Winter Break at Hoveden 

This time our trip to Hoveden was a lot longer than the two days at my first trip to Hovden since it was the winter break in Norway. We were a total of nine, two girls and seven boys and our cabin was not that big, but we made it work. The first three day we stayed at the ski center with the rest of the days doing cross country skiing. 

Skiing at Hovden skisenter was amazing, I practised going off piste and using different leg instead of my usual goofy style and on the last day I even went on one of the kickers jumping! Even though it was an accident because the sight was poor and I didn’t see it, it still happened and it counts 🙂 I felt so good after the days because I could actually notice by improvements. I wasn’t as scared going down the black slopes and actually prefer going only on red or black slopes. I enjoy going off piste in the deep untouched snow, something that I would avoid before because I got so tired in my legs that I had to stop and rest and that made it so hard to start again. But now I was actually trying to get off piste and getting excited about and trying to find untouched snow. I was asking the boys on technique on jumping and trying practicing what they were recommending and I was sliding down the slopes on my weaker leg. It was such a good feeling actually seeing the improvements.

We had all kinds of weather while we were there, there was snowing, sunny and a white out. The white out was scary because when going down I didn’t know if i was going up, down or standing still. I actually started a tiny, mini avalanche when I went off piste, I explored the forests off piste and I just had a lot of fun snowboarding. I was only focused on myself and tried to not compare my abilities to the others and seemed to work because I had a great time.

The next few days we went cross country skiing in the local area. We went on track and off track and we each got to lead the way. We were lucky with the weather and it was really warm out and the snow was nice. I am still unsure about which wax to put on the skis but it helps that the wax is marked with temperature and the other guys are more experienced and they were always willing to help. We had a nice relaxing tours with no stress or hurry. When we went off track we each got to lead in the deep snow and I had a lot of fun, I had been in this area before and in the beginning tried to lead by memory and we found out that my memory sucked. Thank god we had a map with us could confirm where we were on it and what path we were trying to get on, we hadn’t walked too far off our path so it was easy to adjust to the right route. When we got to the right path we were having too nice of a time to go back to the cabin so we kept going off piste up the hill only to slide down and practise our turns in the deep snow. I didn’t do too bad and I was really proud of myself after this day even though I was really disorientated with directions.

When it was time to leave I somehow was convinced by Mike and Jonas to go with them with all our stuff to the next bus station out of Hovden instead of the bus station that is the nearest to us. Line switched her backpack with mine since I had my duffel bag with me and the bag doesn’t have a hip belt and makes it uncomfortable to carry for too long. So I had all my stuff in her bag and my snowboard with me. We started going along the tracks the majority of the way, I immediately noticed how different skiing is with the heavy big backpacks on. Your balanced is really tested with the extra weight and it took a little time to get used to it. The snowboard was also strange to have on since it made it seem like I had wings, so I really didn’t want to fall. We managed to find the right way to go and we did get some strange looks and some were even brave enough to ask us where we were going. I felt like I was doing alright all the way until we got to the downhill part, then I went into break mode and kept repeating that slow and steady was the way to go. I was doing so well so far and I really didn’t want to fall on top speed. When we were done with the majority of the trip we decided that since we had enough time we were going on an adventure off tracks in the deep snow. 5 minutes lates I was convinced we made a horrible mistake. Going off tracks with the heavy equipment and a snowboard was extremely difficult especially with not getting stuck on the tree’s branches around me. My perfect record of no falls changed dramatically in the first hill and turns. But we managed after some adjusting and we all switched leading our little group. The difference in being the leading person and being in the back was huge. I was exhausted after my part. We finally made it and I was extremely proud of myself for not complaining too much 🙂 I definitely improved my ski technique and got a feeling of carrying a heavy backpack off tracks in the deep snow. It made me excited about the big snow hole trip and nervous at the same time.