Ich bin ein Berlin(ski)er

The Berg - a creation by architect Jakob Tigges - is the latest source of pride for Berliners. This artificial mountain covers almost the entire Tempelhof, an old airport. A park like no other. And I am in Berlin to make the first descent!

The historic Tempelhof airport was closed in 2008, and has since then been reserved for recreation. Biking, climbing, hiking, camping, even paragliding, ... the possibilities are limitless. The mountain and its views are like a dream that has captivated the Berliners. Just the thought of the mountain has caused other cities to be envious. Suddenly the biggest skyscrapers, Guggenheim museums, and and opera houses seem nothing compared to what Berlin has.

Climbing to the 1000 meters high The Berg is tough in the hot Berlin summer. At this time of the year, there isn't much snow, but I can still ski on the moss and lichen that covers the steep parts of the mountain. My skis slide better on moss than on grass, and the recent rain helps me go even faster. 

And it is much more fun to fall on moss than on grass! This is my first time skiing on moss, and I take a couple of falls. But here and there rocks stick out of the ground, as do tree stumps. And there are drops in the rockface. Selecting the right route is crucial. Skiing what you climbed is the safest way.

Above: A "sselfie" (skiing-selfie).

Above: A view from the old terminal.

Above: Reaching the top.

So this was the first descent of The Berg. At least for the moment, however, The Berg remains an imaginary mountain. But what could be more rewarding than thinking about how to construct a perfect mountain? And reality is not required for enjoying the mountain. As the architect himself notes: "Tourists would come to the site to take photographs of the mountain that isn’t there". The mythical plan opens our eyes to see things that we were unable to see before, to imagine the unimaginable.

Perhaps paradoxically, the ski runs on this article are real. Imagination can affect reality.

What is your imaginary mountain?

Above: The only photo that I have of the first descent; 

timing delay shots when you are alone is very difficult.

Above: Old signs at the airfield.

Photos and videos (c) 2014 by Jari Arkko. The audio track used in the video for the John F. Kennedy speech has been taken from wikimedia. Two of the pictures are taken from The Berg project homepage. Thanks to Désirée for coming up with the title for the article. More information about The Berg can found from the following links: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]. Tämä artikkeli löytyy myös suomeksi.

Liquid Nitrogen

A long, hot summer. And boring. But then I found some leftover liquid nitrogen from an overclocking experiment. Would skis work on liquid nitrogen?

This was an obvious opportunity for a physics test. Pour the nitrogen on the small slope in my yard and attempt to ski the liquid-covered surface. I put on my Orthex miniskis, grabbed a pair of poles, and skied the slope.

The skis slid on the surface... pretty much like they do on any rock surface, i.e., not very well. Much of the nitrogen disappeared in a white cloud. But there was a little bit of ice formed on the rocks. (See the picture of the surface further down below.) But still, it was not a bad ski day. The cloud was nice, even if I used only a small amount of the liquid.

With more liquid, the icing effect would perhaps have been more noticeable. But at the same time, the risks would have been higher. I wouldn't want to fall on a pool of liquid nitrogen, for instance.

So what happened with my son's overclocking experiments? The CPU was run at 8.025 GHz. Here's the icy heat sink:

WARNING: Liquid nitrogen is extremely, extremely dangerous. Physical contact with it is obviously dangerous. But it is even more dangerous as an unnoticeable gas that could replace oxygen in the air.

Photo and video credits (c) 2014 by Jari Arkko. Tämä blogi löytyy myös suomeksi.

Brazil

It is 5am and I have just arrived in São Paulo, Brazil. It is a sunny day and the temperatures will hit 25-30 C later in the day. But a couple of hours later I'm skiing on a local ski hill.

Brazil is country #44 on my list. With the exception of Peru, I have now skied in all South American countries that have commercial ski areas. There are plenty of snow-covered mountains in the remaining countries, but getting to those is much more difficult than dropping by in a commercial ski area. Those other mountains would require hiking, guides, climbing... maybe I can do them some day. If I'm lucky. Worth dreaming about, at least.

