The Road goes ever on and on...

Windmills

2011-08-08T06:57:00.003+02:00

Driving the short-cut over the hill from Livermore to Tracy in central valley friday, I saw all the windmills up there closer up. They are kind of unnerving...

Suddenly you drive over the hilltop and you see this:

But what I see in my head is this:

I blame xkcd....

Cathedral peak

2011-08-07T19:57:00.005+02:00

Yesterday me and Andrew finally got to climb cathedral peak. It was awesome! :)

Cathedral peak is THE classic on Tuolumne meadows. Its a 5 pich 5.6 climb to an almost 12 000 feet tall peak with awesome view over the meadows and Yosemite national park in general, and the climbing is really fun on solid granite with protection wherever you want it. The only problem with it is that its really crowded... We drove from Livermore after work Friday, camped at our secret free camping and started hiking up 8.30ish. Andrew have been there two times before and I trusted him knowing the way, so we ended hiking way longer than necessary... We started climbing kind of in the middle of the rush of people, and had plenty of other parties on all sides of us. Social and nice on the belays, and since it was warm and sunny and we had the whole day, we basically just enjoyed going slow, since it was not much else to do about it. The climbing was really really fun and easy. There is for instance an awesome chimney, which I loved.

We are going there!

Me and my favorite belay. Beautiful view and exposure, nice comfy place to sit :)

Summit photo.

Eichorn peak and the view from the summit.

Andrew climbing.

Climbing Matterhorn peak and Horse creek tower

2011-07-12T05:37:00.002+02:00

This weekend, again, I drove over Tioga pass to the East Sierras (I figured out I have been there more than in San Fransisco during my time in Bay area...). This time I went with Peter, and we climbed Horse creek tower and Matterhorn peak. It was awesome! :)

Matterhorn peak is the one in the middle, not really looking like Matterhorn at all... We climbed up a little to the left of the arete in the middle. The top is almost 4000m (12 279 ft) high.

Me being kind of cold and probably a bit miserable due to the altitude on one of the belays, also probably dreaming of burgers on the Tioga gas mart (which to anyone who have not been there is a wierd gas station/resturant/souvernir shop east of Tioga pass). Saw tooth ridge in the background.

Finally on the top! Now we just had three hours to get down before the camping where we stored the food we did not bring (to protect it from bears) closed. We missed it with half an hour, but was lucky enough to find some employees there with no life outside the overfilled RV camp still there.

Peter hiking against Horse creek tower, which we climbed the first day. This thing we climbed on the right side, which can't really be seen on the picture.

Peter on a belay.

Camping and hiking in Mammoth lakes 4th july weekend

2011-07-12T04:36:00.005+02:00

The 4th of July weekend I went with Andrew, Greg, Danielle, Garret and Kate to Mammoth lakes for a long weekend of hiking and camping. We hiked in to a lake outside Mammoth and camped there. Afterwards we had time for some hotpooling and sights seeing.

I tried fly fishing for the first time in many many years. I was not very good... No fish on me....

Garret and Greg however, got some, so we had fresh fish for dinner!

4th of july, I was made pose with the east sierra and cows in the background :)

On the way back I finally got to drive over Tuolumne in the light. This is Andrew posing on one of the lockouts and getting sick of me being slow taking pictures :)

Garret, Andrew, me, Kate, Danielle and Greg on the hike!

Yosemite

2011-06-22T04:48:00.004+02:00

Livermore is still a nice place, though a little warm... I like my job and this weekend I went to Yosemite with Andrew, Greg and Danielle, where we also met some more friends of Greg.

My yr.no first page. Speaks for itself.

On the way some REAL cowboys where herding cows over the road.

The waterfalls was huge now, because of the large amount to snow on Tuoalome meadows and snow melting now.

Classy with wine from pasta jars :)

My first smores :) Danielle thought I had to embrace the American culture. Good i must admit but maybe a little too sweet for me though...

Andrew seconding me on Munginella, 5.6. Really fun easy 3 pich climb.

Me on belay.

View of Halfdome.

Danielle and Greg climbing the same after us.

Sailing and Berkeley

2011-06-17T05:21:00.005+02:00

This week I have been at Berkeley filling out even more forms and listening to even more information.. Kind of filled up.. However, Berkeley was a pretty campus and a pretty area.

