Half a Stryn of Skiing

Midsummer weekend, 2011. The good news is that I have a day of skiing in one of the best summer ski places on the northern hemisphere, Stryn, Norway. The bad news is that the glaciers really are melting. And that's affecting my day at Stryn, as the upper ski lift is being rebuilt to accommodate for the changed shape of their glacier.

This means that half of the ski area is out of action, at least unless one spends an hour or two walking up. And I can not do that today, skiing with a kid.

But at least its a great, warm and sunny day. The summer ski areas always advertise themselves with pictures of people skiing in their swimsuits. That's as far from reality as it can be, normally. There's a reason why these places have snow: they are either very cold (high up) or they have always bad weather (it rains a lot). But we are lucky today, swimsuits would almost be enough. On a normal day it would be at least cloudy and cold, if not foggy and rainy.



I like Stryn because of its relaxed attitude, off-piste opportunities, direct access to the slope from the first ski lift (no one hour commutes to the top of mountain, like in the Alps) and the availability of many other interesting sights nearby. But mostly I like Stryn because unlike many other summer ski places, Stryn has steep ski runs. Its wonderful to descend a steep slush face with views of green lakes and waterfalls underneath.



Stryn receives an enormous amount of snow every year, as the winds push moist air from the fjors towards the mountains. The amount of snow varies between 5 and 15 meters annually, and in the summer when the snow depth is only 5 meters they open the ski area! Its typically open from May to July. The snow in Stryn feels natural, spring snow. Not rock hard high-altitude glacier snow.

There's really only one ski slope at Stryn: straight down, a bit to the skier's left from the lift. Be careful about the cat track that switches back and forth, as there can be big drops next to the track. But most people take themselves little further to the skier's left, few hundred meters from the ski lift. For a summer ski run, this is a steep, sustained slope. But the real benefit are the views: you are skiing straight towards a waterfall and the lake. On a warm day late in the season you make a turn here, make the next turn, and flying snow from the previous turn hits you on the back. Nice!

The other off-piste option is to take yourself to the top of the upper ski lift and then go far to the skier's right, staying on top of the ridge. Ski down a steep snowy gully that goes down on the side of the ski area but keeps turning a bit to the right (see the middle of the picture on the left). Once you are down from the steep section, go straight towards to the ski area, but be careful about the crevasses that exist on this area. Do not take this ski run unless you know what you are doing!

There are further off-piste ski options by going far to the skier's left, down towards the road that comes from the valley, hitching a ride back to the ski area. But I have not tried those routes.

Here are the essential parameters for Stryn: The base of the ski area sits at 1080 meters, and if all lifts are operational, the top sits at 1600 meters. This means over half a kilometer of vertical. Lift tickets cost 330 crowns or about 42 Euros per day for adults. It takes roughly half an hour to reach the area from the valley bottom, and an hour from the town of Stryn.

The road to Stryn has countless switchbacks, and can be tiresome to drive for the inexperienced. The first time I was here twenty years ago the engine of our car shut down on every attempt to shift gears. Not a good vehicle for these roads.

You should also watch for sheep on the road. And nearer the ski area, watch for boarders flying over the road. This year the snow banks next to the road were small, but on our previous visit they were 5-10 meters high. Its a popular but dangerous sport to try to jump over the road at high speed.

We found the Strynsvatn Camping an excellent base to stay at, half way between the town and the ski area. A fully equipped, new cabin for eight costs about 160 Euros per night, smaller cabins or tent and camper van slots are cheaper. The views are spectacular. There are more services in the town of Stryn, but it is not as exciting place to stay at. And its a central place for touring Geiranger, Briksdalsbreen, Galdhöpiggen, Jostedalsbreen National Park Center, or any other nearby attractions. And these sights are definitely recommended -- Norway is full of wonderful places to visit.

Stryn is roughly half-way between two major cities,  Bergen and Trondheim, 300 kilometers from each. The only practical way to reach it is by car. Driving is easy from Scandinavia, elsewhere you'll have to fly in first. We flew to Bergen and flew back home from Trondheim, using the local low-cost carrier, Norwegian Air Shuttle, which turned out to be not so low-cost after we paid for the luggage and ski bag transport.

