Day One

We started out at Midday. The conditions were windy, icy and snowing slightly. The first stretch was up to the cabin about 7km away. The journey was fairly flat up until the end when it was steep uphill. We split into pairs and each took a leg of around 4km to navigate. On my leg we struggled with the estimated time it would take us to get to our end point. The group as a whole struggled with navigation. It’s definitely an area the group needs to work on. Due to some bad weather closing in, our teacher took the final leg to the cabin.

Day Two

On the second day we started early and went searching for an appropriate place to build a snow hole. An appropriate place is preferably a bank with no cornices that can be dug into by several meters. Our snow hole had to fit four people comfortably inside. You can check the depth of the bank by sticking in a snow probe. We found a good slope quickly so had some lunch and started digging.
Digging a snow hole is hard work!! We started off by digging a tunnel the same width and height of our bodies about three meters in. We decided to have two of these tunnels and a large sleeping platform in the middle. The idea being that all the cold air collects in the bottom of the passages and the sleeping area stays warmer. After digging the passages we moved onto the middle. We had to use saws to cut out large blocks of ice to form our platform. The roof then had to be made slightly domed and made as smooth as possible to avoid drips. Finally, we completely blocked in one entrance and placed our large, ice blocks over the majority of the other to create a crawling space. We even created a few shelves for cooking and our candle. A candle is necessary in a snow hole as it shows there is still oxygen circulating. If the candle goes out you need to create an air hole by sticking a ski pole through the wall or ceiling to the outside. The whole process took about six hours and after dinner we were exhausted and just passed out. The snow hole provided a very warm nights sleep.

Day Three

The following day we went up the mountain and found a place that was suitable to check for avalanches and do a compression test. This should be performed on a slope most representative of the slope you would like to cross but without putting yourself in danger. A compression test should always be performed to see if the area is susceptible to avalanches. You start testing a section of snow by patting your hand, followed by your forearm, shovel and finally you can jump on the snow. You will be able to see the different layers of snow and how easily/ not easily they fall away.
We also buried each other to get an impression of how heavy and debilitating snow is. Even buried a few inches below the surface we couldn’t hear the people underneath the snow scream, scary!
In the afternoon, we went to to a different area and made a ‘snow play’ area. This consisted of two jumps, a slalom and dips and bumps. We had a competition and I ended up winning the small ski jump (by default) yipppeeee!

Day Four

On the final day we had the option of skiing up a mountain and taking a slightly harder route or taking an easier way down, doing a bit of navigation, building a fire and building emergency shelters. Although I would have liked to have gone in the first group for the benefit of others I went in the second. I have a feeling me kissing the snow would have slowed everyone down a little. The trip overall wasn’t as challenging as expected and great fun!

Things I learnt:

• Digging snow holes in knackering and takes a lot of strength. Although our snow hole was effective we chose a more tome consuming layout. In the future I would opt for a design with one entrance.
• Navigation still needs a lot of work and it is very easy to become disorientated when in the snow. I need to work on figuring out how long a journey will roughly take.
• Compression tests should always be done before skiing across unknown terrain.