The tower at Berkeley campus. I think it is famous so I took a picture of it as the good tourist I am.

Ville, who is in the same intern program as me. He is a theoretical physicist and I had to take a picture of him because I have watched to much Big bang theory lately :)

Wednesday my supervisor Jaime took us sailing. I have never been sailing so it was really cool to try!

Anis, Jaime, Alex steering and Sylvain.

Me steering the boat! San Fransisco in the background.

Living in Livermore

2011-06-13T03:05:00.003+02:00

I am now all set in Livermore, California for the summer. I actually really love it here. Livermore is a really cute little town, and I love my job. It is close to San Fransisco (1,5 hour by bus and train) but still kind of farmland. Lot of wineries and some cows. It was actually the first wine area in California, even though Napa and Sonoma now is way more famous. Yesteday we went to the 93de yearly Livermore rodeo, which was totally an experience! Very American.

Bull riding.

Wild cow milking. My favourite at the rodeo, and sponsored by Nesquick.... If you are wondering what they do, let me explain. First they let in a wild running cow, then one person on a horse with a lasso, who catch the cow with it. Then one of the people by the fence comes running, grabs the cow by its head and neck and holds it, the person on the horse jumps of, runs over with a bottle, milk a little and runs back to the fence. The fastest team wins.

Amanda and Cindy.

1st street Livermore. The two blocks that basically contains all downtown. A couple of resturants, a cinema and a very few shops (for instance a western outfitter with cowboy clothes...).

Where I live!

Mini vacation in Eresfjorden

2011-06-05T01:47:00.005+02:00

The last weekend me and Martin went to my families cabin in Eresfjorden for a long weekend, just so that I could get some vacation before spending the whole summer working on a lab in Livermore, California. We also planed on getting sick of each other, so that we wouldn't miss each other for the summer. However, we had a lot of fun, so the plan did unfortunately not work... The weather was really bad, but as the playgound Eresfjorden is, it did not really matter :)

Me and Mardøla waterfall (almost 300m free fall). We went here the first day just to be a little touristy, and also the weather was to bad to do much more...

Eikesdal lake.

Martin on the way to Kleinegga (1964m). Where we went the second day. This is the highest mountain in Nesset county where the cabin is, and also one of the highest in the area. We had to hike the beginning, and then we could ski the rest.

Me! :)

The view towards Kleinegga (1964m) and Børå, the two highest mountains in Nesset.

Me trying the new dangerous sport of Planking, on the top of the cairn on top of Kleinegga.

Telemark skiing going down...

Sea kayaking in the fjord in the rain the day after that again, and some pretty little waterfall.

On the way to Styggværstind (meaning bad weather mountiain), looking towards Helvetestind. We hiked here one day, because we found the name appropriate.

Going down :)

River kayaking in Eira the last day. The river was not as still as this the whole way :) Lot of fun!!!

Easter

2011-04-26T13:24:00.004+02:00

I have not been very good updating my blog lately, but finally, here is some pictures from the last part of eastern, which was spent in Eresfjorden with Kristin, Stian, Mari, Per Kristian, Anders and Martin.

First day, Thursday, was a really misty rainy day, and we just went halfway up on Ryssdalsnebba.

Friday, the weather turned beautiful, so Kristin got to use the cool white sunglasses and I got really sunburned...

Mari, me and Martin went to Skjøvdøla, which is the last of the 1711 meter high mountains that I hadn't been on. It is a really awesome trip with a lot of nice views and spectacular scenery. However, it is also quite long, and we used 9 hours and got down quite exhausted.

Martin on the way down.

Saturday we had to rest a little, and went to Goksøyra, which is not that short, and not really rest. However, I think we spent over an hour at this rock in the sun :)

Kristin and Anders desperately seeking snow :)

Monday, Martin turned 30, and we made a cake with Skjorta with skiiers on!

After last trip on Sunday, already planning next trip :)

My second cousin Torgeir on the way to Skjorta Sunday, in shorts and down jacket :)

Anders playing ukulele on the top of Skjorta, Sunday.

Spelling 1711 on the top on Skjorta 1711 meters above sea.

