On the 4th February we set out for Syrtveit in Evje to partake our basic ski course with Len, Thomas and Tim, the owner of the camp Troll Active. We were supposed to sleep in two nice houses for 10 and another 6 people. Even though my cooking group went straight into the big housing, I decided to join the girls in the smaller house. I haven’t spent much time with them yet and wanted to get to know them a bit better. After the drive and moving in, we finally started after lunch with our first steps on the skis this was very exciting. As I am a downhill skier, I was already conversant with the balance on skies and the basic movements which aren’t very different to downhill skiing. For getting more individual feedback and learning from different coaches, we always went skiing in smaller groups and varied skiing teachers every day. I liked this very much, as everyone taught a little different and the small groups fitted well together. We began with a first lesson waxing our skis. Due to the cold temperatures (-7), we used the blue wax and applied it gently over the middle ski to make sure that we create no wax piles. Corking the ski, we created some heat and let the wax bond to the skis pores. As two light layers stay longer than one big layer, we repeated the waxing another time. The first ski steps involved some coordination and balance tasks as tip, tip, tail, tail and turns. I already knew those practises but saw that it wasn’t quite so easy for people who have never been standing on skis before. Especially the turns were very important to make it up the hill later. Also important was the lesson about falling and standing up again in deep snow. It’s important to keep the hands with the body and to resist stretching them to the ground as they sink into the snow. We experienced a lot about falling this day, as going down a hill with cross country skis is very different to downhill skis. But the snow is soft and so we had a lot of fun, while practising downhill with bent flexible knees. It was good to know, that laying your poles across the ground will create a stable base to push up off and help you to stand up. While training on smaller hills, I realised that I had a bad body position. I was leaning backwards and being a bit tensed. But that changed after more playing in the snow and focussing on bending my knees.

It was a lot of fun going cross country and experiencing the deep snow with our cross country skies. Skiing one after another, we used the track of the first person to save energy. While playing around in a certain area, we tried different technics to go up a hill: Depending on the steepness, it was possible to go up straight. If the wax works perfectly with the snow conditions the ski should grip the snow this was aided by lowering your centre of gravity. This works the best when staying in a centred upright body position, not leaning forward or bending one’s back and pushing the ski down into the snow. Sometimes it required a lot of arm strength to stop me sliding backwards. It was very frustrating, when I couldn’t get any grip. At the evening lecture we got the tip to experiment with waxing the middle part of our ski referring to a better grip. As I am a smaller and lighter person I wanted to extend the waxing part towards the ski tip to gain a better grip. Hopefully this will work in the future. A slower but very effective way to ascend the hill was sideways. Another technique for going up the hill is the Herring bone technique. This involves spreading the skies and using the edge of the skies. It is faster but also more exhausting.

With respect to my clothing, I am very impressed about the softshell trousers. Although I was more lying in the snow than skiing this day, they felt dry. Just as well as the trousers were my boots. It looked like I have done a good job waxing them with Nik Wax, as I didn’t have cold or wet feet the whole day. I felt warm as opposed to cold, wearing woollen underwear, fleece and the waterproofed jacket.

It was a very exciting day with lots of new movements, experiences and perceptions. So far, I like playing in the snow, improving my cross country skills and cutting my way through the snow, but still prefer the downhill sections. I like the challenge to concentrate on your body and shift the centre of gravity, to hold the balance and to compensate or dodge unevenness and still cut a fine figure 😉. That probably didn’t happen on this day.

2^nd Day.

After a good night’s sleep, a filling breakfast and a delighted look at the sunny weather forecast, we re-waxed the skis and headed off to Hogas. This is an area with many prepared skiing tracks involving flat parts and small hills. But it also offers a wide range of off track possibilities to practise. This day we skied in even smaller groups than yesterday and got more individual practice. Petra, Jonas, Michael, Justin and I went with Thomas, our instructor for the day. We began with a few tasks to train our balance on skies. While going up and down a small hill without poles, we should feel the skis gliding and gripping and use our arms to hold the balance. Not wanting to be the fastest, but doing the furthest distance with less effort, we should try to use all the possible gliding of one step and take then the next step.

After that we started skiing on the trails. The whole group was very motivated and put a lot of effort to do their best. As the weather was awesome on this day, we decided to head to the peak of the mountain Himmelsyna to enjoy the view. We knew that it would be a big distance and challenging climb, but we were motivated enough to fight that. At the beginning I had problems to keep pace with everyone, as some of the boys went really fast. But after asking the group to slow down a bit, that was accepted very well, we found a better tempo.

