Easter '08 - The Return to the North

OK, highlights only, have to skip all the way to easter here. Due to the resounding success of the previous easter , it was back North for a rematch.

Everything got of to a truly crap start, with SAS leaving our stuff in Oslo, so we arrived at Harstad-Evenes airport, to truly tremendous weather, but no ski stuff. Had to waste the day before our stuff arrived Here is a photo of our stuff not arriving.

By the time we got our stuff it was too late for much, so we zoomed across to Narvik in our rent-a-wreck hire car. much cheaper than last year :-)

Blue skies, super cold, and me and Dougal had a hunch it could be good for Northern lights. So we all (me, Dougal, Margaret, Felix and Suet (well done Suet)) ( suet from Malyasia, about 5ft high weighing about 5 stone, and got very cold, it was about -15degC), hiked up the piste to the top ski station at Narvik, with several bottles of red wine, some Macallan 15 year old (cheers Dougal), and lots of snus. hike up took a good 1.5 hours, ski down later about 15mins.

The results was truly epic. This was no Jemimaville northern lighst display. It was really scary, i almost fell over trying to escape them as they zoomed at me from the sky. The photos do it no justice at all, primairily co swe didnt actually take any photos of the best bits, we were too busy *hiting ourselves and giggling like little kids. Also, photos are only 3d of course.

This 1st one from before it got dark, it was actually darker than the photo looks though

Getting darker

and , weee video thing Margaret made using timelapse, BTW, this was right at the end, well after the best bits were finished.

This one of Suet and Felix very cold after the light show.

Better late than never

Ok so its November, and i have nothing to do, so i went back and thought i,d finish the 2008 blog, which i started in March but then was to busy Skiing! then i lost interest :-(

Its snowing in Scotland and the Lecht(!) opened today! Some norgie resorts are opening this weekend too, but i wont be sking cos am getting ready for the 2009 winter, which is gonna be the largest yet. And it will not invlove the Lecht.
Over the next couple of weeks i,ll fill in the rest of March, April and MAy 2008

Meanwhile here are some recent photos of the McHardSkiVan being pussered opp...





and

Austrian antics!!! (in St Anton)

Right, everything was waiting St. Anton. All what has gone before pales into the distance, mere training.

Beaver gets off plane, hurry up.

Nice Norwegian freinds we made on the train from Innsbruck. St. Anton is like Norways answer to Meribel.

AfterSki.....

Ski...

Going home.......

The only decent day in Roldal (so far) this year

Even by roldals exceptionally high standards of early season shitness, this season is legendary. Out of four days attempted skiing, have managed 1 day + 2hrs. It basically has not stopped snowing all January, meaning the lifts are constantly shut due to zero vis and high wind. Anyways, here is the only good day.

Morning: Mr H. Bartlema cleaning even more snow off the car.
















Roldal teases us with her charms, just before the cloud turns up again
















Monica teases us with her charms, just before....

















At end of day i stuck keys in ignition of my car and shut the door while i walked round to the back door to take of my boots, and the bloody central locking decided to lock the whole bloody van all by itself. When the NAF guy turned up he said that VW T vans always do it and he,s had it loads of times. offically not my fault then. phew. Anyway, the van got a ride on the back of a big truck all the way to the garage (40km) a where the guy busted in in 3 minutes using some plastic wedges.

two weeks before i lost my car keys but didnt realise til the next day. eventually found them, under 3inches of snow, in the garden of the pub in roldal. 10 000 000 to 1 chance. I new my luck had changed on 23rd dec when i turned up 20 minute slate for the last train from dyce to Sneck and still made the train, then 2 minute slater the conductor walked right past me without making me buy a ticket, sweeet. beats last year, which was cursed (6-month driving ban, 800 quid speeding fine, drove my bike in2 an OAP's brand new car causing 500 quid of damage, crashed into a deer, killed it, and caused 4.5 grand damage, never met any girls plus, Dougal; broke his leg, dropped his phone into a fjord twice, broke his car twice)
















Bartlema about to lose 100 kr at Poker:-)

Svenske Snow

After several weeks of zero vis and driving wind, it was decided to entake a small trip to sweden (flight to Trondheim and driveing to Are - where world cup was in '07) in search of some better weather, which we got. We also discovered thats Swedes are posher that Norgees and like to dress up at night. which we never.

Match stats so far: Ski days 9, distance flown: about 1600 km distance driven: er, about 2000km, tanks of diesel: 2, lost car keys 1, flat battery: 1, NAF call outs: 2, ski "resorts": 4, post 3am returns: 1.



Swedish border
















Nightskiing














Sunrise @ 0930 hrs
















Svenske Moose


Snow on our hire car
















Classic pose mate!















Dougal on our hire car

The begynnelsen: Hemsedal '08: Beaver in Norske

Thats it, its the 3rd of january folks, and while all u BI feckers are nursing hangovers the size of pilots stiffy whilst he's upside down, me and Beaver were getting on with the job at hand. Geta load of this. Thats Al & Monica on the ferry North from stavanger at 7 am on 3rd Jan. Not bad. Yup, this was another EPIC Hemsedal trip. its miles. Chris could get to the alps quicker.




But he cannae stan up straight cannae?








Lunch time:-)




Pretty fjord going dark, about 3pm, 7 hrs in2 the drive









Next is a wee Vid of us Xing The Hardangervidda- the largest upland area of europe. It is like driving over top of the Cairngorms. You arnt allowed to drive alone, you have to wait for the snowplows and drive in a convoy. when we started the crossing, we were behind some lorries that could not get up the hill, that was scary. Bevre was driving, he handlet it well, and did not use the brakes all the way over.



Didnt seem to get many ski-photos! But, it snowed, a lot.



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