Lunch on Goksøyra

Christmas in Utah and Arizona

2011-01-08T16:32:00.010+01:00

An update on the last part of our trip, which went: Moab - Gooseneck canyon - Sedona - Grand Canyon - Hoover Dam - Las Vegas - And back to Palo Alto

The coolest ride of our whole trip was in my opinion Porcupine Rim. This is a ride in Moab, which we did as a loop from town, riding up the gravel road and down the trail. The rain poured down, and it was awesome! :)

Martin on Porcupine Rim.

Martin on Porcupine Rim, riding along Jackass Canyon.

After a full day biking in Moab, dinner and beer at the Moab Microbrewery was awsome. Cozy cheap place with good food and great beer :)

In Moab we stayed at a cheap motel. They had bike wash area and bike cleaning rags at the room. Kind of used to mountain bikers around there :)

Christmas eve day we did (parts of) the most famous trail in Moab, the Slickrock trail. This was really cool, but a bit to hard for me... Biking on the steep rock i found kind of scary...

Martin however, did not really suffer that problem :)

For Christmas eve we drove south, and (actually randomly) stopped at a view point called Gooseneck point. There we had Christmas dinner consisting of beef and potatoes, gingerbread and gluwein from Ikea, chocolate from home and presents.

We woke up Christmas morning to this view...!

And sunrise. Before driving on to Sedona.

First day in Sedona we biked with a group of people we met at the local bike shop. Fun to meet other people after mostly only talking to each other for a week. The next day we biked at Broken Arrow trail, an area where many Western Movies are shot.

Me looking focused...

Martin and a Cactus he got acquainted with... Worst thing with desert biking was picking cactus needles out of his ass....

Cathedral rock. Apparently it is some energy vortexes here. New Age people and also others pray in them and make stone circles because apparently they give you more energy and luck or something like that, we didn't really catch exactly what they do. I think it is originally based on some Native American traditions. But I admit it really is pretty!

After a couple of days in Sedona we drove on against Grand Canyon, and slept there, together with this guy.

Next day was our big touristy day. We started out with morning coffee with the view over Grand Canyon.

We then drove all the way to Hoover dam to stand in line (first to get into the area through securety where we were stopped and our car searched because it was so messy, then to park, then to get into the visitor center) and watch a dam... It's big, and the brigde is pretty. But i kind of preferred the more quiet nature of Moab and Arches national park.

Then we ended the day in Las Vegas staying at the Flamingo casino.

Where we lost a dollar each on slot machines, and ate a big buffet dinner.

The last days and new year eve we spent in the bay area. We got to see the fire work at the pir 14 in San Fransisco. And first day of 2011 we went to the Tech museum in San Jose. Really fun museum. They let you build things like this fish feeder, where toys are coupled with sensors...
My last day in US we spent kayaking in Santa Cruz. We paddled up the Elkhorn Sloght in pooring rain.
We saw a lot of otters and seals.

And birds (no idea which species...).

Moab

2010-12-23T01:38:00.007+01:00

Our US Christmas roadtrip now has brought us to Moab, Utah. We checked the weather everywhere, concluded it was bad everywhere and decided we most wanted to see Utah and all the weird sandstone there, so we went there anyway. With the exception of a horrible long drive here it is awesome! We actually used three dayes to get here. The first day we used 3 hours getting our car from Avis, who has a mixed up computer system.... Then we slept in Mojave desert, drove to Vegas next day. We then decided to drive on against Utah after checking the weather forecast, realising that neither really wanted to see the strip (and that I can't climb due to my stupid knee) and setting our watches to Nevada/Utah time (according to Martin). Well into Utah and the mountains the temperature drops to just above 0. We stops in a town called Richtfield and eats, and also discovers that the time is 9pm and not 7pm.... Also that the road ahead is even worse. So we sleeps there and reaches Moab the day after.

Moab has the best mountain biking of the planet (according to Moab), and that is totally the case. We have now biked three days and sight-seen one, and we both love it! Every other minute while biking Martin is yelling "wow! look!". The only bad thing is that I really miss Norwegian Christmas and my family and Mo i Rana and snow... I don't really get much Chrismas feeling here... The little town is also awesome though! (even though it's not really Mo i Rana :) It has a really nice Microbrewery with good beer and really nice cheap food. And a cosy little cafe called the Love Muffin! What more do you need to make the perfect biking place?!

Martin biking up slikrock, Poison Spider trail.

