Vaccination - check!

Photo by Jack De Lorme

Today we received our vaccinations. It was good getting one more thing on the list checked. The list still goes on and on and we have only got 5 weeks until departure! We have to get a better travel insurance, buy a burner and a tent lantern (I'm working on that one, though), scan our passports for buying flight tickets to Lukla, buy first aid supplies and so on. Oh my. I very much look forward to leaving but at the same time I fear how quickly time will pass these last few weeks. We have to get everything settled very soon. Oh my.

2nd Half of Easter

Saturday the weather was stunning. We decided to go ski mountaineering in spite of my cold. The summit for the day was to be Vorfjellet / Vårfjellet, a local mountain near my parents' house. The photo above is by Y, you can see the summit behind the cottage. We skied both up and down the slope to the right. Not too long a trip but a very nice hill back down. This is actually the first mountain I ever ski mountaineered to! Y used snowshoes to carry her snowboard up, Prince Charming had Randonee equipment and I Telemark (loose heel skiing). Y had a bit of trouble snowboarding out the valley after the descent but you come a long way with a little help from your friends (and my Dad)!

Sunday looked a bit gloomy in the start but the weather only got better and better. A very thin carpet of clouds was covering the sky, creating a magical light. The snow covered scenery was like a fairytale land!

2nd day of Easter (Easter Monday) is a public holiday here in Norway. We wanted to get more out of the day than being stuck in traffic trying to get back to Oslo. So we decided to go skiing in the morning before the ride back. The woods were really fun to ski in with the trees spaced perfectly and with funny moss hanging from the branches. And the snow - oh, the snow! I don't think I've ever skied in such perfect conditions in the mountains before. Powder to the knee. What a great way to end a great vacation!

Back to work

A weekend in the mountains is over and it's back to work. I'll tell you more later but for now you'll have to settle with a photo from our ski mountaineering trip. Pictured is Prince Charming on skis and Y with snowshoes, carrying her snowboard.

Easter in Western Norway

Even though I have a bad cold we decided to go visit my parents like we had planned. Y, Prince Charming and I stuffed the Prince's Ford full of equipment for sleeping outdoors, cross country skis and ski mountaineering equipment. The drive normally takes 6-7 hours in the winter but this time the weather on the mountain was really bad. We had to wait 2 hours before we were allowed to cross. All the cars had to drive slowly with the hazard blinkers on, following the plough. We ended up spending 10,5 hours on the trip.



We quickly realized I was too sick to sleep outdoors in a tent and decided to stay based at my parents house and do day trips instead. The weather today was unstable and I didn't get much sleep last night so we decided to go skiing at the local resort. We had a bit of a rough start on the day but things turned out well and we got two excellent runs at the end of the day.


We ended a good day by training with our avalanche beacons. It's been a while since I trained with it so it was a good experience for all of us. All the photos above are by Y.

Murphy's Law

Tomorrow we're going to Western Norway for a two-night tent trip. Or - that was the plan. I have of course managed to catch a cold. So typical that I'm now on the couch with fever and a runny nose. Climing the stairs feels hard. AARGH! It's SO annoying that I always fall sick during vacations. We're leaving tomorrow anyway to stay with my parents. So if I can't move from the sofa at least Prince Charming and Y can go skiing and get something out of the Easter Weekend.


Happy Easter!

Summer Dreams

Spring is now definetly here. Today is another lovely day and I am once again locked up in the office. In just a couple of days Prince Charming, Y and I are hitting the mountains - I'm really looking forward to that!


This year I've actually been pondering what I'd like to add to my wardrobe for summer instead of impulse shopping the sales racks with bad consciense. I'm always trying to save up money for a vacation but always failing. And then I go anyway. Well, well. Somehow I survive every time. I'm very lucky as things always seem to fall in place in the end. I can't say I don't worry about it, because I really do.


