Finally at the end of March we had the long announced Mountain safety field trip, in which we were supposed to sleep in a snow whole. Directly coming with a personal shuttle bus from Hovden, we started this trip on Monday, 23th of March.
Execution of the field trip:
Day 1 (Monday, 23th of March):
After walking some minutes to the parking spot of the cars with all the equipment, we unloaded our backpacks, packed snow saws and snow shovels and started in two groups with our teachers Len and Tim the way to the DNT hytter at Berdalsbru. It was a relaxed pace for the about 10 km. Actually, it was the first time, carrying heavy backbags with food for five days. That’s why we should use the first day to get used to our backbags. After we saw a herd of reinderrs, we arrived at the DNT cabin late in the afternoon. We used the remained time, to ski around and looking for a good spot for our snowholes the next day.
Day 2 (Tuesday, 24th of March):
We started our day togehter with the complete course and our heavy backbags. We took a look at all the different founded spots of the day before and decided together, to build our snowholes and igloos close-by. The task for the remaining daytime was to dig a snowhole or an igloos in groups of at least four. Beacuse only two could dig at the same time, the others were eating, drinking or preparing a nice place for a campfire. Len observed us the whole time and gave us important hints, how to build a safely snowhole. This work was really tiring and late in the evening we finished our work with four sleeping spots and a wall as wind protection in fron of our entrance. I got the feeling, that we build a great new home for the next two days. For the construction of the bigger igloo, we all had to shovel snow on top of five students, who were wearing a thin cape, to build the roof of the igloo. This was an unique experience. In the evening we had two campfires and ate togehter our dinner. Together with Moritz, I went on a small ski trip to enjoy the beautiful sunset. Fortunately, we saw two other deers.
Day 3 (Wednesday, 25th of March):
This day was one of my most challenging days in this semester. Together with Len, we went on a ski trip, but the weather forecast wasn’t that good. The day started with less wind, but in the end we had to turn back and stop our ski trip. Within a few hours, the weather changed a lot and we had to ski downhill in a snow storm. When we arrived at the DNT hut, we had a longer lunch, clebrated Miriam’s birthday and discussed a long time about our group dynamic processes of the day. On our way up to the hill, some of our groupmembers, including me, lost the responsibilty for the group and skiied to far in front of the rest of the group. At some point, we could not see the end of the group and decided to have a stop hidden from the wind, while Jochen was still skiing alone in front. After a very short lunch break in an improvised wind shelter, we practised on our way back some winter navigation skills, such as leading in very difficult weather conditions. Unfortunately, the weather changed already in a snow storm. When I was trying to lead one half of the group, Len assume the responsibilty of the group to get us out of this dangerous area. In the evening, we tried to make a fire in a really deep hole, but we had to give up and went to bed quite early.
Day 4 (Thursday, 26th of March):
Our last day started with a big surprise. The entrances of all snowholes were covered with more than 1 metres high blown awy snow. Suddenly, Len came into our snowhole and told us, that we are leaving around 10 a.m. and we had to pack everything. Outside the snowhole were conditions like in a whiteout. Moritz was our leader for the way back in the direction of the parking spot. The view over the first part of the dya was terrible. In the afternoon, the weather conditions got better and had some tasks like skiing blindfolded or lessons about avalanche probes. After we had to build an emergency shelter in only 20 minutes, Len told us, that they arranged a bus, that is going to pick us up from the parking spot and that the night alone in a snowhole is cancelled. I could relly feel, how everybody were happy and started playing around. The atmosphere changed quickly from a sad mood into a feeling of freedom.
Reflection:
This field trip was one of my most challenging trips I have ever done. We had lessons about avalanches or bad weather conditions, but I never expected to end up in a whiteout. This feeling was scarry and curious at the same time. I knew, that we are safe, because we had two well experienced mountain guides at our side. However, I was surprised, how quickly the weather can change from one moment to the other one.
The experince to dig and in particular sleep in a snowhole was unique and incredible. Living in and under the snow. At first I was also kind of afraid, that nothing bad could happen, but after both nights, I was really happy, that I got the chance to live such a great experience. When our entrance was covered with snow, Moritz was shocked, whether we would get enough oxygen and infected us also with an uncomfortable feeling. But in the end, we can say, that we survived two nights in the outside without using any other equipment than our hands, snow shovels and snow saws.