Me and Utah!
Biking on the edge :) - Eagles Perch trail

Bagels for lunch, Martin taking the photo and focusing more on my bike than me, and also mocking me for biking in yoga pants, Long Johns and knee pads....
Martin at Gemini - Eagles Perch trail

Martin imitating Balance rock and Balance rock, Arches National Park

Men working....

Us and Delicate Arch
Us under Delicate Arch. It was a lot larger then I thought...

Americanization

2010-12-06T18:43:00.004+01:00

Life back in San Francisco bay area with Martin is good. Although I must admit I really miss Norwegian December... No snow here... And no real advent... After growing up a place where there is lot of snow and no sun at all in December, sunny and green doesn't really feel very Christmasy. However, it is really nice not to freeze :)

Other than that, days goes by, me working from the apartment in Menlo Park, Martin working at Centre for Design research at Stanford. We also got a trip to Pasadena, Los Angeles because I had a meeting there, and we have seen San Francisco and celebrated Thanksgiving American style.

San Francisco!

Thanksgiving at Greg's parents place. I like that holiday, just about being happy and eat :)

We also whached Stanford-Oregon State in American football with Greg. Oregon state lost.. a lot.....

Since neither of our parents bothers to make us advent calendar when we are so far away, me and martin made for each other :)

Biking in the hills of the Peninsula. It is REALLY nice biking there. Only problem is that it is about 25km to bike on road to get to the nice mountain biking.... Totally worth it, but still, a bus going there would have made more time on trails, less on road...

Old Woodside on the way to bikeing

Me biking in Corte de Madera creek park

Fancy American Christmas decorations (the threes are huge!)

Washington

2010-11-15T04:55:00.005+01:00

This weekend I went to Washington visiting my cousin Håvard, who lives in Colombia, Maryland, aka suburbia. Very nice to stay at a place with a proper nice bathroom for a couple days! (the one where I stay in blacksburg sucks...)

Amy, Håvard and the national mall. Which is basically one big monument/museum with no residential area, no shops, no restaurants (excepts in the museums). Weird in a very typical American way.

And I bumped in to these two at the train station!

If you look very closely, you can see some blinking red eyes in the top. This proves that this is actually an alien artefact supervising the white house and the national mall. If you look closely above, you can also see an UFO flying around, belonging to the same aliens.

A Morpho at the museum of natural history!

Hokies

2010-11-08T00:09:00.002+01:00

Virginia Tech have a really good football team (american football of course...) They are just called the Hokies (see bellow and here) and everybody here is totally crazy about it... On thursday there were a football game here too, Virginia Tech vs Georgia Tech. VT won :) That day it was totally crazy around here. A LOT of people crowded around in little Blacksburg. And Tailgating EVERYWHERE ... Fascinating concept...

Another fascinating thing was Rockey Horror Picture Show, which me and Christer went to yesterday evening. Very recommended to see a proper version with shadowplay and crowd interaction and everything :D

Me and the Hokie at Squires student centre, VT.

Virginia

2010-11-06T21:08:00.003+01:00

Me and Christer are now in Blacksburg, working at Virginia Tech. We are visiting Diana, who are a really nice and incredible good professor in material science. Basically we are just working a LOT here (which is good, because we learn a lot and get a lot done). Last weekend however, we went hiking in the Appalachian mountains. A really pretty place if I may say so :)

Christer and the Torgersen building, where the lab is. Why do we always end up in the building with a part over the street? At least it feels like home :) Virginia Tech is generally a really pretty place. Very small town with almost only the large university. Seems like a really good student environment here.

Christer and Diana

A little fishy!

The cascades, where we went hiking.

Mountainbiking Mammoth Lakes - The story of an unplanned roadtrip

2010-10-26T18:43:00.004+02:00

I am now in the states visiting Martin at Stanford. This weekend we wanted to go away, but we did not really know where and what to do. Just before leaving we decided to go mountain biking in the Sierras. The weather we forgot to check and the distance goggle maps claimed was about 5 hours.

We was planing on going early, but ended up leaving Palo Alto at around 5.30 pm-ish. This meant rush traffic about all the way to Livermore, which is normally an hour... When we then got to Yosemite national park and Tuolumne meadows it was really dark, and raining.... and misty... and windy road... And when we got to the pass over to the other side of the mountains, which is about 9 950 ft (quite high) it was also snowing. All this resulting in us using a lot more than 5 hours, and getting to bet at 2 in the morning.