Stryn ski center does not serve soup, so I was unable to determine the Goulash index for them. Sandwiches were reasonably priced for Norway, however. In general, eating in restaurants in Norway is extremely expensive, however. Calculate 25-30 Euros per person even on basic family restaurants. Pretty expensive, particularly when moving around with a family of five. (Norwegians are really rich, they can afford to live in Norway!)

Photo credits (c) 2011 by Jari Arkko

Good Choice to Avoid Iceland

A couple of days ago I was arranging my trip to Quebec, Canada that is coming up in two weeks. I had two options, either use a Finnair flight or an Icelandair flight. The advantage of the Finnair flights was that I would get to use my normal airline, collect points and spend a little bit less time on the trip. The good thing with the Icelandair flight would have been that I would have been able to stay a day or two in Iceland, the tickets were a little bit cheaper and travel schedule more relaxed. My plan was to go check out the summer skiing possibilities on Myrdalsjókull, a glacier that sits on top of the Katla volcano. If you remember Eyjafjallajökull from last year, Katla is next to it but much bigger.

I ended up booking the Finnair flights, mostly because I had to no time for additional skiing.

That's a good thing.

In yesterday's news they were reporting major flooding in the area, and it is suspected that Katla is erupting.

The flood washed away a bridge and cut a major traffic route. According to Wikipedia, "Helicopter pilots flying over the glacier also reported cracks in the glacier, suggesting a large meltdown of the glacier on the south-eastern rim of the Katla crater".

Although... going there would have enabled me to enjoy two of my hobbies, skiing and volcano-watching... hmm...


Photo credits (c) 2010 by Jari Arkko and 2011 by the Living Geography blog

Horseback Skiing in the Himalayas

I'm having a Zen moment. I did find snow and was able to ski, and now the soft clouds, green environment, winding road, sitting Buddha, smoke aromas and the local music was having an soothing effect on me.

But this did not come easily. My plan was to go to Rohtang Pass, Himachal Pradesh, India. Never before have I encountered so many obstacles. It started back home, when it turned out to be impossible to find out if skiing was possible. Several sources indicated it might be, but there was no information about the details, no pictures, no phone numbers to call, nothing.

Would there be a ski-lift? No idea. Was climbing involved, and what equipment would be needed? No idea. I did know, however, that the heliski operation had ceased for the summer and that while high-altitude touring was possible, it would have required at least a seven day trip.



Given the lack of information, there was nothing else to do than to show up and see what happens.

And "showing up" was by no means easy. The location is 600 kilometers from Delhi, Google gave me a ten hour drive estimate. I was unable to find any reasonable flights to the area. To be exact, I was unable to find an airport in the area.

Luckily the concierge at my hotel was able to organize a ride, a driver and a car. A taxi. When I met the driver, however, he said that our ride would take 14 hours from Delhi to Manali. That is before going up the actual mountain.



And I had no idea what kind of driving was required even to make that 14 hours. On the first hour of the drive I woke up to a violent crash. Someone had driven to the backside of our car at high speed. Their car was wrecked, half a meter shorter than before. Luckily no major damage to persons, however. A kid in the other car hurt her face a bit and my neck was stiff. Our car was deformed but functional, so we picked up the loose pieces (like our spare tire) and carried on.



This is the kind of an accident that in the US would have sent everyone to the care of their hospitals or lawyers. Here, it seemed like a part of life. I saw many other accidents on the road during the rest of our journey.

And I'm not normally afraid of anything, but on this trip I was truly scared about the traffic. Our accident was nothing compared to the dangers on the mountainous part of our trip. Narrow, winding roads, speeds close to hundred kilometers an hour amidst slow trucks, and terrifying passes both by us and the oncoming cars. And practically no visibility in the turns. But not to worry, as long as we honk the horn before the turn the oncoming traffic will know we are there... maybe.

But we did get there. And then had trouble finding suitable accommodation. The first place that we stopped at had the hotel guy proudly demonstrate their rooms for me. Something moved in the bathroom floor. I wanted out.

