Okay, so I am really quite a boring person...

...I went back to Hemsedal again this weekend.

Some douche bag trying to make a Black Diamond ad or something

skiing over to watch the hemsedal freeride comp

On Saturday we skied up high until it was tracked out in bounds, and then enjoyed ourselves skiing some trees in the lower backcountry. It was pretty fun stuff. On one run we tried a sneaky line and ended up having to hike back up a bit when it terminated in a frozen waterfall.

Gregers hurt his back doing a drop later though so we decided to call it a day and go watch the Hemsedal Freeride competition. It is really crazy to watch the pros while you are actually there. You definitely 'feel the excitement' more than when watching a big line ski film. One guy didn't land a big cliff drop right and had to be evacuated with a busted shoulder.

spectators

This wasn't one of the competitors, but no doubt some sneaky Norwegian that poached the line while it had an audience. The real competitors dropped those cliffs on the right, including the biggest one.

Gregers' back was feeling fine today so we decided to go touring. Driving down the road it was ridiculous how many options we had, with perfect snowy mountains on all sides. We found one cool one and stopped the car. Then just as we were about to step into our skis two older guys came cruising down and tipped us about an even cooler mountain just around the corner. We opted for that, and had an EXCELLENT day of it. Will post a bit more and photos when I get them from Gregers.

Hemsedal Deuce

Went back to Hemsedal this weekend with the same guys plus Norway's own 'powder expert' Jens, who happens to ski some really nice tele even in manky conditions.

On Saturday we went touring to the top of Skogshorn, which was fun. I love that in this country you can just park your car above treeline and ski nothing but open, sexy slopes the whole day.

Gregers

It was perfect weather until we got to the top, where is was blowing wind like hell and freezing cold. Fog moved in right after I got there so I only got to enjoy the view for a minute.

On the way down I didn't pay enough respect the variability of the snow, and ended up breaking my face. I was gleefully skiing a line that had been good snow up high, but then suddenly became breakable crust and I crossed a tip. The fall wasn't anything too spectacular, but my pole somehow managed to hit and break my front tooth in half (karma for the earlier comment about park rats?) Anyway, shit, this is probably going to be expensive...



Today we skied on the 'Lillematterhorn', which would have been a lot more epic if so many others hadn't thought of it first. We then skied the same chute as last time and finished with some steep runs in the Hemsedal ski area. Didn't take many pictures today so I'll post a few from last time.

I think this is me trying a grab...hahaha.

Bent is much cooler.

and me, liking this Norway business

The Real Fjords

Silje invited me to her hometown this weekend since she and a friend were driving out to pick up some furniture. Spent the weekend gawking at fjords, eating salmon and xc skiing.

That must have been an incredible place to grow up. Innvik has only 200 people, and from Silje's parents' house you just look out across the fjord to big, snow-capped mountains. The largest glacier in Europe is just around the corner, but I didn't get to see much of it because of the snow.

Damn, too bad there aren't any jobs for me in places like that!

Maria and Silje on the ferry

Some douche-bag we found while skiing in the wind.

Moving

I took a job as a 'Project Engineer' in wind energy modelling. It's right up my alley as far as what I wanted to do. It's also in a nice office with big windows looking out over the fjord.

The view out my office window.

It is in a smaller town 1.5 hours out the fjord from Oslo, so I am going to move there when I get back from Sunnmøre (!!!) in mid April. I just made a really sweet agreement today, where I am going to rent and live in a cabin from then until mid June. It is on a hill, on an Island, in the fjord :-) fully furnished and with sleeping loft, yard and nice view. Oh, and it's cheaper than my room in Oslo. I don't have any pictures of it but will post in April when I take some.

Göteborg

Spent the weekend in Göteborg, Sweden visiting my friend Fredrik and his girlfriend. They have a nice apartment on a hill overlooking the city, and were nice enough to feed us delicious food and wine for the weekend.

Göteborg is only 4 hours' bus ride from Oslo, but it felt like a completely different place. Oslo has 2 feet of snow in the city and the fjord is frozen, while in Göteborg the snow has melted and it even felt kind of warm. We did go iceskating, which was more fun than I remembered it being. Maybe because we spiced it up with racing and mad triple ax--err, 360's...


It was good to see Fredrik again though, and also fun to practice understanding Swedish. They didn't switch to English at all for the whole weekend, so I definitely had to be on my game the whole time. It's for the best though: there are only 4.5 million Norwegians, so if I can fluently converse with Swedish people then that makes it 9 million people less worthless that I speak Norwegian. Sweet.