SELF-ORGANISED SKI TRIP

PLANNING:                                                                                                                     After creating a group with Malte, Stefan and Ho, we decided we would meet up at my house on another day to plan where we wanted to go. Using maps that the DNT had given me, as well as the DNT website, we were given an insight into the kilometres between each hut, and the suggested time it would take to get from hut to hut. After analysing many routes, we made two plans for our ski trip:

Plan 1:

• Tuesday
  • Bus to Hovden (leave UiA at 8:58 am arrive Hovden 12:50)
  • Ski to Tjornbrotbu (DNT Hut) approx. 3 hours
  • Spend the night in Tjornbrotbu (DNT Hut)
• Wednesday
  • Ski from Tjornbrotbu (DNT Hut) to Berdasblu (DNT Hut) approx. 5 hours
  • Spend the night in Berdasblu (DNT Hut)
• Thursday
  • Ski from Berdasblu (DNT Hut) to Bjornevasshytta (DNT Hut) approx. 7 hours
  • Spend the night in Bjornevasshytta (DNT Hut)
• Friday
  • Ski from Bjornevasshytta (DNT Hut) to Rv9 (main road) approx. 4 hours
  • Assuming we have phone signal, we will search for the closest bus stop on the road
  • Google says the bus is at 4:30pm from Byklestoylane.
  • Will arrive back in Kristiansand at 8pm

Plan 2:

• Tuesday
  • Bus to Hovden (leave UiA at 8:58 am arrive Hovden 12:50)
  • Ski to Tjornbrotbu (DNT Hut) approx. 3 hours
  • Spend the night in the DNT Hut
• Wednesday
  • Ski from Tjornbrotbu (DNT Hut) to to Berdasblu (DNT Hut) approx. 5 hours
  • Spend the night in Berdasblu (DNT Hut)
• Thursday
  • Leave our gear in the DNT hut
  • Ski to Saebyggjenuten (this is the highest mountain in Bykle and Aust-Agder area)
  • Spend the night in the same DNT Hut (Berdasblu)
• Friday
  • Ski from Berdasblu (DNT hut) to the road (approx. 2 hours)
  • Get the bus from the side of the road at 4:30pm

OR

• Get the bus at 12pm from Berdalen to Hovden (arrive back in Hovden at 1pm)
• Spend some time in Hovden playing tourist
• Get the bus from Hovden at 4pm

As Ho and Stefan went on their weekend holidays to Poland and Iceland, Malte and I made the executive decision to go with Plan 2, as this seemed more achievable and also allowed us to be more flexible with our time, especially if we encountered an unexpected problem. Once deciding, Malte and I created and printed a map of the Hovden and Berdalen area using Norgeskart. I then went on to making the route cards for our 4-day trip. These are shown below:

ROUTE CARD HOVDEN

In terms of equipment, Malte and I, again, had to organise majority of this for the group. On Sunday we collected the following equipment for the group from the outdoor ed shed:

• 4x skis
• 4x shovels
• 4x probes (due to the number of probes available, we were only able to take 1)
• 1x 4-person tent
• 1x tarp/ground sheet
• 2x Trangia’s
• 1x Klister

We decided that we would cook our dinners as a group, which meant we had to go shopping on the Monday before we left. We decided to go to Rema 1000 as this is one of the cheaper grocery stores in Kristiansand. Tacos were planned for Tuesday night, vegetable stir-fry for Wednesday and pasta for Thursday night.

THE TRIP:                                                                                                                          We set off from Kristiansand on Tuesday morning, getting the bus to Hovden. On the way, we re-analysed our route cards and decided that our plan to start in Hovden and ski to Tjornbrotbu DNT hut would be an almost impossible feat for the first day as it meant we had to ski approximately 10km’s, going 230m uphill. Instead, we changed our plan and decided to start backwards; meaning we would ski from Berdalen to Berdalsblu DNT hut which was 6km going 120m uphill once we were at the start of the trail head.

After getting off the bus, we waxed our skis with the red wax as it was 4 degrees Celsius. I had not used this wax before, and I found it quite tricky to apply it in 3 thin layers as it was very sticky. In the end, I think I had applied 2 layers, but it was still difficult to cork-in evenly.

Luckily enough, the road had snow on it, so we decided to walk up the road on our skis for 1km. After what was a quite slow ascent, we reached the trail head leading to Berdasblu DNT hut. We set off from here at 2:00pm and began following the trail that was already in the snow.

After skiing for not even five minutes, I was already struggling to ski down hills with my rucksack on as my centre of gravity had changed. The wax on my skis was also gripping too much and I was not able to glide along the snow. I pushed through this however it was becoming quite annoying and I got to the point where I took my skis off and started walking. Walking through the snow was almost as bad as my wax not working, so Stefan grabbed the wax pack and helped me scrape some of the wax off of my skis. After removing the excess wax, it was a lot easier to ski.

We kept skiing, following the marked trails, and had very minimal breaks. The only breaks we had were when we fell over and were waiting for each other to stand back up. I found this quite tiring and I was running out of energy however, I kept pushing through as I knew we wanted to get to the hut before the sun set on us.

