Excursion to Veitastrond:
A reflection of teaching methods utilising a glacial landscape journey.

The first multi day excision for the international outdoor education students was to the Veitastrond valley. The town itself has approximately 123 inhabitants, one expensive village shop and a very small school. It is hemmed in between steep valley sides and has only one road connecting it to the rest of the world which is periodically blocked by avalanches and landslides. This was the first time I had driven on a single lane road through tunnels with only tinny passing places cut into the rock walls, so I was quite glad to be at the back of the convoy for the hour and a half drive from Sogndal. We carried on to Tungestølen, a very small collection of mountain huts and old summer farm houses, located where the Austerdal and Langedal valleys converge. It gets its name from the large tongue like formation formed by the lateral moraines of two historic glaciers as they converged together. It was here that we decided to pitch our tents for the next two nights.

Our Campsite at Tungestølen, the large marine feature can be seen in the background. ion

I am very interested to see how the university professors, combine their expertise as academics and outdoor educators to utilise this glaciated landscape as the ultimate interactive classroom for inspiring people to think about landscape processes. Tungestølen is a great location from which to set out on longer glacier walks. Here we begin our journey from an iconic U-shaped valley and passed endless features that tell the story of how this staggering landscape was shaped by moving ice. we set out to reach the Austerdalbreen glacier at the head of the valley, an outlet glacier of the much larger Ostedalsbreen Glacier, one of Norway’s most famous upland National Parks.


Thousands of years of landscape process can be experienced under your feet. The scenery around displays textbook glaciated formations. Our teachers and guides for the day, Jostein and Peter Eric often broke down our journey to take advantage of the many opertunities to build our understanding of our surroundings.

The group paused briefly to take in a holistic view of the valley commenting on the "misfit" river meandering its way down the U-shaped valley.

Whislt the students played at tourist, taking photos of the waterfalls. Jostein would impart some of his knowledge about their formation to the group. He explained that, as the graduate increases so too does energy and erosional capacity of the river, carving out a deep canyon. As  this was an obvious example of one erosial process cutting into the much more open U shaped valleys left by the glaciers, Jostein introduced the concept of relative ageing of the landscape.

Push moraines mark the periodic standstill location of the glacier as they reached there further most point during more recent advances.

At this point, we discussed what teaching styles you might take on as leader/ educator; how you might let the group’s imaginations explore the possible origins of such features. Most of us shared the view letting your group members imaginations explore the possible origins of such defined features was an import part of engaging a younger students.

The vegetation changed quickly as we journeyed further into the valley. Here the contrasts are stark and provide exceptional examples of species succession.


The style of teaching Jostein adopted through the walk became a mixture of guided and self-guided discovery.

The biggest erratic I have ever seen provided some scrambling and photography and opportunities. After the group were satisfied that we had found the best place to perch on top of this massive boulder he began to ask the group questions as to the massive stones origin. We discussed how the angularity of boulders can be a great clue as to their origin; For example rounded fabric must have been subjected to lots of active erosion possible at the moving base of the glacier or has been influenced by watercourses. More angular fabric, such as the enormous erratic boulder, has most likely fallen directly from the rock walls onto the surface of the glacier thus transporting it to its present day resting point. The same simple theory of guessing the transport history of fabric by considering its angularity can be used to disguise debris flows from scree slopes and could potentially me bought forward to talk about the stability of slopes for choosing  and route in a mountaineering contex.

The professors would stop the group at paleoclimatic clues that they clearly found exciting. We were a very distinctive Roche Moutonnees.

the glacier would have moved from right to left in this example, abrading and plucking at the bedrock into this whale-back shape. (French. H, 1996)

Shatter marks like this indicate the direction of ice flow. In this example flow direction is towards the top of the photo.

At the head of the valley the Austerdalbreen outlet glacier comes into view. Although a shadow of its former self, it still appears absolute staggering in terms of scale. It if formed by two tributary glaciers Odinsbreen and Torsbreen. Naming these staggering river of ice after Nosk Gods seems entirely appropriate considering their shimmering reflections high above us on the skyline.

