This fourth assignment is about my Hiking trip on the Solbjorgfjellet. Pictures about the trip can be found in the blog.

All the planning was done by Adele who sent Osvaldas and me the route plan and we both joined in. I liked the choice of the area where we were going because there are not many possibilities for hiking by that time of the year. Everything further north is completely covered with snow. The tour plan can be found here.

I wasn’t much in contact with all of the other group members before the trip, except of Osvaldas, with whom I play basketball together, so I knew him best of the four group members. At first I just joined the trip because there wasn’t really an alternative, unless of going alone. But when we were starting hiking at a sunny Monday I really enjoyed the company of the others for that day and the rest of the trip. I assumed that the pace of hiking will be really slow but even if we had a lot of breaks, the two girls surprised me, with going quite on a good pace through tough terrain. All together the group cohesion was improving during the trip and we had a good companionship.

We started at 8:30 in Kristiansand and began our hike at 13 o’clock in Dirdal. The first hour it was going up really steep (the slope of the Fjord). Once on the mountain the track leads us around lakes, through valleys, over scree and boulders covered with moos or with snowfields. Right at the beginning we lost Osvaldas, who wandered on the mountaintop instead of going into the valley next to it. Because of the melting snow the ground was completely soaked with water and partly it was really swampy. At the end of the day my shoes were entirely soaked. We were glad that we found a spot to set up our tents: Either it was uneven or swampy. The next day we had fog in the morning and once out of the valley, we camped there was a wind blowing. We went back over the mountains, where still a lot of snow was lying around. Sometimes, especially I with my 120 kg (backpack included) was sinking in to the hips. At 17 o’clock we were back at the cars and one hour later at the beach, where we slept between the dunes. On the last day we had a little walk along the beach and enjoyed the time being there.

There were two challenges, we were facing in my opinion: The snowfields, which made the hike a lot harder than it should be without. Often were the marks of the track covered with snow and it was more map reading necessary. Also the marshy valley, where it was impossible to keep your shoes dry. This in addition to the snow was leading to cold feet.

Learning outcomes:

• I need different hiking shoes for marshy terrain.
• Wearing Plastic bags in the shoes is just useful for maximum one hour, afterwards as wet as without.
• Take less weight! For training purposed I took a lot of unnecessary things (bottle of rice milk, second sleeping mat, second trousers, big towel, …). With all the up and downs and the snowfields a lighter backpack would brought more joy.
• Go through your pack list properly (Forgot my spoon…).
• Talk about group gear (one stove to much).
• Clowns can be good leaders and keep the motivation up.
• Most important: Never wear a tank top when hiking with a backpack on! It rubs horrible.