Assignment 3 – Winter Mountain Touring

Winter Mountain Touring Trip

Monday

The Outdoor Education crew set out bright and early on Monday morning, taking a bus from the Kristiansand campus to a cabin just north of Hovden. It was a relaxed and seemingly quick bus ride to the adorable Norwegian cabin we would be residing in for the week. Half of us split into the yellow house and the other into the more modern accommodation down the hill fairly easily. We settled into the maze of rooms upstairs and we experienced, what I noticed as, a needed and lovely mixing of our cohort. The Germans of 201 stayed mostly together, but the fact that Elli opted to stay with Ida in a room was genuinely cool to see—people were already branching out of their comfort zones!

Today would just be a quick tour of the area to get our feet under ourselves again and tour the area we would be working in for the next four days. The yellow house went with Tim and the modern house with Len. I did notice some sadness and dispute against this group as they were relatively similar to the groups we had during our basic ski course. I think everyone was eager to capitalize on the trip as a way to get to know each other more and that was already an obstacle in the way. Nonetheless everyone was excited to get going for the day after sitting stagnant on the bus for a few hours. Our group took a well-trodden path up the hill behind our accommodation, focusing on gaining a lot of elevation to ultimately practice our downhill techniques from weeks ago.

I found myself monitoring Tim’s techniques of leadership again since I was in his group previously. As we have learned more and more about technical and theoretical leadership skills, I am better able to identify the strategies him and Len seem to so effortlessly apply. Many of his tendencies I remembered from our lessons at TrollAktiv, but so many new ones became evident as we are much more competent skiers at this point. He began to push us more, helping less and less to allow us to problem solve and especially help one another. Because Tim was leading us, we – of course – had to play a game on the way down. This time we had to count how many times we fell. Elli won with no falls and I came in second with just one fall—I was very proud. Afterwards, we proceeded to play around on the jumps and bumps near our cabins. I think one of my favorite things about this cohort is how willing everyone is to act like a child.

Tuesday

Without exaggerating, I can say this day is likely my favorite day I have had in Norway. Everything felt perfect. I enjoyed my group, the activity, the weather, and especially that fact that we saw wild reindeer! The only thing that ruined the perfect streak was the tan line across my forehead I ended up with because of my headband.

We began the day with a trek along the road because Len and Tim were unsure that the lake was safe for us to cross. The plan for the day was to practice navigation and map reading, with each of alternating between leading in pairs. By about 15 minutes in, every one of us had stripped off every layer possible—it was sunny, and we were sweating buckets. That undoubtably put everyone in a phenomenal mood and that translated into excitement for the learning objective that day. We practiced orienting ourselves using visible land features which included the highway, the lake, and the hills alongside us. Right on time for lunch, we reached a saddle between two peaks and settled down for lunch with a view. Each one of us took the time to sunbathe and appreciate the landscape we had the pleasure to explore.

Toni and I took the lead next and flew down the mountain. At this point, people were comfortable with downhill approaches and we made every stretch with minimal falls. As each group member made their way after us, Toni and I began formulating our next move and encouraged the rest of the group to evaluate the map for themselves as they arrived next to us. As we made our way into the open valley on the other side of where we began, the reindeer appeared. They were quite far away, but I finally managed to spot them, and my inner Santa-believing child squirmed with excitement. I was absolutely thrilled to have this be a part of my experience abroad.

After we made our way to our goal point, I asked Len about the possibility of doing avalanche rescue practice. Since we had seen the videos, I was eager to actively act out what I would need to do in the case of that particular emergency. Len obliged and we proceeded to evaluate a slope and the cornice, testing our knowledge of classroom lectures weeks ago. Then, we made one-man emergency snow shelters which turned out thrillingly well. Nico and I worked well together, collaborating and bouncing our joy off of one another. From what I observed, other groups did the same though there was the struggle of doing this kind of task for the first time. Following a fun session of probing Nico, we made our way back to the cabins. It was a comedic ride down the hill, especially because it appeared as though half of us had lost the ability to ski down though we managed the day before.