In any case, Ski Mountain Park is an hour away from São Paulo, and the only place to ski in Brazil. Wikipedia tells me that frost and sometimes even snow is not unheard of in the highest altitudes. But the highest point in Brazil is still only 1200 meters, and on this trip I would not have time to sit around and wait for the perfect weather. Trying some natural-snow skiing would have been nice, of course.

I have been travelling to South America many times in the last couple of years, and I always wanted to visit Ski Mountain Park, but up until now it had not been possible. But now Brazil had set up a large Internet conference that I had to attend, and as luck would have it, they had chosen São Paulo as the meeting place. Great! I had been to Brazil earlier, but only to change planes at the airport, and I was very positively impressed by São Paulo and the surroundings. I had been reading scary stories about crime and the slums of Rio de Janeiro, but what I found was a very modern, safe, and thriving environment. It would be nice to spend even more time in Brazil some day.

But back to Ski Mountain Park. It resides on the green hills near São Roque, a sleepy small town that seems far away from big city life. This small park seems to be targeted mostly as a children's playground, and in addition to the ski slope, it has slides, horse riding, restaurants, and a plastic skating rink. And a snowman! Not one made of snow or ice, of course, since we are in Brazil!

The slope was short and not at all steep. It was constantly being sprayed by water. This added to the fun, as skiing on wet plastic makes your skis run much faster. But it also added an element of game to the skiing experience, can I ski the slope without being hit by the water sprays?

But perhaps the most intriquing aspect of the ski area were the instructors. Local ski-instructors were on duty to guide the tourists to skiing by hand. Literally; they held the hands of the skiers while walking backwards on the slope themselves. Obviously, the local tourists are likely to be first-time skiers. And skiing on plastic is actually very difficult compared to skiing on snow. Turning takes more effort. Braking effect is very minimal. So I can easily understand the need for the hand-holding.

At the bottom of the slope there was a net to catch too fast going skiers. Due to the lack of steepness, I cannot imagine anyone would be going really fast, but if you really tried, you could run into the net. (I tried, of course.)

The purpose of this booth ("vinhateria" - place to hate wines?) remained a bit unclear. They seemed to be selling wines, however.

The plastic run is at the top of a hill, and to get to the top one has to take a one-person chairlift. The lift goes along a long slope that was being repaired or modified in some way. This long, "main" slope seemed interesting, and if it could be used for skiing, would have changed the nature of the place completely. But I do not know if it was used for skiing - it could also have been a place to hop on one of those downhill cars. No one in the whole place spoke any English, so it was difficult to find out what the normal state of the slope was.

The ski area has also an impressive set of jumps. They were not in use at the day of the visit, however, just like the main slope.

By the way, my blog articles have been coming slowly in the past month or two. Sorry. I have been travelling too much, often stopping at home for just hours between week-long trips around the world. And I've travelled mostly in warm, flat places, with little possibilities for skiing. Albeit that hasn't stopped me from trying to find skiing. I have had skis with me on every trip that I have taken. And Brazil is an example of where skiing succeeded!

Photo and video credits © 2014 by Jari Arkko

24h Liveblog

This weekend I am participating in the Ylläs 24h competition. The Ylläs Gondola lift will stay open through the night, and teams and individuals will compete on how many runs they can do. The one with most runs will win.

I have no idea if I'll be even able to stay awake through it. But I should be able to provide a live blog updates. I will post updates during the Gondola rides as the day and night progresses! I carry an iPad mini with a 4G connection in my backpack. This will be the first time I'll be trying to blog with this device, and I have no idea yet how well it will work. It will be interesting too do this test.

But back to the competition. The competition is primarily run on the Gondola ski lift. One lift ride gives you 430 meters of vertical difference, and two years ago the winning team made 123 runs or 52 kilometres of vertical during the 24 hours. Quite an achievement, given that this means less than 12 minutes per round.

I came to Ylläs now on Friday, around midnight. And I already found time to get to the off-piste. The most active bar at Ylläs. And it was very, very active, even if I was the only client! But the hotels were full, what is wrong with you people when you do not go outside your cabins in the evenings???

And the same thing with Bar Kaappi (closet), only a few clients. I had to come out of the closet.

