Hello everybody, during the winter holidays from February, 14th till March, 1st we were allowed to plan and do our own fieldtrip. Because of making more experience in skiing and considering the soon snowhole trip we decided to go out on skis. Especially important for us was to carry a heavy backpack and skiing at least 15 km with it.

Preperation:

• Planning: Our first plan which is attached was to do more than 50 km in three and a half day. You can get more details out of the plan (Plan: Trip_Winterbreak)

• Packing backpack: In order to figure out what I will need at the snowhole trip I took maybe more than neccessary. However I figured out what I need and therefore it can be reduced next time.

• Distributing of parts of the tent between us: We decided to take at least one tent for emergency cases.

•  Organising maps, shovels, avalance pows for everybody

• Precooking for the whole trip and preparing rations

Implementation: Actually we were much too optimistic with the distances. Another group made a similar trip like we did and told us in the evening before we wanted to leave about their experiences. They told us they could hardly reach the first DNT hut, only about 13 km away, before it was dark. At this point we firstly doubt about our plans.

First: We arrived at Hovden at about 12:30 after a long bus ride and started with lunch at the bus station. Afterwards we decided to go on our first “planned” route – 22 km to the Berdalsbu. But after our talks to the other group we decided to aim the nearest hut Tjörnbrotbu, only 13 km away. Unfortunatly the weather became that bad that we had to turn after about 5 km of our way because we could not see a lot anymore and the wind was too strong. We decided to ski back to Hovden and ski around in the near area. For overnight we checked in one of the local appartments. At the pictures below you can see a picture we took before we turned. The one next to it shows us at nearly the same place one day later.

Totalized we did about 10 km this day and had a first chance to test our downhill abilities with a heavy backpack. You can see the gps tracking on the right.

Second: On the second day we decided to try to reach the hut which was planned for the first half day. We had to realize that we planned much to high distances because overcoming the distance should take us over 9 hours which means we moved with less than 2,5 km/h. However we did 22km, over 900m of height up and around 700 down. I think the whole group was proud that we could do it although everybody was quite exhausted when we arrived. We enjoyed our evening and night at the hut, relaxed, cooked and ate together. Gps data can be found on the right.

Third: The third and last day was very relaxed because we only had to ski down around 6 km to the busstation at the main road. Nonetheless we decided to start early because the weather forecast promised another storm for the day. In the end the weather was much better than expected and we arrived after only 2 hours. It was a lot of downhill so very enjoyable after the long second day. Again gps tracking on the right.

 

 

Group:

We were a group of five and everybody had almost the same skill level. Therefore I made the experience that we did not had the typical role of a leader. The whole group stuck nearly the whole time together and when ever we wanted to decide about something everybody was envolved in the discussion. The person who skied at the front changed from time to time. Unfortunatly we had to split the group once. One part wanted to take a more difficult and maybe riskier route, the other part wanted to take a easier and safer route considering time and distance. At this point we could not find an agreement. At least we showed each other the way we wanted to take to make sure we can look for each other if something would happen. In the end both ways turned out to take the same time and we met each other again soon. Except this disagreement we worked together well as a team and harmonized together. For example if somebody felt weaker than the others we made a break or took him in the middle to make sure we still moving in comfortable velocity and do not lose a person. Additionally we moved heavy things like the tent from backpack to backpack if somebody wanted to lighten his pack.

To sum it up I think we worked well together, we motivated and helped each other and we all can be proud that we made the 22 km on the second day! Additonally everybody was rewarded by incredible views:

 

 

 

 

 

Learning Outcomes:

Firstly everbody had a chance to experience skiing with a heavy backpack and a long distance. Especially to keep balance while going downhill was a challenge for everybody. The long distance of the second day showed everybody his own physical limits. In addition I found out what I really need and how I can reduce the weight for my backpack. Another point is reacting to blisters as soon as possible and stop rather one more time than ski uncomfortably. One important point is also to communicate much in the planning phase. Instead online in a short meeting and talk face to face. This reduces misunderstandings.

A version of the following document was worked out by our team in a final feedback round. We discussed all questions of the assignment and had dinner together. I worked one more time over the document and changed only a few things to make it more personally. [Assigment_Hovden]

Thank you for a very nice trip “Team Jochen, Tadas, Petr, Steve, Roman”!