We started our trip in Hovden not too far from the ski center we were skiing at the weekend before. Moritz and I took his van to the starting location while the others waited for a shuttle to take them to us. There are 22 internationals all together in our program and we were divided into two groups. One group was with Tim and the other group was with Len. I was in Tim’s group which I was pretty happy about since he is a very patient and nice guy, and I definitely need someone to be patient with me when I am on skis.
Our DNT hut
The first day we skied about 7km before we reached the hut. We skied pretty slowly and just practiced on orienteering, map reading skills, and every once in a while Tim would stop us and teach us something about the animal tracks nearby. Once we made it to the hut we took our skis off and went inside to have lunch. We had about an hour break before Tim told us that we were going to go scout out the area and look for a good place to build our snow holes. Our instructions were to find an area at least 3m deep and long that we could build our snow hole in. Our group went to the East and took our avalanche probe to check a few spots but we keep hitting the ground with the probe or our spot wouldn’t be high enough. We wanted a high area to build the snow hole so that the snow removal process would be smooth when digging out the hole. When we arrived back at the hut we ate dinner and lite the candles while we all sat around and talked.
Tim measuring the snow with an avalanche probe, checking for good snow hole conditions
When morning came it was time to go out and build our snow holes! Since this mountain safety trip was right after our snowboarding trip it meant my wrists were really score and I was unable to do simple tasks such as wax my skis, pick up my backpack, open my water bottle, put my sleeping bag away, and all in all just do simple tasks.
Packing our home down
So when building the snow hole it was also pretty hard for me to dig any snow, which meant I was a full time debris removal. I felt bad that I could not do as much work as the others but I was still happy that there was a little that I could do.
6 people to help form our Sig Igloo
My group made a Sig Igloo which consisted of digging a 5ft hole, with a 3ft radius. Then we put 6 people in an emergency bivouac in the hole with their water proofs on and had them get into a huddle with their backs facing out. While they were standing in the hole the rest of the group’s job was to throw snow as fast as they could on top of the huddle and try to create a roof for the snow hole. There was a tunnel dug out that met up with the hole we put the huddle in; this way the guys could escape when necessary. My job was to communicate with the guys in the hole to make sure they were okay. The first time I tried to talk to them I was in the tunnel yelling at them and didn’t get any response so I crawled all the way in so I was right at their feet to tell them to stop moving and then they finally heard me. It surprised me how sound proof the snow hole really was. It took about 10min before the roof was compacted together and we started removing one man out at a time.
Katja carrying a snow block to block the front dor
By the end of the day our group had built two snow holes, one sig igloo, one igloo, and a fire pit. It felt like I was in a little snow village. Once everything was done we made our fire and cooked our dinner. Unfortunately when Ste and Roman dug our fire pit they didn’t noticed till they were 3 ft in that they were digging on top of a rock that was slanting down. This meant our fire slanted down to one side of the rock and this also meant when we sat around the fire and tried to use the rock for support to stand up or sit down we slipped into the fire. I think 5 of us fell into the fire that night.
Our home
When morning came our snow hole tunnel was almost completely full of snow from the night because it had snowed.
Evening smoky fire
So it was a good thing we slept with our shovels on us so we could dig ourselves out easier. That day we were supposed to be ready to go at 9am but our group wasn’t ready to go till 9:30am. We had a little chat later about why it took us so long to get ready and how it can affect the whole group if other people are ready to go but can’t leave because the rest of the group is not ready and then they get cold. We should have cooked our breakfast in the snow hole right when we woke up instead of going outside to cook with other people.
Lunch in our emergency shelter
That day we went on a short tour which was blizzard conditions so it was pretty hard to navigate to say the least. Then we took a break inside an emergency bivouac which was really hard to fit 12 people under one shelter. It was really warm in the shelter but people were pretty fussy because there was not much room. We went back down the valley which was a pretty nice downhill and then Tim took a break to show us what a corneous looked like and he even had us ski off of one. Everyone nearly fell, I think there was only one other person besides Tim that didn’t fall.CIMG1520
Lunch break on the last day
We had no campfire this evening because the blizzard conditions were so bad. I think I stayed in the snow hole for 13hrs when we got back. It’s a pretty good thing I am good at holding the toilet for so long. It’s hard to take care of yourself in winter conditions, for example, your body doesn’t crave water when it’s cold out so it’s easy to forget to drink water, and it’s annoying to go to the toilet so I never really wanted to drink water; not to mention that my wrists hurt so bad that any time I wanted a drink of water I had to ask someone to open my bottle for me.
Winter navigation with our maps
The last day of this trip consisted of digging an emergency shelter that we would spend the night in. These shelters are only used when you are just trying to survive the night. Tim told us that you do not really sleep much when you’re in a shelter, but it is mostly just nodding on and off throughout the night, just trying to stay warm. So needless to say our group was not too thrilled about making the shelters and sleeping in them. Wytse and I decided that we were going to build a tunnel between the two of ours so we could sleep together! He gave us 20min to dig and since my wrists hurt pretty bad I had a pretty poor shelter dug out. We went around to everyone’s shelters and said who would survive the night and let’s just say I died.
At the end of digging out our shelters Tim told us that we would not be spending the night in the shelters but we would have a bus waiting for us where we started the trip and we would ski out today. Needless to say we were pretty happy campers with that news. It’s hard work sleeping in a snow hole for two nights and skiing through the day. It’s challenging to keep your clothes dry and take care of yourself so you are healthy for the following day.
Loading up the skis to go home:)
This trip was especially challenging for me because my wrists were so nonfunctional, I relied on the help of my friends more than I’ve ever had to before. I couldn’t wax my skis so Jais waxed my skis for me two days in a row and I didn’t even ask her, which was unbelievably helpful and so nice of her to do for me. Jannis had some cool anti-inflammatory cream he would put on my wrist almost every night and morning which was so sweet of him to use so much of it on me. I was also really lucky to have Wytse in my group because he would help me put my sleeping bag away and push down my dry bags, anytime we packed up, and I don’t think I could’ve packed without him. I think it was good for me to rely on my friends because it showed me what good of friends I really have, it taught me to ask for help more often, and it made me more thankful every day for the function I have in my wrists when they don’t hurt. All in all it was a good trip, a lot of character building and some great experiences that can’t be forgotten.