Beautiful Hovden

We were a few people who decided to go snowboarding/alpine skiing and cross country skiing in Hovden. We rented a cabin in an area close to the ski center and bought ski passas to the skilift. The trip was really good to get to know the other students, we had to organize how to organize the food and how to share the facilities in the cabin.

We got up early to be one of the first to the lifts I was a little nervous since I was scared that i was going to be the worst snowboarder and slow everyone down but I thought I would go with the group the first trip down and see where I stood and then if I really was able to keep up then I was going to go and practice on my own. After the first trip which was to the top and I accidentally went on the steeper slope I found I was better then I remembered and could keep up with the group and I tried to observe and ask them questions on technique to improve my own skills. We snowboarded or skied the whole day with only a short break for lunch. We even went off piste which I didn’t have much experience with, we walked up to a small cliff and jumped off it. Which for me was really testing my limits, I admit that I didn’t jump at the first try but observed but I really wanted to and tried on the second attempt on the smaller cliffs and there was a tiny jump!

The weather was freezing cold, especially when the sun was setting, but we kept going since we paid for an evening passes. on the way up the hill my mittens froze and my hands and toes were freezing. I think that everyone was really cold but no one wanted to be the one to complain and say they wanted to go back to the cabin. At least that is how I was feeling, I definitely didn’t want to admit that I was really cold and tired, since this was my first trip with the other students and we had just had these lectures on how the groups form and that in the beginning it is all about judging and examining each other and I really didn’t want their first impression of me to be as a weak person. Also during the day there was mostly Germans, then me and one from Czech, and the germans were constantly talking german when planning on which slope to go down or if we should go off piste. I felt like I was constantly asking what was being said and in the end I just gave up and went with whatever was decided.

The next day me and Stella went on a cross country tour that took a lot longer than we thought. It was my first real cross country tour and I was excited, and to be honest I was happy that there weren’t going to be a lot of witnesses if I ended up spending more time on my ass. But the trip went fine, the weather was sunny but freezing. I managed to stay standing and we went down a really long hill and even though I probably looked hilarious going down snow-plowing the whole way it was a good practice.

I was really glad I went on the trip as I got to know the other students well and got to improve both my snowboarding and cross country skiing.