Update 4pm: 9th round. Going slow due to headwind and the afternoon long route. Strong Windows, but I am hopina It will not cause gondola to stop.

Update 5:30pm: Weather getting worked, hoping wind does not pick up more. Sun is behind clouds. Round 16, if I have calculated correctly. Still fun, although I am already starting to feeling my legs :-) no breaks so far and that is also how It has to be to end up in the top... Some people take this very seriously.

Update 7:30pm: Feeling tired.

Update 10:30pm: Night lights. Latest leaderboard puts me and Janne U to the lead, but I think he has passed me now.

Update 10:35pm: Damn, I am one run behind the leaderboard, Janne U. Well, maybe a coupé hundred meters.

Update 10:45pm: Hmm. Gondola stopped. Ohälsosamt boy. At least a minute now.

Update 0:15am: the stop was only 5min but I have been resting on gondola reidessä, not posting. The Ylläs worldcup run is now in use, very fast runs! We are skiing at full speed, but making mild turns on the Waynen, as required by the tulessa. Feeling tired...

Update 04:30am: Latest reilut at 3am have Janne at 62 runs, Edwin 61, and me 60. Still going strong, or at least going. Felt pretty tired earlier now with morning Cloverfield feeling a bit better. Still Alkosta foursquares more hours on the high speed run. The lift has slowed down, however, due to wind. Foggy.

Update 8:30am. Ouch. Muscles, Back and handsfree all hurting form overuse. No new status information form the competition. Fine and half hours remaining. Weather and visibility is bad.

Update 10:45am: A bit over 3 hours remains. I have regained some of my energy, with the goal of possibly getting 3rd place, even though it seems impossible at the moment. Currently 4th at 80 runs (8am) with Janne U still leading at 84 runs. We will reach something over 100 runs in the end.

Update 2pm: Done!!! Last checkin 3 minutes before the deadline, just in time!

Update after the competition: It was fun, although particularly at 3am an onwards I was also extremely tired, and when the weather turned bad it was a challenge. And now after the competition everything hurts: leg muscles, fingers (for carrying skis), and my back. The back because the competition turned out to be largely a downhill competition with a very long track. The rules said that we needed to make some turns, but, e.g., three turns on the main slope of Ylläs was an appropriate amount, and we were also allowed to be in downhill form on the flat areas. Very different from my usual ski style and position.

The results are now in:

Individuals:
1. Janne Uski 113 runs or about 48km vertical
2. Edwin Pasto 111 runs
3. Leo Pasto 110 runs
4. Jari Arkko 105 runs or about 45km vertical
5. Janne Nokelainen 83 runs
... (23 participants)

Teams:
1. Lehtolat 114 runs
2. #onemoreyear 111 runs
3. Ylipalaneet Heikkilat 110 runs
4. Kota-ravintola 108 runs
... (15 teams)

Here is also a picture of incredibly tough skier, Janne, who won the individual series, along with his prize (new skis). I am very proud to have skied with this guy.

Photo and video credits © 2014 by Jari Arkko

Walking

This is very embarrassing, but I have never walked to a ski hill. I've taken airplanes, cars, boats, and even helicopters and horses, but never walked the whole way to a ski hill. But today I walked to my home hill, in nice weather and at +12 C temperature. After just 15 minutes I was there. Boots in the backpack and skis attached to its side. Very nice! I recommend this method of travel for myself also in the future! :-)

Well, not everyone has a ski area near enough for walking. For me it used to be never possible. But for the last ten years I have lived in the same place and it would have been possible to walk. Yet I always took the car, why? There are of course some excuses, and maybe the least bad one is that I often needed to transport kids as well.

I was just so positively surprised how easy the walk was. By car the trip is longer than by walking. When walking, I can enter the ski hill from the direction of my home, at the top. By car I have to go around the hill to reach the parking lot at the bottom. And when coming back, if there were snow on the walking paths, it would be almost possible to slide all the way back. I had not realised how much fun the walk is. Local hills ♥♥♥

Oh, and many of us think that the winter is over, or even that it never arrived. But the Grani hill is open long into April - at least the first week if not more. And the snow quality is still excellent. Everyone, join us for some skiing in the warm sunshine!

