After traveling to Finse for a cold weekend with a group of girls, we meet our class an hour north of Kristiansand in the city of Evje. Staying overnight in cabins at a facility called Troll Akiv. In the mornings we would come together and travel 10-15 minutes to basic ski areas. The first place we traveled had an open area around the parking lot. This area was good for learning the basic movements needed to cross country ski. Getting a little farther into the area there were small slopes. These slopes were good to get the feel of going up and down a hill. When following the course of the ski path, the variety of slope angles increased. There were lakes, houses and open areas around the path that gave us a good practice on our orienteering skills. On the fourth day we traveled a bit farther than the other days for a day ski tour. This area was a bit smaller than the other, most of the time our group stayed close to the path if not on it. There was a lot of little slopes and turns to practice the skills we had been working on the three days before hand. Half way through the tour we meet a small mountain, it really put our up and down hill skills to the test. Finishing the tour off at the same place we started, we found a decent sized hill to practice our downhill turning skills. Both locations had good qualities to them, giving us the open space and hills needed to learn basic cross-country skiing skills.

The first day in Evje’s the class split into two randomly picked groups. Splitting up gave the students a better opportunity to learn because the instructors then had less people to focus on, giving more individual attention to the people who needed it. Four of the five days my group had two main leaders, otherwise known as veileaders here in Norway. Thomas had a lot of previous experience cross country skiing. Our other leader, Len, was also quite experienced. Most of the time the group was under an autocratic leadership. Barley only knowing the basics, the most experienced people, Len and Thomas, knew where it was best to learn a technique and when it was best to turn in for the night. When coming to a spot they saw was good to learn something new they would teach the group by demonstrating and telling us vocally. They would then give us time to try for ourselves. If someone were to have trouble figuring out the movement, they would come to us individually giving advice on how to improve. For example, in the beginning we were learning how to go up a small hill and back down. Every time I moved one of my skis to go up the hill I fell twice the distance back down. Thomas observed what was happening and recommended I use more wax on my skis to get grip on the snow. It was a great recommendation, I was climbing up hills with no problem after applying more wax. As a newbie I thought it was my ski skills but having the equipment properly prepared set me back.

The equipment each day and what the leaders had planned for us that day varied on the weather Evje’s provided us with. The first day arriving at Troll Akiv we stayed near our cabins practicing the most basic ski movements. Since we didn’t travel far, the only equipment we needed this day was our skis, ski poles, and wax. Day two through five, the students were to bring the same equipment as the previous day along with a day sack with a lunch and any snacks they were to want. In the day sack there also should have been basic survival materials that would help you last a night in the wilderness in case of an emergency. Most packs included a personal first aid kit, an extra set of dry warm clothes, food for a night, equipment to start fire, a reflector, a snow shovel, and a bivvy for shelter. On the last day, it was the most important day for each of us to have our snow shovels. The original plan the leaders had for us on this day was to practice our skills we learned day one through four by going on a ski tour, but because of the weather projected for the last day they decided it would not be a good day for this and had to improvise. Instead we learned techniques to deal with some worst-case scenario situations that could happen in the winter season. We learned how to use avalanche transceivers in case someone was to get caught in an avalanche. The first most important step is to turn the device on sending when going out in an avalanche prone area. Then when someone has been taken, the others will turn their device to receiving and will hopefully find the person in time to rescue them. We also learned how to build emergency snow shelters, there are different kinds for the number of people in the scenario. We learned how to make a shelter for just ourselves, a shelter for two people, and a shelter in a tree that can hold many people. These are good to know because weather can be unpredictable and can make condition’s impossible to carry on during a trip in.