Saturday, however, we where a bit tired, but got a really nice day biking :) Sunday, it was raining again. And it was really windy. And snowing at around 8500ft (Mammoth Lake is around 8000ft). We got some really nice biking anyway though. A bit cool only... :)

Since it was so cold and rainy, we decided to leave a bit early and get back to Palo Alto early. But as we came to the pass over the mountain, it was closed... And so was the two next passes north... We actually had to drive almost to Lake Tahoe to get back... Which meant an 7 hour drive... But we did get to see a lot, and we did have a lot of fun :)

Me!

Me and Martin with Mammoth Lakes in the background.
Martin.
Me biking in the snow on Sunday.
Completly soaking wet, cold and ready to go home. We got some comments when we went out biking in the horrible weather :)

At the gas station at the turn out to Tioga pass over to Yosemite... Where we stopped to ask what to do. Seems like we weren't the only ones wondering :)

Biking in the alps

2010-10-04T21:51:00.004+02:00

This week I am on a conference in Freiburg, Germany. However, to get there I had to fly to either Frankfurt, Stuttgart or Zurich and then take the train. So ofcource that had to be exploited, so I asked Marianne if she wanted a visitor for a weekend. Marianne found out we should go mountainbiking, which is probably one of the better ideas ever. We got full suspention bikes and went to Vallis with Fabienne, Andy and Ruth. Andy showed us some of his favorite trails, which is just awsome! I have never been on a real mountain biking tour like this before, I have only been for training tours in bymarka and such, which is nice, but not as awsome as this. I am totally gonna mountain bike more!

Lunch day 1, biking part of the holy trail :D Andy, Fabienne, Ruth and Marianne

Fabienne

Andy

Pronounced Bitch :)

Biking second day, 1000m up from Binn, 2000m down to Brig. Got some snow, but totally awsome

Laban biking Switzerland

Rescue course

2010-09-28T15:15:00.002+02:00

Me and Vibeke was on a climbing rescue course this weekend. Very interesting, nice to know what to do if the one you are climbing with get injured.

A butterfly didn't understand that Teresas homemade chalk bag was not a flower :)

Everyone listening to Jarle the instructor

Vibeke is coming to rescue me, as I am hanging "injured" in the wall :)

Jarle supervising Teresa getting rescued .

Sea kayaking Helgeland

2010-09-24T14:26:00.005+02:00

Last weekend I was with the kayak group of NTNUI sea kayaking in Helgeland (almost at home!! :) A very nice weekend, and I learned a lot!

Siri making coffe while waiting for the ferry in the morning. We where supposed to take it the night before, but we where to late... So we had to sleep by the road...

Lunch :)

Eating shrimps :)

BBQ in the evening.

We paddled out to see the old stone carvings at Rødøya which is 4-5000 years old. This is probably a kayak.

This is the first proof in history of skiing!

Siri rolling the kayak

Me trying (not very successfully...) to roll... People who can roll probably see straight away what I do wrong.

ECF18 - Dresden

2010-09-24T14:19:00.002+02:00

First week of September we where at the European Conference of Fracture in Dresden. My first conference. Very interesting, but quite scare to talk about my work in front of strangers... In October, I will go on my next conference, MMM5 (Multiscale Materials Modeling) in Freibourg. Got a lot of Germany.... But its nice there at least :)

Most of the NTNU delegation at the dinner. Christian, Bjørn, Erling, me and Christer.

I love the east German green man!!

Dresden! Pretty city.

End of summer

2010-08-25T11:12:00.007+02:00

Some random pictures from the last part of summer 2010. Now it seems like the summer is over and autumn is here.... Temperature is down on 13 degrees, it has been raining quite a lot and i've gotten sick.... So its nice to look back on a really nice summer :)

One long weekend was spent on Martins cabin in Sandefjord. First with Martins mother and sister and then with some friends. Here is Martin on his yacht... :)

Astrid belaying in Sandefjord. The climbing there was actually really nice!

Kristin climbing. (or posing at that moment :)

Dinner! Martin, Line, Henrik, Astrid and Kristin

View from the Cabin

BBQ in Korsvika on a sunny afternoon :)

And me bouldering in Korsvika same sunny afternoon (it was unfortunately not that many of them...)
Martin :)
The world championship in orienteering was arranged in Trondheim beginning of August. I have been in the board for this the last 4 years, and it was therefore really fun to see it was a success with also really nice weather! Here is me as the mascot Foxo

Orienteering sprint in Trondheim town square! Lot of people and lot of fun! One of the best thing with the whole championship was Carl winning middle distance final! Go Carl! I most also mention that Mathilde won the norwegian championship for 14-16 year olds which was organized the same time, for girls 16! Totally awesome!

