Activities:

For some of us this was already the third time they went to Hovden for the simple reason that it is a very nice and easily reachable area for skiing. Therefore 10 of us outdoor education students chose to go north again to do three days of Alpine skiing in the Hovden alpinski area. Following this was one day Max, Line and Saedis and I did a tour on cross country skis and practiced winter navigation and off-piste touring in deep snow conditions as well as on the prepared tracks. The last day was one of hike and ride snowboarding with Chris and his awesome friend Yannick in the hills around the cabin.

This week the weather was changing at a sheer ridiculous paste from heavy snowing to blue skies and back to clouds, but never got too bad to ski.

The first two days I played around on and off-piste with varying groups trying to work on my freeride technique while riding with Martin and Julien and shredding really beautiful  lines through the forest west of the main slopes down to the alpinsenter and the almost untouched slopes on the east side of Hovdenuten. Next to perfect powder conditions thanks to recent snowfalls made those two days of pure joy. On freeride skis these conditions were so much more enjoyable than on the carving skies I had rented for an earlier trip to Hovden. In comparison to the stiff camber of the carving ski, the rocker shape in the freeride ski and allowed for a much smoother and effortless ride with tons of lift in the fresh snow. Only drawback was that the poles were way too short for deep snow and therefore weren’t exactly useful off-piste.

On the third day I swapped my skies for Mr. Jones snowboard and simply enjoyed a day on the mountain and playing around practicing butter tricks and grabs. When the weather became quite bad at one point we were trapped in a whiteout on the slope. I still had my dark lenses in so I couldn’t recognise any contour lines on the ground. The sunlight was being reflected by the ground below and the fog and light snowfall around us. It was a weird feeling not being able to tell if I was moving and weather I was going up- or downhill. If I was on skis I could have dragged my pole through the snow or stick it into the snow to determine the angle but on a snowboard all that was a bit more challenging. Once I got to a part with more trees I was alright though. Luckily the weather changed for the better again soon after so we could continue to ride for a bit longer.

In the evening Jonas H and I took our cross country skies to do a small tour in the area and stop by the grocery shop in town.

The next day we split up into a group that was going skating and another group that did a classic cross country skiing on and off tracks. I was with Max, Line and Saedis and we planned our route that morning to get the most out of the sunny weather. We started off following the prepared tracks east and then turned north for a considerable uphill section with a lot of animal tracks to see along the way and a hare fleeing from us towards his hole, zig zagging. When we headed back south to cross the track we planned to go down on, we made the decision to follow the tracks uphill to a high point we could find on the map and went downhill back to the cabin off-piste. After we got back we used the avalanche probes to determine just how deep the snow behind our cabin really was and if there were any potential dangers hidden underneath the snow which would be quite unhealthy to land on.

On the last day before we left we did another tour of 9 kilometres on which Jonas joined us and when the others continued to follow the track back down, we decided to go for another 14.8 kilometres in the higher mountain regions and go up on one of the peaks which rewarded us with a stunning view and a great snack break.

For the last day, Saedis, Jonas and I planned a 13 route that would take us all the way over the mountains and to the last bus stop before Hovden. We estimated It’d take us around 4.5 to 5 hours to get there as we were travelling with all of or heavy gear on the back. Saedis actually had to take her snowboard as well. We had a beautiful tour through the mountains and a scary long and steep downhill section. The last couple of kilometres to the bus stop we decided to leave the tracks and stay within eyesight of the street to practice some more skiing in deep snow with heavy sacks. Funny enough we met a nice couple wandering through the woods as well, trying to work out where exactly their winter cabin was. This turned out to be very exhausting though and when we got back to Kristiansand we weighed our bag packs and mine was more than 20 kilos heavy.

Testing of equipment:

Newly waxed cross country skis glide much better than comparable unwaxed skis.

Lessons:

Short poles with small discs are suitable for freestyle not freeriding.

Take only pictures, leave only ski tracks.

Keep your tips up.

Consider that heavy packs have a significant impact on the steering and braking efforts while going downhill.

Group Dynamics:

More experienced riders naturally evolved as leaders of the group, finding suitable routes and the best powder spots.

The group often split up into two groups of similar interests, forming far more homogenous groups for each activity with less potential for conflicts.