Ski-week Evje
02-02-15 / 06-02-15
Our first trip with our friluftsliv class is the skiweek in Evje at Troll active. Troll active is an modern outdoor education centre with all the necessary facilities for guests to sleep, eat, play and challenge the nature of the lower Setesdal valley. The main activity of Trollactive is rafting and kayaking because of the location next to the river Otra. But in the winter skiing is the main activity.
Monday
02-02-15
We gather around in the morning in front of St.Olavsvei to drop all the stuff in Len’s van. We drive to Evje with three cars and Len’s van. Some people had to take the bus, we meet up with them in Evje. I’m in the van with Len and Florin. Len tells us about the environment and the mountain bike trip we will do from Evje to Kristiansand.
We arrive at Trollactive and unload the cars. We have some free time to settle in our accommodations. We have two apartments for 6people and a big one for 12people. I stay at the 12 person house. We have a girls room, I sleep in a room with Adele, Sharon, Jais, Anne and Katja.
We meet in the common room and got introduced to Tim. He’s the owner of Trollactive and will lead our ski trip together with Len. We got some house rules, the program and after the introduction we start our first ski experience in Evje. We split up in two groups one group will go with Len the other with Tim. Before every ski activity we have to wax our ski’s. not the most fun activity to do, but has to be done.
We do some basic exercises on a flat ground and have a lot of fun jumping around on the ski’s. Tim is an awesome teacher, he has a positive vibe and brings this over on the group. He has humour and is really in to learning all our names. We do some more practice by skiing in a circle and got some tips to improve our skills. We do a small race against each other with and without ski poles. We have the most perfect weather conditions, fresh powder snow, sunshine, and temperatures are below zero. We practice our up and downhill skills and after playing around in the area we go on a small tour on the hill next to the camp. After the skiing lesson today I have the feeling I will get the hang of it.
Back at our cabins we start cooking. We made cook groups and I’m cooking together with the girls. 
On today’s menu is pasta with tuna. I always thought that I didn’t like tune but the dish is delicious. After dinner we have a lecture in the common room about waxing ski’s. the lecture exist off showing promotion movies of the swix brand and they are not very interesting but the questions of the group make the lecture instructive. After the lecture everyone is exhausted. we play a card game and go to bed after two rounds.
Tuesday
03-02-15
Today we go on our first ski tour. We drive with two busses to the location. We split up in two groups and I’m in the group with Len. We start on the løpe and do some ski exercises, to be honest this is a bit boring, skiing in circles on the same spot. We continue the trip and go in the fresh snow next to the løpe. Again we have the best weather conditions, its freezing, the sun is shining and there is no wind. We take a lunch break, we don’t have small breaks in between so it’s time to drink and eat something. After the break we practice our downhill ski skills and have to do some exersizes like stepping aside, go down on one foot. I’don’t like these exercises, we have one time to try and then we have the next exercise, there is no time to do an exercise twice and I feel like I will never learn this stuff. We continue our tour and during the skiing Len is telling about the animals and tracks we see. I’m interested in this stuff and like to learn about the nature of Norway. We’re back to early at the busses and Len decide to do some extra practice at the ski slope. We have to leave our backpacks behind so I put on an extra layer of clothes. While I’m doing this the group leaves. I’m behind with Osvaldas and we start looking for the group. We found them practicing on a very steep hill. No idea how they got down and up there so fast and I’m struggling with Osvaldas to go downhill. We reach the group, they are practicing something they call tele mark turn. I feel a bit sad that they left without waiting on us or telling where to go and ask someone why. They say they thought we had a break. Len says he doesn’t want to teach me anymore today. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with this information. I ask some other students to teach me and Anna manage it to give the instructions I needed to understand this tele mark thing. We return to the busses, the other group arrives and we head back to Troll active.
We put our ski’s away and start cooking. Tonight we eat fish sticks with potato and vegetables. We have a lecture about winter first aid. It’s about dehydration, hypothermia and things like that, how to prevent, notice and threat. After the lecture we sit together with everyone in our accommodation and play card games and Tadas and I play some guitar.
Wednesday
04-02-15
Again we have a beautiful day, its cold, the sun is shining and there are no clouds in the sky. We drive up hill and will make a tour to the top of the mountain today. I’m in the group with Tim. We make a beautiful tour today. We cross a lake and we listen to the silence of nature. Everyone is enjoining the tour. The landscape looks like a postcard. We are in winterwonderland.
