Difficulty
Endurance
Booking process:
We chat → Find the right course → Find dates → Payment
Don’t see a course on the dates you want? That doesn’t mean I’m unavailable.
Get in touch — your enquiry may become the starting point for a new course.
Equipment list:
Upon registration we will send you a complete equipment list.
Boots: You will need your own mountaineering boots that can take crampons. If in doubt send us a picture of your boots so we can give the thumbs up. Boots_summer
In the rucksack: As a general guide the following is recommended In the rucksack
Mountaineering equipment (All this can be borrowed from us): Equipment to courses
Accommodation
The Mountain Cottage is include in the price.
Flights, train and getting there
From the Oslo Gardermoen Airport, you can take the “flytoget” which is an express train to Oslo central station. From there it is a short walk to the bus station. You can take the Valdres Express bus or VY-Buss From Oslo central to Fagernes Skysstasjon which is about 20min from my house. The bus is comfortable, has free wifi and takes about 3 hours. I like taking the bus to Oslo as I can look out the window and see all the waterfalls and dream about ice climbing 🙂
Nearly all participants on previous courses have travelled by the above method, and they have described it as straightforward and easy.
Equipment hire
If you need to rent equipment, that is no problem, just let us known in advance. You will receive a list of required items upon booking.
A typical week
There is deliberately no rigid itinerary.
Snow, weather and avalanche conditions determine where we go each day, and learning to adapt to those changes is an important part of the course.
A typical week might include shorter skills-focused tours, avalanche and rescue training, navigation and route-planning exercises, and longer mountain journeys where we bring those skills together.
As the week develops, you’ll take a greater role in planning the tours and making decisions.
The mountains set the agenda — we learn to work with them.
Day 1 — Winter travel, snow & avalanche awareness
We start by getting to know each other, checking equipment and talking about what everyone hopes to get from the week.
Before heading out we’ll look at the weather and avalanche forecast and start planning our day.
In the mountains we’ll explore how to travel efficiently using skis or snowshoes, recognise avalanche terrain and begin developing a feel for the snow beneath our feet.
We’ll also introduce avalanche companion rescue, working with transceivers, probes and shovels and looking at how an effective rescue is organised.
Throughout the day we’ll discuss the human factor — how our ambitions, decisions and behaviour as a group can influence the risks we take.
Day 2 — Crampons, ice axe & winter climbing
A day focused on moving through more technical winter terrain.
We’ll look at using crampons and an ice axe effectively on snow, ice and mixed ground before introducing the rope skills used to safeguard steeper sections.
We’ll explore snow and ice anchors, belays, knots, abseiling and some of the principles behind multi-pitch winter climbing.
And we’ll get some climbing done — developing movement on snow and ice both with and without axes.
Day 3 — Winter mountain journey
Time to start putting the different skills together.
We’ll plan and undertake a suitable winter mountain journey, beginning with the weather and avalanche forecast and choosing an objective appropriate to the conditions.
During the day we’ll work on navigation, route choice, avalanche evaluation and moving efficiently through changing terrain.
Rather than simply following the instructor, you’ll start becoming more involved in the decisions we make along the way.
Day 4 — Snow, rescue & mountain problem-solving
We’ll take a closer look at snow and avalanche conditions and develop the skills introduced earlier in the week.
Depending on conditions, this might include snow profiles, recognising potentially problematic layers, terrain assessment and further avalanche companion-rescue practice.
We’ll also look at what happens when things don’t go according to plan, including emergency procedures and building an emergency snow shelter.
The emphasis is increasingly on asking:
What are we seeing? What does it mean? And what should we do about it?
Day 5 — You make the decisions
Our final day is about bringing the week together.
We’ll identify several possible mountain objectives and, as a group, you’ll look at the weather, snow and avalanche conditions and decide where you think we should go.
You’ll plan the route, consider the hazards and make many of the decisions during the day.
I’ll still be there alongside you — asking questions, offering advice and stepping in when necessary — but the aim is for you to take increasing responsibility for the journey.
It’s a chance to put the week’s skills into practice and experience what the course has really been working towards:
making good decisions for yourself in the winter mountains.
The week is flexible
This isn’t a rigid timetable. Mountains don’t work like that.
Weather and conditions may mean we change the order of the days, spend longer developing a particular skill or take advantage of good conditions for a mountain journey.
The important thing is that by the end of the week you’ve not simply practised a collection of techniques — you’ve begun learning how and when to use them in the mountains.
