Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
A couple of days in the apartment
Saturday, sunday and monday we have not been skiing, but instead just hung around in the apartment. This is partly due to hangovers, thorlak having a cold and the weather being all grey and cloudy.We have however been taking full advantage of the days caught inside, sleeping late, watching series and movies all day and for my part working on my exam paper as you see on the picture. Actually I'm progressing so good that I hope to give it the final touches tomorrow, and thus take reading out of reading week and only be on vacation down here for the final two weeks
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
The apartment
(The pictures will be uploaded soon)
This is a tour of our home down here while we still live in comfort and bliss. In a couple of weeks we’ll be moving in with 4 other guys in a 6 person flat in the other end of town.
We have a sleeping area where the injured one (me) is located in the bottom bunk while Sune catches some altitude. We keep most of my stuff under the bed together with my humongous snowboard bag. A bag that carried all my stuff down here including 2 boards, safety gear, other equipment, food, clothes etc.
Then we have the bathroom. Small, cosy and pretty warm on account of a big and hot towel rack.
Then there is the minimalistic toilet. Simple but usefully separated from the bathroom. Especially if we would have been more people in the flat. (They say the flat could hold 4 people)
The kitchen is small but well equipped and we have made some pretty successful dinners by now. Nothing much t say about that besides that it works well for us.
The living room is directly connected to the kitchen and includes a dining area and a relaxing area (that also serves as a guest beds if you want to come and visit. This is where we throw back and enjoy some movies or read a book. Sune usually use the dining area to work on his final project for school. (One he really should get done with...)
Then there is the balcony. Big and with a somewhat good view. It also holds a couple of deck chairs that I take out into the snow during the day for some light reading while being injured. This enables me to catch some of those life-giving sunrays and feel a bit better about hanging around doing nothing.
Well that’s it really. Our home for three weeks in the snow.
This is a tour of our home down here while we still live in comfort and bliss. In a couple of weeks we’ll be moving in with 4 other guys in a 6 person flat in the other end of town.
We have a sleeping area where the injured one (me) is located in the bottom bunk while Sune catches some altitude. We keep most of my stuff under the bed together with my humongous snowboard bag. A bag that carried all my stuff down here including 2 boards, safety gear, other equipment, food, clothes etc.
Then we have the bathroom. Small, cosy and pretty warm on account of a big and hot towel rack.
Then there is the minimalistic toilet. Simple but usefully separated from the bathroom. Especially if we would have been more people in the flat. (They say the flat could hold 4 people)
The kitchen is small but well equipped and we have made some pretty successful dinners by now. Nothing much t say about that besides that it works well for us.
The living room is directly connected to the kitchen and includes a dining area and a relaxing area (that also serves as a guest beds if you want to come and visit. This is where we throw back and enjoy some movies or read a book. Sune usually use the dining area to work on his final project for school. (One he really should get done with...)
Then there is the balcony. Big and with a somewhat good view. It also holds a couple of deck chairs that I take out into the snow during the day for some light reading while being injured. This enables me to catch some of those life-giving sunrays and feel a bit better about hanging around doing nothing.
Well that’s it really. Our home for three weeks in the snow.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Trick or treat?
Sune proclaimed yesterday that today he would do a 360. (One whole rotation) But after him realising the task at hand we realised that he was only telling half the truth. He only went for the 180. (A half rotation) So without further notion here are some video clips of his feeble attempts.
See the rest at our YouTube channel
Some of the latter ones are decent but still needs some work. He needs to go higher and eventually do some graps. But pretty good for a first time and hopefully he’ll man himself up and do the 360 within a couple of days. Tune in here later to see him in action. We are taking bets on which day it is...
Another bet you can make is when and what bone Thorlak is going to break next.
See the rest at our YouTube channel
Some of the latter ones are decent but still needs some work. He needs to go higher and eventually do some graps. But pretty good for a first time and hopefully he’ll man himself up and do the 360 within a couple of days. Tune in here later to see him in action. We are taking bets on which day it is...
