9th of December and a mountain trip with bivouac

This day I will begin with a story from Ostersund area. In the year 1988 I was doing a winter training in the army. After going by the night train, we arrived at Ostersund in the morning. After four days of ski technique, base camp duty and snow bivouace building it was time for a real mountain tour. And off we went. 120 young officers from all parts of Sweden began the trail uphill’s to the slope where we would spend the night. Now all aspirants realized the challenge with skiing in the area of the mountain birch. Bake around the obstacles with skis and sledge can be demanding, especially if you haven’t been skiing at all before… The weather was cloudy, but ok and the temperature was around -4 degrees. When arriving to the area for the snow bivouac, we split up into different working groups. Some of us started to dig, the others started to cook food. Here we learned that you for sure will get wet, while building the bivouac. One of us gets into the snow cave and one was standing outside and shoveling the snow over the side. When it was room for two in the cave the next one gets in there and dig. Soon we could start building niches for bed and cooking. After two and a half hour it all was done. A notice, in good weather with good instructions and in a checked area without any stress it took us two and a half hours. Take that in mind, you need to stop in time for being able to build a “snöka”. We got into the bivouac put the mattress, reindeer pelt and the sleeping bag in place. The pole was used as a ventilation solution and we also dig a hole for communication with the neighbor cave. The next morning, we woke up and it was a storm over the mountains. There was almost no sight at all, and we had to wait out for better weather. At eight we went up and eat breakfast, and with the daylight there was a slight of sight. So, we decided to continue. At ten AM everyone was ready, and I put on my army skis. This day I also was responsible for the sledge, lucky me (guys with knowledge of Winter got that as a reword). At 10.04 I have already tripped over four times. With my mate Bjarnered braking the sledge from behind with a rope down the slope. When I felt for the 6th time and got the sledge in my neck I lost my temper. Bjarnered just standing there and laughing at me. But when I looked to the left, I saw Einarsson from the south of Sweden, struggling with his skis (first time in his life in snow, and on skies) He yelled, -now I am tired of this shit, I will walk instead, for using this f*****skies. He left his skies and sunk into his waist in the snow. We helped him up on the skies again. Later he left the army and become a priest. Thank lord to that. Well later we came back after the tour skilled and happy, but as Kipling said -that is another history.