Hello everybody,

from 2nd to 6th of February our whole group was allowed to spend a nice week for a basic skiing course in Evje. We lived at a youth hostel area called TrollAktiv. There we booked three cabins: twice for 6 and once for 12 people. Each goup cooked together every evening. The accomodation was really beautiful and well equipped. Each house had a kitchen, bathroom, living room and of course some bedrooms. The living room made it possible for everyone to relax, talk to each other and playing card games after a long day of skiing. Additionally we could find another restroom which could be used by everybody in the main building. For dry clothes and shoes a drying room was provided.

The area around TrollAktiv is not flat, it is surrounded by mountains of different heights and steepness. This made it possible for us to go to different places and learn a lot about skiing techniques. Except the last day the difficulty was increased with every new day: After starting with only a few skiing techniques on Monday we did a long tour up to the top and a quite steep way down on Thursday. In the following I would like to tell a little about each day.

Ski Course Route 1

Monday: We did not have enough seats in the cars so me, Moritz, Tadas, Oswaldas and Jochen had to go by bus. We met the others later at TrollAktiv. Afterwards everybody moved in the accomodations for the following week and had a little lunch break. I shared a room with Tadas, Oswaldas and Florin. The room was a little small but more than enough space for just sleeping, we had an incredible big living room anyway. [pic room]. Next we were divided in two groups one was taught by Len the other by Tim, who is the boss of TrollAktiv. We were divided like this every day of the week again. Both teachers made a good job during the week and you could learn a lot, but both had also different teaching methods. The first day I was in Tim’s team and it was also my first day on skis because I missed the day at Jegersberg before. I was quite happy that we started with technique from zero, so it was not a big deal to be an absolute rookie. We started at a flat area near the accomodation with the first steps on skis and ran down very little hills to get a first feeling. As everybody was able to do the basic movements we went further away from TrollAktiv and tried to go downhill a little steeper and longer lines. I fell a lot but I also feeled a little development in balancing with each fall. There we were also taught how to slide down a hill with a Telemark stance. After only a few hours the first day was over and we went back to our accomodations where we had our evening break and had dinner. Last we met again and had a short lecture about waxing. After the lecture everybody should be able to (hard)wax his skis properly and was responsible for a good waxing on his skis for the rest of the week. That’s it, first day over…everybody went back, played cards, talked, went to bed.

Skiing Tracks in Snow

Tuesday: On Tuesday we made a first little tour as you can see on the picture. Therefore we went to an area with kilometers of skiing tracks through the incredible and beautiful nature of Norway. At first we made different exercises to improve our skills and started a little tour after. We tried skating for the first time and improved our downhill abilities. Additional to this we were shown the telemark turn. The whole track of the day was increased of course. You can see it on the map.

Ski Course Route 2

In the evening we had a lecture about prevention and treatment of cold injuries. The distance was about 5 kilometers

Wednessday: On this day we made the first tour to the top of a little mountain. On the the top was a radar station for planes and we also had our lunch break there. You can see the view we had there on the picture.

Day 3 view from the top

Ski Course Route 3

On our way up the mountain we alway freshed up our downhill skills if we have found a proper hill. We developed ourselves by learning how to traverse steep passages and how to turn a traverse into a stop or a curve. On this day I also learned something about clothing because I wore to warm clothes and sweated a lot. I made it different the next day. I also found out that you should avoid hering boning as much as possible. It is always better to go on skis a little more than just straight up the hill by hering boning. Tim watched us a little more individually on Wednessday. When ever he recognized problems he talked to the person alone and gave him or her personal feedback. That helped a lot because everybody could work specifically on his or her own problems. Therefore everybody arrived uninjured down at the starting point. After the day I felt quite safe with my skills for going up the mountain and could improve my downhill skills. The whole route was about 10 km long, it starts and ends at the red point on the map. In the end of the day we were free of lectures and allowed to go on a snow shoe hiking tour in the dark.

Thursday: On Thursday we had the hardest tour of the whole week. Unfortunatly I forgot do activate my gps tracker. Therefore I cannot show you the track on a map. The way up took a lot of time and therefore I was already a little tired when we arrived up the mountain.

On the way to the top

It was higher than the day before and on the top quite windy and cold. Therefore we left the top again after a few minutes. Because of the very nice snow conditions and a not so steep upper part of the mountain a very nice downhill skiing experience followed. But soon it became much steeper and maybe too difficult for me. It took me a long time to get down and I fell really a lot and got tired. When I was safe down I learned that you should always safe a lot of energy for getting down a mountain, I underestimated this.

Friday: The last day was like Monday, so only a half day. Everybody was allowed to choose either taking part in a tour or improving technique skills. I chose the technique group because I wanted to become safer on skis in order to save energy more easily. Afterwards we went back to TrollAktiv and had a final briefing

To sum it up the whole week was a great experience to me and I am looking forward to going on our next skiing trip!