We followed our plan A all of the days, I think we estimated our abilities pretty well. I believe we could have went for longer day trips in return for some of the exuberance feeling
The first day we went from the university to “harstadberg-valle” by bus. Then walked uphill to around 700 M.o.H. where the actual skiing started. From there we skied all the way to the DNT hut Bossbue (14km) where we arrived at approximately 20:30.
On the first day there was a lot of excitement and eager to get going. Although we were very well prepared, we had undermined the exhaustion from walking straight uphill and furthermore the trip was more exhausting than we prepared for. This was mainly since our route was mainly uphill and that the snow conditions were poor (a mix of ice and snow). Even though we set aside good time to complete this stretch it took us longer than expected. This was not a problem, however if there had been an accident it would have been more complicated and more serious since we would probably have to work our way out of this “accident” in the absence of light. I’m not saying that our actions were irresponsible, but it would probably have made sense to set more time aside to do the ascent to 700m, and plan for a easier first day to get a feeling of how our equipment is working and how the snow conditions are.
Second day we went from “Bossbu” to an area approximately 2.5 km from “svartenut” where we build a snowcave.
Building a snowcave is hard work. We built a pretty large and cozy snowcave. But even if we we’re just to build a simple snowcave it would still be a lot of work. Therefore (as we did) you should always put aside a lot of time to build it. In case of an emergency situation it would be wise to decide in good time to decide to build one.
Building a snowcave as a group, it is also important to keep a good dynamic, making sure everyone is well nutritioned, and that everyone is always moving to stay warm.
We split tasks like emptying the entranced for snow, cooking and building snow blocks so everyone always had something to do.
Third day we went from the snowcave to “oyuvsbu” (20 km)
Pretty easy day – we had the wind in our back and a relatively flat route
Fourth day we went from “oyuvsbu” to “gaukhei”
Sunny and also pretty easy day.
Fifth day we went from “gaukhei” to languid to take the bus home.
A lot of downhill, we underestimated the time it took for us to go downhill, but still managed.
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