This week’s organised trip was the mountain safety trip. This trip took place between Bossbu and Stavskar. This was a four day trip that was aimed towards further developing our skills at cross country skiing in mountainous areas, navigation in a winter environment, avalanche prediction and how to find someone trapped in an avalanche and finally different snow shelters both emergency and more permanent ones. The whole class participated in this trip, however we were split into 2 groups of more advanced skiers and people who were not as good.

The Monday morning of this trip was spent travelling from Kristiansand to Bossbu wear the trip was starting, hear we split into our two groups and set off up the mountain to the cabin wear we would be setting up tents to stay the first night, this was due to how long it would take to dig a snow hole for the night. However putting a tent up in snow takes far longer due to need to dig out an area before pitching the tent then constructing a wall to protect the tent during the night, this took a lot longer than when erecting a tent on just grass. Furthermore it became evident that the weather plays a more major role in pitching a tent when in snowy conditions compared to normal weather, this was due to the fact that the wind direction is more important as you do not want snow building up on the side of the tent as it will make it collapse and also you do not want it to obstruct the door. Another aspect of pitching a tent in the snow that I did not realise played a bi g role was the need to dig a cold well in the porch of the tent, this as I learnt had a few functions, the first and most important was that cold air would travel down into this hole making it warmer in the tent, second it provided an area to sit and cook making it easier to prepare food and melt water in shelter out of the weather and lastly it provided an area to store snow that was ready for melting meaning that you did not have to leave the tent to collect snow. Also when using he tent we decided not to carry the inner tent as this provided us with more room for us all to sleep in the tent as there was 4 of us in this tent group, however this meant that you had to be even more careful not to touch the side of the tent.

The second day the group was supposed to move on from the cabin at Stavskar to wear the snow hole site was going to be, this involved travelling up a steep face at the very beginning of the day, however when moving up this face some members of the group were struggling a lot and this led to this section of the days ski taking far longer than it should have done. After discussing the options that we had with Len and then with the rest of the group we decided to turn around and stay in the same spot as the previous night and build the snow shelters wear we were. Although it was disappointing not being able to complete the ski tour that we were planning on doing this provided me with a good example of when the leader should step in and change the plan dependant on how the group is performing in the situation and also highlighted the need for the leader to be flexible and have a backup plan. As we would be digging for a long time we erected the tents so as to give the people resting a place to shelter from the wind and snow. The shelter we were going to build involved digging a channel straight back 2.5 metres into the snow drift where we were building the shelter, we then had to saw blocks out each side to create two ledges to sleep on, the blocks that were cut from the sleeping ledges were then used to create the roof and also to construct the door, we also dug a cold well so we would have room to stand in the middle of the shelter. This was really interesting as I had never been in snow this deep wear you are able to cut large blocks to build in and it was also really interesting learning how to build a shelter that you can live in for a long period of time. The shelter did take a long time to build, and although it was hard work you did get a great sense of achievement once it was complete and you could crawl through the entrance and into your living space, when sleeping in this shelter it turned out to be a lot warmer than the tent. When building the shelter we experience some problems that could be changed for next time, such as the roof of one of the sleeping ledges could have had more of a curve, this would be to make it more stable and less likely to collapse, also we would change the direction and depth of the door as the snow kept drifting meaning we had to keep digging it out to get in and out of the shelter.

During the third day the entrance of the snow hole had been snowed in therefore we had to dig it out, we did this by cutting a hole in the roof from which to climb out of so as to be able to dig from the outside as it is very difficult to dig out from inside the shelter. As the weather was bad we stayed in the shelters and hut, which some group members were staying as they did not want to sleep in the shelters, until 12 due to the bad weather. The rest of the day was spent looking at the snow pack and how to determine avalanche risk and what areas are more prone to avalanches. This was very informative and further built upon what we had learnt in lecture the previous week. It was interesting to see to clearly defined layers within the snow pack and to learn how to identify the differences in temperature between when they were formed and how this effected the stability of the snow, it was also good to learn how to and get experience in the methods used to check how stable the snow was and how this related to the avalanche risk scale, the area that the we were practicing we found had many layers some of which could not be seen using the finger draw test but showed themselves when using the pat test, this highlighted the need to be thorough when checking the quality of the snow pack. Also we practiced how to find a person trapped under the snow using and avalanche probe, this I found to be very beneficial as it allowed me to gain a sense of how a person feels different when prodding them with the probe compared to the snow, this also gave us practice in how to begin to rescue someone if caught in an avalanche. During the second night only two of chose to stay in the snow hole, this night due to the fact that the snow was starting to glaze over in the shelter its self we had to make an air hole to allow air to circulate within the shelter, we did this using a ski pole, the pole was pocked through the roof of the shelter with the basket facing the outside, then we took in turns to clear a hole by pushing the pole to clear the snow away.

The fourth day of the trip we were planning to do a small tour around the area, however due to some members of the groups poorer skiing ability the plan changed to practicing basic ski techniques in the hope of making it quicker to get back to wear we began the trip. This was very beneficial as It allowed me to be able to practice my Tellamark turns moving downhill which I found difficult to begin with but I began to gain a sense of how to do it, however I believe I will still need a lot of practice. This involved practicing moving up the side of the mountain and then practicing turns and stopping moving down the hill. Together with this we also when to look at some avalanched areas to see what the area looks after one has occurred and we also looked at the tracks of animals such as a hare and ptarmigan and were lucky enough to see one. Once the second group got back to us we set off down the mountain, this was to find an area to create an emergency shelter for the night. It took our group much longer to reach the area where we were going to construct the shelters meaning that the second group had already had a long time to build shelters such as igloos. Once we began digging it was difficult to construct a shelter as we had chosen a poor area in which to construct it, this led to us digging a trench and placing blocks over the top, this did not take too long to build however it was very small and would have not offered that much protection. We then spent time looking at each other’s shelters and the theme that seemed to run through them all was that they took too long to build as these were meant to be emergency shelters, therefore it became clear of the need of speed in an emergency situation therefore we should have just dug straight into the bank and created a small hole to lie in, which one group member did. It was then revealed to us that we would not be sleeping in our shelters but travelling back to Kristiansand that night, this led to some members of the group being very disappointed as they wanted to stay in there shelters.

During this trip we took turns to be the leader of the group, this was good as it allowed me to gain experience leading a group In a difficult and environment and also highlighted the need to take charge in difficult situations such as when travelling up the side of the mountain during the second day. However this decision had an impact on the cohesion of the group due to the stronger skiers becoming frustrated by the fact that they could not continue and complete the tour that was intended, I believe this also led to a decrease in motivation as they became bored staying in the same place for three days, however this highlighted the need to be flexible as a leader, as when working with a group the leader cannot always do what they want to but will need to do what is best for the group as a whole, which in this case was turning around.

During this trip I learnt a lot about the snow and about avalanches, however I also developed more of an understanding of the need to make difficult decisions in hard situations. One thing that stood out the most for me was how much longer everything takes in the snow, form pitching a tent to collecting water, another thing that was highlighted was the need to be on time in such cold conditions, as some members of the group were late getting ready each day meaning those who were ready became cold. One thing that could be changed about this trip I feel is that it should be done earlier in the semester so as to give students more of an opportunity to long trips in the snow safely on their self-organised trips as everything we learnt would have meant we could have done more challenging trips in the snow for more of the semester.