The planning of the self-organised trip was somewhat chaotic as it seemed to be impossible to form the groups. After we managed to get a group together it was hard to agree about the destination. We were a group of 6 and to travel outside of Agder would have been too expensive as everyone could not fit into the car. After a lot of discussion and we agreed to go skiing near Langeid. Planning the route was also tricky as everyone had their own saying, but we finally agreed on a route where we would be camping relatively near dnt huts. Each day the skiing would be between 6 to 12 kilometres, so we were not going to do too much. The weather forecast for the area was quite good, except for the last two days when it was meant to be snowing.

First day of the trip we set off about 1.5 hours later than planned but we were not worried as the first day was the shortest distance planned. Within the first 10 minutes I realised it is going to take us a while to get to the camping place as the first 2km was mostly climbing up. With our heavy rucksacks some of us were really struggling but with taking breaks regularly we all managed to get to the top and to the start of the skiing track. There was no marked route but a snow mobile track we could follow, and it helped as it was easier to ski on than the powder. It was sunny when we started skiing and we did not need to worry about navigation too much as the visibility was good. Around 5pm the weather came in and it started snowing. I was doing the navigation and even though I have got experience I was getting unsure as it the visibility dropped so suddenly. We were moving very slowly, and I started to think we won’t reach the place we had planned to camp and therefore we started looking for a place about 2km from the first dnt hut. We found a nice place next to a river and after building the camp everyone went to bed quite early.

The second day the weather was beautiful. We tried to get going as fast as possible but packing everything took a while. We skied the remaining way to the dnt hut and decided to dry our stuff in the sunshine. As we had a late start for the day, we decided to stay the second night near this hut instead of trying to make it further according to the plan. After playing around with the skis in front of the hut for an hour, we decided to start looking for a suitable place to camp. Me, Melanie and Ed went to check the eastern slope and Liam and Leo went to west. The slope we were on was quite steep, but we managed to find a few suitable spots, but none of us were really happy with them. The snow was also deep and starting to melt from the bottom revealing burns and holes. Luckily the others found a better place. After setting the camp and having tea we started to talk about the next days route. We decided it was not a good idea to try to make it to the other hut as there were many hills around where we were camping. We decided to go on top of one of them the next day.

The third day we had a really slow morning, Luca and Melanie decided they wanted to stay in the hut the next night, so they took all of their stuff there. I spilled my water bottle inside my sleeping bag, so I had to take it to dry in the hut as well. We had bit of a disagreement with the route as we were trying to avoid all the north-east slopes due to avalanche risk, but a route some had had in mind would include a north-eastern slope. We finally agreed on a route everyone thought safe and set off. The day was really mild and quite misty, which made navigating challenging. It was good fun to plan the route amongst the trees and make it to the top. The hill was quite steep at places but we all made it to the top and had a nice view. The way down was awesome but it was difficult to keep the group together as everyone picked their own way down the slope. We were all soaking wet at the end of the day and went to warm up at the hut. After checking the weather for the next two days we decided to head back a day earlier as we could not do much else from that camp. We all stayed in the hut for the last night and had a really nice evening of playing cards and telling stories. We decided to get up early the next day to make sure we would be back for the last bus.

The fourth day we set off at 9am. The morning was beautiful but you could see a weather front approaching. The way that had took us 6 hours the first day now took us about 1.5 hours as we wee going downhill mostly. Before going down to the road, we decided to ski bit more as we had time. We made our way up to a beallaich between two peaks and then skied down picking our way through the forest trying jumps and just having fun. The way down to the road went fast as we were skiing on the road instead of walking.

All in all, the trip turned out to be really great even if it did not go as planned. If I were to change something for the next trip I would probably say to set a time everyone needs to be ready for the mornings as the late starts meant we lost good skiing time.