DofE Norway Expedition

At the end of March, our Duke of Edinburgh co-ordinator Mr Macpherson accompanied four pupils on their Gold Expedition to Norway, where they challenged themselves to a few gruelling days of cross-country skiing. Below is the report, provided by Mr Macpherson:

At Shiplake, we offer a good selection of expeditions for our Gold Duke of Edinburgh participants, most of which include walking, cycling, canoeing and kayaking. However, we also give our pupils freedom to choose an expedition of their own making. Back in September 2018, a small group decided on Nordic/cross country skiing as their expedition and after a chat with the Duke of Edinburgh council (to confirm some rules and regulations), planning started in earnest.

After seven months of planning and training, the group finally set off for Norway on Friday 22 March. Their destination was Dalseter, about an hour north west of Lillehammer. The journey from the airport in Oslo to Dalster was uneventful; but the last leg was painfully slow due to icy conditions, which prevented our small group getting to bed until the early hours of Saturday morning. There was no time for relaxing the following day as the Shiplake group had a busy schedule ahead; starting with two days of final training before setting off on their four-day qualifying expedition.

The training was based around Dalseter and the instructor checked and improved our pupils’ Nordic skiing skills by teaching some new techniques and providing them with some essential skills to allow them to travel independently on their expedition. The improvement and focus within the group was impressive, and after two very busy days, the group were as prepared as they could be for their expedition.

The plan was to ski along a mixture of trails and off-piste routes to mountain huts operated by the Norwegian Trekking Association. Although these huts have everything one would need to spend the night, the group had to carry all their own provisions and be totally self-reliant. Use of the huts, instead of tents, was approved by the DofE due to the expedition location and the time of year.

Day one was physically taxing and navigation was tricky; the first few miles were mostly uphill and when the ground did level out, finding the route through wooded valleys was quite difficult and the group had some deep snow to ski through. The group ploughed on and eventually emerged from the wooded valley onto the ridge above the first hut. The snow conditions soon became easier and the end was in sight. As the group closed in on the first mountain hut, there was an added bonus to top off day one with the sighting of a massive herd of reindeer on the side of the mountain. This, along with a fabulous sunset, made day one challenging but very rewarding.

On paper, day two was relatively straightforward. However, backcountry Nordic skiing must never be underestimated. Navigation wasn't the problem today; it was the terrain. The easiest and most logical way to the next hut was to ski around the mountain, behind the first hut, before linking up with a ski trail for their last leg of the day. The problem was that the snow was very hard on the side of the mountain and skiing on the very edge of the skis was quite tricky. The slope wasn't particularly steep, but progress was slow and the strong wind made for a chilly and frustrating day. Later than planned, the now very tired group made it to the ski trail and the journey became easier. With the better ground, the group made good progress to the second hut.

Day three required the group to be very accurate with their navigation, as their route was to take them into a remote area with no trails to assist them. After the difficult terrain of the previous day, at least the skiing would be a little easier. The hut for their last night would not be seen until the group rounded the very last ridge about 100m from the hut and it is to the group’s credit that after a full day of navigating off-piste, they arrived at the hut with no issues.

The final expedition day started with very strong winds to contend with, but luckily, it was relatively warm. The warm conditions however did bring a very unwelcome situation, no grip. Nordic skis require grip wax on the central part of the ski to give the ski grip when you push off, different snow temperatures require different wax and, as we soon found out, did not have the specific wax for these warm snow conditions. This meant that our pupils had no grip on their skis for the whole day and the snow was too soft even to walk on. It was going to be a hard last day. With no grip, the downhill sections would be fine but any uphill sections, and even some of the flat areas, would be hard work. The route wasn't straight forward either, the group once again had to navigate through mostly off-piste areas before linking up to a ski trail back to Dalster. The group took all these challenges in their stride and they learned a lot over the last few days and made it to the finish point in good time and in good spirits.

The following day saw the group set off for home, making a stop in Lillehammer, location of the 1994 winter Olympics before doing so. Unfortunately, the boys were more excited about the McDonald's that was also there. I think they deserved it.

Over the duration of the expedition, the group were challenged in many ways and they were certainly taken out of their comfort zone on a number of occasions. The assessor and myself had shadowed and checked the group throughout the expedition, and it is to their credit that as the expedition progressed, we had less and less reason to check on them.

This was the first time we have offered this kind of expedition, and the four boys involved had to face more challenges than they would normally have done on some other styles of expeditions. However, with these challenges come rewards. The sense of achievement was clear to see on the faces of the boys and the following message from one of the parents is the icing on the cake:

‘My son came back exhausted but with a real sense of achievement - I haven’t heard him speak about something so enthusiastically for a long time!’