I should have ditched the guys advice at that point, but he wanted us to go to a better place of the same owner. This hotel was by itself reasonable. But their ability to help me get to where I was going was lacking. It took an hour to discuss what we needed for the next day to get to the mountain. No one seemed to understand English. The type of cars and drivers I needed kept changing. In the morning they put me on this tiny Fiat with a guy who did not really know where he was going.

As we kept going up the road, it started to dawn on me that the Fiat may not be the right vehicle for "highest Jeepable road in the world" that stops few meters short of four kilometers. The mud pits got deeper and deeper, and it was simply not possible to continue any more. We reached a bit over 3300 meters and now had to turn back. No skiing? And even the 4wd drivers were telling us that the road is closed due to rock slides.

There was nothing to do but to go back. We had one last hope, however, as we had learned from my driver's English-speaking brother that there was another access to the snow. We parked our car at an altitude of 3100 meters and promptly found a solution: a Sherpa and a horse.

No problem. I had never ridden a horse before, so practicing riding on steep, rocky paths between three and four kilometers while carrying ski gear and taking photographs sounded like a fun thing to do. And it was. I have to give it to the horse, however. I was merely a passenger, the horse on the other hand has probably done the trip every day in its life. It set its foot securely, if at times doing it almost at a running speed. I survived. But I did regret leaving my helmet in the car. I was expecting easy skiing, but the helmet would have helped my anxiety about the horse or me falling down.

The horse carried me three hundred meters higher, in the middle of a couloir that has retained some snow deep in the shades between the mountains. Fifty other tourists, all from India were experiencing the snow, but I saw no one else trying on skis. I decided that I needed to ski from further up, so we started to climb up the couloir. I had just arrived today at these altitudes, so I was taking it easy to avoid getting too exhausted. We climbed up 100 meters and reached 3500 meters.

I'm regretting stopping at that point, however. I later learned that the gully continued all the way to the Rohtang Pass at 3970 meters, the highest point in the road. It would not have been fully skiable, there were some rocky sections. But it would have been a nice climb for maybe two more hours, and an interesting ski route. As it were, I skied down from 3500 meters. Maybe it was the right decision, however.

I had a Sherpa with me, but he spoke no English. And I was unable to find out if avalanches and rock falls were a danger here. All the snow in the gully was covered with small rocks. A few meters from where we stopped there was a bigger rock that looked like it had dropped there, not melted from under the snow or brought by the winter avalanches. If you ever visit this place, bring a helmet, crampons, and figure out what the safety situation is. The gully has potential to be a great place to ski, particularly in May/June if the snow covers the entire way. It can also be skied by riding a car up and then skiing down, riding a horse back to the road. Recommended for adventurous skiers.

Skiing down was fun, as we skied first in a cloud and then re-appeared back to sunshine. There were plenty of rocks to avoid and some sand and dirt on top of the snow. I'm guessing my ski repair shop is getting yet more work. Sliding was not perfect given the quality of the snow, so some additional steepness would have been nice.



When I walked back to the tourist area there were opportunities for riding some bigger animals, sliding down with a tire, food, trying on some local clothing, and other fun stuff. The local people are friendly and happy folk. I wish understood their language.


Practical details about the trip? I got 125 meters of vertical in my 1 minute 53 second ski run. I spent 1274 times more time to get here and back (40 hours), which is an even worse ratio than on my infamous trip through Poland.

But of course the value of the trip was not just the skiing. The scenery, the people, hiking up, riding horses, food, and everything else was mind-blowing. I forgot to ask about the price of Goulash soup, but if soup costs a bit over a Euro in a fine-dining restaurant in Delhi, it cannot be very expensive in the Himalayas either. I paid 26 Euros for night for the accommodation at Manali, the main village next to the Rohtang Pass road. And the highest price that I ever paid for a taxi ride: over 300 Euros. But I have to hand it to my driver. He did get me back alive. And he drove for 28 hours within the space of only 40 hours (he slept while I was on the mountain).

