Day 1:
Our last winter snow adventure began driving up past Evje to an area called “Berdalsbu”. Expected weather was going to be unpredictable for much of the week so ski conditions were unknown. The goals of this camp were to continue improving our ski touring, work on navigation, understand and execute avalanche rescue procedures and create a snow hole liveable for 2 nights.
Upon arrival two groups of 12 spilt between Tim and Syndra. Each group would have pairs rotating in being Veileaders, our goal Monday was to leave by 2pm and ski 5 km to the cabin were we’d being staying that night. Weather conditions weren’t ideal as we had gale winds with hale and snow flying sideways causing visibility to be limited to 20 metres at times. When Tom & I were leading during this weather I kept us on the bearing whilst Tom kept track of the time, we looked for features, attack points and handrails to kept us on track. After a few more rotations we made it to the DNT hut we’d being staying in for the night. It was a cosy area for the 12 of us, we immediately gathered snow to melt and firewood to keep us warm. We all had a great time that night, you could definitely tell we were in the ‘Performing” stage as we were very comfortable around one and other talking about strange and stupid topics. That night I noticed my packing skills have improved since the start of the semester. I now utilise all spaces and squeeze anything that can fit, I got my pack down to 55L.
Day 2:
Waking up in a super warm cabin was a nice change, we got ready for the day we’ve all been anticipating; digging our snow holes. Marijn’s breakfast with added sugar and chocolate sprinkles to his oats and nuts made me think how I could create a breakfast that tasted that little bit better. Snow conditions were slippery and overall pretty awful for ski touring; the red wax I applied had no affect which still made skiing twice as hard. We only skied 2 km before Tim made the decision to turn back and starting discussing and practising our avalanche rescue procedures. We first buried each other alive having our feet outside the hole as a safety, this gave us a similar experience to being buried alive. The snow was extremely heavy and strangely enough I could hear the others talking but they couldn’t hear me screaming. It was really interesting hearing about Syndra’s experience being buried alive, he survived and his friend didn’t. Prevention is key when avoid avalanches so knowing the weather forecast prior to leaving in the area, knowing hills that are from 30 & 45 degrees are considered high risk, talking to locals, knowing the difference between convex and concave and prior to skiing dig out a snow profile. As a group we dug a snow profile with Snydra guiding us what to look for in the layers. Will skied on top of the snow profile to see if our judgement of what layer would collapse, we were right.
After having lunch in the hut that afternoon we went back to our desired convex hillside ready to dig! Tim and Syndra discussed different snow hole designs at the base of our snow hill. We then made sure the hill was suitable by stabbing through the 3m avalanche probe without hitting ground. Every group chose to create a snow hole with two passages and a centre sleeping platform, this would allow all 4 group participants to be involved at the same time. With our design in mind Will and I paired up as did Marijn and Tom; it took a total of 20 man hours to dig, saw and shovel out a snow hole big enough for us to live in. Will and I worked well at taking turns in sawing the compact snow and shovelling out all excess snow, we were efficient however Will broke at shovel trying to get too much leverage. The cold air trench would have been close to 2 metres high whilst have the sleeping platform almost 2m x 3m enough to lie all 4 of us sideways. It was hard back breaking work however when we met each other for the first time we gained needed motivation to continue as the end was near! Dinner that night we each put another tuna can in for the extra protein, we ate that quickly.
Day 3:
Waking up in a snow hole was a strange experience, as I was proud of our creation and it was relatively warm and roomy. The amount of space was a welcomed change from a tent, making breakfast was easy as well as getting changed. What never changes is how hard it is to get out of a warm sleeping bag. It was quickly learnt that when living in a snow hole it’s important to be somewhat organised, it has helpful digging out shelves and larger floor space stoves and gear, it just made life so much easier.
Today’s skiing involved going to a reasonably flat snow filled area to create a ‘play ski’ area as snow conditions still were undesirable for ski touring. Skiing down to this area Tim and the group encouraged me to ski blindly down a ‘safe’ hill, little did I know it had a 2 metre drop that I bailed at; everyone laughed at my expense. The groups spilt into two again with one group creating jumps whilst the other group creative Salem runs and some other creative ski tracks that we could all challenges ourselves in. I unfortunately broke one of ski’s landing like a typical Australian from the big jump, Tom almost broke his nose but got away with just a blood nose. This afternoon was really engaging for us creating a ski play area, I really wish we had the opportunity to do this in our basic ski course week as it challenges you in different facets whilst working in a group.
Day 4:
It was a colder than usual morning as my drink bottle and boots froze last night, that morning we were all packing up our gear and we all had a sad realisation that this was our last winter trip. Before leaving Marijn and I wanted to test the strength of our roof so we both jumped on for a minute straight without any change surprisingly. We again spilt into two groups to get back to the vehicle. I choose the easier route as I already had a broken ski and my skiing ability wasn’t at the others level.
It was a good day to work on navigation as it was a really clear blue bird day, Lila, Bogi and I were leading one segment, we navigated to the target location. Snow conditions early were ok however when it warmed up more the snow began to melt and become real slippery. Syndra ran an exercise were we were all blinded folded and had to maintain a straight line, Jo and I were on point whereas others were skiing into trees and each other. This exercise was to try and re-create a ‘white-out’, he gave a cool tip about using your ski pole attached with rope to yourself and by throwing it in front of you could maintain a relatively straight line. We had lunch in a super nice area in the sun, we attempted to get a fire going but it was surprising a constant battle to keep it going with the materials we had. Afterwards Syndra gave us 20 minutes to dig in an emergency snow hole, I went an in-hill design where half the class dug out a snow trench. I could have definitely slept in for one night with my pack, it wouldn’t have been comfortable although I would have survived. We were initially told we would be sleeping in this for tonight however Tim had mentioned earlier in the day we would be going home tonight. The final ski to bus was a surreal moment as I knew I wouldn’t be on ski’s for a long time from that point, I have a true love hate relationship with cross country skiing but without a doubt this Australian will do it again!