Assignment 6: Day tours around Trangdalsvatn (Alta, Finnmark)

When? 12.3 – 15.3

Where? Trangdalsvatn (292 MASL, south-east of Alta)

Our sixth self-organised ski trip took place in the area around the lake Trangdalsvatn, which is situated 36km south-east of Alta. Alta is the biggest city in the province Finnmark, which is located in the very north of Norway.

Day 1: We (Laura, Theresa, two of their german friends and me) arrived at the airport in Alta with all our skiing-gear. With the car of a friend of mine who is studying in, we drove southwards to the lake “Trandalsvatn”.

Our cozy cabin next to the lake “Trangdalsvatn”.

Next to the lake we parked the car and skied across the lake to a cabin which we had booked in advance. At the cabin, we made a fire, cooked, played card games and planned our next days. As the two friends of Laura and Theresa barely hadn’t had experiences with cross-country skiing yet, we decided to start with an easy tour the next day.

Day 2: After we had breakfast, we left the cabin in bright sunshine with daysacks. First, Laura, Theresa and me, introduced the cross-country skiing-technique to the two girls. The very first step was to teach them how wax the skis accordingly to the temperature and snow conditions. As the temperature was below zero and the snow was nice and fresh, we decided to use blue wax. After the waxing, we practiced the skiing on easy ground (the lake was a perfect spot to do so). We showed them how to slide on the skis in order to save energy. Also, we taught them how to use the ski poles correctly. After this short introduction, we crossed the lake and skied up onto a higher plateau which had an altitude of about 395 metres. Our skis hadn’t had enough grip so that we had to readjust our waxing. During this ascent, we also showed the girls how to come up a hill by using the fishbone-technique, doing kick-turns and walking up in a zigzag manner.  On the plateau, we skied north-east until we reached a lake where we had a lunch break in the sun on a little hill. Instead of skiing around the lake, we decided to ski back to our cabin by crossing the lake, because it was already afternoon.

Teaching the two girls how to ski and skiing up the plateau, took us more time than we had expected. With our map and compass, we navigated down the plateau by going off-track through a forested area. Skiing through the trees was quite tricky, not only for our two beginners, but also for Theresa, Laura an me. As a result, it took us a while to come down. We returned to the cabin around 5pm.

Watching the Northern Lights after stepping out of the sauna.

In my opinion, this 4km route was an appropriate tour to introduce the cross-country skiing technique to our two beginners. After we made a fire in the stove, we had dinner, went to the sauna and enjoyed the Northern Lights, which were dancing above our cabin.

 

 

 

Day 3: Again, we were really lucky with the weather.

Beautiful day on the lake.

In bright sunshine, we crossed the lake Trangdalsvatn southwards (7km) and had a longer lunch break at the very end of the lake. In this break, we decided to continue our trip by walking up onto a forested area eastwards. As the day before, we skied up a plateau and gained around 100 meters of altitude. After a little discussion weather to ski back over a more highly situated chain of hills or over the lake, I urged the others to let our weakest group member decide what to do. According to her decision, we walked back over the lake, which turned out to be the wisest thing to do. Due to the sun which was burning down the whole day, we were kind of exhausted.

Evening mood on our way back.

Around one kilometre in front of our cabin, the old renter of the cabin drove towards us on his snowmobile. Because it already darkened, he was worried and searched for us. He loaded us up on his snowmobile and his trailer and drove us back to the cabin. Although we could have easily ski the last bit to the cabin, we were happy to jump on the snowmobile. After this 17km tour, we arrived at the cabin around 6pm.

Theresa and Laura are bucketing water out of the lake.

The renter taught us how to get water out of a little whole, which he had sawed into the lake, by using a wooden stick where a plastic bottle was attached. My learning outcome of this day was, that it is really important to not overestimate oneself and other group members and better turn round earlier then too late in the day. Also, I find it really important that always the weakest group member has to decide on how far she or he could go. The others have to accept this decision in any case, even though they have more energy left and could go on further. Also, we shouldn’t underestimate the impact of the sun. Skiing the whole day in bright sunshine may cause a sunstroke and exhaustion. Thus, it is very important to be well prepared by putting on sunscreen, wearing sunglasses and preferably a cap and bringing along sufficient liquid.

Day 4: On our last day, we actually had planned to do a short tour, because we had to be back in Alta in the evening. Therefore, we skied up the plateau next to the lake.

The sun – our daily companion.

Stunning landscape upon the plateau.

Because of the nice weather and the great view, we changed our plans and decided to walk off-track all the way over the chain of hills alongside the lake and tramp back to the parking lot where we had parked our car. We knew that we had to ski relatively fast and navigate correctly in order to be back in time. First, it was really simple to navigate and we were able to make good progress, but soon we had little difficulties to decide which way to go, because it was hard to identify the features on the map. This led to a few disagreements in our group and cost us precious time. In the end, we were able to come down in a ridge and ski back to the main road. There, two of us tramped back to the car and collected the others. Although we had a few problems while navigating, this last 9km trip was a good chance to practice our orienteering skills. Also, the scenery was really stunning and left a lasting impression on me.