The students played different roles throughout the week during organized play and free play. In organized play, most of the time we were instructed on who was doing what, where the person was doing it, and how they should do it. During this time the students didn’t have an opinion on what to do, the leaders used autocratic leadership. Many times, this kind of play was used for the leaders to see how well we were using the recent skills they taught us. They would find an area where our group of 12 had enough room and gave us individual feedback on our skills and gave us tips on how we could improve those skills. There were few times when the students had some power in organized play such as when we were orienteering while touring. The veileader showed the student leaders where we wanted to get to on the map and then one or two students would oversee guiding the group to that destination. When guiding, you could take the group through any kind of terrain necessary, having to keep in mind what kind of obstacles the weakest link is able to handle. When we were able to free play, the instructors gave us a large area with a range of terrain. It usually had flat ground, small, medium and large slopes to practice any skills we wanted. During these times, we were mostly on our own or with other classmates, the leaders took a break and let us try to learn for ourselves.

During both kinds of play the quality of our motor skill were increasing little by little. The first couple of days there was countless amounts of falls, mostly from myself. The people in my group were super motivating. A lot of people caught on quickly to the new skills presented and tried to help the others who didn’t catch on as quickly. Very few negative words were spoken that week, there was tons of compliments and constructive criticism going around. At some points I fell one try after another and lacked motivation to keep trying. As the days went on I learned from my mistakes and was able to gain the motor skills I needed to sidestep up small slopes, how to use the herringbone technique when going up bigger slopes, how to kick turn, zig zagging up and down steep slopes, telemark down hills, and how to get back up after falling. I learned a lot during this week, both on and off the ski tracks.

After returning each day, the class would all meet up in the main building at Troll Akiv for a lecture. The first lecture was taught by of the instructors from Troll Akiv. It consisted of the basics about cross country skis including the lingo and what types of wax to use depending on the weather and how recent the snow is. The next night was a lecture taught by our main instructor, Len, about first aid. He told us about all the accidents that could happen while out exploring, ways to prevent them, and what to do when an accident does happen. The third lecture was about what should be taken in a day sack whenever going out. The lecturer, Thomas, told us about the supplies everyone should carry in their day sack. He also told us about the things he carries to satisfy his individual needs, showing that not every day sack will contain the same things as everyone else’s. Some of his things had multiple uses which is great for keeping down the weight of a pack.

The final night at Troll Akiv was led by the students. Each nationality was to come up with a song, dance or game from their home country. This is a Scottish traditional together known as a ceilidh. It was started off by a dance from our Scottish classmate, Zoe. Working our way through each country there were game shows hosted by the Germans, Dances from Hungary, stories acted out by Australians, games played by us Americans, Brits, and Netherlanders. There were many games played outside of class as well. My favorite game, assassin, was one that the class started at the beginning of the week when everyone arrived until the end of the week. The rules were simple. Each person drew out of three sacks, one contained a name of which the person they had to kill, one had the place they had to kill, and the other with which object they had to kill with. Even though this wasn’t a team game, there were some silly challenging kills people needed to work on together. Such as, killing someone with a pair of boxers while touching the instructor. Every night after dinner was ate and showers were taken, there would be a gathering in the main cabin living room. I learned new games from all over the world during the week that I plan to bring back with me to America. These games made our group come closer together and helped us learn more about each other.

This week was physically and mentally challenging. In my home country cross country skiing is not very popular. There are a few states like, Colorado and Wyoming, that have trails for it, but they are not very well known. The more popular snow sports are downhill skiing and snowboarding. In the state that I live, Nebraska, has a great potential for this sport. Typically, the land is flat with a few slopes here and there. Another reason that Nebraska could easily pick up this sport is the large amounts of snow we get every winter. If this state were to adopt this sport, there would be a fast way of transportation other than walking in the winter, cut down the amount of traffic, and would help with the cities pollution. Over all I think this week’s positives outweigh the negatives. There were moments where I wished the teachers would have been more patient with me while trying to learn new skills, but the motivation from my classmates kept me going. I didn’t like the smell of the room I was staying in after boys moved in, but their outgoing, crazy personalities over took the smell of our room. I liked how we went to a new environment to learn these skills, it made is more of a challenge not knowing what the landscape was going to throw at us next. It was also nice coming back after a hard day’s work to a group of people who have gone through the same thing that day. Learning new games from around the world was stimulating. The lectures every night was also a pro to this week. Everything discussed was important survival information that every person going out in the winter season should know.