Unfortunately, we had still not reached Berdasblu DNT hut and at 6:07pm we decided to get out our headtorches only to find that Stefan and Ho had not brought theirs. This made it hard to ski in the dark as Malte and I were the only two with light. In addition, we had no idea where we were on the map as we had not been navigating as there was already a trail in the snow. This made it tricky to know how much further we had to ski. As this was the case, we decided to ski for 1 more hour, and if we weren’t at the hut by then, we would find a place to set up the tent. After an hour we were still on the trail and could not see the DNT hut. Funnily enough, Ho took out his phone and searched on google maps for the DNT hut. What we thought was a silly idea, was actually quite good as google maps showed that we were not that far away from the hut, so we continued to ski. We reached a strenuous uphill section and were able to smell the smoke from a fire and not long after, the DNT hut was in our sight.

We settled in to the smaller 10-person hut, along with 3 other ladies as there was a group of English schoolboys in the larger hut. It was a relief to get into a warm hut and cook our dinner as it had been a long day and we were all very tired.

As we had reversed our plan for the week, it meant we were able to sleep in on Wednesday morning as we were staying in the vicinity of the DNT hut that day. Unfortunately, Malte and I both woke up to nasty head colds and felt very run down. Putting this aside, we decided we still wanted to do some skiing as the sky was blue and the sun was shining. At around 11:30pm, we waxed our skis with the violet wax and headed outside to the hill near the DNT hut. We skied to the top of this hill, which took approximately 30 minutes and took a lot of photos! I was very happy with the wax on my skis as it was an easy ascent up the hill as the skis were gripping to the snow.

Going back down the hill was fun as we were able to make our own tracks in the fresh snow. Although I fell over multiple times, my confidence was increasing and I felt more in control of my speed when going down the hill, as compared to our ski week at Hogas. Once back at the hut, we came across another group of English schoolboys who were being led by Tim! This was a coincidence but a great surprise to see him out in the field.

After a long lunch break back in the nice warm hut, Malte and I decided we did not want to put the sunny weather to waste and headed back out on the skis. We skied past the first mountain we went up and went up the next mountain. The view from up here was incredible as you could see the whole valley and town of Berdalen. The 50-minute ski up the hill only took us 20 minutes to ski down and this was again, another chance to improve my downhill technique. The sun was begging to set so once we were back at the DNT hut, Stefan and Ho joined us in watching the sun set. This was a lovely way to end the day.

Tim and the schoolboys used our hut to prepare their dinner as this enabled them to melt snow and boil the water quicker than using their Trangia’s. We had a discussion with Tim and based on his thoughts with the bad weather for the rest of the week, and the fact that Malte and I were both sick, we would end our trip a day short and ski back to the bus at Berdalen on Thursday morning. This was disappointing as we had planned to ski to another DNT hut, as well as having prepared route cards and carried in more food to last us the rest of the week however, this was definitely the best choice to make.

Thursday morning, we did not put any wax on our skis as this is what Tim recommended for us to do. We set off from the DNT hut at 9:50am and began our descent down the valley towards Berdalen. Again, we were lucky enough to follow the trails that Tim and his class had made in the snow as they stated their descent an hour earlier than us. Being quite fatigued from my head cold, I was really struggling with the continuous downhill skiing. I was sweating a lot and was not feeling too good at all. Malte, Stefan and Ho were powering through and had no issues, so they kept skiing. We skied for 2 hours with no breaks and were soon at the trail head where we started on Tuesday. The last 1km stretch to the road was a very steep downhill section on an icy road. We decided to ski down this as it would be quicker than walking however after a nasty fall on a sharp corner, I took my skis off and walked the rest of the distance to the bus stop.

At 12:30pm, we got the bus to Hovden and then had a nice warm hot chocolate in one of the local cafes. We reflected on our trip and were happy that we made the decision to head home today. At 4pm we got the bus back to Kristiansand and at 8:30pm, we were back in our housing in Kristiansand.

MY REFLECTION:                                                                                                          Upon reflection I think our chosen route should have started in Berdalen to begin with and I am happy that we changed this on the bus. I am also glad that we stayed at Berdalsblu DNT hut and ended our trip a day early.

We could have also planned our meals better and chosen foods that weighed less and took up less room in our bags. Furthermore, these meals would have been more difficult to cook on Trangia’s considering they are much smaller than the pots we had in the DNT hut. Next time I think we need to keep our ideas simple and make sure we would be able to cook them on Trangia’s if we didn’t make it to the huts. In terms of my personal food, I think I packed the right amount to last me for the planned 4 days except maybe next time, I should take warm oats or porridge for breakfast instead of banana blueberry bread and fruit. I should also take hot chocolate powder instead of just tea bags.

I also need to work on my navigation in the snow as I found it very difficult to work out where we were on the map as all of our surroundings looked the same and it very tricky to find the streams which were shown on the map. Although, I think it will be easier to navigate if we start at the beginning of the trail and not get the map out at 5pm when the sun was setting. We should always check our map even if there is a trail in the snow for us to follow.