19/2 to the 21/2 2018
Our group chose to head to the Hovden area to undertake our self organised trip. Our plan was to ski from Haukeliseter which would equate to roughly 45 kilometres in distance back to Hovden following our chosen route. Temperatures hovered around -15 through the night and -10 and lower during the day with the sun out. Our route took us through a fairly undulating area with many mountains and hills to climb. We were incredibly lucky as the conditions were almost perfect for the 3 days. Mostly sunny each day with soft, powdery snow underfoot and very little wind.
How did our plan comply?
Our plan originally was travel up with another group and then split off from them but the changing conditions forces us to alter our plan due to avalanche warnings in the Hovden area. So we stuck together with another group and from there our plan complied well with the criteria. We ski’d for multiple days with heavier packs (than what we used at Evje) and navigated to our destination by completing at least 11 kilometres per day, thus I would say it was a successful trip.
Equipment- Positives and negatives
In regard to my own equipment there were both good and bad outcomes that I now can learn from for next time. Positives included packing quite light which I was very happy about throughout the days as some had much heavier bags. However, I think if the weather had been worse I might have struggled more. I took an extra pair of wool underwear top and bottom and a spare soft shell jacket and the rest I wore the whole time. On top of this I was warm sleeping but much warmer the 2nd and 3rd nights. I realised I wore my cold socks to bed the 1st night and my toes were numb most of the night. The 2nd night I took these socks off and my feet stayed much warmer. This was a helpful learning outcome for other trips we will go on. My cooking equipment was a negative due to the temperatures. I took a Trangia using red spirit but the red spirit as I would learn was much harder to light and took more effort in the cooler temperatures. Once it was lit it worked very effectively though. It was just fairly time consuming to warm my food up enough to eat and after a long day skiing it would have been nice to be able to eat within 5 minutes of me beginning cooking.
Nutrition
I learnt a lot about what foods to take for next time mainly from observing what others in my group had brought. Observing the actions of others is a huge part of how we learn new things. From small children through to older citizens this method has been documented for centuries as stated by Fryling, Johnston & Hayes (2011, pp. 191-203) and thanks to this I now have some ideas for the next trip. For example I pre-cooked all my meals (Pasta with meat sauce, Rice with vegies, and Soup) and carried them in containers however these were much heavier than other meals I could’ve taken. Some members in my group took Ravioli which was quite light and was filling which they had each night and it only took about 4 min to cook on a small gas stove. As well as this Aaron and Robbie had these high calorie density snacks which were very small and light which were very effective as well. The snacks I took were mainly trail mix and a couple frozen bananas. These snacks lasted me well for the trip. For breakfast I took a container of oats with honey and sugar mixed in and just added water in to cook it. Once again however the Trangia took too long to cook so I borrowed someone’s cooker. My food was sufficient and I was never too hungry during the trip or short of energy due to not enough food.
Shelter
I shared a tent with Jed for the trip which worked really well as well we alternated carrying it over the days. As well as this we could put it up and take it down within 5 minutes so it was very light work at the end of a day. We made sure to pack down the snow in the area we were going to set up and then we put a tarp down underneath the tent to give ourselves that little bit of extra warmth and insulation from the cold and to keep us dry. We stayed the dry the whole trip and the tent withstood the wind and ice fairly well. The 3rd night we camped it was in a fairly open area and we built up a snow wall to try and give us a small amount of protection which I think did help through the night.
Carrying of equipment
I did not struggle with my equipment on my back at all. I found it a bit tiring for the 1st hour or so and then the weight just disappeared once you focused on the job at hand. We also had a pulk which we rotated carrying and I found this a good challenge and did not mind pulling that either. Of course my pack got slightly lighter through the week which helped too.
Overall this trip was a successful one and gave me a good taste of what to expect for our mountain trip in April, I learned some helpful hints and tips and incredibly enjoyed the experience.
Reference List
Fryling, MJ., Johnston, C. & Hayes, L. 2011, ‘Understanding Observational Learning: An Interbehavioral Approach’, Association for Behavioural Learning International, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 191-203