Self-organised forest field trip winter

When? 18.2 – 21.2.18

Where? Forested areas between Haukeliseter (1.170 MASL) and Hovden (900 MASL)

Our first self-organised ski trip took place in forested areas in southern Norway. We started this trip in Haukaliseter (Telemark Fylke, 266km north to Kristiansand) and skied southwards till Hovden. The main aim of this field trip was to increase the weight of our gear and consequently readjusting our cross-country skiing techniques, sleeping in tents for more days in a row, as well as practising our orienteering skills in the winter scenery.

Day 1: Although we first wanted to do this trip within our small group (Jed, Sam, Laura, Theresa and me), it felt into place that another group (Aaron, Rob, Tom, Brad, Marijn, Will) had planned the exact same trip. Therefore, we left Kristiansand all together in two cars in the morning and drove up to Hovden. Packing all our gear into two cars was quite a challenge and took us longer than expected. For the next trip, I definitely would schedule more time for packing the gear into the cars and having some slack time. In Hovden we parked the cars and luckily caught the bus until Haukeli. During a stopover of about two hours, we tried to stay warm by building snow caves and pulling the pulk. After taking another bus until Haukeliseter, we arrived in the evening and therefore had to build up our tents in the dark. We decided to set up our camp outside the small village and flatted an area for our tents. After making dinner, we sat around a fire and went to bed quite early. Whereas some of the guys stayed in their one-man tents or in shelters which they built out of tarps, I was quite happy to have two other people in my tent, because we were able to warm each other during the night.

 

Day 2: After a relatively cold night, we packed up our gear and left at 9.15am. In bright sunshine, we skied in a stunning alpine scenery. There was barely no visible flora – far and wide only hills which were covered in snow. Also, the fauna was sparsely. Besides a big reindeer herd, which some of us saw in the distance on a hill, we didn’t see any animals. The snow conditions were great (loose snow), which made the skiing really enjoyable.

 

We crossed lakes and hills and rotated pulling the pulk. Pulling the pulk up the hills was quite exhausting for a lot of us, so we tried to find relatively shallow slopes.

During technical breaks in which we exchanged the pulk, I filled up my energy reserves by drinking water / tea and eating little snacks like nuts and self-made muesli bars, which were quite nutritious. Also a proper lunch break brought energy back. Without a real agreement on where we should spend the night, we skied until it got dark. Some of the guys wanted to reach a DNT hut, so we kept on going and had to ski with our head torches on. The big group was spread out a lot, which made consultations about our constitution impossible. Also, we ran out of water, which made me feel really uneasy and dizzy. This had negative effects on my skiing. Above all downhill I stood really shaky on my skis and fell quite often. Thus, I was really relieved when we arrived at the DNT hut around 7pm. Without talking about whether we should sleep in tents or in the hut, the majority had decided to stay inside the hut. On the one hand, I was really pleased about the warm and cosy sleeping place after this long (19km in total) and exhausting day, which caused bad blisters at my right heel, on the other hand I felt kind of disappointed about the change of plans. We warmed up, boiled water in order to drink, cook and refill our water bottles, played games and listened to the stories of a Norwegian guy who was skiing from the south to the north of Norway only with his dog.

Day 3: We left the cabin around 10.30am and followed a well-marked winter route (branches in the snow) in a relatively fast tempo, until another DNT hut where we had lunch in the sunshine. On this day, we managed to stay together more as one group and had kind of the same skiing speed.

After our lunch break, I took the pulk until we reached a nice place (flat ground, wind sheltered in between little hills) where we decided to put our tents up for the night. Pulling the pulk was a good experience, because I enjoyed it to be able to take off my backpack for a while.

 

 

 

As we already reached our night camp at 4pm, we had to kill time until we went to bed. Therefore, we enjoyed sitting and warming up in the sun until sunset and spending a lot of time in putting our tents up and building little snow walls around them.

In order to get and stay warm, we walked up little hills and skied down and played snow-Olympics. After dinner, my hands were freezing badly so I decided to crawl into my sleeping bag although it was quite early and I wasn’t tired yet. I warmed up again while listening to music.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 4: After a warm night, my tent-mates and me, had a delicious porridge in our tent while we were still rolled up in our sleeping bags. Before I crawled out of the tent, Laura and me, patched up my huge and completely open blister at my heel. With tape and bandage it hurt a lot less than the day before, so the skiing was again comfortable. After packing our gear, we started at 9pm. Most of the time we skied uphill in warm sunshine and had a long descent with a nice view over Hovden. We arrived in Hovden at around 2.30pm after 13km.

My learning outcome of this trip was the realization, that I really do prefer doing trips in smaller groups. In smaller groups, it is much more simply to make agreements and stick to them as well as keeping an eye on everybody’s constitution. Also staying together, above all when it gets dark, is important and crucial. Although we couldn’t handle this in the big group, we stayed together in at least pairs. During the whole trip, it appeared that only one guy was responsible for orienteering, which was on the one hand quite relaxing, because he did very well and we just had to follow and had to look after the pulk and our own skiing, but on the other hand I couldn’t train my own orienteering skills, which I really had wished to do on this trip. The practical outcome of this trip was therefore less productive than I expected. Also, my backpack felt really heavy, above all on the first day. Although I coped kind of well while carrying all the necessary equipment, I would definitely not take pre-coked food (millet with vegetables) which already contains water, again on the next trip. Next time I would choose dried food to which I only have to add water. In general, my equipment worked very well and I didn’t miss anything. Except my bad blister which ached a lot, I really enjoyed this trip in a stunning winter scenery.