18.-24.2.16
In the end of February we had to go on a selforganized week trip. A group of 10 people including me planned to go to the skiing area around Hovden. There, we wanted to go alpine skiing as well as cross-country skiing. Looking back, it was a pretty awesome week with strange weather and lots of different challenges. But let’s start from the beginning.
Main part
The first 2 days I focused on improving my snowboarding skills. Having skied for the last 17 years, I finally started my snowboard experience last season. As I know myself as the lazy and comfortable person, I decided to leave my skis back in Germany to be forced to use my snowboard in alpine sports.
Our group split up in smaller teams and I mostly went in changing composition with Julian, Max, Mike, Line and Martin. Due to heavy snowfall the days before we had a lot of powder snow to have fun in. 
The first day was really challenging for me, because so far I only practiced on prepared tracks. Also the speed my cronies set from the start of made me swear a lot. It was a tough first day and especially my left leg, which wasn’t used to this kind of pressure, and my arms, from digging myself out of the snow a few times, were complaining like hell in the evening. The second day felt way better, as I could convince the others to start with some easy and prepared tracks for the first downhills. Those two days were a lot of fun and I really learned a lot and managed to improve my technique while trying to keep up with the others. So thank you guys for taking me with you and not being too annoyed when I got stuck in the snow again. Also a special shout out to our professional snowboarder Max, who gave me some useful tips to help me master the deep snow.
On the 3rd day I gave my snowboard to Mike and took his powder skis instead. I never stood on these kind of skies before, so I was curious how the difference to my all-mountain skies was. And holy guacamole, this is the shit! Because it didn’t stop snowing after we arrived, we had fresh powder every day and finally I could also go fast through the forest with the other guys without being hold back by a snowboard. And I tell you, it feels just like heaven! I finally realized why Julian is so fascinated by freeriding that he’s out in the mountains every possible day in the winter with his posse called “Pudercrew” (https://vimeo.com/pudercrew if you want to watch some awesome videos!). This day proved to me that powder skis are definitely an investment I want to make in the future. Unfortunately the weather didn’t really know what to do on that day and after the sun left us for the 34th time and was replaced by heavy wind and snowfall we decided to call it a day and leave earlier than planned.
On the last 2 days it was time for some cross-country skiing. On the first day I went with Martin for the longest, most challenging but also most beautiful skating lap of my life. When we started I didn’t feel so good and after a few kilometres I told Martin to go on without me because his pace was too high. But 10 minutes later he had the same thoughts on his speed and I closed the gap again. So we decided to go together. On our way we passed the beautiful landscape of Norway. One time we almost had a whiteout, if it wasn’t for the poles marking the track. And when we thought that we reached the end of the lap we discovered the cross-country skiing paradise. A fresh prepared track without any traces yet. We had to take this extra lap. This was by far the most amazing skiing experience I ever had in my life. Skiing along the pure untouched nature of Norway, beating high climbs and racing fast downhills through the forest. In the end Martin told me that one time we reached over 60 km/h, which was pretty frightening as it was a 3 km downhill with unexpected turns, and standing groups of classic skiers waiting right behind them. But luckily no one got hurt and we had the time of our life. You know that it’s good when you start cheering while you’re still racing with top speed over the bumpy downhill. The track then got more flat again and we just enjoyed the peaceful forest around us. I had to discover, that even in the deepest woods, far away from civilization, you still meet Germans. But the good thing is, that these guys also come here to escape the frowny Germans at home. On the last 10 km my body told me that the days before were really hard and I started to struggle with everything. We made the last top and then continued on a flat area with heavy wind from the side. This was the moment when I almost gave up. But thanks to Martin, who saved my life with his last chocolate bar, I recovered a little bit and made it back to our hut. In the end we had made 44 kilometres.
On the second day we chose to make it easier and Martin and I went skating for a smaller 23 km lap while accompanied by Julian on classic skies for some time. It was a beautiful sunny day and a lot of Norwegian families were on the tracks. I was really amazed by the fact that the whole family puts on their skies, walks for a few kilometres and wherever they like it, just stop and make a fire for lunch. This is exactly how a family trip in the winter should look like! After we finished the lap, I added another 10km lap on my own after a short lunch break, because I felt really good.
Looking back, this was the best skiing week in Norway so far and one of the best and most diverse experiences I ever made in winter sports ever.