8.-12.2.16

Evje – Bortelid

Lessons of the week

There are weather conditions where even Len doesn’t want to go outside. There are snow conditions at which being the master of waxing is not useful at all. I forgot English grammar. Some people learn astonishingly fast, others don’t learn at all. There are people that lead, people that guide and people that run away. Checking the avalanche risk takes some time. Langrenn is love, Langrenn is life!

Main part

Day 1

After being watered the last two trips, we were highly motivated to go on our basic ski trip to Evje, which is a 1,5 hour drive from Kristiansand and finally experience some snow again. Lens’ friend Tim owns an outdoor adventure camp there, called Troll Aktiv. We arrived in the afternoon aaaand it rained. Why did I expect something else?

evening lectures

This was not cats and dogs anymore, this was giraffes and elephants. Even Len, our waterproof lecturer, wanted to stay inside and decided that we have some theory after we moved into our cabins.

Day 2

Because there wasn’t enough snow at the local area, we had to drive one hour to the next skiing centre at Bortelid. This day should be remembered in the history books as the day with the most changes of the weather in one day. It was cloudy, but not too cold when we arrived and we started waxing our skis. Of course our 3-man-group forgot the wax and we had to practice social loafing once more. As everyone was prepared we split up into two groups, mine went with Len, the other one with Tim. Off we went, the wax was good, it started snowing, the wax was bad, Max was mad.

We started with some basic ski exercises to get warmed up. Then we proceeded with the different classic skiing techniques, as there are diagonal skiing with and without poles, double poling and going uphill. Because of the new snow I soon recognized a 5cm thick snow block under my skis which helped me getting uphill really easy. Unfortunately it made me walking down as well. Fortunately the snow stopped and the sun enlightened the tracks. After our lunch break we skied to an alpine ski slope to practice the different uphill techniques. Our wax was good for the compressed snow on the slope and we had some fun going up and down, either straight, in curves or zig-zag. An hour practicing was enough and we went on for a small lap of skiing. The weather had changed again and also the climbing wax felt like gliding wax again. I stopped to put on another layer, which helped me for approximately 5 minutes, so I decided that it was time for some upper body training. When we got back to where we started, Tim’s group used the alpine slope there to practice their downhill skills. Julian and Martin tested the jump further up the hill, so Max and I decided to join them. Somehow no one was injured during the biggest jumps in cross-country skiing history.

Day 3

The next two days we headed to Bortelid again. This time we started with good weather and perfect waxing conditions to ski a bigger lap than the day before. While skiing we stopped at various spots to practice our offpist skills. The groups’ performance had really increased since the first days on skis, as everyone made at least one steep downhill without a crash. There was only one minor problem, as some of the British students were visited by one of their lecturers who wanted to see what this course is all about. I assume that there was some miscommunication taking place, because she didn’t have any experience regarding winter sports. Though she tried to keep up on the first day, this day took all her motivation to learn skiing. The group attempted to encourage her and Len even sent me to help her while the group did some offpist climbing tasks. But I soon had to recognise that she didn’t want any help, so she just kept walking along the tracks. Still, this incident couldn’t take away the fun we had when finishing our lap.

Day 4

Outright, the best day. It was time to practice our leading and climbing skills on the longest lap of the week. It was remarkable how the leading styles in our group differed. While some led the group from checkpoint to checkpoint with appropriate speed, others tried to keep the group together and guided them through unknown territory. Combined, there were various styles visible, some keeping the students on a short leash, others letting them play around as long as they stayed with the group and behind the leader. Oh, I almost forgot, of course there is always this one person that has to stand out from the crowd. A leader that seems to attempt fleeing from his group as soon as he figured out where the next checkpoint was. At least that brought some speed to the group and we reached the lunch break spot quite fast. The next topic of the day was regarding avalanches. Len showed us how to dig out a snow profile and check the avalanche risk of the slope. So we took out our snow shovels and dug our own snow profiles and observe the different layers of the snow. With increasing force on the snow profile using the shovels, we tried to trigger a “small avalanche” to prove the possibility of a real avalanche going off. The way back we passed the highest point of the slope which offered us a beautiful view of the landscape. While skiing down the powder I once realized why I love this sport so much. Surrounded by untouched nature your skis seem to float over the snow, while the sun covers everything in a golden light. Here and there various animal traces can be seen, sometimes even a small hut pops out of the snow. Behind a small hill the beauty of nature once again reveals itself, giving you a stunning view over a huge frozen lake. These are the moments that we live for.

Day 5

Finally there was enough snow at the skiing area close to Evje, so we could explore this terrain as well. With comfortable speed we made our way to the lunch point and even our flown in visitor from England was on skis again. On the way, Len gave the group some skating exercises and finally I could practice my favourite skiing technique. During the lunch break Max, Julian and I found a small cliff to jump while the others made a fire or played some reaction and knife throwing games.

In retrospective this was one of the best weeks so far, because I learnt a lot about how to guide and help others while having some fun on the skis, too. It’s time for a huge ‘thank you!’ to Len and Tim for making this possible.