Selforganised Cross Country Skitrip to Langeid (18.02-21.02)

After the really difficult process of building a group, we finally started planing our tour. It was quite difficult for us planing a tour because everybody had some ideas and wishes and to find a result that fits everybody and in the same time is secure was quite hard. After a few meetings we finally had a complete tour plan. But because the weather forecast changed in the next days quite drastic and I was also really worried about the high Avalanche risk, we decided to plan a totally new tour in Langeid. We decided to go theire because the weather forecast said, the wind wouldn´t be that strong then in the other places we had looked up and also we decided to plan a route around some dnt huts so we can get a save place to stay in case of an emergency Situation.

Our trip started on the Tuesday. When we arrived with the bus we waited for the rest with the car. The first day we had to hike all the way up till it was not that steep and icy anymore. For a lot of people this was already really challenging especially because they could not deal the weight of their bagpack or because the bagpack was not Fitting or broke. After we managed to walk up the steep slope we made a break and also realised we can’t make it till the first camp we planned. Our decition was ski as far as we get and then start finding a place to camp. We found a really nice place to camp, eat dinner and went sleeping directly.

The next morning was amazing. The weather was beautiful, the cenery amazing and after having our breakfast we were ready to leave… At least Luca and me 😀 after finally getting everybody awake and putting down their tent etc. We made our way to the first Hut. when we arrived their we enjoyed the slope right infront of the Hut and went up and down for an hour before we decided to split up in two groups to search for a place to camp. I went with Selina and Ed and I really appreciated searching a place with them because Selina and Ed have a lot of experience with camping and finding a good windsave place and I brought my knowledge of snow, reading the snow surface and the snowconditions. We found some spots that we haven’t really been 100 Prozent happy with, because our slope was quite in a (in my opinion) dangerous snowcondition, because there were a lot of streams under the snow that you can’t really see, a lot of holes and (the worst for me) you could see that the snow half a meter under the fresh snow started to melt because the snow was so wet and a wet layer started to form under the fresh powder snow. So in my opinion really risky to camp on. Luckily the other group found a better spot to set up our second camp.

The next day we decided to do a day tour so we decided on going on a top tour next to the camp. Because the weather was already really bad in the morning, Luca and me decided to put down our tent and bring it to the hut to let it dry and sleep the next night in there. The toptur was really funny! Because it was raining, the snow turned really heavy but it also helped us comeing down the mountain a bit slower.
After our top tour I was so happy about the decition of sleeping in the Hut because we came back totally wet, made a fire and everybody joined so we could discuss the last days.

We all agreed that it would be best to take the way back home the next day, because the weather turned really bad, the snow condition wasn’t good and we were kind of stucked in the area we skied around the last days because we rated the slopes, out of this valley, to dangerous to walk on.
So we enjoyed the evening in the Hut played some cards and had a good time. The next morning we started really early and went the way back. The weather was unexpected good so we had an amazing way back. We also had 20 centimeters of fresh powder that made my heart absolutely happy!!! We were a lot faster then we expected so we decided to go on another top tour on the way. That was so much fun!
After toptouring we went finally the way down and created some convinient techniques to get down the steep slopes to the street on skis. Because we miss calculated to hole last day we should have waited for 3 h for the bus but we decided to split up and try to hitchhike home. This worked out really well and I ended up in Frank’s car (a retired sail man) and learned a lot about the live and work on tankers, ships and which country’s he went to. I left langeid as last but arrived at kristiansand as the first.

All in all it was a week filled with a lot of new experiences and fun. I learned a lot about camping in the snow but we also had some problems that we couldn´t figure out on our trip (espetially the moisture of the sleepingbags). Also i realised that we defenetly should have set some times when we leave a camp because I am really a motivated person if we are out in the field and sometimes I felt sad that we missed so many hours of skiing because the others felt comfortable with taking a lot of time to wake up, have breakfast and get ready. I also developted a for me perfect organisation of my bagpack that makes packing and hiking a lot easier now. What I also experienced was, because I got raised in the mountains in the winter, that I have quite a good eye for snow and snowconditions. But in the same time I am maybe over-cautios about avalanche risks because since im a kid every person tells me how dangerous it is so I am maybe kind of branded for beeing afraid of avalanches. But I´m still not sure right now if it is a bad habit or if it is just healthy. I enjoyed the big diversity in our group so we could learn something from everybody. I also experienced my big love to the mountains, snow and the wintersport and I rwalised it doesn´t matter where I am in the mountains. In that moment the mountains are covered in snow I get this inner feeling of home. I really appreciated this feeling.

” Every skier is a morning person on powder days!”