The Plan

After the ski course, we were set the challenge of devising our own trip. The aim was to practice carrying a large amount of weight on our backs and also get used to traveling a decent amount of distance per day. The trip should take around four days and at least two nights should be spent camping.

We decided to ski from Haukeliseter to Hovden. The total distance would be around 40km and we would split the distance equally between the four days. As we are pretty inexperienced in winter conditions and on skis, we decided it would be a good idea to have back up plans every night so we picked a fairly well traveled route that had a number of cabins along the way just in case something happened and we needed to find shelter, food, e.c.t. In the end we decided on traveling up on the Monday and staying in a cabin, camping for the following two nights and staying in a cabin on the final night.

The Beginning

The first day started early. We were dubious about how we would take to skiing with large packs and wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to reach our first camping spot. On a personal note I was also worried about my own skiing capabilities slowing up the group.
The weather was beautiful, the sun shone from an endless blue sky and the snow was fresh from the previous day. We couldn’t have been more blessed. Even with our heavy packs and regular water stops we were still making brilliant time and reached our camping spot by early afternoon. We decided to push on for an extra few hours and find a new camping spot. This would also only benefit us as we would be closer to a cabin if something did go wrong. By the time we set up camp we had traveled 18km and had nearly knocked a day off our trip. The weather had played a major part in our ability to push on so quickly but we had also underestimated how long the journey would take. That night we pitched camp above a lake with a spectacular view of the mountains turning pink as the sun set behind the peaks. We all ate well and managed to boil water for everyone the following day. Morale was high. The wind picked up in the night and we awoke to backpacks blanketed in snow (we couldn’t fit them inside the tent) but the snow shook off easily and after a good breakfast we were quite happily on our way again.

The Middle

Once again, the weather was beautiful but due to having no cloud cover it was also dropping in temperature. This was fine when we were traveling when we were sweating in thermals and with heavy loads but when we stopped even for five minutes, the cold would start seeping in and your fingers would be numb within minutes. We reached our second camping spot (just outside a hut) within an hour of setting off so decided the best thing to do would be to push on to our final hut and spend one-night camping outside it. We were keen to camp again to practice and meet the brief of the trip. We ended up about a kilometre from the hut. The temperature that night dropped to minus 20 and this time we would come across a few issues

.

Firstly, we were carrying three gas canisters with us that were meant to work in winter conditions and two of them failed. This slowed down our ability to cook food but more importantly it slowed down our ability to boil snow for water. With the day having been so physical and sweaty we had all gotten through our water supply and needed topping up. The cold however was affecting everyone and even jumping around and running in circles wasn’t helping our cold toes and frozen finger tips that were all burning from being exposed while putting up tents. All anyone wanted to do was get into sleeping bags and wait for the sun to come back. We filled up a couple of thermoses so we had water the next morning for porridge and a couple of water bottles. No one was too cold in the night but the following morning we found most things were frozen (including our water). Shoes that had been kept in bivvy bags, sandwiches, sleeping bags and anything that hadn’t been cuddled in the night was frozen. The process of waking up, eating breakfast and collapsing tents was slow and morale was very low. We were also cold and wanted nothing more than to be skiing again and warm. This meant that we didn’t boil any more water to drink. When we made it to the cabin we were all extremely dehydrated but relieved we could relax a bit.  We would have struggled camping a third night but I believe we would have made it. We spent the day, drinking, eating and exploring the area without heavy packs.

The End

We decided that we would make the most of being in the mountains and stuck to doing the final descent the following day. Again, the weather was perfect and it really was an idyllic day. The final day was fairly uneventful and we all were very sad to be saying goodbye to the glorious weather and landscape. It really had been an exceptional week and I truly fell in love with cross country skiing and the remote, beautiful landscape.

If I were to do the trip again these are a few things I would do differently.

• The food we carried was too heavy and although we ate well, it was unnecessary. We all carried boxes and cans of food, such as lentils and coconut milk. Next time I would carry lighter, more instant food.
• We shouldn’t have let ourselves get so dehydrated and should have maybe boiled water in the day when we were still warm or made ourselves boil it at night.