Assignment 4

Assignment 4

Winter Mountaineering

During this trip the goal was to learn about living in a winter environment. We had spend multiple days in Beraldsbeu and its surroundings. My personal goal was to experience living in a snowhole. For food I brought for everyday cheesy pasta as dinner and 3 wraps with cheese as lunch an oats as breakfast. In between breaks I had peanuts. All together I ate about 2500 calories a day which was fine.

Day 1

We travelled further to Beraldsbeu. We were going to ski for about 6 km. The class was splitted up in 2 groups. One group with Tim and one with Sindron. Everyone got his/her turn in couples with navigating towards the DNT hut. It was already snowing when we arrived which made visibility slightly harder. Once we were on our way for about an hour the weather turned slightly worse. It was getting really windy which made it even harder to navigate. I noticed that navigation in bad conditions makes it way harder then normal. After a couple hours we arrived at the hut. Tim explained us a couple rules of behavior that is expected of you once you make use of a DNT hut. These were as followed:

  • Keep it clean
  • Wright down if you use food from the hut because you have to pay for it.
  • If you use wood fill it up after you used it.
  • Use a liner or sleeping bag because its more hygiene.
  • Use the outhouse for fecal needs etc.
  • Normally you wright down your name and bank number so they can take the money from your account

Day 2:

Today’s aim was to find a spot for the class to make the snowholes. First we skied around with our day sacks. Because the snow conditions were bad our guides decided we wouldn’t go far. The goal was to make a snowhole in groups of four. I was in a group with Jed, Will, Tom and i. Tim explained us 2 ways to dig a snowhole. One with one entrance and two sleeping platforms for 2 persons. Or 2 entrances with one big sleeping platform. It took us about six hours of continues work to dig the snowhole in its total. We used shovels and snow saws to cut out big blocks to speed up the process. The saw was needed because the deeper we got in the hill the more the snow was compressed to almost ice. We would break our shovels on it. There were a couple of architectural components we had to add for the snowhole these were as followed:

  • Make the entrances that high that you can stand in it and easily dig.
  • Make the sleep platform hip height (This way the cold air will go down and the heat will stay high were we sleep).
  • Make the roof dome shaped (a dome shape makes sure that the pressure is on the walls which are stronger).
  • Make the roof even (This way everything will get less wet, if you have sticking out bits of snow it will melt and make your stuff wet).
  • Make a ventilation hole in the roof or in one of the entrances for the airflow
  • Close up one of the entrances
  • Make one entrance smaller.

 

Next to building it, it was also important to think about how to live in a snowhole. These are the few guidelines I  have learned during this trip:

  • Before you go on the sleeping platform get rid of all the snow on your body so our stuff won’t get wet.
  • If you can cook outside do it. Mainly because the hot damps of cooking make the roof sink in slightly.
  • During the night light a candle in your snowhole so you can check if there is enough oxygen.
  • Check if you wake up in the night if your roof didn’t sink in to much.
  • Make a latrine so there is not pee or poo everywhere.

Day 3

We talked about avalanches and making snow profiles. Sinderon showed us a small one and a big one. The big one was a more reliable form but would take more time. It was a good experience to see and feel the different snow layers. It gave us good insight of an avalanche prone area. Next to the snow profiles we experienced what it’s like to be in an avalanche. The feeling of compressed snow on me was a scary experience. After that we practiced using the avalanche probe and use the technique to find someone without an avalanche beeper.

The third day the plan was to ski around the area and find a spot were we could make different exercises. The exercises we made were buggles, downhill bumps, slalom and ski jump. Both groups had to built two of these exercises. We had to make sure the jump would be strong enough. After everyone was done, everyone had a 15 minute go on every exercise. Afterwards we had to pick someone of our group for ski jump and the downhill bumps to compete against the other groups. It was good fun. Everyone was cheering for the contestants, there was a good atmosphere in the group. Sadly during the skijump at the end Tom fell on his face and good a nose bleed but he was fine. This also showed that towards the end of the day you have to pay more attention as a veileider to get rid of these risks. After the skiing we went to the hut of Tim and Sinderon and had an hour to relax and warm up. After that we went back to our snowholes and made dinner and went to bed early.

 

Day 4

The last day we packed our stuff in the morning and assembled at the hut. We could choose to go the easy route back or the hard route. I chose for the hard route because I wanted to get challenged. As a veileider it’s important to give everyone in the group a challenge. Everyone would get an opportunity to navigate a part of the way back. The way back was a fun ride home with the last bit of beautiful downhill. Tim also explained us about how hard navigation in a white out can be. and that a person is tended to walk in circles once there is no visibility. Now I knew that it was not a myth. The reason for changing direction can be for instance having a dominant strong leg.