Haukeliseter – Hovden

The aims of this trip were to improve our ski technique, the distance we covered and how much weight we carried when skiing in order to prepare ourselves for the mountain safety trip in a few weeks’ time.

Our original plan was to make a trip from Haukeliseter to Hovden which was 45km long and would take 3-4 days of skiing. For more detailed information on the tour visit https://www.ut.no/tur/2.3350/  

We were to travel to Haukeliseter on the Tuesday spend the night in the cabins and begin our tour on the Wednesday. Unfortunately the weather forecast for the Wednesday was awful with high winds and lots of snow meaning poor visibility and near impossible navigation. Therefore we had to call off our first days ski and spend the day in the cabins. At one stage we couldn’t see the cabin across the road from us which was about 10m away! The day was spent playing cards and board games; our social cohesion was high although we were not remotely close to completing our task.

During the afternoon we decided to brave the conditions and go for a short ski across the lake to try and understand how tough skiing in these conditions could actually be. Due snow having fallen all night and all morning we found that we were skiing in knee deep powder meaning the lead skier who was breaking a track in the snow had an extremely difficult job on their hands. We all had turns at experiencing this and found that we were skiing at a much slower rate than we had planned on skiing during our tour.

As well as the large amount of snow the high winds also proved a problem as they reduced visibility dramatically meaning it would be very hard to navigate our route using features in the landscape as we were unable to see any of the surrounding land! We also found that any skin exposed to the wind for even a short period of time began to sting from the cold such as our cheeks especially when travelling in the same direction for a long period of time as there was no relief from the wind.

All in all, the short trip we made across the lake took us twice as long to complete as it had the day before in fair weather.

During the evening we had to make to decision on whether to continue with our plan to ski to Hovden and catch the bus home from there or remain at Haukeliseter. During this decision process we had many things we had to consider. We worked out that with the snow conditions as they were (thick powder) we would be skiing at a much slower rate than we had hoped meaning our original first day of the tour would now take 2 days meaning the whole tour would be a day longer than anticipated. With this in mind we also had to consider some group members would then not have enough food for the duration of the trip. Another factor was that one group member was carrying an injury and had found our short ski the previous 2 days to be difficult.

We came to the decision that we should stay at Haukeliseter and complete the shorter marked tracks that make loops around nearby mountains and return to the centre at the end of the day. Therefore on the Thursday we set off on a 12km loop while carrying our full rucksacks with the intention of camping that evening nearby to the Haukeliseter cabins.

I knew that this was going to be a hard day due to being relatively new to skiing and having to carry a large rucksack at the same time meaning uphill was harder work as well as having to find my balance with this bigger weight on my back than I had skied with before. By the end of the day I was exhausted. One of the most difficult tasks during the day was having to pick myself up out of the deep snow with my pack on my back. I found this sapped me of my energy as when you fall you just sink into the deep snow and often I fell back down many times in a row trying to get back up! Although working up hill until lunch time was hard work the last leg of the day was a downhill stretch and this could even have been harder. The way down was long and had patches of ice, what I discovered was that even the smallest movement off balance sent you down into the snow, having the bag on your back gave you no leeway when trying to regain your balance you could not recover it easily.

By the end of the day the more experienced skiers had gone on ahead as they were much quicker than us beginners. They made the decision to begin setting up their tent while we were still skiing. They choose an open space on the lake and when we arrived they had almost finished setting up. Personally we didn’t feel this was the best choice of camping spot as the frozen lake would act as a cold sink and therefore would be colder than camping on land. However we stuck together as a group and began setting up the 2^nd tent. When speaking to staff at the cabins they confirmed our suspicions of the cold sink stating it was predicted to be at least 10°C cooler on the lake than on land (which would bring the night time temperature down to -20 or below) and suggested we consider moving camping spot. At this point the sun had set and was almost dark which meant the temperature was only going to drop further, one tent pole was damaged and we also had one group member suffering with the cold. Therefore half of the group decided to move the tent to a more suitable position and the other half went inside the cabins.

While setting up the tents one group member had begun to get cold which was made worse by taking off gloves to set up the tent. His symptoms were being tired and without energy, cold extremities (finger and toes) as well as cold facial features that were exposed. This could be seen as the symptoms of frost nip. He found it hard to ski and made the decision to walk back across the lake which is arguably harder than skiing. When inside another group member placed hands over his nose and mouth to slowly rewarm them while keeping all layers on. He was also given a warm drink. Overall it took a few hours for him to fully warm back up. This all happened very quickly which made us realise more how conditions can change so rapidly in this sort of environment

Tenting

When setting up tents in snowy conditions you should consider the ground you are pitching on as in this situation the ground would attract colder conditions. You also need to consider the wind direction and face the back of the tent towards the direction the wind is coming from. As we have tunnel tents setting them up this way deflect the wind more effectively than if they were side onto the wind. Our tents have snow skirts which you spread out and cover with snow this is to stop the wind getting into the tent. When camping on snow you should also dig a hole in the porch to act as a cold sink and take the colder air away from the sleeping compartment, it also gives you more room to store bags or space to cook.