Overnight Fieldtrip, Forest Winter
Location: Jegersberg, Kristiansand
January 29/30 (Wednesday-Thursday)
Our first field trip together took place in Jegersberg but the trip really began at the University several hours before hand. We had to collect our gear, check if everything was working, divide the equipment up amongst the members in each group and then we were finally ready to go. Once we eventually found snow, we clipped on our skis and began along the track in single file. We skied for about 1-2 hours deep into Jegersberg before we found a place to camp near to Lake Kyrtjonn, North of the University. Whilst we were skiing along, I wore my wool socks, ski pants, long sleeve thermals, my hardshell rainjacket, Gore-Tex gloves and snow goggles. It sounds like a lot, but that’s only 1-2 layers and when you’re cross-country skiing, you get so hot that you begin to sweat and that isn’t good in cold conditions. We eventually found a nice spot that was flat enough for us to work with. When camping on snow, it’s lucky that you can just remove what you want to make everything flat but when there is no snow, what you see in the terrain is what you have to sleep on. We stopped on the track and spaced our tents out in a line. Our tasks were to stay warm, make a luxury comfort campsite and put together a 3-course meal on the stormkitchens and that’s exactly what we did.
– What does the Recreation Act tell you?
The Act of 28 June (1957) was created in order to protect the natural foundation for outdoor recreation and preserve the right for public access to and through the countryside with permission to spend time there. It guarantees the public the ability to walk freely in the outdoors and use the outdoors as a form of recreation or leisure that is healthy. Spending time in the environment also gives a sense of well-being and improves many aspects of the mind and body. There are many sections in the Act that refer to guidelines around cultivated and uncultivated land but because Jegersberg would classify as uncultivated land, many of the sections in the Recreation Act do not apply to our overnight trip.
– Organisation of the camp
Upon arriving and selecting our camp location, each tent group then had to choose exactly where they wanted their tent to go. The location was well protected from the majority of wind. We were all aware the snow is very soft and putting a tent on it could be difficult so we began trying different methods to make a firm platform for the tent. At first we walked along the snow with our skis on until we were satisfied, only to step off the skis and sink about 1ft. Obviously the length was great for flattening the snow but the surface area of the ski didn’t allow us to compact the snow to the level we wanted. We then used a combination of methods with Craig and I walking around on the snow with out skis, the girls then walking over our steps with their skis to flatten it better and every now and then, we would use the shovels to get rid of some snow we didn’t need. Werner (2009) agrees with this method and also states that compacting the snow is important because the snow can sometimes be high enough to cover small trees and bushes. If you were to set up a tent above one of these, it is possible that you may sink into a hole during the middle of the night. Once we were satisfied, two of us began setting up the tent, one of us left the group to work on the toilet and fireplace and the other person worked on our little kitchen area. Once one group member had finished their role, they then helped the rest of the group to finish everything else. After putting the tent up, Johne recommended we dig down into the snow beneath the vestibule to open up more space for your feet and bags. I will certainly do this next time I am camping in the snow.
The Luxurious Kitchen Area
Tent Setup
At the completion of camp organisation, we had dug a network of 2ft deep channels in the snow that linked our tent to the cooking area, toilet, other tents and the fireplace, which made walking around through the snow a lot easier. We had also arranged a location besides a nearby tree where we would place our shovels, skis and ski poles so we wouldn’t lose anything if it snowed overnight. The toilet had a little marker that worked much like the vacant/in-use locking indicator on the toilet doors of public cubicles. Our campsite was definitely comfortable and luxurious for a one-night stay.
Channels Make Walking Around Much Easier
– Stormkitchen
Our cozy cooking dugout was a little circle with enough space for all four of us to sit in with two trangias, food and other utensils. I have had some experience with trangias in the past but never in the snow. As a group, we agreed that we should take turns setting up our sleeping mats and sleeping bags whilst the others the others cooked and then we could rotate around. In Australia, we usually use methoylated spirits and do not use gas very often so it was very interesting to see the set up and then more so, to see how the gas responded to the cold weather. To make sure the trangias did not melt into the snow, we laid down 4-5 small straight sticks on the snow in order to build a steady platform to cook on.
