From Sunday 18th of February to Wednesday 21st of February we had our first self-organized student field trip. For this our class split into several groups. I was together with Sarah, Laura, Jed and Sam. The intention of this trip was to go on a three days skiing tour, carrying a big and heavy backpack and camp outside at least two nights in a row. As we haven’t had a lot of time before it was quite last minute planning.
At first we wanted to do a five-day circuit tour in the north of Haukeliseter. But because of the weather conditions (a lot of snow, wind and high avalanche risk) we changed our plans to a three-day skiing tour from Haukeliseter to Hovden. This tour was in total 45 kilometers long. The area was full of diversity and it included some flat parts, lakes as well as mountains. Furthermore the track leaded us through amazing nature without any civilization. On norgeskart.no we found a detailed map about this area. We printed this map out for everybody of the group.
In my backpack I brought all the food for two persons (I carried the food for Laura and me as Laura was carrying our tent), winter and summer sleeping bag, a foam mat, an inlay for the sleeping bag as well as one set of woolen clothes and one pair of extra gloves and socks, a storm kitchen, first aid kit and some small belongings like head torch, knife, goggles, etc. The other times when I slept outside in the snow I also brought a air mattress which I left at home this time and it was a good decision as it made my backpack lighter and I slept quite comfortable and warm anyway. Furthermore I brought my summer sleeping bag to use as an inlay for my winter sleeping bag which worked out really good in the end. Because my winter sleeping bag isn’t the best but with this extra layer I wasn’t cold at all. All in all I was totally happy with the equipment I had and I would bring exactly the same for a similar trip in likewise conditions. I only would get some winter gas or red spirit for the next trip as I had normal gas wrapped in a foam mat and one night it didn’t work probably because of the coldness.
On Sunday we started our trip early in the morning because we wanted to catch a bus in the midday from Hovden to Haukeliseter. Due to our small car we went up to Hovden with another group, so they could bring all our skiing equipment in their car. It was quite challenging to get a pulk, all our luggage and 11 pair of skis on top of one car. Furthermore we had to change the bus once with a waiting time of two hours in between. We used this spare time to build a big snow hole just in front of the bus station. This kept us warm and was a good possibility to learn more about building a snow hole. We arrived in the night time at Haukeliseter. As it was already dark we tried to find a good camping spot as fast as possible. We choose a flat area not far away from the bus station. At first we flattened the ground with our skis to build our tent up there. I was sharing the tent with Sarah and Laura. Before I went into my sleeping bed I put the cross country skis at the bottom of my sleeping bag which made them quite warm for the next morning.
On Monday it was a real “blue bird skiing day” with a lot of sun and a nice blue sky. We started skiing around nine o’clock and the snow conditions were perfect. We had a lot of new snow on top which made it really fluffy. The day started quite flat and then it went up- and downhill for the rest of the day. In total we only made one lunch break for about 20 minutes and the rest of the day we only stopped for drinking some water or changing the pulk to another person. On our way we saw some animal tracks as well as a lot of reindeers on top of a hill. We did 19 kilometers on this day and the last distance we finished in the dark with wearing our head torches. We planned to camp outside but after all this up- and downhill as well as the long distance we were quite exhausted by the end of the day. Therefore we were really happy that we could spend the night in a DNT hut. But looking back I actually would try to camp outdoors as I want to make the experience sleeping outdoors on snow two times in a row.
The next day was a lot easier (a lot of flat area) and shorter (13 kilometers). Because of this we set up our tents already around three o’clock. So we had plenty of time to prepare our campsite nicely (we also built up a snow wall beside our tent to protect it from wind). The rest of the spare time we used with playing around the area like practicing our downhill skills and telemark technique. Furthermore it was a good experience to realize that you always need to be active if you want to stay warm. Therefore we also started to play a lot of fun games in the campsite like doing running competitions or playing games back from our childhood. In the end we started quite late with the cooking and melting snow. So looking back I would start earlier with this as it got cold really fast after the sun was gone.
On Wednesday the track was quite flat as well, we only had one quite steep and long uphill part. On this day we did around 12 kilometers before reaching Hovden.
For eating Laura and I brought frost dried food for one night and asian noodles for the other. In the morning we had porridge with oats, nuts, dried fruits, cinnamon and milk powder. For lunch we ate crispbread with pepper sausages. In between for fast energy we had some protein bars, nuts and self made muesli bars. I think it was a good choice as it was fast to cook, nutritious, light to carry and it didn’t freeze.
To sum it up it were an amazing three day skiing tour in a lot of untouched nature in good conditions (sunny weather and fresh snow). It was my first more day skiing tour but after this great experience I definitely want to make more of this kind of outdoor experience.