27.1.16

First overnight trip at jaegersberg

Lessons of the night

One-night trips are perfect for testing your material, especially if it’s not good. Keep your food simple, but tasty. Some trees like you, some don’t.

Main part

After 3 weeks of getting used to Norway, skis and sarcastic teachers, we were prepared for our first overnight trip. At 2 o’clock we met at the usual area at Jegersberg. Because the weather forecast predicted rain in the afternoon, we quickly spread out to find a good spot for our tents. Martin, Julian and I went up a small hill and found a place that was almost perfect protected by the wind because of the surrounding trees. Later that night we should discover that not all of them liked us.

With the first raindrops, we started to play a bunch of national games. Each nationality had to present one game that they play back at home. There was a huge variety regarding the game genres. The Icelandic people like to present themselves to get to know each other, the Americans are in favour of turning things (e.g. tarps) upside down while standing on them and the Lithuanians drink and fight. After three hours of playing in the wet snow, while the clouds didn’t want to stop showering us, also the last one could say if he had really bought waterproof jackets and trousers. In my case I was really happy with my stuff, only the snow I somehow shovelled into my gloves wasn’t the best. Good thing I brought another pair with me.

Fortunately the rain got weaker when we started to prepare our meals. Storm kitchens are essential for cooking, and petrol gas is way more effective than red spirit, though also more dangerous. And be sure that you also burn the gas you release immediately, darting flames aren’t that funny, especially when you have to cook inside the tent. Of course we had everything under control and prepared an awesome meal, consisting of couscous with tuna and tomatoes, with almost no problems (If you take cans with you, you should also know how to use a can opener).

In a big ceremony all the dishes were compared. The jury was satisfied with all of the served meals, although there were some differences regarding functionality and taste. After some discussion we came to the conclusion that food certainly has to taste good, but when you’re on an outdoor adventure you should consider the functionality first. It’s best to have a simple, but tasty meal that contains a lot of long lasting carbohydrates (found e.g. in rice or couscous) and some vitamins (vegetables recommended).

After a long exhausting day, we finally got to our last challenge: sleep. I decided to test my synthetic sleeping bag on its ability to keep me warm. To make it short, it failed. While Martin besides me nearly burned with his extreme down sleeping bag, I had to put on all the clothes I brought with me. But somehow I made it through the night without becoming an icicle. The next morning we discovered what I mentioned earlier, one tree crashed in the night and almost hit our tent, only another tree stood at the right place to save us from being hit.

Looking back, I can say that it was a pretty interesting experience to make. It was really good to get to know our own as well as our materials’ limits, while being not too far away from home. Now we are prepared for the next overnight trip, knowing on what we have to focus.