– Staying Warm
With all of the correct layers on, I was very warm. I had my long sleeve thermals, fleece jumper and downjacket for my torso, ski pants on my legs, two pairs of gloves on my fingers and a beanie on my head but most importantly, I was dry. At no point did I feel like I needed to put on more clothes for my torso, legs or head. However, despite the wool socks and thick gloves, my toes and my fingers did get quite cold. I think I will wear another pair of socks next time. I also brought some mittens, which had a woolen glove inner. I soon found out that the thick gloves do not make finger dexterity easy and the thinner gloves provide little or no warmth at all. The mittens were good but the inner layer inside seemed to defeat the purpose as my fingers could not warm each other due to a layer between. We noticed that if you provide a layer between you and the snow, you will immediately become warmer. We would either stand on logs or lay our skis down and stand on those. Once off the snow, it is quite amazing what a difference there is. Tina brought an emergency foil blanket and placed that inside the tent as an additional insulation layer for us all to sleep on. I then had my 7cm thick down-filled Ex-Ped, -4 down sleeping bag and polyester liner which can add up to an additional 15 degrees of warmth. Just to make sure I was really toasty warm, I kept my thermal long sleeve shirt and also threw on my thermal leggings.
– Dinner
- What is important? (Nutrition)
- How to make a “luxury” 3 dishes dinner at a storm kitchen?
– Entrée:
– Loaf of Bread, Garlic, Oil, 1x Onion
– Main:
– 4 cups of Rice, 3-4x Carrots, 1x Zucchini, 3x Capsicum, 1x Diced Tomatoes, Spices, Salt/Pepper, 4-8x Potatoes, Ham, Cheese, Roll of Alfoil
– Desert:
– Pancakes: Flour, Eggs, Milk, Lemon Juice, Sugar, 4-5x Banana, Small bottle of Honey, Marshmallows
– Breakfast:
– 6x Eggs, (Bread), (Salt and Pepper), (Ham and Cheese)
Entrée: Garlic Bread fried on the pan with onion
Main: Rice and Vegetables cooked separately, then put into a half a Capsicum used as a bowl
Desert: Honey or Lemon and Sugar Pancakes with Marshmallows on the fire
We had agreed in advance that as one of the group members is a vegetarian, we could all go one night enjoying food that they would normally eat. It was quite interesting to see how much nutrition we could pack into a meal without needing any meat. In class the day before, we all divided up a shopping list and bought 1-2 things for the meals. Upon bringing out the trangia, I was disappointed in myself to remember I had left the capsicums in the fridge, got distracted and totally forgot about them on the way out. Fortunately, Tina had spare capsicums and came to the rescue to salvage our dinner. I also find it interesting that only Australians seem to call them capsicums whereas everyone else calls them Peppers.
– Campfire (which type at this time of the year?)
Johne showed us how to construct a Pagode Bål, which literally means stack fire and is supposed to be perfect in the kind of weather conditions we encountered. We had seen it once before with the Norwegian students but you begin making a square with some logs maybe 2 inches in diameter and slowly stuck up more squares with thinner and thinner sticks. It eventually ends up looking like an ancient Chinese Pagode monument. You can then put birch bark and other tinder inside the hole at the top. It was great to join all of the other tent groups here after dinner to share some marshmallows and enjoy the night together on our own. If you wanted to then boil water or cook some food, you could squash the fire down a little bit and have the bigger logs pointing in towards the fire. This is called a star fire and all of the flat logs provide a nice platform to place pots and pans that require heating.
Before we went to sleep, we made sure that all of the skis were standing up, with the wrist straps of the ski sticks put over the top of the skis. We then discussed that the shovels would be just outside the door at a spot we had all agreed on and we would bring the stormkitchens inside the vestibule. We also said that if someone wakes up during the night, they should attempt to shake the snow off of the tent fly so that it doesn’t get too heavy and drip through all over us during the middle of the night.
Learning Outcomes:
Essential gear to take on an overnight trip in cold and snowy conditions.
The difference between packing a rucksack for a hiking trip and cross-country skiing trip.
How to cross-country ski when in a group, including how often you should take a break.
What to wear when cross-country skiing, due to the heat generated from the exercise.
How to choose and prepare a campsite upon arrival.
How to make the campsite more luxurious and comfortable for your stay.
Tasty, nutritious and filling camp meals to cook up on a stormkitchen.
How challenging it is to regulate body temperature all the time in the cold with the appropriate layers.
Mittens are much more effective than gloves when keeping fingers warm but it is important to at least have something on your hands all the time.
The correct fire structure for cold and snowy conditions.
Some good information about other people in the friluftsliv group.
References:
Government.no 2014, ‘Act of 28 June 1957 No.16 Relating to Outdoor Recreation’, viewed 22 February 2014, http://www.regjeringen.no/en/doc/Laws/Acts/outdoor-recreation-act.html?id=172932/.
Werner, P 2009, ‘Pitching a winter tent on snow’, SectionHiker.com, viewed 22 February 2014, http://sectionhiker.com/pitching-a-winter-tent-on-snow/.