This second assignment is about our experiences on the first trip we had from the 24.02 to the 26.02 near Hovden.

More pictures about the trip can be found in the Blog.

The planning was mostly done by me. I came up with the idea of a hut tour and after I had an approximate plan, I showed it to the people I could imagine who could make it. Once four people were confident enough to join me, I made the final plan and showed it to them. The feedback for the trip plan came especially at the evening before the trip started and so there were some misunderstandings about the group gear: We took a stove, but no gas. We were five people and had 6 avalanche poles but just 4 shovels. Someone took a tent but others had no sleeping mat. Added to this the plan I made was really optimistic with the distances: On the first day we arrived at 13 o`clock at Hovden and I planned around 20 km with 500 m in height. That is just too far if the sunset is already at 18 o`clock.

We, the group consisted of five guys, who knew each other before. By using Tuckman’s stages of group development, you could say that we have passed already the “Forming” phase. All of us had a certain physical fitness and a similar level of skiing. That was one of the requirements for the people I picked for the trip. While we were on the trip we had also some conflicts within the group, particularly because it was the first time you witnessed the group members when they were tired or grumpy. From endless discussions, what really annoyed me of most on the whole trip, downwards to go separated ways for some time. But at the end it was a positive result and you know each other more. Mainly because of the evenings with a good chat, while eating dinner or playing cards.

The trip itself wasn’t going as we planned it: Because of the bad weather, you could barely see the next stick, which marked the track to the hut. We had to turn around and went to Hovden again, where we had long discussions about where to spend the night. At the end we checked in at an apartment. The next day we started skiing around 8:30, had great weather and arrived at the hut after approximately 22 km at 17 o`clock. After a cozy night at the hut we went back to the main road to Hovden. That needed not that long because it was all downhill. At the bus stop we went to our homeward journey.

There were some challenges we had to face on our trip: Once we had to leave the marked trails it’s pretty hard to navigate in a winter environment, because you don’t see the contours that clearly when everything is covered with snow. The rest of the challenges where linked to the group itself. Most of the time it was really hard to find an agreement between all group members. There was a person missing who had a lot of experience and who can make decisions, which will be accepted by the whole group without any protest. Because everyone wanted his ideas fulfilled, we had to split the group once. Also there were different limits of the individual comfort zones. When we were splitting the group, one group followed the marked trails, while the group I was in, took the summer route, which was much more challenging for skiing and navigating.

While we were quite happy after accomplishing the big distance on the first day, we realized our own abilities at skiing and which distance is doable without burning calves at the end of the day. Also we experienced the first time the difficulty to ski downhill with nearly 20 kg on your back. We had no problems with food but we realized that it’s more useful to prepare the breakfast and the dinner together because in the hut as well as over the stove, there are never five spots for pans and bowls at the same time. We were also reasonably happy about the emergency plan which came to use, by going back to Hovden.

What we should do better next time would be a more exact planning and also a face-to-face meeting before. With just chatting there can happen to many mistakes. A different point is to tape your feet before the blisters are actually there. Also there is still some improvement with the weight. Some people more, some of us less. We have to make decisions faster, there were too many and too long discussions. As a last point we have to check bus prices properly: Nothing will turn a good day into a bad day than pay the double amount on already expensive tickets in Norway.