Planning

The planning was quite a difficult process and I wouldn’t call it flawless. We started planning for a hiking trip in Jegersberg, but decided last minute to prospone our trip and do a skitrip in the weekend after instead. Because all of us where more eager to go skiiing then hiking, and also the weather was supposed to be really bad, last but not least some of us, like me had friends over for a surprise visit wich they told me about quite recentrly. The first skitrip we planned, happened to be an area without snow. Therefor we had to change our location again. The planning itself was also quite stressfull. We where with alot of people, some of us really eager to plan and get it over with, some of us just really bored and not really into it. This process was not with very good cohesion, this caused alot of struggle and annoyance.

For our final trip we decided to go for a three day skitrip in Borteliid area with a crew of 4. Moritz, Daniel, Jannis and myself. The 6th of march we would catch a bus in the morning and Sunday 8th of march we would return safely to our beloved once in Kristiansand. In this weekend we would cover a total distance of not less then 40 km on our cross country skiis. During this trip we would carry backpacks with all our nessacarities inside.

Packing list:

Execution

Day 1

First struggle of the day, the bus. We had to change the bus 2 times and after the first change we told the busdriver where we need to go and he aksed us if we booked the last bus. Of course we didn’t know. Luckily he decided he didn’t have anything better to do, made a call and gave green light tob ring us all the way to our destination, Bortelid.

Once we got there it was nice and sunny, a bit warm for our wax though. Nevertheless we waxed our skiis, did some final touches regarding our backpack and off we where. We where joking about our trip being 2 days uphill one day down again. This joke wasn’t that funny anymore after the first few hours of herring boning through the poor slippery snow on quite steep uphill parts. Once we left the tracks it got a bit better but at that time I was quite frustrated about my skiiing. I didn’t touch the skiis since Evje and I was struggeling alot. After a beautiful faceplant on ice, I was the one not to talk to anymore for quite a while. After my skiing and mood got better again the weather decided not to follow my upwards curve. The sun was gone and not to be seen anymore until Sunday afternoon. Also the wind picked up and the conditions where very tough. We tried to skii mostly between trees, even if that meant a detour. Since whenever we crossed a lake or a non sheltered area, we where forced to herring bone eventhough it was flat. I was very happy to reach our camping place. We pitched our tent, try to find some firewood and had a small fire for a while. But since we where quite exhausted all of us, we didn’t find the strength to find a lot of firewood and the fire died out quite soon. After dinner we went for a quick ski to get warm before going to bed wich was alot of fun. 

The night was both one of my worst and afterall one of my best nights so far. We woke up every hour or so because of the wind and because it was basicly raining in our face through the tent. Every time we spoke a few words, giggled a bit and tried to sleep until the next big wind outbreak.

Day 2

Day 2 started where day 1 ended. Strong wind, no sun. Instead of taking a detour across mountains we decided to stay on the track and follow the wooden markers. Im glad we decided to do that, because i was both quite exhausted and also the visabillity was very poor. We could see one two sticks at a time if we where lucky and they where we estamated more or less 50 meters apart. Our plan was to meet some other students in the DNT hut, chill together for a bit and then move on and pitch our tent. When we saw the hut, we where all quite euphorical and when we entered I knew that I wasn’t gonna leave that hut anymore. Luckily the others agreed. The other students never showed up, they where forced to stay in their first hut for the second night since the weather was to bad to continue. We warmed up the hut, made some dinner, talked to a cool Norwegian guy who was in the hut for a few days with his dog. He got our hopes up for the next day, because he said it was really easy.

Day 3

After waking up in a nice and warm bed, we had a massive ammount of porridge wich was deffinatly the worst porridge I have  ever put my spoon in. We left quite early because in two days we only made about 15-20 km and now we had to do 18 km in one day. We had the wind in our backs wich was really pleasant. Also the environment was really beautifull and diffrent then the other two days. At one point the wind dropped a bit, and the sun came out. From then on we had alot of fun. Also we noticed that the first half of the 18 km was really fast, so we where way ahead of schedule. For the last part we skiid down the prepared tracks to bortelid skicenter. This was such a relieve after two days of quite suffering and struggeling. The skiiing went well, we where really fast, the weather was really nice again. This was the perfect ending of the ski trip. When down at the skicenter we had loads of time for the bus came so we dropped our packs and practised telemark turn on the small kids hill. Luckily someone else had ordered the bus since we had no service. And after a few hours we where back in Kristiansand.

Group dynamics

The group dynamics where quite interesting. Planning and organizing has never been my quality. So after two times planning without contributing to much we just decided to let me make the lunch and the rest could plan the trip. This also affected the roles in the trip since they had a better understanding of the route and plan then I did. I still tried to stay up to date and check the map as much as possible to make shure we where still on the right track. But Daniel and Moritz where leading most of the time.

Sometimes when I was struggeling hard, I felt little compasion from the others. They didn’t wait to much or help made me feel better. This was also quite a good motivation to just stop complaining in my head and go for it. After the second day I noticed that it was much more rewarding to ski in the front then to try and keep up in the back all the time. So I tried to do that alot in the third day wich affected my mood in a positive way.

As for making decisions we always agreed and there where very little conflicts.