Course Objectives

The course aims to provide students with an introduction to winter outdoor life and guiding in outdoor activities in the forests and mountains in the winter. Through the various periods students will develop basic skills and knowledge within the sphere of winter outdoor life and guiding. Students will develop the necessary basic skills in relation to winter outdoor life and activities. They will also learn to set goals for their own level of competence and to work independently to improve their personal skills.

Course Description

• The importance of having enough energy in store when hiking in the wilderness, planning trips in accordance with one’s ability, choosing area according to ability, safety, responsibility and consequence analysis
• Taking responsibility for one’s own learning.
• Planning for longer winter trips: trips in groups, safety procedures and norms for participants
• Orientation and choice of safe route.
• Knowledge of snow, snow avalanches, rescuing members of the group, transport of an injured person.
• Skiing skills.
• Shelter and making camp in the forest in the wintertime: constructing gapahuks (lean-to shelters), improvised bivouac, winter campfires, building open fires.
• Shelter and making camp in the mountains in the winter: building, and living in, a shelter made of snow, choice of campsite and making camp, tents, various snow holes, bivouacs, and igloos.
• Clothes and equipment, repairs, making simple winter equipment.
• Hygiene and first-aid in connection with winter forests/mountains.
• Food and cooking equipment for winter use.
• Weather and weather signs.
• Outings in the wild: laws and regulations; the importance of leaving no traces behind
• Knowledge of culture and the natural environment.
• Guide theory: guidelines, procedures, organisation, working methods, management and leadership in connection with winter outdoor life.

Learning Methods

The course is taught in the spring semester.

Teaching and learning methods include independent work, lectures, an excursion (1 day), group work, individual trips and practical / problem-orientated guidance in connection with trips in the various physical environments. The trips with guide consist of 5 days in the forests in the winter and 9 days in the mountains in the winter. Trips, individual trips and excursions are obligatory.

Assessment Methods

Portfolio assessment. The students will compile a portfolio for each part of their outdoor practice period. Two of the portfolios will be assessed. The examiner will select one of these; the student will select the other one. A graded mark will be allocated. The portfolio selected by the examiner will count for 60% of the final grade. The portfolio selected by the student will count for 40% of the final grade. In order to receive a diploma students must first have submitted all their portfolios and had them approved, and participated actively in the obligatory trips, individual trips and excursions.

Minor adjustments may occur during the academic year, subject to the decision of the Dean