Given a choice, I would have visited this area in the winter time. There are a few small ski areas, but a lot more options for venturing to the mountains in the winter. There is a heliski operation between January and March, for instance. They can take you all the way to 6500 meters, perhaps something to try some day in the future. On the trip I also found out that it might have been possible to fly to this area after all. There's an airport near Kullu. That might have been a better option, if there are flights to Delhi. There are plenty of shops in Manali for ski gear and clothing, but I would recommend bringing your own if you have special requirements. The businesses are tailored towards local people who are here to see snow for the first time, not for experienced western skiers or climbers.

Conclusions? I learned a lot from the Indian way of life on this trip. Practical details sort themselves out, eventually. Learn to love everything that the country offers. Relax. Listen to some local music, smell some aromas, let the Buddha guide you.

And while in India, drive in a big car. Sit in the middle of the vehicle. Eat only heated food, and only from places that are popular with the locals as well. Figure out the way to use the hole-in-the-floor toilets. Some good advice for traveling here can be found from the book by Madventures (my spiritual leaders in matters of travel).


Photo credits (c) 2011 by Jari Arkko

Priorities

Landed in Delhi for some customer meetings. But first things first, Himalaya is kind of close. Sharing a taxi with my skis for the next 600 kilometers. Lets see if I'll find snow.

Dog Finds Slovenia's Last Snow

Summer has arrived to the Slovenian Alps

Noon, Saturday in the Kamnik-Savinja Alps of Slovenia. I am at the altitude of 1800 meters, above the Češka Koča hut and in the shadow of the highest mountain in the region, Grintovec.

Despite having dragged my skis through four countries and airports, I had already lost hope of finding any skiing on this trip. But to my surprise I now had snow under my skis. The thanks for this goes to my newly found Slovenian friends: Ana, Matjaž, Urban, and my old friend Jan.

And last but not least, Lana, the climbing dog. Lana has lead the way through the forest paths, rock walls and steep snow faces and brought us to this point.

And what a nice place this is. Not just this mountain, but the entire small country of Slovenia is beautiful. No matter where you are, the mountains are visible. And for the most part, the mountains are unspoiled, covered by thick forests and without scars left by civilization.

There are also pretty fields, castles and cities. I had not visited Slovenia before, and I was also surprised about the state of their their technology. Just one example: its the only country with IPv6 available in all mobile networks.

But getting here seemed to involve an endless number of roadblocks. First, my business took me to a few different countries on this same trip before Slovenia, which meant carrying a lot of equipment around and using luggage storage services while was in my meetings.

And unlike with my usual airline, the airlines on this trip all charged extra for the ski bag, costing all together almost two hundred Euros extra.



And then it turned out that the ski areas that I was planning to visit were closing just a few days before my trip. And finally, when we came up with the backup plan of climbing up on our own, the weather forecast center told us to stay away from the mountains.

But we decided to risk it anyway. We could always turn back if the weather become a real problem. And that was a good decision. With the exception of a three minute shower, we whole day was sunny. We parked our car at the end of a small road and started the climb through a thick forest at an altitude of 1000 meters. This was an easy walk along a well-marked path. A bit later the path reached a more rocky area, involving a few sections with ladders or safety wire handrails. (These posed a small challenge for Lana, as the young dog needed more climbing experience.)

The Češka Koča hut acted as our base of operations five hundred meters higher. A week ago, the snow reached the areas around the hut, but now we had to walk a bit further.

With Lana in the lead, we climbed through scree slopes, rock outcrops, and finally, a steep gully of soft snow. (By the way, it seemed far too easy to climb with four legs.) At an altitude of 1800 meters we reached a plateau. It made no sense to continue, as there was not really any snow in the rock faces above.

Skiing down the steep gully was fun, as the snow was just soft enough to get a good grip but not to create a wave of wet snow ahead of me. Further down I realized that I had to make slalom turns around the small rocks that lay on top of the quickly melting snow cover. It was not a complete success; I'm guessing that the guys at my ski maintenance shop will give me yet another lecture.

Even further down I found another gully that led past the hut, but the snow cover narrowed down so that I had to cross a few sections without any snow; more trouble for my skis. I stepped carefully over the stones and continued skiing. I finally arrived at the end of the snow and walked back to the hut.

