Our first big trip this semester was the basic ski course in Evje, where we stayed at the Rafting Center Trollaktiv. We slept in three modern and well equipped cabins. We got our cross country skiis one week earlier, when we had our first ski day in Jegersberg, Kristiansand. During these five days, our lecturer Len was supported by Tim from Trollaktiv, who was also our teacher in some trips afterwards. Luckily, we had everyday sunshine and perfect snow conditions for one of my best weeks in my life. I have to say, that I had some experiences before with alpine skiing and one day of cross-country skiing.
Execution of the field trip:
Day 1 (Monday, 2nd of February):
We arrived Monday noon at Trollaktiv in Evje with our cars or by bus. After we settled down in our cabins, we meet outside in the snow in between the buildings to practise some basic cross-country skiing skills. One recognised directly, who was a beginner or an advanced skiier. However, it was a lot of fun with some competitions and a lot of time for practise. This day, I had Tim as a teacher for the first time and I felt very satisfied with his way of teaching. During the afternoon we went into the snow-covered bike park, where we followed Tim’s way. We practised some easy turns and skied uphill and downhill, in which everybody fell at least 5 times, but it was always a lot of fun. ‘Learning by doing’ is the sentence, that could match to our development not only for the Monday. In the evening, we had a lecture togehter with Len about waxing of cross-country skis.
Day 2 (Tuesday, 3rd of February):
After waxing our skis, we drove around 10 a.m. with two cars up into an prepared area with ski loipes for cross-country skiing. I had Tim again during this as our teacher. After some repetitions of the exercises of yesterday, we started skiing next to the loipes to improve our downhill techniques. We should ski in our own pace without having pressure. After lunch, we had a small tour to an other open field with an a slope for practising telemark turns for the first time. Surprisingly, I figured out quite quickly how to turn with bending your knees. With the sunshine in our back, we skiied back to the cars and ended up the day with an other lecture from Len at Trollaktiv about cold weather injuries.
Day 3 (Wednesday, 4th of February):
The plan for the third day was to go on a longer back-country skiing tour Our goal of the day was the mountain Bertesknapen (650 m) with a weather station on top looking like a huge football. We splitted up the groups again and I had to start leading the group for the first hundreds of metres. Because I was going to fast and did not look for the end of the group, Len gave our group some practical advises how to be a good veileder e.g. to call somebody, who is staying at the end of the group. We continued our trip including some watching for animal tracks. The last steep uphill part to the peak of the mountain was really diffcult due to the fact, that our wax did not work at all. Totally sweaty, we had a beautiful view over the area of Syrtveit. Our way back was more challenging, because after Len teached us how to find a good emergency shelter, he lost the orientation and we got stucked in very difficult terrain. At the end, when we finally found a road, everybody was happy and totally exhausted at the same time. In the evening, we had our last lecture of the week, presented by Flurin and Adele, how to pack our heavy backbags for longer trips.
Day 4 (Thursday, 5th of February):
On Thursday, we drove to the west side of the river Otra to go on a big trip to the mountain Sletthei (640 m). For the first 2 km we had to walk with our skis up to a lake, where we startd skiing in two groups again. More or less, we followd the whole day Tim’s track and enjoyed the wonderful weather. The snow was shining and it were perfect snow conditions, as Tim told us. During a lunch break at a small hill, we had time to practise some telemarkt turns again. Moreover, Moritz, Flurin and I tried to jump a bit with our skis. On top of Sletthei, we met Len’s group and our teachers decided to ski downhill togehter with all of us. They told us, that we gonna ski in an area, where they have not been before and we should follow Tim all the time. Actually, the downhill part was a lot of fun. 22 students trying to make telemark turns and nearly everytime somebody was lying and laughing in the snow. Unfortunately, the last 100 metres downhill were challenging for all of us. Sometimes we had to take off our skiis or it was so narrow, that we only could do sidesteps. Down in the valley, we met a friend of Tim and Len in front of his cabin and talked to him while waiting for the skiiers at the end of our big group.
Day 5 (Friday, 6th of February):
On our last sunny day of skiing, we could decide on our own, whether we wanna do some exercises with Len to improve the basics of cross-country skiing or going on a ski trip with Tim, like I did, to the top of the mountain Himmelsyna (649 m). After some skiing on lakes and in ski loipes, we had to go uphill 100 metres. Tim said, that we could go in our own pace for the simple reason that we are still skiing in different levels. At the peak, we had a beautiful 360° degrees panorama view over Southern Norway. Tim mentioned that if you are lucky, you can also see the ocean on the horizon. On our way back, some of us were struggling with the steep downhill parts, but all in all I had the best ski trip of the week.
Reflection:
This basic ski course was amazing and we were so lucky to have such a nice weather and snow conditions. Although I had some experiences in skiing before, I learned a lot of new techniques and got many tipps & tricks how to improve my skiing abilities on my own. Our group had a great time at Trollaktiv and nobody was complaining about skiing, althoug some of us were pure beginners. It was good to see the personal development during that week. I learned, to respect my limits and not compare with someone’s else abilities. Even if you are a better skiier than someone else, you should help him to reach the same ability level as yourself or at least try to give him support.