WINTER FIELD TRIP
| Hovden, Hovden i Setesdal |
22.03.21 – 26.03.21
After having two weeks in Kristiansand of sun, high temperatures (for being Norway) and no snow surrounding us I couldn’t imagine to go to ski again. However, at the same time I was waiting for it since we were going to do cool stuff there: skiing, building snow holes, daily trips or improvised nights outside. 5 days, from Monday to Friday, 4 hours far from home by bus in Hovden, sounds pretty good. That meant bringing food for the whole week (no stores around) and a large list of material and specific gear for the occasion.
We got there at lunch time, we unpack our stuff and we went to ski around for 3 hours, getting to know the place. The day after (Tuesday) we did a day trip around Bueggi, getting to the top of Bukkenuten. We were putting into practice our orientation skills during the whole trip, switching the roles among the group. Tim took the chance to give us some tips regarding clouds, weather prediction and air pressure, drawing some graphics on the snow. Actually, it was so useful since we were standing in the middle of the hills surrounded by clouds, so we could identify what he was saying. In addition to that nice daily trip we saw six reindeers, it was amazing!!!! We were having lunch before going up to Bukkenuten and they came very close to us so we could appreciate the views, being so quiet.
Third day: Snow hall. Never did that before so I was quite excited for that. The day before we checked the depth of the snow to see if it was possible or not to do it and we saw that yesssssss! We were divided in groups of 6 since groups of 3 were too small to build a proper snow hall. This meant new people to work with, more people, more diversity of ways of thinking, but in the end one common goal. I would say about myself that usually I adopt more the task-oriented role, focusing on what we have to achieve, in that case was to built a snowhole to sleep in it for that night. We knew that was going to be tough but at the same time rewarding. I was so motivated and excited to built our snowhole that I put all my effort on it, that’s why I ended exhausted. All this type of things where you have to use your hands, your whole body, as well as building or construction skills are really things that I am interested on, that’s why I don’t care at all how hard (physically) are they because I will have fun doing it. And if you take into account the company and mates that are working hard with you, it is even better. It is true that you could observe who was more into the building part and doing the hard work, who was directing or guiding/supervising the shape or the placement of snow blocks. The motivational level of people was also important, some were more motivated than others and could be easily seen.
Actually, 6 people working together went better than I expected; we could rotate while shaping the hole from the inside since was quite tiring, when one was cutting blocks of snow for the roof, another one was transporting them, another was placing them in the right place, and the three others where working on the inside part, taking tones of snow out. However, I could observe in some moments a bit of social loafing, specially when more than two people where working on the same thing/part, then one of them was doing less because there were other people doing the same, so why keep working as hard as I was alone if other people can do it for me? (irony) I will never understand this types of attitude.
How to build a snowhole, steps:
1st. Avalanche probe to check the depth of the selected place. Draw a circle of 50cm of diameter around the probe and start dicking down (2 persons inside this circle). Try to not make the hole bigger when dicking down.
2nd. Other 2 persons dick a tunnel at the ground level.
3rd. The hole and the tunnel meet at some point.
4th. Once met, start making the hole bigger from the inside to make room for sleeping.
At the same time, others start covering/building the roof. There are two ways of doing it:
- 4 or 5 people in a circle hugging each other with a bivy bag on top/above them covering them. The rest start shovelling snow on them, as much as possible. Then those people can get out because it is stable enough, then see if there are wholes or light coming from the outside and shovel more snow there.
- Cutting blocks of snow and build a roof. Rectangular blocks first but then they need to be adjusted in the side to make the angles fit. After building the roof, shovel snow as well. This way is more stable and “easy”.
5th. Clean the inside and the path to get in and make the ground even to sleep well.
It is recommended to make some small holes in the roof for ventilation, avoiding condensation or snow melting. The temperature inside a snowhole is always around 0 degrees, it is warmer than it seems.
Thursday, the fourth day. We packed everything and we got to the top of a mountain next to us, leaving our rucksacks in the beginning of the uphill. Only with skis and good gear on. Was super windy, super! But sunny at least. You could only recognise people for their figure or colour of the jacket since our faces were totally covered. To get to the most top part of the mountain we left our skis and went up walking with the poles, mainly because of the wind and ice in a steep terrain, was too difficult or required too many skills. The leader (Len) was always in the front, leading the group and choosing the best path. Since it was so steep, we learned how to turn while going up making “Z”. personally, was the time that I was more concentrated on every step that I was doing, because of the circumstances: steep terrain, weather conditions and fatigue. Then, the way down was quite challenging as well mainly because of the ice and the steep downhill. Actually I enjoyed more the way up than the way down since I could feel that I had the control of the situation, more than going down, where you could face ice and couldn’t control at all your skis while crossing those icy parts. In the end I was proud of myself, of my skiing skills and improvement, of the group and of the whole trip.
The last night consisted in sleeping in an emergency shelter in the forest. In groups of three, we found a good spot, with an even ground, surrounded by trees and rocks, so sheltered from the wind. We put two tarps underneath us and one above us as a roof, attached to the trees around the shelter. Was easy and quite fast, we had everything we needed, ropes. Was bigger than we expected, we ended up taking in another person, was cool:) The morning after we had to vote for the best shelter and ours was the winner, happy for that. The others were also good, different shapes, different building techniques. Through analysing others’ shelters you could see the weaknesses and strengths of each shelter, was useful.
Overall, the trip was so complete, so cool, with so many new things for me. I learnt a lot, learning by doing, by practicing, by using my own hands to build, testing my body to see which are my physical and mental limits. Was so so good! I would like to repeat it again, with the same people, such a great time we spent together. 
Through this link you can watch the aftermovie of this trip, made by one of our classmates, hope you enjoy it! 😛