Anyway, the things I am dreaming of adding to my summer wardrobe are exemplified above. What I end up getting will definetly be low-street versions but it's more fun showing you what I'd get if I had a lot of money:

Patterned summer dress: Emilio Pucci
Perfume: Miracle by Lancome
Top: here: H&M Organic but what I'd really like is a Vera & William one. Just couldn't find a picture with a white background. You can see a picture from the Vera & William collection for Spring / Summer 2008 at the bottom of this post.
Shorts: Stella McCartney
Biker Jacket: Mike & Chris
Sandals: Sergio Rossi (I'd actually get brown ones but I liked these too)

Photo borrowed from Henne

Spring Sun of Past Times

The sun was lovely again today. I had to stay indoors to work. In other words not very good photo material so I'm posting a picture taken two years ago. The feeling of the sun finally warming is just great. Pictured above is FM relaxing at a crag in Sweden.

Dog Dreams

Picture borrowed from The Norwegian Rhodesian Ridgeback Club.

Picture found here.

I'm dreaming of a dog. I love dogs! But right now it's too much responsibility and besides, I can't have pets where I live. I'm too often away for the whole of the day and days off are often spent off ground. It wouldn't be right to a dog to have it locked up in the apartment all day and chained at the bottom of a crag on the weekends. If we move out from the city and I spend my time off hiking and skiing, then maybe. One day.

The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett was one of my favourite books when I was a child. I had trouble sleeping last night and found it in the bookshelf here at my parent's house. This is such a wonderful story of hope and new beginnings.

Spring Sun

My parent's oldest dog's enjoying the Spring Sun. He's nearly 13 years old and almost deaf. But he still seems to enjoy his life and shows no signs of being in pain. When they let him run freely he shoots off like he always has. After 50 meters he can't keep the speed up and acts as if that was a surprise to him him every time. This autumn he attended a week long hunting trip for grouse with my Dad and their other dog. She's 10 years old and only marginally fitter than him. He's old but there's no reason to put him down since he's not suffering. Here he's resting his head on the railing of the balcony. He loves standing there, watching over his kingdom.

Searching for treasure

When I'm visiting my parents I always enjoy searching for treasure in closets and drawers. I always find something memorable or stylish to take home. This time Mum and I searched through an old cardboardbox in the basement storage room. Each garment brought out memories from this or that occasion or experience. Our comments ranged from "Did I really wear THAT?" to "I remember you in that dress. You looked so stylish!" We pulled out the suit my Father wore for his confirmation when he was 15 and the shoes he wore when he married my Mum. My findings this time is pictured above. What I like the most is the stories behind these items. I hope I will get around to wearing them.

The black, short jacket is sowed by my Mum. There is also a black skirt to go with it but I'm leaving that for next time. I think this jacket will look great with blue jeans and a white tank top. The blue dress with black diagonal stripes my Mum wore to my Little Brother's baptism in 1984. The green dress with the flower motif I had laying in the closet. It was my Grandmother's and she gave it to me several years ago. I didn't like it that much back then but luckily I kept it. It's made of raw silk and was expensive when it was new, I think. The tag says Danish Art & Crafts, Belinda Næssing. I googled the name but got no hits. It would have been fun seeing what else she made and who she is. The purse I borrowed from Mum the last time I was here. It was a gift to her from my Dad when she was pregnant with me. I've used it several times and really like it. The leather has a red hue to it and the strap is a bit too short but I enjoy wearing it diagonally.

I like that my closet is full of memories and things that mean something to me.

Winter atmosphere

I haven't posted in a few days and today's post won't be great either. But I'm hoping to come back with grandeur soon. For now I'll let you enjoy this winter photo from some years back, taken at Oppdal by A.

Why the weight freak is taking over

Me on our recent winter tent trip in Rondane.

This morning I discovered a comment to my post The weight freak takes over concerning the purchase of my bivouac boots. And as I was typing my answer I realized I never told you what I decided to do. And if you haven't followed this blog for a while the post alone was pretty mysterious. So I decided to make my answer and explanation the post of the day.

kpriss:

so what did you do? kept them after all? I'm sorry for being such an ignorant, when seeing these, I thought they're for kids (have seen some of those for cold weather and I thought it was the case) sorry for mistaking. Why is the weight so important (i mean like 40g of difference?)?



