Norway

Elvepadling: Water Water Water

What do you get when you sleep inside of a tent right next to a rushing river while it’s raining? An ultimate all-natural noise machine that lulls you right to sleep. Or maybe it was simply our exhaustion that knocked us out.

Meet Colin and Mette– two very lovely people that did all of the instructing on this river kayaking trip. Colin, being from Tasmania Australia, spoiled me with english.

Colin and Mette!

The first day was dedicated to basic kayaking skills and safety… what a snore. Good thing we had Colin’s oh-so-funny Australian humor to keep me entertained.

If you think making pizza on the grill is a process, try making pizzas on a fire. Although it’s lengthy,  it was worth it.

Day two consisted of a little more current action. We worked on S-turns in and out of the current, and then traversing or ferry-glideing across the river. When I asked Mette what temperature the water was she replied: “Eh, maybe 11 degrees… I reckon it’s quite warm.” If thats warm… I’m terrified for cold.

After a long session of kayaking Group A (my group) returned to base camp to an almost completed dinner. We called them kabobs but they were in no way kabobs (…at least not the meat-on-a-stick definition I am familiar with.) Despite what they were called they were delicious. Plate-licking delicious according to Frida.

After dinner we broke into teams and played a competition game involving rope-throwing. My team won. Woo.

In my opinion, day three was the best day. We woke up to a morning of rain, after a night of rain. Rain rain rain. After struggling to get that cold wet suit on one last time we hit the river. We ended the session with a pretty long class 2 rapid (with some class 3 elements.) Øyvind and I volunteered to go first while the others watched from down river. I followed Colin down, managing to avoid hitting any rocks or flipping over. At the end of the rapid we were faced by a huge wave. Instead of trying to fight it, I simply bent down, paddled hard, and embraced the cold crashing water as it hit my face. It was great fun. Unfortunately Øyvind didn’t make it all the way through the rapid. He flipped, and before breaking surface hit his head on a rock. Good thing we wore helmets right? He was then airlifted out by a helicopter and… (only kidding.) Øyvind was fine. I have the least amount of pictures from day three… none of me to be exact. You’ll just have to imagine.

And after we packed up camp in the rain, we all ended up smelling like wet dog. That didn’t stop me from falling dead-asleep on the car ride back to school.

Preseason: Mountain Style

Those of you who have had the joy of enduring Coach Snead’s preseason know that by the end of the week you are feeling all sorts of things. You are most likely struggling to walk. You’re a little bit bitter, both at yourself for slacking off all summer and at the humid Virginia air. Yesterday I returned to school from what can be considered a “preseason” trip. The three-day hike acted as a season opener; a warm up for many adventures to come. And now, much like the end of the first week of hockey, I am feeling incredibly tired. Although my butt doesn’t hurt quite as much as it would from hockey, pretty much everything else does. Sleeping in the cold with rocks under my back can be compared to the morning after the first lift with Adam: extremely uncomfortable. There are differences between preseason and this hike though: the view while scaling the side of a waterfall is a lot cooler than the view of the parking lot during a set of 15’s. And instead of trying to cool off while Coach Snead made us run in circles, we often opted to run in circles with hopes of warming up. Taking off those repulsive shin guards on Friday is a sign that you conquered your first week of hockey. It’s accompanied with a feeling of great accomplishment. That feeling is 100% intensified while on the top of a mountain. It’s hard to justifiably describe the amazing feeling of looking down at the ground you’ve just covered and the heights you’ve just climbed.

On the first day of the trip my teacher, Janie Therese, led my Aktivitet 1 class to a place called Styggvantna. The trek was almost as complex as the name itself. After a few hours of hiking we stopped to eat the first (of four) lunches we had packed for ourselves. The first day proved to be the ultimate trust-building experience. What better way to learn to trust someone than allowing them your hand as you leap across rushing white water?

Jonas
Margit’s cheesin
Marta
Checking the map!
Anne Katrine
Frida jumping one of the many rivers
Ragnhild jumping one of the many rivers
Jan taking in the view
Base camp for the first night

Day two began by packing up camp. We then made the hike to Haugen, the meeting place for all classes. This hike wasn’t as steep or narrow but still not a stroll. We hiked over a mountain in Vidstøylsegga which is where we ran into snow. Once over that mountain we hiked through marshy land in order to reach Haugen. The rest of the school gradually arrived and began setting up their tents. This time Øyvind, Harold, Anne Katrine, Frida and I set up our tent in a spot without any rocks. Learning from our mistakes. After eating we sang songs around the fire. Ylva (my roomate) and I loved that…(pure sarcasm.) We then played Tissetrengt in the dark which Anne Katrine and I won. Try typing that one into google translate. Oh translating snafus… have to love them.

Packing up as the fog rolls in
Getting ready to hike again
See that little flat area between the two lakes? That’s Styggvatna,(where we slept after day 1)
Jonas cheesin’
Frida
Everyone trying to figure out where we are

Day three started off on a good note. I woke up from a very nice night sleep. My sleeping bag is proving to be up for the challenge of keeping me warm. After packing up our tent we split into groups depending on which course we preferred to take home. Ylva and I chose the tour that took us to an area called Langedals and then our final destination, Tungelia. From Tungelia we collapsed into a van that drove us around the fjord, through Sundane, and back to school.

Where’s Waldo… Stip edition

When we returned to the school we ate dinner. Ylva and I then proceeded to sit in our beds for 4 hours trying to recover from our first trip. It helped that we had buckets of candy.