Page 67 - Wish Stream Year of 2018

Exercise TOURING TRIUMPH
This December saw five Officer Cadets travel to Hovden, Norway, for a week’s skiing. The journey began with an early start at the Academy and a long travel day with a flight followed by a wait for our plush upgraded hire cars on the Norway side. Once in Hovden the group quickly settled in to the Airbnb chalet for the week by making use of the sauna.
The first day of skiing was spent learning the basic techniques necessary to complete a suc- cessful tour, as ski touring was a first for the whole group. The instructor, Major Phillips RE, took the group through putting skis on, binding changes, moving efficiently and traversing with kick turns, before pausing for lunch at the top of the ski resort. It is fair to say at this point the group learnt a valuable lesson in the temperature changes one can experience between working hard going uphill and sitting in the snow in -12°C plus wind-chill. The ski down felt
OCdt Brownlow
all too quick after the effort took to get up there, but search and rescue lessons at the bottom of the slopes took up the rest of the daylight hours.
A fun evening was had by all, playing games by the fire and retiring to bed early...
ous 24°C by the time of the delicious evening meal of spaghetti Bolognese, cooked by Mr Louden. A fun evening was had by all, playing games by the fire and retiring to bed early in prepara- tion for the next day’s return journey.
An initial map recce had indicated that a circular route would end back in the resort of Hovden but when the group
As the course continued, the group
continued to develop their ski tour-
ing and mountain appreciation
skills. This led to a two-day ski tour
staying overnight in a hut which was the abso- lute highlight of the trip. The tour started early Thursday morning from a small hamlet just out- side Hovden itself by following a summer walking trail up into the mountains. After this trail petered out, the group faced some complex navigation across frozen water features, with 40kmh winds and -18°C temperatures. A special thank you to Major Phillips who bravely tested the not-so-fro- zen river initially, resulting in a rather wet boot for the rest of the day. The hut was gratefully seen despite very limited visibility and within 15 min- utes of the agreed turn-around time the group pushed on over another (thankfully more) frozen water feature to reach it in time for lunch. Once inside the hut, a fire was quickly lit that brought the inside temperature up from -8°C to a luxuri-
woke to 50kmh winds and even less visibility than the day before, the decision was made to return along the route in, resulting in the icy winds being behind us as we moved. The winds were actually so strong that they moved us along the flat without any exertion. The route out required touring skis to be worn only once and provided some excellent off piste skiing for the group to enjoy. Everyone involved felt it definitely put the magic and value of ski touring up to remote, un- pisted areas so that such private views and awe- some skiing can be found.
After the expedition, the group worked on ava- lanche rescue techniques and then enjoyed some on piste skiing in the resort for the last day before returning home in time for Christmas.
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