spring!!

after the snow storm, it snowed nicely and slowly for a couple of days bringing lots and lots of powder and the longing to go out skiing... obviously, being not exactly experienced and not the best of skiers, i played things safe and only went on off-pistey trips a) when i could see further than 5 meters and b) where the slope was no steeper than 25 degrees. the first outing was on the weekend with a couple of friends, with snowfall, wind, and low vis (i.e. 10 meters... J ) ...


a few more of this sort of trips and i can happily go skiing blindfolded! the powder was well worth it!

then, monday, suddenly, spring came to the north with fantastic sunshine and superb, stable conditions. and i was stuck in the office with cruise preparations.... luckily, a couple of postdocs convinced me to join them and their friends for a morning tour on tuesday (aim to be back in the office for lunch :) ).


stupidly early on tuesday, they picked me up, i hoped my boss wasn't looking out of his window (i live in the flat underneath), and we drove over to kvaløya and to the start point of the trip up gråtinden. got to the top at around 10:30 i think. well, not quite to the top, the last bit is a rather narrow ridge and since the snow was still pretty fresh and hadn't stabilised, we decided not to do the final, potentially avalanche risky bit. so back to the first summit, nice food and tea break in the sun (felt properly warm!) and then .... down!!! through awesome powder!!! what a morning :) we didn't make it back in time for lunch though, got stuck in a queue due to a traffic accident for 3/4 hour. nevermind...

and, this is norway: back in the office, the bosses and colleagues happily chatted about skiing trips and totally agreed with our choice of priorities ;)