Tuesday
After travelling and getting lost on the way to Hovden, we arrived at the car park to which we would start the four day expedition. The conditions today were very wet and slippery, so it made skiing very difficult, especially up hills, but Len told us some good news regarding where we would be sleeping. Because of the time it took to arrive at the DNT cabin, it was more appropriate to sleep there rather than digging a snow hole that night. We just played cards and prepared further for the coming days while in the warmth of the cabin.
Adam and Mike
Wednesday
We woke in the morning and after making breakfast, and preparing our bags for the day, but leaving them in the cabin, we set off towards some snow hole areas.
Preparing the Ski's with Wax
We looked at a few different ones and tested them with an avalanche probe, we decided on a site that would benefit us all, after picking up our bags back at the cabin and having lunch we started on the snow hole around 1230.
It was very hard work but worth it, especially with the weather being so lovely, we finished around 1930, just in time for the sun to set and settled down for tea.
Entrance of the snow hole before being sealed
Sleeping with me was Caitlin and Adam, as these two had a lot of experience sleeping in the outdoors, I didn’t have any worries that the snow hole would collapse. The structure was something I wasn’t expecting, but nevertheless it was a good night sleep, regardless of how chilly it was.
Thursday
Today we decided to complete a snow tour of around 10km, we headed over a few lakes and up some mountain sides but the weather got the best of us around lunch time, with the wind picking up so much we couldn’t hear each other, Len decided to head back to the snow holes and have a late lunch. We would look at doing the exercises he had planned later.
The exercises would consist of digging some other types of snow holes, one of which was a coffin style that would be used for flat land coverage. You’d start by digging a coffin shaped hole, not too wide, but your height, making sure the blocks you dig out are put to one side and kept, after this you would lay down a ski pole and one ski, placing the blocks on top to block to the wind out, finishing with a rabbit hole for the entrance, but most importantly placing the other ski pole outside stuck up to signal you are there if needs be.
By this point I had developed sunburn from the first day of digging and now wind burn from the tour earlier today, it had become very painful and swollen, but also kept me warm at night funnily enough.
Friday
After packing everything away, we set off from the snow holes towards the car park.
Our navigation was awful throughout the week so today we had to make sure we were on point with maps and compass work, but we still managed to get lost throughout the day. So after getting lost for the 4th time, Len decided to help us with the coordinations and the height to make it easier for us to get back.
The skiing was really easy today because most of it was downhill, but also really hard because of the bag on our back, I fell a few times but it didn’t affect my morale because I knew it was the last day. Towards the end of the day my wax started to wear off because of all the downhill skiing, so a few of us just walked the last 100m, knowing we were close to the car park.
Overall the week was not as bad as I made it out to be, I was expecting to be miles away from civilisation enough that it made it impossible to feel comfortable, but then realising this wouldn’t be safe in the long run.