Ski Trip 1 – Course at Troll Aktiv

This week was spent staying at a local outdoor activity centre, Troll Aktiv. From there, we went on trips in the nearby Hogas Ski area as well as the Bortelied ski resort. The primary aim of the trip was to teach cross country skiing, in addition to other related skills such as navigation. Each evening we were given lectures on topics such as first aid.

The first day of skiing took place at Hogas, where we had a few hours to have a go at learning the very basics, without using wax. Later that evening we were shown how to apply wax to the skis, which made the experience the next day somewhat different. On day two, we progressed onto doing very short trips of up to a few kilometres or so, as well as moving uphill and being introduced to a few other elementary techniques. Using wax made a considerable difference to the skiing; it allowed us to be able to experience the ability of the skis to grip the snow yet be able to slide along it as well, that we had been told about. Thus, the experience of not using wax on the first day was useful, in that we could really see the benefits of wax and the comparative difficulty of skiing without it.

Day 3 consisted of a longer trip which ended up taking us to the top of a nearby hill. This was good in that it replicated roughly a typical day’s skiing in terms of its length. The hilly sections also provided ample opportunity for me to practice moving uphill, and experimenting with the most effective ways to control my descents and turn with speed, with plenty of crashing into the snow. We also learnt how to build a basic snow shelter with the aid of skis. This took more time than expected – because of this it gave an indication of the difficulty that might be had if this were to be done for real, in miserable weather, in an emergency scenario and the need for these sorts of things to be practiced. Part of the day was spent on a small off-piste section, where we could practice skiing downhill, with a couple of jumps. Although very enjoyable, I found how difficult it was to change direction quickly on cross country skis, as opposed to alpine skis. Most of this took place therefore on short straight sections of slope where I was relying on balance to get to the bottom without falling over; this was tricky enough without a sack, so I could imagine the challenge when doing this with considerable weight on my back. Because of this, I suspect that route finding will be an important skill to learn, as well as telemarking, to allow me to turn to that I don’t have to go straight downhill with lots of weight and can choose more efficient routes.

On day 4 at Bortelied we were allowed to use skins on our trip – this made a huge difference when it came to moving uphill, it was far more efficient than the fish-legs technique. Without skins I imagine the journey would have taken significantly longer and used up more energy, so it was interesting to see how they are used in ski mountaineering. Once at the top of the hill we learned how to build a different kind of snow shelter into the side of a hill. Despite being in a group of four, this appeared to take a considerable amount of time to build. Only one person could be involved in carving out the entrance, with two others clearing snow. Perhaps it would have been wiser to build a wider entrance, for the purposes of an emergency shelter, so that at least two people could have been involved in creating the entrance and thus using the group members more efficiently. However, this may have left the entrance too wide, thus too exposed. An alternative could be bringing a group shelter of some kind, so that in a real scenario, an injured member of the group wouldn’t be completely exposed whilst the others are digging, as they could be there for some time. We were also shown how to build a snow bollard for the purposes of moving down steep ground. Here, we could see the importance of building it properly, so that it is secure enough in the snow and won’t come out easily, as demonstrated. The rest of the day was spent predominantly off-piste, downhill skiing, which was the best part of the week for me and the part I enjoyed the most. Here we were able to practice skiing in zig zag sections down a hill, to control the descent better, which was useful practice for later independent trips. Finally, we practiced turning on a pisted slope. After some trying to grasp telemarking for a few days, we were given a demonstration of how this was done. Following this, my attempts at telemarking improved. Seeing the skill demonstrated then certainly helped – I don’t recall seeing many demonstrations on this previously, in our group at least, which to me shows the importance of providing adequate demonstrations to clients when coaching. Particularly so in that people learn in different ways, with some responding better to visual information as opposed to just verbal.

The ceilidh that evening was enjoyable; what it showed me was some of the different ways that could be used to entertain a group on a residential camp if I was working. I haven’t worked on many residential camps in my career so far and don’t have a great deal of experience in keeping groups entertained after activities have finished. Though I have used filler games many times on sessions, the ceilidh (or at least whatever we did) could be useful in that the group would be choosing their own games/activities, which may also take less of the burden off the instructor in a way, as they don’t have to be completely responsible for entertainment. An advantage of letting the group choose their own activities could be that the group leader doesn’t appear as controlling as they might do, if say, they were dictating all the evenings activities themselves rather than the clients. This may improve rapport and allow clients to have some more independence than they otherwise might have on a typical, normally fairly controlled and structured school residential camp, of the kind that frequently happen in UK schools. It may also help develop participants presentation skills, self-confidence etc when they have to present their activity to the rest of the group, as opposed to simply listening to an instructor. However, these are merely ideas, with very limited personal experience to base them on.

The final day took place at Hogas, where we went for a short tour whilst practicing navigation on skis. It may have been useful to have practiced navigation throughout the course, as opposed to just the one morning (especially on the off-piste sections), in preparation for our independent trips. However, this could have detracted time from skiing, also bearing in mind we had covered orienteering in previous lessons on the programme.

Other points I learned are that could be useful to be closer the group when leading in a setting like this one, as opposed to being far ahead. This could allow the group to be responsible for route choice on sections of off-piste and may help the group become more self-reliant, without feeling left behind at the back. In addition, when leaders build up a good rapport with their group, through humour for instance, it also goes some way to helping them enjoy the experience more and will make a group more likely to follow them.