Ice fishing in Krotjevann

Last week we went with the children from lislherad school to a cross country ice fishing trip. When  we went to the lake by cross country skis, the snow was very bad, so some of us had some difficulties to go up...or down..

When we arrived at the lake after one hour an half of extreme cross country skiing, we were divided into four groups, the aim was to catch has many fish as possible... I was in the Yellow group, we started quite well because a girl caught the first nice perch, and I got the second one!! there is fish in this lake, it's the same lake where I came with my friends before, we fished during some hours without catching anything and now after few minutes a nice perch !

After some more minutes the green group had one fish, then two, three, and they took the first place with 8 perch !
We cooked them and had a nice taste.

At the half of the day it started snowing, so there was more people around the fire than fishing, but we had a nice time.
We put our bag packs on our back and went down, the new snow made the down hill much easier, so we came back all safe to home sweet home!

Last lesson of Snowboarding!

On Friday we were again in Kongsberg skicenter for our last lesson of snowboarding. In the morning we had some snow, but the weather fast get better, and we had a warm sun all the day!
After one descent, our snowboarding skill were back! time to learn new things.

We learned again to do carving (be on the edge).
The sensations are very nice, and you take a lot of speed!

After we learned to jump, unfortunately I have no pictures of it, but most of us did a 180°, in my opinion it's much easier than with skis :).
In The afternoon we went of tracks to enjoy the deep snow!
It's much more difficult to turn in the deep snow than on the tracks, and when you fall, it's quite hard to get up again !

This is how the snow looked like before we snowboarded on it....

....And this is it after several passages !
Yes we where a lot of students :-)

Now the snowboarding lessons are finished, we enjoyed it very much!
Thank you Runar for the good teaching :-)









Enjoy the two video of our progression: Me

Mathilde:

Ice Sculpture in HIT

I told you last week  that we had a ice sculpture day organized by some Erasmus students and with money from the Fomi. I am going to tell you more about it. First were made different different boxes of snow and water.

Then we had to choose a bloc where to do the ice sculpture, and we started sculpting with different tools...

It was a very nice and sunny day with music, refreshment and a delicious goulash soup (thanks to Adam)

After a good refreshment we could go and work again on our nice snow sculptures, at the end, that's how its looked like:
The toilets and the sea shell

The seat.

The Aztec sculpture:

Our climber:

This has to melt away:
ignorance, fear, oppression...

And the last one: the bottle of coca-cola:

Wolrd championship weekend

Like I said before, this weekend we were with the university in Oslo, for the world champion ship. We arrived Saturday for the 30km woman in cross country skiing.
We where of course there to support our countries, we supported France with our nice flags !
There was a lot of people every where ! it was amazing! On Saturday there was 100 000 persons around the tracks and on Sunday even a little bit more.

When the race was finished, and Norway has won, we had to find a place where to put on all our tents...that was not so easy, we heard after that there where about 13 000 persons spending the night on Saterday to Sunday in a tent around the tracks...more than 3000 tents !

After a while we found a free area in the middle of the forest where we decided to put on our camp.
Some of us had chosen a lavo (tipi) to sleep in, others in tents, and few other decided to sleep in on the snow.

After have set up all our camp, some of us had some tickets to see the ski jumping in Holmenkollen, where a the record was broken: 141.5 meters jumped by an Austrian.

In the evening we had a nice fire, with all of us around it, the evening was quite cold!
We are now real Norwegians, most of us ate sausages put on a stick, other made pasta by melting snow.
And as desert bananas with chocolate :)

 After lunch some students had for task to present us the history of ski jumping, of holmenkollen...
We heard in the forest a lot of music, fireworks, and songs of drunken people, it was like if you camp at a festival.

Our tent with the French, and Norwegian flags:

The next morning the 50km race of men started at 1pm, but early in the morning the supporters where already along the tracks! We finally found a nice place, laying in the sun, with view on a big screen, and also on a little part of the track.
When the athletes came around, we went to the tracks to support them! the French team was very good until the 30km, all the time in the first places, but after, they where I think a little bit tired, and finished around the 20th places...




