Basic Ski Course at Trollaktiv Evje
The Basic Cours took place at Trollaktiv, the biggest outdoor sports center in southern Norway, which is about 1 hour driving from Kristiansand.
Aims for the basic ski course:
- improve the individual skiing technique
- learn to prepare the skis in different weather conditions
- how to dress for skiing
- how to lead a group in the mountains
- how to read snow and avalanches
- how to pack a daypack for a winter trip
Monday:
Meeting at 11 am at Trollaktiv. As the weather conditions were pretty bad, it was raining, we had lectures instead. First was about skis (types, differences) and how to wax and prepare them (info file: PRV1226E+XC+Recreation+English), second about equipment and what is supposed to be in a daypack. Rest of the time, everyone was relaxing in the huts and cooked dinner.
Tuesday:
Meeting at 9 am, driving up to Bortelid about 50 min for better snow conditions. The class was randomly devided into two groups.
- basic ski exercises in deep snow and at a steep hill
- after lunch went for a little circuit
- focus: learn how to stop and turn with skis parallel
The evening lecture was about first aid in winter.
Wednesday:
Meeting at 9 am, driving up to Bortelid. The groups were the same.
- went for a little tour
- playing around in deep snow
- downhill practise
Evening lectures was about snow (types and forms of snow), how to read the snow and make a snow profile and we got a basic avalanche introduction (what to do in case of an avalanche).
Thursday:
Went to Bortelid again and stayed in the groups aswell.
- 10km trip in deep snow, off the tracks
- went across a lake
- everyone needed to guide once with the map and do the tracking
- avalanche test and made a snow profile
We had a international evening, where every country presented one typical game (f.e.: limbo, viking games, czech vocabulary, swing dance etc)
Friday:
Short day at Gautelid
- icy snow, bad grip
- small trip to a tent with a campfire
- playing around the hills on our own
After the trip we cleaned our huts and went back to Kristiansand.
General learning outcome:
It was the first trip with the whole class together. After the week spending day and night together, you got to know people better, which gave us a better group cohesion. The main goal was of course to improve our skiing technique, as many haven’t been on skis before ever back home. So we learned a lot about how to turn and stop, go downhill and offpiste. In addition with the evening lectures, we got a good base of knowledge for the big mountain trip after easter.
Personal outcome:
I improved my skiing technique a lot, expecially going downhill in deep snow. As I learned a lot about orienteering and navigating from my time as a scout, the guiding part, wasn’t really challenging.
Lecture about avalanches was quite new for me, so I found that the most interesting one.
We had a really nice week all together and I enjoyed it a lot.
