Backcountry ski trips Part 2: "Winter Mountain"

first day at Haukeli

The second winter trip part of my study program came the day after I got back from the trip described in the previous post. It was 9 days, but didn't quite feel that long. 

our group in front of Haukeliseter lodge

First we spent 4 days at Haukeliseter, a mountain lodge on the south end of Hardangervidda, the high and treeless plateau in the centre of the mountains in the center of southern Norway. Here we went on day trips are learned about avalanche safety and rescue. The prevailing attitude to avalanches in traditional Norwegian friluftsliv is to completely avoid slopes steeper than 30 degrees and thereby avalanches. With the type of equipment (leather boots, 75mm bindings, relatively light skis) used, there is plenty of challenging and fun terrain to be found within those boundaries. As well as practicing avalanche rescue scenarios, we buried ourselves in snow to see what it would feel like. The snow is a crushing weight and my body automatically panicked and hyperventilated even in the controlled situation. This exercise made the danger real and sure put the fear of avalanches into us! We also spent a lot of time learning and practicing winter navigation. It took some time to get used to seeing the map and land. We had a day of very low visibility where we practiced skiing off compass bearings and measuring the distance we covered in methods like counting poles and using rope. In the evenings we had lectures about cultural topics and avalanche evaluation.

Sander's huge snowpack examining hole

probe line practice

After the busy learning days at Haukeliseter, we set off on a 5 day ski trip ending at Bjåen fjellstove, a certified ecotourism lodge near Hovden (which I had visited on a field trip with Ecotourism class in the fall-- it felt nice to be familiar with our destination). We were a group of about 11: six international students, some students from the Norwegian friluftsliv program, and one teacher. It was great to get to know some people from outside our 6 person program.

The weather was beautiful when we set off: warm and sunny. But by noon it had clouded over, begun raining and was quite windy! Our first campsite was tents set up in the rain, with everything we wore and much of the gear in our packs soaking wet. It stayed just below 0 degrees during the night. Putting on frozen stiff clothes in a near whiteout the next morning, we did not face the rest of the trip with enthusiasm. Finding another group camped nearby who had some injured and tired people and decided to go back to Haukeliseter did not help. But soon the skiing warmed us up, melting our clothes and our tempers. After a long day of skiing in wind and low visibility, we stumbled into an area with good snow drifts to dig caves just as it was getting dark out. We dug until exhausted, made dinner late at night and fell asleep. The next day the weather became much better and we found an excellent snow cave site. The sun shining on snow covered mountains as far as the eye could see was beautiful. The final night we spend below treeline we a cozy fire and sleeping under the stars at -19.

windy weather

low visibility navigation

"Digmasters" or "The Cathedral" 5 person snow cave

inside the Digmasters

my favorite picture- our excellent teacher stops to take a photo of some fallen students

Zdenek recording his pulk pulling strength

Maggie after a nice slope

Look! Trees!

sleep outside at -19...no digging required :)

Zdenek says hurray, his sleeping bag was impressively warm!

sunny days near the end

There were many little moments I really enjoyed. Some that stick out in my mind are talking with new friends, jogging back along our ski trail to warm up before sleeping, carrying a big tree for firewood back to camp on skis, seeing mountain grouse in their winter colour and the tracks left in the snow by their big feathery feet and wingtips from taking off, eating my new favorite trip breakfast of dried blueberries in ricemeal, the teamwork in getting the pulk down a difficult hill, the satisfaction of improving navigation skills, the view of white hills to the horizon in every direction...

But what I also remember is that I felt busy and exhausted the entire trip. Freezing because I dressed to move when we would travel at a snail's pace, digging snow caves until I couldn't walk straight if I took a break, eating dinner at least 5 hours after the sun set every night, uncomfortably carrying my heavy pack... And every time I paused to look around, instead of enjoying my situation I only saw what more I should be doing to help our group. The novelty of snow caves was not there for me, and after a while the treeless white hills looked boring. I was frustrated by the seeming never-ending work and lack of choice I felt. Perhaps the pressure I put on myself was because I was in such a big and varied group, or on a trip with a teacher.

self-portrait skills: another thing to improve ;)

More of my pictures can be found here.

There is so much more to say this trip and everything else that what I wrote here is only a part of it, maybe not even enough to give a correct picture of what I really did and thought. At the risk of misrepresenting things, I will post it anyway because some idea is better than none at all! I just want you to know that my pictures and what I choose to describe are not particularly thought out or meaningful!

You can read more about this trip, and see some excellent pictures, at the blogs of my classmates Zdenek and Veronika.