Here are some "diamonds" on the slope:

The video:

And the racing is still on:

And here I'm packed up and ready to go back home:

Photos and videos © 2014 Jari Arkko. Tämä blogi löytyy myös suomeksi.

Singapore

If at first you do not succeed, try again. And fail. Then fail again. Then give up all hope. But in the end, you may be surprised…

I was originally not even supposed to be in Singapore, but the recent interest on the meeting made me come as well. Even a carefully controlled, small database is very interesting to everyone, if the database is about the root of the Internet. No matter how boring the actual contents are, or how clerical its management is. Media and politicians having an opinion…. on something that less than ten people actually do. I'm glad I'm not one of those people - they are way over-managed!

But back to skiing. I had been Singapore multiple times, but usually ended up having adventures elsewhere. Sometime in the 1990s I took a boat to the Batam island in Indonesia. At the time they had an indoor ski hall on the island. And last year I escaped again to Indonesia, to do some snowboarding. And another time I just stayed the whole day at the airport while changing planes, not even visiting the city.

But now I would be spending an entire week in city. Would there be any skiing? The only result from my net search was Snow City. This indoor hall is the only way for the locals to get acquainted with snow. They have a big, icy snowman, nicely lit ice sculptures, and a slope. Unfortunately, the slope is only for coming down with a tire, not for skiing. And even photography is forbidden. Luckily Maria from Snow City lets me in before the doors officially open, making it possible for me to take the photos in this article.

I though that I might be able to get an agreement to do a small ski exercise as well. But no. After returning back to my hotel I tried again over e-mail. I got this strict response:

"We are grateful for your keen interest in visiting Snow City but we regret that we are unable to accede to your request. Thanks and have a nice day."

Oh well, at least I got to see snow and ice, and feel the cold weather in Singapore :-) But no skiing, no new country on my list.

Perhaps some after-nonski would help me get over this. My meeting was next to Raffles' famous Long Bar, so downing several Singapore Slings eased the disappointment a bit. (Non-alcoholic, of  course. I wonder if they serve a light version, too?)

Seriously though, Singapore has many interesting things to look at. Among other things, the modern architecture in the city is very interesting. The most visible (and for me, also the most intriguing) examples were the supertree gardens and the Marina Bay Sands hotel. This hotel is a futuristic ship-like form suspended on top of three skyscrapers. Complete with a 150-meter swimming pool, bars, restaurants, and nightclubs, all suspended 200 meters in the air. Worth a visit! Interestingly, the hotel is also the world's most expensive building project.

Here's my walking tour at floor 57 of the Marina Bay Sands hotel:

I did not stay at this ultra-luxury hotel, however, and my own hotel was more on the ultra-cheap side. I did find some excitement from my own hotel as well, however. Mainly because of the refrigerator, the one that started burning during the night. I wonder if the fire alarm in my room would have eventually noticed that the chemicals were leaking on the overheated compressor, had I not been awake myself? I'm guessing no, or at least my room had already filled with a nasty eye-watering gases without any alarm, before the fridge was carried away. Uh oh, dangerous events seem to chase me...

But back to skiing again. Apparently, it made sense to not stop trying. A couple of days later, by complete accident, I was standing in front of a sand dune. A dune that not even the Internet knew anything about. 

I skied the dune on my Orthex miniskis, so now even Singapore is on list of skied countries. Assuming I can count skiing on sand… In any case, I do not want to say too much about the dune or where it is, as I'm not sure if I broke any of Singapore's strict (chewing gum etc) rules.

Photos and videos © 2014 Jari Arkko. Tämä blogi löytyy myös suomeksi.

Torre

New day, new country, skied all ski areas. Both of them. Portugal is not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about places to ski, but Torre (1993 m) is higher than anything in Finland. And it has more snow than we have.