Wednesday

The day we had all been waiting for: building and sleeping in a snow hole. We left in the morning with full packs on,which made me so glad I had practiced on our self-organized winter trip. Again, we practiced navigation there though there were more difficulties that went along with leading 24 people. The “carers” of the group came out as people lost baskets and people struggled up the initial hill. The group was evidently helpful to one another and had no problem waiting for one another. Though this may have invigorated the task-oriented members of the group that were considering that the slower we go, the less time we have to build our snow holes.

We arrived at the site around noon and immediately got to learning. Tim, evidently knowing the time pressure of the day, separated us into groups and began demonstrating the techniques we would use to build our snow holes (insert technique). Luckily, my group was the demonstration group and got a head start on our building processes. To practice the technique, we all collaborated on one igloo and it was interesting to see the varieties of social loafing going on. Though I could not pinpoint exactly why some people were stopping in the process of throwing snow on the five individuals in the middle, I speculate there was free riding primarily in the form of the sucker effect. I imagine people saw another person stop and thought, “why should I keep shoveling if everyone is taking a break, that is not fair.”

The building proceeded for the next few hours and took us until about six or seven until all four groups were finished. Like Len mentioned, we were all soaking wet from constantly being covered in snow and the immense heat coming from our working bodies. Though my group had the head start, we still ended up with the smallest inside of the igloo. I cannot imagine this was from poor group dynamics but perhaps it was. I think it is more attributed to our small entrance that made pulling snow out of the middle on the tarp difficult and inefficient. My failure to assert this to my group and their failure to acknowledge my concern is part of group dynamics however, so in a roundabout way…it was about group dynamics.

Thursday

I, and others, slept like absolute rocks in the igloo. Being the appointed group contact, I messaged Len and Tim at our designated times and luckily at no other time. At no point was I cold, but it was slightly cramped with six of us wedged into the snow hole. Maike and I were the first to emerge of all twenty-four of us and immediately began cooking a warm breakfast and replacing our layers for the ski touring of that day. We departed our creations and headed towards a nearby peak to ski up. As we were traversing back and forth, we felt the snow settle twice. Though it was alarming, Tim explained the science of it to us which was ideal to put our classroom knowledge to the test. We made it to the top and enjoyed the ski down—which honestly felt like more effort than the trek up. Then the two groups, led by Tim and Len, headed back to our accommodation to freshen up before heading out again that night.

Our second shelter challenge was to create a bivouac shelter out of the ropes, tarps, and whatever else we had. I was in a group with Pauline and Sarah. As soon as Len announced our challenge, we sprung to find the ideal spot to construct our shelter which ended up being a little collection of trees. We began by cutting off all the branches that were poking into our clear area in the middle of the trees. This was followed by shoveling snow into center to level out our sleeping area. At this point we had already taken a decent amount of time to do this and Len approached us. We failed to do the most important thing, which was to ensure we had a roof over our head and protection from the elements as we had learned in class. Because we had already committed to the idea and the weather was fair, we continued with our shelter plans. This was met with utmost frustration as we struggled to tie and secure our tarps. Eventually we managed with the direction of Len and urgency to make a place to sleep for the night. Afterwards, we all convened by the fire for a hot meal (which is essential before crawling into bed) and telling of stories.

Friday

Our shelter proved to be a good one after a great, dry night of sleep. Pauline opted to join the roomy neighbor shelter which was more successful than ours space wise. I saw this sharing and help as a beautiful part of group dynamics and something this particular cohort has excelled at. With food, equipment, and now shelter, the twenty-four of us have radiated kindness and the “carer” role. After dismantling our bivouacs, we all headed back to our adorable accommodation to pack up and prepare for the bus ride home. Per usual, Tim made a competition out of our tasks and allowed up to vote for our favorite shelters. This is an iconic part of his leadership style, which I have grown to appreciate. Unfortunately, CPS (our team name only I understood) tied for last, but we learned throughout the process and entire week and that’s the point.