As we walked down and started to leave, my friends had another surprise: we had an opportunity to meet Davo Karničar, the Slovenian climber and extreme skier. Davo lives near the start of the trail towards the Češka Koča hut, and his father actually owns the hut.

Davo's name is not too familiar in the western world, but this man might well be the greatest extreme skier alive today. His achievements include being the first skier to ski down from the summit of Everest and the first to ski down from the seven summits. He has also skied from the Eiger and Matterhorn, and made countless other descents. An amazing man!

The essential parameters for skiing at the hut are as follows. The hut is in Jezersko, just 30 kilometers from the Ljubljana airport. The hut is at 1542 meters in the slopes of Grintovec (2558 meters). I got 300 meters of vertical on my ski down the slopes above the hut; in the winter far bigger parts of the mountain are skiable.

The recommended climbing time to the hut is 1 hour 15 minutes, and that held pretty well even with large amount of equipment we were carrying (though Urban tooks turns to help carry the skis - thank you!). It took an additional hour to climb to the plateau, and five minutes to ski down.

There are also commercial ski areas in Slovenia. I had originally planned to ski in Sella Nevea - Bovec, a ski area that links Italy (Sella Nevea) and Slovenia (Bovec). They were still open on May 8th, a week before my trip. Sella Nevea would be excellent addition to any trip to the nearby Venice, by the way.

As I am finishing this blog entry, its already next week -- my first week this season that I am not skiing somewhere.

I did travel to Berlin and I would have tried their infinitely long indoor ski slope, but unfortunately it was not open the day that I was there. It certainly feels like summer is taking over.

Oh well, at least I booked a vacation in Norway for next month. Hopefully there will be some skiing in Stryn. With Slovenia being 19th country or state this season, Norway could be the 20th.

Green mountains of Slovenia

Dog waits for the slow human climbers

Photo Credits (c) 2011 by Jari Arkko, Urban Kunc, and Matjaz Stepancic

90 Minute Ski Trip to Haarlem

Helmets

   I stare at my flight tickets. If my flights are on Saturday, why does it say Friday on the tickets?

The slope

As a week of marathon meetings is now over, I was looking forward to some relaxation. This was supposed to be a two helmet trip where I could do both some skiing and biking. With very few exceptions, all my business trips are at least one helmet trips; if all else fails, in most places you can at least rent a bike for an evening tour around the city. Actually, for health reasons I need at least that amount of exercise every couple of days. In exceptional places and with trips lasting through weekends, I may be able to get a three helmet trip by going biking, skiing, and climbing.

But now I may have a dreaded zero helmet trip, as my flight is taking off in just three and half hours. I decide to

Riding in the taxi towards the ski area

try to squeeze the skiing in anyway, even at the risk of possibly missing my flight. I throw everything into my suitcase, pay my hotel bill and grab a taxi from the street.

I am about to ski in the Snow Planet, an indoor ski hall a few kilometers outside the city of Haarlem, Holland. Not Harlem, New York.

The Dutch and the Japanese are world leading builders of indoor ski halls. One of the Dutch halls, Snow World in Landgraaf, is the third biggest in the world. Snow Planet is not big, but its what I am trying to ski today.

Outside view

But first I have to get there. It takes a while to explain to the driver where I am going, and what is this concept of "skiing". And the Amsterdam city traffic is painfully slow. After a 40 minute drive we are finally there.

The entire facility seems modern and well equipped. There are three ski lifts, two exceptionally fast button lifts for indoors, and one moving

Ready to ski

carpet. The main slope is short. It is also not very steep, but unlike many other indoor ski runs, I find that its still steep enough to make actual turns. In addition to the main slope there is a short and almost level beginner's area.

A big part of the main slope is dedicated to jumps and rails. It is almost hard to find a passage through the slope without going through them. While I was there, much of the rest of the area was consumed by a kids training race track.

Lift ticket

At the top of the slope you can climb a few steps on top of a platform that drops a meter or two almost vertically at the beginning. Nice touch.

The essential parameters for the Snow Planet are as follows. One hour lift ticket is 19.50 € and a day ticket 26 €. The length of the slope is 230 meters. Soup of the week costs 4.50 € at The Lodge.