I notice that my heels hurt from the shoes, they are a bit to big so I put some tape over my hills to prevent blisters. On the trip with Tim we have a lot of small breaks what makes the trip comfortable. He’s taking care of the wellbeing off everyone, he’s asking if everyone is feeling oke and makes stops to drink, and to take clothes on and off. We practice our downhill skills on a hill that ends up to the lake. He’s giving us some tips and tricks to improve our skills and we have time to practice on ourselves.
After the practice we continue our tour to the top of the mountain. The first part is very steep and we have to do side steps to walk up. We learn that with cross country you want to avoid to do bone herring because it takes a lot of energy. The options are zigzagging uphill or do side steps if necessary. We arrive the mountain top. On top of it is a big round building what looks like a ball. This is a send tower for the planes. The other group is already settled on top of the mountain and we join them. We have a nice spot in the sun and have lunch break. We go downhill in two separate groups and return to the busses. It turns out that the other group ended up somewhere else and Tim is going to pick them up.
We arrive at the camp and start cooking, tonight we eat rice with tuna. And again I like the dish. We have no lecture tonight. Instead of a lecture we can choose to go on an evening walk on snow shoes. Not everyone is joining but I look forward to try this. We gather outside and someone of Trollactive is guiding us. The snowshoes are very light and smaller than I expected them to be. It’s easy walking on these in the snow and because of the hooks we can walk quite steep uphill. We got a navigate task, and experience how hard it is to navigate in the dark. We walk over the hill and have a beautiful view over the landscape with the stars and moon bright shining in the sky.
Thursday
05-02-15
Today we drive to the other side of the Otra. Tim is showing us where we are going from the parking place of Trollactive. The place we are going was one a ski resort and closed down a few year ago. The only leftover we see from it is the road and a cabin. We walk uphill together. We have to carry our ski’s because it’s too steep. I walk in a nice tempo and when I feel warm I take of a layer of clothes. Some people are passing me by and ask if I’m okey. I am but I don’t think they will be when they arrive on the top. I enjoy the view over the valley and the other side of the road is covered with ice. We take a break at the lake and it turns out that the people who were passing me by sweat a lot and are getting cold. Now I know for sure that my shoes are too big. During the walk my heels hurt and I tape them to prevent blisters. I’m in the group with Len today and Tim’s group leaves the lake before us. We ski more uphill and Len want us to navigate. Luke takes the navigate part and we follow. It turns out that the route he want to take is to steep and we ski back a bit and follow the løpe. Today is the first day with clouds and it makes the wind chill colder than the other days. We go uphill again and see the other group also heading to the mountain top. It’s windy today so we don’t stay long on the top. We go downhill in one big group. We make a nice group picture and continue the tour downhill. The area we go down is steep and I do a lot of zigzagging to go down. We arrive at a point we have to cross a river and now it feels like real cross country. We see the first elge tracks. We have to take off our ski’s to cross some threes and a water stream. I have an interesting conversation about point of views. One of the students it taking another track than the others and Sven considered him irresponsible for the group and that he putts the group in danger, in case something happens to him. At the other hand I think he’s exploring his own boundary’s and knows where he’s capable of (he’s one of the experienced skiers in our group) and I think it’s good that he is not following the group like a sheep. Some people are very exhausted by the trip and are falling down a lot. I fall down a few times but do more zigzags tan most of the people and I don’t feel that exhausted yet. We end at an artist house and the man is talking with the students who are already there. We follow the last part on the løpe and someone of trollactive picks us up with the bus.
We arrive and start cooking immediately because we thought we didn’t had an lecture today so we had on our planning to make pizza. We eat half of the pizza and eat the other part after the lecture. Adele and Florine give a lecture about winterpacking. What to bring how to pack and what not to bring. It’s a good lecture with a lot of interaction with the group. After the lecture we watch a movie in the common room. It’s a long film and I decide not to watch the end and go to bed at 12.
Friday
06-02-15
Our last ski day. We wake up earlier to clean the houses. This give us more time to go skiing today so we don’t have to clean after. We could choose today if we want to do a tour with Tim or more practice lessons with Len. I choose for a day of practise. We go to the area we were the first day and take the exactly same track for practising. We learn more about skating on ski’s and breaking by going downhill. At the end we do a race to reach Tim’s group. Almost I was the first, but Luke cached up with me by taking the løpe. We ski back to the busses in one big group. We have a last meeting in the common room, say bye to Tim and drive back home.