Me:

The reason why I purchased the bivouac boots in the first place is that in May my friend Y and I are going trekking in Nepal, all by ourselves. You can see the other posts on the subject here. Since we're carrying our own load and not using porters ("Sherpas") the weight is very important. If our backacks are too heavy we might not be able to get to Everest Base Camp. We're planning to do a very nice route that takes a bit longer than the straight-in-straight-out variant. Spending more time is also good for adjusting to the height and lessen the risk of Altitude Sickness. We're planning to spend 23-24 days in the mountains so we're carefully planning what to take and what not to take. And since we're both girls and easily get cold feet insulated "loafers" that we can wear around camp are great.





So over to the boots themselves: I've decided to keep them but swap the inner soles for thick woolen ones. The inner soles currently in there are some sort of plastic foam and they seem a bit too large. So they'll "eat upwards" as you walk in them and you'll end up treading on the blue fabric that isn't watertight, thus becoming wet. With other soles that are smaller I'm hoping to solve the problem. I have kept the receipt, though, so I can take them back if it doesn't work.

Ingrid Olava

This up and coming Norwegian talent is one of my favourites these days.

(Nina, I'm sure you'll love this!)

In loving memory...

... of the world's coolest grandfather.

I will always be so proud of him. The world is a poorer place without him.

Rest in peace.

Back to work

Here's another photo from our Rondane trip.

After having worked all day and evening to catch up that is all I can give today.

Have a nice day!

Mr Freeze

Our camp

Just back from a three day trip to Rondane, I'm lounging in the sofa, catching up on my favourite blogs. Friday evening, Prince Charming and I drove up to Rondane with skis and a tent. We arrived at the parking lot around midnight and pitched the tent right there as we were too tired to start the work of treading the snow to make a camp spot nearby. After a night of not very good sleep we got off to a bad start of our trip. I had been in Rondane four years ago but couldn't for my bare life recognise where the track started. As this is a very popular crosscountry area there were tracks everywhere! We looked at the map and decided it had to be the track going east. After about 30 minutes we realized we were wrong and a nice lady told us we had to ski all the way back to where we started from and then take a right. Oh shame! The weather was great and skiing conditions perfect so moral was still high. We found the right track and had skied another 10 minutes when we discovered we were three minutes from the far end of our parking lot. Had we walked across it (instead of skiing around it) the distance was only about 500 meters from our car... Well, well. I then realized why I didn't recognize the track to start with. We were standing by the upper parking lot (yes, there are two) which was obviously the one we had parked at four years ago. So, we had just spent over one hour to get to where we could have parked. The rest of the trip went along well, though.




We planned to ascend Rondeslottet on day 2, but the conditions for summits weren't great, as you can see below.

Prince Charming and the shadow of my big, black mitt.

We ended up skiing down in the valley for a short trip, stopping to have lunch and chocolate (yummy!). There, we met 10 British people on their first ski trip ever. It was their second day skiing and they had a considerable way to go to reach the cabin of their destination. All though we had to laugh a bit of their (lack of) technique I have to say I am very impressed with them. When skiing with no technique at all, skiing is very tiresome and these people were skiing a normal days distance for an experienced skier. They must have been so tired only half way. That is a true feat!

(The dots are the group of Brits)

The next day we awoke very early - 5.20 am. Since we went to sleep just after dark, probably around 8 pm the night before we decided to go up and by the time we had finished breakfast it was light outside. We took down the tent and packed the camp up and started skiing back where we came from. After having crossed the lake (see the stunning view below) we stopped for a short break at the tourist cabin the Brits were going to the night before. And yes, they started the leg of the day just as we sat there. They skied on the other side of the valley so we never actually passed them. But after a while they disappeared in the distance behind us. All of my respect goes to these people. True success only comes through ordeal.

Me. (The thing on my stomach is a map case.)