Odinsbreen (left) Torsbreen (right)and Austerdalsbreen in the foreground.

A lunch break provided time for us to absorb the inspiring scenery. discusions began to lead in to contimblating bigger questions such as the rapid retreat of the ice in recent decades, leading the group to relay question bigger societal questions of global warming and the very real implications for the worlds fresh water stores. It is by bringing people to these staggering natural places that the consequences of climate change is most obvious and I think glacier tourism and guided education trips like this have a big part to place in education of the public and decision makers. Outdoor education could potentaly be very powerfull in this way.

Thurday evening by the camp fire.The glaciers seem to rename illuminated for longer.

we awoke on Friday morning to some pretty spectacular heavy rain. The plans for the day quickly changed to make the most of the conditions. We explored a smaller adjacent valley, and watched the river rise to become a raging torrent.

We retreated to the one convince store/ gass station/ coffee shop/ post office in Veitastrond. Peter Eric introduced the reflection session, inviting everyone to share there opinions of the trip. He asked us to compare our expectations with our experiences and openly invited the students to comment on the organisation and delivery of the excursions learning outcomes. I though this was a admirable and constructive thing to do, not only can the teachers hone there delivery, but also this engaged the class to begin thinking about how  they might have planed suck a trip for themselves.

References

French. H, 1996, "The Periglacial Environment," second  edition, J, willey and sons limited.

Mondays in Sogndal......

There seems to loads of opportunities for sort local adventures. I had only one class on Monday so In the moring a local girl Maria showed me around some of the trails around the airport.

The evening was spent on the local crag a 5 minute drive from sogndal.

First Impressions of Sogndal.

What a place! I arrived late on Sunday the 14th of August To find an idyllic, almost futuristic settlement set onto the hillside, squeezed between mountains, rivers and fjord. The clean air matched the spotless payments and wooden white houses are dotted around the hillside and spill out onto the water front.

I am 23, have grown up in  Scotland and through what seems like a unusual set of circumstances I found myself Studying in Høgskulen i Sogn og Fjordane university, in the heart of the Norwegian fjords. For the past year now i have been working as a freelance outdoor instructor and educator in the highlands of Scotland living in outdoor centres, crashing on friends sofas most recently a van to finance the next kayaking or climbing adventure. I am now reading for a MSC in Sustainable Mountain Development at the Centre for Mountain Studies based at UHI, Scotland. This semester I am fortunate to be studying outdoor Education and  Nordic Friluftsliv; the Scandinavian way of reflecting on the relationship between man, nature culture and society.

I believe the Norwegians are doing something right when it comes to enjoying and preserving their mountainous landscape. Everyone here seems to have a respect for there natural surroundings, probably because everyone you talk to has a favourite recreational pastime that takes them into the natural environment. It is this blend of outdoor recreation leading into mountain management and a society intrinsically related to there inspiring settings that I find so compelling and want to be a part of.

Sogndal, as seen from the Fjord.

The style of teaching  here is very much active outdoor learning, During the first week the class took park in two mountain hikes. We learned about navigation and the succession of vegetation as it changes with altitude from the deciduous forests at the edge of the fjord to the specialist lichens, mosses that survive high on the upland plateau.

Exploring the upland environment and mountain lakes above Sogndal.

The Town, and indeed the campus itself, seems intrinsically linked to its impressive setting and the opportunities to emerge yourself  in its recreational possibilities seem endless. The student population seem very active and they are spoiled for choice. The monday night was spent rock climbing n the shaded forests and on the Tuesday I joined the kayaking club for a paddle in the fjord with great views of the town.

This week seems to has passed in a blur of friendly conversations with professors, confusing street signs, trendy bars, and amazing natural places. The week ended was a fantastic day in the near by Jotunheimen mountains were myself and two friends climbed the west ridge of Store Austinbadin by the "normal" route.  If it wasn't for the glaciers, the fog and Garbo climbing could have convinced me I was at home in the Cuillins.