Trysil

yes yes yes i know..more boarding pictures with slopes that all look the same...anyway, theres been a load of snow in the mountains in norway. so the powder was really deep = mucho fun. amazing views from the top of Trysil, especially on such a clear day. the large mountain at the back above the tree line was a bit hairy, its nearly vertical, and has deep snow, so is really fun, but knackering, and the wind was immense up there. temperatures are much colder here than in Japan, the top was about -8.

one thing that did strike me though that it will be hard not to live in a country where you can just bugger off to the mountains to snowboard every weekend in the winter....im becoming spoilt

Trysil

Trysil is about 2.5 hours drive from oslo, and is one of the best resorts in norway. My grumbliness and under my breath mumbling at steve, (who made us get up at 6) disappated when we saw the mountains bathed in beatuful blue skies and sunshine. Road conditions were again a little dicey, especially in a 2-wheeled drive car....this road continued for about an hour....and was particularly interesting driving home in the dark on icy snow covered roads...i aged considerably

Guitar Hero!

Had a meeting in Stavanger on Monday, which is a short 40 minute flight (7 hour drive) from oslo, so stayed over with Dave in his new house. Dave has just installed a 64 inch plasma tv! it is huuuge, with 6 massive surround sound speakers, so we played Guitar Hero, which is a Playstation game, where you have a guitar and play along to a few rock songs, all of which are really new ones....anyway, sounds geeky, but is soooo addictive, think we played for about 4 hours, great fun.

2 things to note:
1. if you play it on a hardwood floor, then after you've finished a song, you look at the floor and it appears to be 'creeping' away from you....like you'd taken mushrooms or something...i guess. and Dave has a reindeer skin rug on the floor, and i swear it looks like its breathing! its to do with staring at the screen intently for 5 minutes

2. Dave's mate came round to join, who is also from Sheffield, so we had 3 guys from Sheffield sitting in Stavanger playing Guitar Hero...(it seemed poignant at the time)

Saturday

Saturday was a dark dark day. It was the first time Sheffield United had played our arch rivals Sheffield Wednesday (known as 'The Pigs') in about 3 years, and growing up in Sheffield, there were huge tensions between the united and wednesday fans. Anyway....i went to the pub on saturday to watch the gamed live on tv, and im not kidding, the entire pub was empty, apart from the bar staff and me, sat alone in the corner resplendant in my sheffield united shirt. needless to say, we got beaten, and although 'its only a game', that still hurts pretty bad.

you know the saying 'if a tree falls in an empty forest, does it make a sound?'....well, despite being sat alone, and with no atmosphere at all in the pub...i still managed to forget that and shout at the tv and get way too vocal, so yes, the tree does make a sound

"...I fought the law, and the law won"

click on the image to read propoerly. This appeared in the Norwegian national paper last week. This guy had gone out, had a few glasses of wine, went to bed, then got up to drive gto work, during which he was breathalised, and found to be over the limit. The fine???

1. banned from driving for 3 years

2. ordered to chop wood for 30 days

3. fined £40,000 ($80,000)



jeeeeez! fines here are based on your income. my favourite though was that he was ordered to chop wood for 30 days! love it! only in norway would that happen.

The article ends with the quote ""I’ve learned my lesson, anyway," said Uleberg, with good humour."

Good humour?!!...he's a better man than me

Powder!

Loads of powder in Norfjell, with some lovely back runs through the trees. Also of note is driving home in the snow on roads fully whited (whited???) out, with only tyre tracks to follow, driving a very drunken dave home after an apres ski 'party' in the bar, (i drank coke) and totally losing control of the car at 70kmph, spinning to the other side of the road and narrowly missing an oncoming car...i miss my scooby!

More Norfjell

Alistair doing his own unique style of kung fu boarding...and me sans helmet (the snow in my goggles is due to landing facedown in 4 feet of powder...im not kidding...it buried me)

At the top

steve/dave, me/dave...the phrase of the day was 'chuff me its cold'...(it was cold)

Norfjell

Norfjell

this was the first proper boarding trip of the year (ie not tryvann)...a few of us went up to Norfjell, which is 2 hours drive north of oslo...and is a more grown up mountain. this was the stunning drive up

Tryvann

aahhh..i remember now...this is when the blog just becomes an infinate diary of snowboarding trips...anyway...with all my guests finally gone (no offence)...it was time to hit the slopes again....starting with Tryvann in Oslo...its only a baby mountain but good and local

More Stockholm

Jail bird

this is Langholmen, it is on an island in stockhom (stockholm itself lies on 14 islands). it is an old prison dating back to 1840 and has recently been converted into a hostel....and i have to say...its brilliant (well found shanna). you actually stay in the old cells...which are obviously nicer than the original rooms, but you still get that feel to them...its also a pretty cheap option to stay here, and would heartily recommend it to anyone, for the novelty factor if nothing else