The sun was very warm and the steep hills increased, so that we got rid of layers time after time. The steeper the hills got, the more I fought against them. I put all my strength together and tried to push myself up with my arms. But I couldn’t get any grip in the snow and just slide back each time. This was exhausting and energy-sapping. Suddenly I saw Michael next to me, walking up the steep hill effortless and easily. I got so frustrated and was asking what the hell I was doing wrong. Thomas recommended to renew the gripping layer with a wax for higher temperatures (purple), as the blue wax I’ve put on in the morning didn’t fit anymore with the snow conditions. He was right. The new wax changed everything and I could enjoyed the skiing again. It was really interesting to see how the different wax works. Anyhow, going up to the peak was challenging. But as soon as we got there, we all agreed, that it was worth doing it.

The view was amazing and skiing the last part in the deep snow made it even more interesting and enjoyable. As opposite to the warm temperatures at the foot of the mountain, there was a very strong wind around the peak and it quickly got cold and uncomfortable. So, we chose to ski down again. And that was so much fun. A few of our group struggled with the steepness and/or the speed as that skiing in part requires courage and luck or technical skills like braking and skiing turns. But in the end, everyone made it happily down in one piece. We rewarded ourselves with a relaxing lunch in the sun and built benches of snow to sit on. Everyone looked so happy and was enjoying the beautiful sunny white landscape. I realised how hungry I was and that we didn’t drink a lot in the morning. We planned to do more short stops on the way back and to remind ourselves to drink more. As we had a really nice break, it felt kind of hard when we went back on skis. We’d worked hard in the morning and I felt a bit tired and realised that it worked easier in the morning. Anyhow, I enjoyed the downhill parts and good chat.

We didn’t get much individual feedback from our instructor on this day, as we didn’t really work on technical things. But we skied a good distance and learned a lot by just doing and trying things on our own. Moreover, we got the tip from Thomas to lift our ski, when we glide back down a hill. That will cool the ski and the wax and provides more grip. We should also use the parts beside the trail, as the untouched snow is mostly more grippy than the trail is or walk diagonally.

Later in the afternoon, we met the other groups and played around on a steep hill: racing, turning, backwards, on one ski, telemark technique, jumps, on all fours. The ways down became really creative and motivated everyone to go up again and try once more. I realised again that exercising is all about the right motivation, as most people climbed that hill a lot more times than I would have expected it after a good exhausting day.

3^rd Day

Fortunately, we didn’t have to spend another day in easy sunny skiing conditions and instead  experience what it’s like in cloudy and snowy weather. Yeaaahh. The third day was a bit rougher, but not really that bad. Again, we started the skiing day in Hogas, but went with Len this time. We did some practise on a small hill for getting a better feeling for our skies and learning techniques that we can use in deep snow as well: While skiing down, we completed some tasks such as moving up and down, stepping to the one side of the trail and to the other or lifting one ski. Moreover, we tried to ski turns in deep snow. While lifting the ski and stepping it to the side, we walked the turn. It is a way to slow down or stop without hugging the white ground. We practised walking up the hill by using the track of the person in front of us and to walk up slantwise and sideways simultaneously to be faster. The deep snow required a lot more bending and flexible knees than the trails before.

Lunchtime was completely opposite to the day before. The snowy weather was less relaxing and made us cool down way faster, with the result that we kept a short break only. After skiing for a while, we stopped and headed into the forest to learn more about emergency shelters. We took off the skies and stamped through the deep snow, that extended to our hips. Looking around for a good place to build up a shelter, everyone got creative and found their own solution to use the snow, branches and trees for their special shelter. It was a lot of fun and very interesting to see how simply we can use the nature around us for creating a cosy, safe little shelter. I used a fir as base frame and stuffed the holes between the branches with more snow. The shovel became our best tool of the day, as it helped to built up the snow around and in between the fir, to carve out the snowy ground under the fir and to cut even the lowest branches to make more space to sit in the shelter. To stuff the bigger holes in the fir it was helpful to work other twigs in between that they could hold the snow together. Justin dug into a snow wall and build a snow hole, that you could lie in. Len explained us that if we dig deep enough into the snow, it’s possible to build a snow shelter. It’s effective to take squares out of the snow and put them aside to close the entrance afterwards. Therefore we could also use our skis, which will help to stabilize the snow. It was a very interesting afternoon.

