Day 1
February of 2– I waited 2 weeks for this trip . Aghhh the sunny day I woke up 7 o’clock before my alarm clock put the last outdoor stuff in my Backpack.And together with Tadas we went to the bus station. In the Buss station we met Janis, Johan, Moritz.We paid for buss tickets and then we went to Evje. And more we were near Evje more was snow here and i was more happier to see that. When we arrive to Evje to Trollaktiv park we meet with Tim- who is the host of all Trollaktiv park. He Represent this complex what kind of outdoor activities you can do it here.Then we settle down in two guest houses . And then starts first skying lesson before that we was divided in two groups . The vierleaders of groups was Len and Tim(Host of Trollaktiv)
So as i said we came here to ski. So after meeting and settle down it starts first skying lesson. Today my skying instructor was Tim. We start doing basics like how you need to sky corectly. Using a contralateral arm and leg pattern while walking (as the right arm swings forward, the left leg should be stepping forward), techniques such as The diagonal stride, skying without poles, how to go uphill such as herringbone, the side step, how to ski downhill correctly.
Also Tim devide our group into a 3 smaller groups and arrange the competition with a lot of games, in my opinion, that is the best way how you need to make interesting training, because then the students relax and forget that they are training, they just having a good time. By the way when they are competing skiers are forced to move greater distances with increased speed because it’s competition and nobody don’t want to be last.This kind of training you can use in every sports training.
After that we was skying to the local area on the mountains 1 kilometre to Trollaktiv. Try different type of skying techniques which Tim thought us , learnt for ours mistakes, had a good time.

In The evening we had our lecturer Len Atkinson lecture about waxing. We watched the clips and listen Len comments about how we need to wax the skis, what kind of wax we need to choose in different kind of air conditions(air tempeture, humidity) , how we can mix it different wax, how to find out what skis area we need to wax it. How we can check it the track condition without having any tool to measure weather conditon.

Day 2
February of 3-Today is the best conditions for skying, its freezing, the sun is shining and there is no wind. We go on our first ski tour. Like always we split up in two groups and I’m in the group with Len.
We start on the løpe and do some ski exercises, it’s a little bit boring we doing the same exercise, but I understand why we did this- you need to do one movement more than thousand time that your conscious remember this movement and then it work momentally, one more reason I think it’s easier to see to instructor where our the weakest movements.
Later We continue the trip and go in the fresh snow next to the løpe. We made only one break- lunch break. I ate like always wild pork conserves (It’s good for that kind of trip, but I’m getting boring of this).
During the lunch we talked about a lot of things, but most of the time we talked about our skying weakness and strenghtness
After the lunch we practiced our downhill, tele mark turn skills.
Later on we return to the place where are busses and head back to Trollaktiv
We put our ski’s away and start cooking. We have a lecture about winter first aid. It’s about dehydration, hypothermia and things like that, how to prevent, notice and threat. After the lecture we sit together with everyone in our accommodation and play card games.

Here is some info how to recognise hypothermia


More information you can find in Mountaincraft and leadership book (p.286)

Day 3
February of 4-Today we have a ski tour to the top of the mountain. Most of the ski tour time I was using herringbone or side step technique, because it was steep, so it was kind of exhausting. I tried to avoid the side step and herringbone technique and do touring(going zig zags to uphill), but to me as a rookie on skis it was to complicated.

During that we were skying on the lake, we enjoyed the tour, did some downhill and enjoyed the totally silence. Tim helped us a lot personally said to everyone what we need to improve that we can ski better.

Later we achieved our one of the task we arrived the mountain top. On the mountain top it was Aircraft station(it looks like a giant football ball 😀 ) We take a lunch break there met other group, took some photos-it’s not so high about 700 m, but the view looks amazing so we made a lot of photos 😀 .

After the lunch we ski downhill- that was fantastic a lot of enjoyment. I really like speed so I was crazy. Later we returned to the busses and went to the Trollaktiv.
Tonight we have a orienteering in the dark with snow shoes it wasn’t easier than I expected to go by this snow shoes, sometimes I was even running with them, but orienteering in the dark is very though task.
To sum up I really liked it. It was nice weather, good activity and beautiful sky full of the stars

Day 4

February of 5-Thursday. The place we are going was one a ski resort and closed down a few year ago. It was good place for skying and of course weather conditions was perfect- actually all week the weather was perfect. Everybody tried telemark turns, regardless of how many times they fell.
Later we reached the place which calls treeline, in some places where was to steep we need to took out our skis and climb down . It was hard today, but I really liked it and I learn a lot.
Tonight we had a lecture about winterpacking, this lecture was held by two of my groupmates Adele and Flurin. They represent they thoughts about packing and it was a lot of interactions of students and Len with Tim and discussions. I really liked it, I change my packing habits.

Day 5
Friday-The last ski day- It’s nice to know that is the last day, most of the guys are tired, I think 3 or 4 days is enough after that is kind of boring and tiring.
Today we had a chance to choose do we want to do a tour with Tim or spend more time practicing with Len. I choose for one day more for practicing. Our group were learned how to stop when you going downhill zig zag.
Later we came back to Trollakiv said goodbye to Tim and went home to Kristiansand.
To sum up,This 5 days trip for me was like vacations to alps, which I had never had. It was nice week our group cohesion is getting stronger and stronger. I learned a lot of ski techniques, now I’m better at winter orientieering, know more about what to do in case of emergency. Learned a lot about hypothermia, dehydratation, freeze bites, ski waxing, packing backpack.

On the top of the mountain 🙂