Planning process

Group:

I think it is alwys hard to split the whole group in smaller groups because there are always discussions about why she/he didn’t ask me to be in his group, … But as the groups shouldn’t be too big, you can’t take everybody with you. So our group consisted of Will, Anne, Sharon, Jais and me.

Route:

We knew, that we wanted to go somewhere around Hovden as it is not too far, but enough snow, good DNT hut density and nice ski routes. So everybody in our group looked for a possible route for 3 – 4 days and we decided to take one of them. As it was our first self-organised field trip, we decided to start easy and make rather less kilometers than too much. We also wanted to sleep one night in a tent to practice for the big trip.
Route-Card-Winter-Trip

Preparation:

We planned to eat the breakfast and the dinner together and everybody should bring lunch and snacks for himself. So some of us bought the food and precooked the Chilli, while others bought a map of the region at the DNT shop. We met two times all together to discuss the route including the huts, write it on the route card, plan the food, check the bus schedule and of course the alternatives for any fails. Then we split up all the common stuff (tent, tarp, trangia cookers, food) between the people and of course everybody had to pack his own things for the trip (clothes, sleeping stuff, gear, …).

Menu:

–          Breakfast: muesli (I added rasins)

–          Lunch:

• Chilli con carne (precooked and frozen) with rice
• Camping-packet-pasta with tuna
• Spaghetti with pesto, tuna and mushrooms

 

Execution of the field trip

Day1: Hovden – Tjörnbrotbu (13 km)

We took the first bus from Kristiansand to Hovden that we arrived there at around lunch time. There we had to walk through the whole town to get to the starting point of the ski slope. After we waxed our skies, we were ready to go. It was really hard at the beginning to go skiing with the big heavy backpack at your back, especially when it goes uphill and a lot of people pass you all the time – at least the weather was quite nice and sunny and the snow conditions were good. But after a few kilometres and a few little technical breaks we got used to the new conditions and started to enjoy it (kind of). By the way we didn’t use the prepared slopes as I found it easier to walk in the deeper snow next to it (especially uphill as you don’t slip back so easy). After the last quite steep and icy 2 km we reached our first hut Tjörnbrotbu with the last daylight – perfect timing! We were really happy about these nice DNT huts and enjoyed to start a fire in the chimney, cook on the stove, eat on the couch and talk after dinner until we get tired.

Day 2: Tjörnbrotbu – tent (9 km)

The first part of the day was quite cloudy, so we sometimes had kind of a white out especially going up and downhill or for the frontman when it was flat. The route was nice as it was marked by little trees stuck in the snow and the up and down wasn’t too heavy. We arrived a good spot for camping shortly after lunch time and set up our tent in a quite sheltered little valley. After that we had still a few hours left to practice on the small surrounding hills without the big backpack (felt like flying!). But it was a weird feeling when I realised that we can’t do something else than skiing as we would get cold when we just stay around the tent. So we skied until it got dark, cooked in a natural shelter (rock with space between the surrounding snow because of the wind) and went into our sleeping bags when it got dark. As we were 5 people in a 4-man-tent it was quite crowded but warm – for the ones lying in the middle at least. So we stayed in our sleeping bags for around 13 hours until the next morning – really strange feeling!

Day 3: tent – Berdalsbu (6 km)

After putting down the tent, we keep on to the route. It was quite stormy and foggy this morning and we met nobody on the path apart from 3 caribus! I am happy that we realised them even with the bad sight. So we watched them when they realised us, coming closer torwards us, imagine that we are not interesting and turning around to walk away – really nice experience! Apart from that the way was quite nice as were more used to the skiing with the big backpack. I enjoyed especially the last kilometre with the sun and a nice little downhill before we had to go a bit uphill again to reach the last hut. After a few hours relaxing, we went out practicing on the hill next to it and finished the day with talking to our hutmates and candle light card games.

Day 4: Berdalsbu – Nordheim (5,5 km)

The night and the next morning was quite stormy so we were happy that we can wait until lunchtime to go out and ski to Nordheim where the bus leaves to Kristiansand in the late afternoon. Of course the snow was quite deep now (20 cm new snow) so it was a different kind of skiing now. But luckily some people already made a track, which we could follow and it was also mostly slightly downhill.

 

Reflection

I think our trip was quite successful especially if you respect that it was our first self-organised one. Of course we were lucky with the good weather and snow conditions and that nobody injured himself apart from blisters. I can’t really think of anything we can prepare better (apart from the bus ticket – we couldn’t find a lot informations on the internet, but we should have called them for the monthly ticket). My most learning outcome was that I realised the importance of the group: at some points I would just stop going when I would be just on my own because it was sometimes really challenging and tiring. But also the company of the group deflect you from thinking about what you are doing and is also nice in the evening hours in the hut. I think our group dynamic was quite well, so everybody felt comfortable in the group and could do something for the group (changing cooking and dish-washing groups, card games, helping each other while skiing, …). We also try to supported each other especially if we felt that somebody wasn’t in a good mood or didn’t feel well. I really liked our group and also our group – Awesome first Ski-trip!!