4^th Day

The 4^th day of the skiing course was going to be my last one, as I had to leave earlier to take part in an exam in Germany. The day started with the obligatory waxing session. We chose the blue wax the same as days before but realised quickly, after the first 100 meters, that we’d made the wrong decision. We had bad snow conditions, such as old snow and warm temperatures (0°), and the skis couldn’t find any grip at all. It was super annoying and very exhausting. Ascending the first hills without grip was a pretty good warm up and challenging for thigh and arm strength. But of course, everyone was looking forward to ski properly. So, we stopped and re-waxed. Our instructor for the day was Tim. He tried to explain to us, that waxing is a science in itself and that we should test different combinations to find out what fits with the snow conditions. But we should also be careful using the red wax, as the snow can stick on to it. Moreover, it is a hassle to remove the wax from the ski again. So, half of the group tried the purple wax, the other half applied a combination of purple and red and Tim tried only red wax. We started with good intentions but got disappointed: No grip for our skis. It didn’t work for the either waxing group or for Tim. The group atmosphere threatened to deteriorate, because everyone got frustrated about the skiing conditions. But Tim interacted really professional and changed the planned trip into a technique lesson about skating. By shifting the focus onto a different task, he let us forget the wax problems and created a new exercise to have fun with. We played around with the different skating techniques and experienced that it required a lot of balance skills. Skating felt really unusual and uncoordinated. But once it worked, I found it to be very effective for moving quickly and far. The motivation of the group for the exercises differed a lot, so we started skiing again. Tim showed us how to pull a person like a sleigh. Connecting two poles by threading one through the other’s loop and link it with the backpack, we could use the poles as a rope to hold on and to let us pull. Sean gave it a try and pulled me a very effective hundred meters. That was good fun, at least for me 😉. After polling along further without the wax working, we decided to stop again and try a new wax. I went for a good red layer. That helped a little and let us bear till the first break. By then Tim found out that the best wax option was a layer of red without corking it in. We followed him and got grip on the ground finally. After that the skiing became more effective and enjoyable. After 12 o’clock it started to snow, this made us worry about the red wax layer. Would the new snow stick to it? Luckily, it did not. The aim of the day was a day trip from A to B through the forest with a lot of downhill legs. I loved it! The hills were quite steep, and we had to focus and concentrate. Tim always instructed us about the upcoming sections this was quite helpful. Most of the group didn’t have any skiing experience before and so it was even more challenging for them than for me. But they managed the downhill slopes this was very brave of them. Tim reminded everyone to keep distance between the person in front to avoid pileups. Including a lot of falls, we finally made it without any dangerous incidents till the lunch break. As already mentioned the weather became very snowy and no one really wanted to sit down and enjoy lunch and a drink. But we needed a break. And we also had to wait for Len’s group as Tim wanted to ski the rest of the route together. To create a comfortable lunch break, Tim unpacked his emergency shelter. Two people slipped under it and pulled it open, so that the others could slip in as well. We stretched the tarp by standing in a circle and pulled it behind our backs. When everyone (7 people) got inside, we sat down on our backpacks and enjoyed a cup of tea and lunch. It was quite warm, and the air moisture increased and condensed quickly on the inner side of the shelter. The waterproof jackets were very useful at this time. As Len’s group arrived we were ready to leave and broke trail together. The group became very big and the weather conditions even worse as it started snowing more. We progressed very slowly and a steep hill in front of us took us even longer. I was part of the end of the group and didn’t get the problems they had in front. But I remember that we were standing and waiting a long time and that the boys beside me turned several times back around to play on the hill in the snow. The long waiting times were a bit annoying but come with big groups and allowed some good chat. We stayed on narrow paths in the forest and cleared a way through the deep snow. The white trees looked very beautiful and the deep snow was good fun. When we got to the downhill sections (and there were a lot), it became very entertaining. Probably all of us experienced different kinds of falls: a side, head first, rolling all over, losing skies or poles, falling by stopping. I personally found out, that the deep snow downhills are easier to manage, when you are less scared. Not braking and just letting yourself slide and adjusting when you hit differences in the snow. Despite long waiting times and wet clothes (especially mittens) due to a lot of falls, I felt rather warm. I wore five layers: Woollen underwear (a top and long-sleeved top), fleece, warm jacket and waterproof jacket. Anyhow it was a joy to spot the bus and to get home into the warmth. But I had a great day if not the best of the week😊. Beneath the great trail breaking experience and the many downhill legs, the group atmosphere was very relaxed and happy. And people were motivated and enjoyed the good time, that we spent together on this day 😊.