Planning process

The first step of the planning process was deciding how to get up to Jotenheim and we decided that the car would be the best option as it would allow us to get as close as possible to the mountain.

Even though the distance from where we planned to park the car to the mountain wasn’t really that much there was over 1800 metres of ascent so we decided to split it up into two days. The first day would take us from the car park to the summer ski centre at the base of the glacier then on next day we would go for the summit. This was the right decision to make as when we started to walk up to the ski centre the weather was really hot and it was very hard work; it took us four hours to walk eight kilometres.

To get all the kit up to the “base camp” we used large seventy litre rucksacks and then for the ascent up the mountain we used smaller day packs for the essentials.

Group dynamic processes before and after

The group worked really well all the way up especially as there was a large difference in skill and experience levels; from never using crampons and axes to doing quite a lot. Those of us with some experience led and helped the others to sort themselves out.

On the walk up to the ski centre we all struggled because of the hot weather and the steepness of the slope but we all went at our own pace and nobody had to rush.

All throughout the trip there was loads of camaraderie and banter which make it much easier to cope with the conditions.

Execution of the field trip

The trip went as planned apart from on the last day. We had summited the mountain and the first plan was to go back to the base camp and wait until morning to drive home. However the wind started to pick up to fifty miles per hour and the tent broke which meant we had to walk back to the car.

Challenges

One of the first challenges that we faced was the steepness of the ascent and the hot weather which made it really hard to walk up the hill. This also meant that we got rather dehydrated on the first day of the expedition.

Another challenge was the wind on the third day of the expedition. For most of the ascent up the mountain we had a rather strong headwind which made it a very tiring effort to summit. It was also hard to find a suitable place out of the wind to have a break. Upon getting back to the tent we checked the weather forecast and saw that 50mph winds were on the menu but we thought the tent would be up to holding against these. It wasn’t. At about 1530 hrs the tent folded in half with us inside it and the poles snapped. We had to abandon the rest of the expedition after that.

When we got to the summit we expected there to be a cabin that we could rest in however this turned out to be a café that was closed and covered in ice. Because of this we had a very quick lunch on the lee-ward side of the cabin. Looking back we could probably have found out what the cabin at the top of the mountain was on the internet.

Reflection on the learning outcomes, what was successful, what was not?

Despite cutting the expedition short it was certainly a success. We achieved our aim of summiting Galdhopiggen and also gained experience about winter walking and moving when roped up.