And because I have nothing better to do with my time...

...here are some more skiing pictures :-) From that tour up Bjøberg a couple weekends ago. It was really a nice one because it was fresh, light powder combined with low avy danger so we got to ski some pretty steep stuff. fast :-)

pretty typical landscape once you get high up around hemsedal: endless, white possibilities and nice snow, but not so spikey.

gregers

and me nearing the bottom.

Sunnmørsalpene

Just in from an incredibly good week skitouring in the Sunnmøre alps region of Norway. We were 13 people altogether and we stayed in cabins right on the Hjørundfjord in a tiny and extremely scenic village called Sæbø. It was mostly stormy weather and avalanche city while we were there, but we got out skiing every day except one and managed to get to the top of several peaks and find some enjoyable skiing on the way down. Some highlights:

The Company: a really fun mix of people, only one of which I knew from before. My brain is a little tired after the mix of languages, accents and dialects that were flying around. We had several extremes of the Norwegian dialects represented with Tommy from the South, Marianne from the far North, the Oslo people, and the spicy local dialect. And then we had the Swedish girl, the Icelandic guy who understood Norwegian but spoke mostly New York English, Andrew the South African/Norwegian, Glen the Englishman/Norwegian and of course me. Kind of cool that with such a mix everyone still understood (almost) everything.

Our failed attempt at a timed, group, jump shot...

The Avalanches: There were a lot of them. Several times a day there would be loud rumbling as they crashed down the mountains. I witnessed three large ones, including two that plunged over a 1000ft cliff above our cabins. Really incredible to witness from safe places!

We didn't see this one go but the aftermath was pretty cool when we got to the summit.

We were very careful about where we skied. By sticking to the right aspects, not skiing under large cornices or avy-prone slopes, and even staying off certain (really cool, damnit) mountains altogether, I feel like we skied with very low avalanche risk the whole time. We had to laugh on the second to last day though, because while we were digging a pit test on our mountain a huge avalanche crashed down to the valley floor from the mountain just across from us. It was on a completely different aspect though--the one that had been windloaded--and we knew to avoid slopes of that aspect anyway.

The most Norwegian day ever: We spent the day skiing to and from the summit of a very nice mountain jutting right out of the fjord. Afterward we were stretched out on the porch of one of the cabins with beers when Marianne asked if anyone wanted to go on a boat/fishing tour in the fjord. I was a bit skeptical as she disappeared down to the dock, but half an hour later she came back and non-chalantly announced that she had found a nice older couple with a boat that would take us out and show us around. I guess that North-Norwegian dialect really works for charming one's way onto boats. What a little sjark-hore.

Another half hour and were were standing on the deck of a fishing boat in the rain, surrounded by crazy sweet mountains and fishing for cod. Hallvard caught two (the smug bastard) and we took them home to make 'Mølja', which sounded maybe a little too Norwegian but turned out to be pretty good once I got over my prejudices about eating boiled liver sauce and fish eggs.

Tommy enjoying the rainy boat/fishing tour

Birthday tour: My birthday was on Wednesday. It turned out to be sunny weather, and we set out for what would definitely be my favorite tour of the trip. The views were shit-your-pants-amazing in all directions, and from the top we stood straight above the fjord and could see out to the Atlantic. Well, that's what I'm told anyway--I could hardly be bothered to turn and look that way with all of the sexy, pointy, glaciated mountains to be gawked at in the other directions.

The happy birthday song was sung enthusiastically at me in Norwegian and English on the top before being treated to a really fun and fast line 3500 ft down to the car. Later the sneaky devils busted out cake and Norwegian moonshine and more singing and general merriment ensued. A damn satisfying birthday for sure :-)

Ålesund: Thursday was bad weather and I went with three of the guys to check out the city of Ålesund. It was an hour and a half and a ferry ride away from Sæbø, but is by no means far from its share of sexy mountains. It's also one of the coolest looking cities I have ever been to, with nice buildings, pedestrian streets and restaurants all surrounded by beautiful, snowy mountains that stick right out of the fjords. So, uh, why don't I live in Ålesund??

And if you turn around you see a fjord and snow-capped spikes :-)

Bygdafest! Our social little North-Norwegian came to the rescue again with the tip that there would be a special, once a year 'after ski' for easter ski tourers. It was across and up the fjord where there were no roads, but a boat had been arranged to get skiers there and back for the party. So at 9:30 we shuffled down to the dock and hopped on. I didn't really know what to expect, but it turned out to be a blast! There was one large building with tables, and people had come by boat from all around for the once-a-year party. All of the smiling faces we had seen skiing down the mountains earlier in the week were there, plus a good crowd of locals of all ages. Oh, and lots of beer, singing/accordian/guitar and dancing.

Here are a few more pics and I'll put the rest on facebook.

Hege approaching the summit.

Nice weather eh?

Fjord og Fjell :-)

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.