Backcountry ski trips Part 3: "Study Trip"

Now it's getting more interesting! The third school trip was called our "study trip", which we students plan and do on our own (no teachers anymore!). It was 8 days. EIGHT DAYS! It's a long time, no? I haven't camped outside in the winter for that long before! 

After overcoming some group conflict, individual doubts and uneven distribution of the planning work we were ready to set off. The trip was on Hardangervidda beginning at Skinnarbu and ending at Rjukan fjellstue. We were a group of 4 international students (2 had gotten sick/injured and couldn't come).

Our group and all our gear at the start

Have you meet Wooly? 

First day skiing out of the trees

One thing the stands out from this trip is the excellent, cool campsites we had every night. We slept under the stars/trees, beside a huge boulder, on a island in a lake, in a cabin, and made 5 and a half snow caves.

cooking set up

chef Zdenek

Norwegian fairy troll tales

the boulder! "Snowprobe dancing" was invented here.

island campsite

campsite in progress

Maggie's snow cave

Helberghytta

Then, of course, we have the skiing. Lots of it. It's great to be able to look at the map and say, "let's go there!" and just go, no trails needed. I think my pack was a LOT lighter than during summer camping too (because we had a pulk).

Telemark turns

Lukasz on a windy summit

tracks from a wild reindeer herd!

nap time under blue skies

perfect terrain-- rolling and flat, never too steep!

day tripping on steeper slopes

At the end of the trip.

A map of our approximate route.

The rest of my pictures are here and Zdenek's are here (many of the pictures here are from him too). And here is Zdenek's blog entry. We have some videos of Telemarking too but we'll see if those ever surface...