There is also a sports equipment shop and a rental facility. But if you accidentally forgot to pack ski clothing for your Netherlands trip, you are out of luck. They do not rent clothing.

View from the top

The ski area is 26 kilometers from the Schiphol airport and 30 kilometers from Amsterdam city center. My ski run down the hill took 20 seconds, but I made turns.

I stayed at the ski area for half an hour (including changing gear), and the ride back took 20 minutes, making us spend just 90 minutes on the entire excursion. I made it to my flight, too.

Photo credits (c) 2011 by Jari Arkko

Skiing Kauniainen at 3AM

Kauniainen, whopping 50 meters below

May, 2011. Its 3AM and I'm about to ski the local ski hill in Kauniainen. May will be my sixth month here, as the season started in December. That's quite a season for a ski area in the most southern part of Finland.

Strangely enough, the area was closed a month ago. But not due to lack of snow. Even now there's enough snow to ski down, though the night helps by making the snow a bit more firm. Still, as I climbed up I kept sinking to my knees and occasionally deeper.

The ski hill in Kauniainen is not big, its just 50 meters high. But its close, I could walk here from my home, and if the city didn't spread sand all over the walking paths, I could probably slide back home on my skis. Skiing here for an hour in the evening does

Sky colours

not waste time for travel. My kids learned to ski here. The local ski club, GRIFK Alpine, has a ski school that lasts for the whole winter and teaches 500 kids every year. Their training program is also highly acclaimed, one of the local kids is now a world cup racer. From this hill! Though one has to wonder how six year old trainees can ski the race track day in and day out, and then spend their evening watching video recordings to make sure their knees are at exactly the right angle in the turns. In any case, an impressively well organized club!

Climbing up in darkness

But back to this night. Why am I here? Its not much of a ski run, but I wanted to say that I skied here in May and photograph what the area looked like in the middle of night. Or you could say that I'm crazy. This seems like a good point to remind all the kids that skiing in a closed ski area is dangerous and incredibly stupid. Do NOT try this at home. As I climb up I keep watching for some of the dangers, as the melting snow has uncovered junk that I did not want crash into. The slope is almost entirely covered by snow, except for a few such spots. The lift track and flat area at the bottom are free of snow and full of mud, however.

The ski area

This is a historic site, actually. This ski hill was the site of the first ski lift in Finland, in 1934. The old wire lift was still used until a few years ago, literally a pain in the ass. The ski area is owned by the city, a tiny (pop 8,000) but self-sufficient Kauniainen. In addition to the ski hill, there's a lake, the city hall, a train station, one restaurant, one movie theater, a few shops, and a school that pioneers use of open source technology in learning. All you need, that is. In the winter a green, heated grass football field provides contrast to the to the ski hill that sits next to it.



And then there's the off-piste. Before you start laughing, let me point out that with all my skiing around the world, the most dangerous event that happened to me this season was falling to a bush well in Kauniainen. For a moment I thought I would be unable to move, but luckily was able to get myself free. I knew about tree wells, but I didn't realize that snow on top of bushes can collapse under the weight of a skier.

Football and skiing

First, it should be noted that top of the ski hill is easily accessible not just by the ski lift, but also by car from the end of Jalmarinpolku. If you come by this way, make sure you do not block the access to the local houses. There's space to park one car in front of the gate, however. The most interesting off-piste route is on the skier's right, straight down the steep side. This spot is icy and steep enough to be tricky at times. Alternatively, if you ski from the back of the lift and keep turning left towards the ski area, you'll find a number of different routes through the woods.

Off-piste

The essential parameters for Kauniainen are as follows: the price of adult day ticket is 17 Euros and a season ticket is 150 Euros.

They do not sell real food in the cafeteria so I don't know what the Goulash index would be. However, the cafeteria is a nice place for some hot chocolate and pulla! The closest "real" food is available in the Hölmölän Burger Grill (stupid's grill), near the Bemböle School, or alternatively in the one restaurant in the center of Kauniainen.

My nightly ski run took 27 seconds, but in the winter the slalom competitions winning times are usually around ten seconds.

Clouds

Photo credits (c) 2010-2011 Jari Arkko