But how did I end up in Portugal? It was Friday, 11pm, and I had just finished working. After an exceptionally tough week I needed relaxation. Maybe some new place to ski at? I had been too busy to plan for ski trips. I had not had time to apply for visas to nearby countries, such as Russia or Belarus. Further away in Europe there were countries that I had not visited, but it was difficult to get suitable flights, or the prices were extremely high. I could have flown to Iceland, but that country would deserve a longer trip for proper exploration. Fortunately, last minute flights on TAP Portugal to Lisbon were cheap and suitably timed: I would fly on Saturday evening, and fly back during Sunday night. I'd arrive back home at 4am, meaning that I could sleep on the plane and not waste valuable day time for flying around.

But half an hour later things start to heat up at work. Of course. At the worst time. I was afraid I would have to stay home and help deal with it. But in the end it is not necessary, and I leave for the trip.

After arriving in Lisbon, I drive 300 km to a hotel near Torre. In the darkness I can not see  where I am. In the morning I wake up in an oddly South European scenery. Sun. Warm weather. Blue pools. And only 10 minutes to the ski slopes!

Serra da Estrela

My first destination was a small ski area at the top of Torre,  Serra da Estrela. Torre gets mostly local tourists and families getting acquinted with snow. And there is plenty of snow! At some points, the snow wall next to the road can be 15 feet high.

There are only a couple of slopes, and most of them are mellow beginner runs. The lifts are button lifts or T-bars. But there is also that one chair lift, with two reasonable ski runs on its side. However, the mountain itself is interesting beyond the slopes. A wide open space starts from the skier's left side, looking down from the top of the chair lift. This area offers some easy backcountry skiing. It is not steep enough for avalanches, and the lake, rocks, and cliffs are clearly visible, at least in good weather. The easiest route is near the lifts, just going around some of rocky areas separating you from the piste. If you want to go further, there will be a few hundred meters to hike back, but the slopes are probably worth it. The wide open area would also allow brief ski touring excursions to the other hills around Torre.

Those highest parts of Torre are mildly sloping, but the sides, falling down from the plateau are steep. Cliffs. Steep couloirs. Some of these couloirs might have been skiable, but not alone and not without local knowledge of the conditions. And the snow was heavy, spring snow and hence avalanche prone. I'm betting that not all of these couloirs have been skied. I did not see many advanced skiers during the day on the slopes, and there were no one outside the slopes. I got to ski alone on the plateau, on untouched snow. Perhaps some potential for someone to do first descents on the steeps.

A tower has been built on top of the Torre (= tower in Portuguese) to make the height of the mountain reach two kilometres. A couple of houses and two observatories sit next to the tower. Snow covers partially one of the houses, and I climbed to the top to reach the highest point of snow in Portugal. Or continental Portugal, to be exact. There is a higher mountain on the Azores, not sure if it has snow, however.

At the bottom of the slopes there is a cafeteria. The food is not great, but at least they were not serving hamburgers. But perhaps more importantly, they had a live DJ show, and loud music! There was also a trampoline for kids to play at. Excellent!

I stayed at the Hotel dos Carqueijais for the night, and I can warmly recommend it. There are a couple of similar hotels nearby. The downside is that they are pretty quiet at night. If you are looking for open bars, stay somewhere in the town of  Covilha, couple of kilometres down the road.

Half a day lift ticket at Serra da Estrelassa costs 15€. Cheap.

 

Skiparque

The other ski area in Portugal is Skiparque, a plastic ski hill open around the year. This ski hill is lower on the mountain, about 20 kilometers from Torre. The sun was shining, it must have been +20 degrees, and my rental skis were very fast on the plastic. (I will not use my own skis on plastic, as they may get damaged.)

The slope (and the skier) is watered by a system of sprinklers. Water makes the slope very slippery. The skiing feels similar to skiing on snow, except that braking is ineffective. Even with skis perpendicular to the slope and on their edges there is almost no effect. I ski carefully, particularly when there are a couple of seams in the plastic - I do not want to catch an edge on them.

This is still the best plastic ski hill that I have been on! Even if the slope is not that steep, the water makes it very fast. And this was the first time I saw a plastic half pipe.

One hour ticket and rental equipment costs only 14€.

Photos and videos © 2014 by Jari Arkko. Tämä blog on myös olemassa suomeksi.