Another bet you can make is when and what bone Thorlak is going to break next.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Trading pride for bruises – voluntarily
The best ideas are conceived under the influence of alcohol, and this one too. Yesterday we went out to get a few drinks and see how things were at Smithy’s, and suddenly it dawned to Thorlak that maybe he isn’t able to snowboard due to his arm, but he should be able to ski just fine. So today we got up and put on the wrong boots so to speak, and headed out on the slopes for some beginners snowboarding. At that point the only thing I was certain about regarding snowboarding, was that it was going to hurt.
Anyway, we got to the slope and I strapped on the board to my feet, wondering whether this really was such a bright idea as it had seemed the evening before. And I had some time to think it through since it took me several minutes just to get strapped in, being the novice I was. Well, I managed to secure the board to my feet, now I just had to get up and ride it downhill. Easier said than done apparently, as I had trouble just standing still on the slope. Anyway off we go and somehow I managed to end up at the bottom off the hill, taking some hits on the way down off course. Ending up down the hill turned out to be a very bad idea, since to get back up, I had to trust my life, and even worse my pride and dignity to a devilish piece of machinery: a drag lift. What is usually just a mindless routine suddenly became a mountain to climb. Well enough said really just watch the video here:
After a few more tries I got some sort of hang of it though, and the boarding became decent considering I only spent about an hour and a half on the board.
Anyway, we got to the slope and I strapped on the board to my feet, wondering whether this really was such a bright idea as it had seemed the evening before. And I had some time to think it through since it took me several minutes just to get strapped in, being the novice I was. Well, I managed to secure the board to my feet, now I just had to get up and ride it downhill. Easier said than done apparently, as I had trouble just standing still on the slope. Anyway off we go and somehow I managed to end up at the bottom off the hill, taking some hits on the way down off course. Ending up down the hill turned out to be a very bad idea, since to get back up, I had to trust my life, and even worse my pride and dignity to a devilish piece of machinery: a drag lift. What is usually just a mindless routine suddenly became a mountain to climb. Well enough said really just watch the video here:
After a few more tries I got some sort of hang of it though, and the boarding became decent considering I only spent about an hour and a half on the board.
He’s BAAAACK
I have healed enough to take a bite from the dog that bit me.
I went back on the slopes today. This time i went on skis teaching Sune how to control the snowboard. It went really well and though I haven’t been skiing in several years I could still manage to control the skis while recording Sunes premature attempts to control the board.
It was SO good to be back on the piste! I have been out taking some footage of Sune and going to the mountain to enjoy the sceneary by foot, but this is much much better.
In the afternoon I abandoned the skis and took control of the different cameras trying to capture Sunes overdue attempts to do a 180. (A 180 is when you turn 180 degrees or half a rotation in the air) More about this in another post.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Avalanche practise
Today (the 10th) we practiced some avalanche rescue procedures. Before we went on this adventure we both bought a complete avalanche set consisting of a probe, a shovel and a beeper. The shovel needs no introduction. The probe is similar to a tent pole but extracts more quickly and is held together with a particular release system. The probe is used to locate the buried person in an avalanche once you have pinned down where to search with you beeber.A beeper is more correctly called a transceiver, indicating that it can both transmit and receive signals. All beepers no matter what brand transmits and receives on the same frequency (457 kHz). In case an avalanche goes off, and one of your mates gets buried the rest of us will take out our beepers and switch to receiving mode. We will then sweep down the mountain in a snake like line, until we catch a signal wich we will then use to guide us toward the victim. As a rule of thumb it can take a maximum of 15 minutes to find a person, or his chances of survival drops drastically.
Of course you don't want to start figuring out how your beeper works when you actually need to find someone, so practising under more controlled circumstances is key.
We did this by taking turns in burying a backpack with a beeper somewhere near our apartment for the other one to find. The first attempt took about 20 minutes but whe we stopped a couple of hours later, we were both able to find the bag in about 3 minutes.
Of course we hope never to be in a situation where we will need this equipment, but I guess it's a bit like a car. You never hope to use the airbag neither, but it's sure good to have.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)