On the following video you can see how many people are there, and this is not the end stadium where most of the supporters are, it's just one place around the track where there was a big screen! All around the 10km tracks there where persons supporting the skiers!
"I have never seen as many flags of a country" told me one Erasmus student, I agreed, it was amazing, people in red, with red flags, and little flags on their clothes (hats) and also painted on their faces! it was amazing !!

On this video you can see the 30km lady with in first place Marit Bjoergen, she finished 2nd after Johaug Therese another Norwegian.

On this video (under) you can see the view we had from our nice place on sunday for the 5km men. (it really looks like the when I went in France to Support the Tour de France. 

And on the last video you can see the man race, the skiers with a blue and white (spider) combination are the French team!

Championship

This weekend we are with the university camping near of the tracks of cross country skiing in Oslo for the world championship, I will put an article about the event, and also about he ice sculpture day when I come back.
have a nice weekend.

Avalanche pieps (beacon) training

A lot of snow, nice weather, free time...it's time to go out on skis ! I like to go back-country skiing, that means going up by our how way, with the skis "randonnée" (like I explained in an article before). 

It's amazing but you have to be careful for the avalanches !

The way to be safe is to stay at home (but that's boring) so if you want to go it's important to know more about the snow, to follow some lessons, or the experience, or ask to experienced persons.

On way of preventing avalanches is to know the snow, but that's a very difficult part, it takes a long time to know is there is more or less risk of avalanches. The other one is the inclination of the slope, until 25° there are less avalanches.  (on this site you can find oh to appreciate the inclination of a slope with your sticks or with a compass http://www.ngi.no/no/snoskred/Lar-om-snoskred/De-livsviktige-snoskred-reglene/ ).

When you have get some info, and you know that the risk is low there are other tests you can do once at the skiing area (the test of Rutschblock or the test of Faarlung) but these test are only additional infos to complete the other you already had. 

Even if the risk is very low, there can always be an avalanche, with a very low risk or on a not step slope at all.

That's why you have to be prepared with you beacon (pieps), your probe and you shovel. (the three goes hand in hand)

To know how to use your beacon, probe and shovel correctly there is only one way! go training! That's what was doing yesterday with Mathilde. 

How does it work ? to train one hides the beacon under the snow somewhere in a big area the second one comes with his beacon on research mode, and try go get a signal. One he get a signal he will by sound or numbers (meters) find where the other beacon is hidden. Once he is sure he is on the right place, he will mark the point and take his probe. 

Then you will perpendicularly to the slope push the probe in the snow to locate your victim (the bag here).

You will push it every 20 cm in snail form until you located your victim.

Then it's time to take your shovel to go back one meter, and to start digging. 

The way of using you shovel is up to you, you just have to be careful to throw the snow far enough to not fall in your hole (of course :) )

To know more about, you can try this instructive and funny game....Enjoy ! : http://www.mammut.ch/barryvoxtraining.html

World championship Oslo2011 (day2)

After a cold night we woke up. During the night there has been 5cm snow more.  We had a nice breakfast and prepared us for this nice day.
The planning was to go to the World championship to see the ski jumping on the Midstubakken ski jumping hill.

We visited the world championship area of Holmenkollen.

We enjoyed the different ice sculptures.















Now the time has come to go support the French team. Today was the qualification for the men, and the final for the women.
This is the Midstubakken jumping hill, a little bit foggy today unfortunately.
One skier is landing on the picture can you see him/her ?

We were equipped like real supporters : The Oslo Holmenkollen 2011 Hat! The Norwegian Flag, and the vuvuzela! essential since the football world cup in south africa.

And we had also....our very beautiful French flag (made by a Norwegian flag, we were lucky the colours are the same :)

And I would say of course...France was in a very good place....

Coline Mattel a 15years old French girl arrived in the third place in the ski jumping ! we where there to encourage and congratulate her ! bravo !












And to finish this article about the world championship I would like to share a little video to show the good atmosphere there was during this ski jumping.

But the world championship is not finished for us, we are going back with the university this weekend to support the skiers ! This time we will have a much bigger flag....(I hope)