For our second self-organised group trip we settled upon a route from Hovden to Berdalsbu. We left Hovden as a very large group with all of the groups taking part in this trip to the best of my knowledge. This changed throughout the day however as groups fragmented and re-joined. We left Hovden fairly late in the early afternoon and set off along the marked trail to Tjornbrotbu. The first section of the route was fairly busy as it was part of a section of local looped trails for families and skiers to just practice their skiing or ski with their dog without going too far afield. We were all aware that while we didn’t have to cover much distance (10km) we had set off late and some people weren’t moving very quickly. We also stumbled at least once on our route choice due to the number of overlapping trails. This meant some others took a wrong turn and it took a while before they realised and returned to regroup. The day was fairly uneventful until the last hour or so however. The weather slowly worsened the more we climbed with winds picking up and visibility reducing however it never became too difficult. The final climb up to the hut was by no means steep but certainly draining. The snow was icy and the skis would frequently slide out of position when using the herringbone technique. This was worsened when we came over the lip of the slop only to be met by face on winds which were certainly cold as the light was diminishing. I pushed on as by this point we were all very spread out but could roughly see the cabin. The wind kept picking up and it became harder and harder to ski on what was really just the ice usually beneath snow. The wind was also now picking up snow and there was either snow or hail in the air which whipped the face. Teeth gritted I eventually reached the cabin and made my way inside to shelter from the wind. People kept coming in one by one and eventually we counted everyone in. We set the fire going and because there were so many people we were lucky to have the place to ourselves. Once dinner was eaten I got my head down and kipped on the sofa and had a surprisingly good nights sleep.

The next morning was a bit of a mess. The other group was staying at the cabin to do day trips in the local area and our group ended up splitting into two. One group went on ahead and some others of us waited for the rest to be ready. Two members of our group also chose to give up at this point due to the fact that the weather hadn’t seemed to improve a great deal. Once the rest were ready we headed out into the horrid weather. The winds had subsided a little however they were not hitting us on the left side which wasn’t much fun as the pain of the cold was a little imbalanced. The snow quality was awful for almost all of the 14km and the route was also fairly unremarkable. I didn’t enjoy it very much to be honest. I think it was made worse as I was fairly impatient; waiting in the bad weather wasn’t ideal. We did find respite from the winds for lunch however by using a snow bank. The downhills were also very difficult with the poor snow quality as momentum was picked up so quickly and the snow wasn’t providing any of it’s usual spongy support; a terrible combination. I was therefore overly cautious wherever possible on descents. We finally saw Berdalsbu at the bottom a valley which were at the top of. The descent was so steep that at one section I simply took my skis off alongside Scott however this backpired with me falling into a spruce trap with one of my legs coming uncomfortably close to being bent completely sideways. I pulled myself out and realised that the snow here was very very deep and unwalkable as all the snow from the icy tops had been deposited in this valley. After a steep descent and a steep climb later we arrived at the cabin. The others (including the group we split from in the morning) were waiting in the smaller hut with the fire lit and everything warm, it was quite nice to arrive to such welcoming conditions.

The final day was very very easy and a real pleasure after the previous days. The weather was beautiful and the route was a short, gentle downhill ski in thick snow to the bus stop. It took very little time to cover the 6 kilometres and group cohesion was far better than the previous days.

I think the main outcome from this trip was an understanding of how much adverse conditions can affect the cohesion of a group. This was a bumpy ride compared to the first trip. I was as guilty as any; finding it very easy to slip into my focused solo mentality, often leaving others behind on some of the long flat sections. It was also very easy to not deliberate on navigation and simply have the bull headed attitude of trusting one’s self completely in order to not stop and discuss in the bad weather. I also realised just how hard it was to ski consistently and with any rhythm on icy, bumpy snow. Overall I didn’t enjoy this trip particularly but then again I wasn’t hugely interested in the route.