few nights in Tim`s hut, that is located in Ljosland, after the trip and due to the bad circumstances of our Plan A, we planned a trip in the area of Aseral (lower avalanche risk, less driving, but similar weather conditions).

We left on Sunday after lunch. We parked our cars close to the ski center in Ljosland and started skiing to find a place to camp. Skiing felt pretty hard, because we didn´t use the right wax (Glister!) and so we slided backwards the whole time. Once I lost balance and fell on my belly and it felt like my 10kg Bagpack is going to kill me. In overall the nights were really nice because my feed were always warm and I enjoyed listening the rain crackling on the roof!

The next day was so foggy! When we came out of the tent in the morning we could only see white walls around us. Somehow we ended up skiing one hill for 5 times because we couldn’t find the junction with zero visibility. Once I was the first skiing downhill  and I waited and waited but the others didn’t arise in the white sourrunding, so I started screaming and I could only hear the voices far away but couldn’t see anything around me. I think I’ve never skied as fast uphill as in this moment 😊

Finally we found our first stop, the DNT hut! We had lunch and decided to ski as far as we can because we lost a lot of time looking for the right way and knew that we won’t make it to our planned camping spot. Due to tiredness and insecurity about what is actually around/above/underneath us when we camp somewhere, we decided as a group to ski back to the DNT hut and camp next to it. I think that was a really good decision, because not everyone in  the group felt mentally well and the DNT hut gave us security (knowing where we are, emergency shelter…). We built a round snow bench, ate dinner and went to bed at 7:30pm.

Next morning was finally good weather and we could see the beautiful mountains and lakes around us while skiing. I enjoyed it so much and felt not exhausted at all. The funny thing was that it took us only one hour back to the cars and the day before it felt like a marathon. We did it !!!! Now it’s cabin time!

The way up to Tim’s cabin was only around 200m away from a parking spot but we sank into the snow with each step, so we decided to ski up but it was really hard with two backpacks each and two bags of food. The cabin was exactly like I expected a Norwegian cabin: cozy living room with a big coach, big windows with a lake view, an oven, two bedrooms and a toilet. We had no electricity and taped water. We spent our next three days with knitting, eating, playing games, going for a snow walk and shoveling a way down to the cars, talking and looking out of the window. What an amazing time !