Spring 2010

2010-07-13T09:34:00.006+02:00

Since I have not been very good blogging this spring, here is a few pictures summing it up :)

It seems like quite a few people are getting married now a days, so me and Martin has been in two weddings this spring. Here is from the first, Anita and Tor-Arne in Stavanger.

Anita and Tor-Arne outside the Cathedral in Stavanger. I love Anitas dress!

The day before their wedding we went with Anita and Tor-Arne and two of Anitas friends from CERN to Prekestolen. I have never been there before, because when we where there as children, my parents didnt let us go with them, but they promised us that next time we would, and then we where going to ride ponnies in! My mum still owe me that Ponnie ride! :)

Next one out was Line and Henrik in Bergen! Kine Sofie as bridesmaid. Really fun wedding with a lot of orienteering people!

Gudrun and Mette in Lines wedding. Really cool to see Gudrun again, and all the other people from our class and the orienteering group at NTNUI.

One Thursday Idun sent me an email and asked if me and Martin wanted to go to a river kayak course in Sjoa that weekend. Sure, I said. Fun! Second kayak course this spring. Martin signed us up for sea kayak course earlier this spring, because he was afraid I didn't get out enough with my injured knee, and thought that kayaking is good on the knee. Kayaking is fun! But I must admit that I prefer river kayaking.

Martin in the coooooooold river.

Idun and me.

Lofoten

2010-07-12T09:50:00.007+02:00

Last week, me, Martin, Kristin and Vibeke went to Lofoten to do some trad climbing. Great place, great fun, but a little bit to much rain :)

First day we tried climb to the peak Vågakallen since the weather was horrible. However, it was to bad to get up. Steep scrambling in rain and lot of mist didn't really work... Us with the peak in the background.

First day with climbing we went to Paradis, to do some single pitches. Here is Martin following me on a nice little crack called Center crack.

Me and Martin climbed Piano teacher Lunds route. In the background it The Priest, which is 600m granite up from sea. I would really really like to climb it, but im not really good enough with cracks and slab... Anyone wanna lead it for me?

There is a lot of tourists in Lofoten. Here is some busses looking at the Gandalf wall, and all the climbers camping bellow.... Me and Vibeke really wanted to climb Gandalf on Gandalf wall, but last day went we finally got our courage up, it was raining... Next time!

Me and Kristin climbed Bare Blåbær, 7 pitches (Only blueberries, a saying meaning Piece of cake, but translated as Only Bilberries in the guide...). This is Kristin on pitch 5, a straigh crack getting narrower and narrower and nothing else, FUN! :) Btw, this is actually at 10pm or something, sun still shining! Got to love the midnight sun!

Vibeke and a Canadian guy climbing Bare Blåbær, 4th pitch, at 1am while me and Kristin is abseiling down.

A plant me and Kristin bought in Svolvær to decorate outside the tent and late evening sun :)

I am studying for my plasticity theory exam and when i tried to ask uncle Google about tensor algebra, this is what I got...:

2010-05-28T12:59:00.002+02:00

Love and Tensor Algebra

from "The Cyberiad" by Stanislaw Lem

Come, let us hasten to a higher plane
Where dyads tread the fairy fields of Venn,
Their indices bedecked from one to n
Commingled in an endless Markov chain!

Come, every frustrum longs to be a cone
And every vector dreams of matrices.
Hark to the gentle gradient of the breeze:
It whispers of a more ergodic zone.

In Riemann, Hilbert or in Banach space
Let superscripts and subscripts go their ways.
Our asymptotes no longer out of phase,
We shall encounter, counting, face to face.

I'll grant thee random access to my heart,
Thou'lt tell me all the constants of thy love;
And so we two shall all love's lemmas prove,
And in our bound partition never part.

For what did Cauchy know, or Christoffel,
Or Fourier, or any Bools or Euler,
Wielding their compasses, their pens and rulers,
Of thy supernal sinusoidal spell?

Cancel me not - for what then shall remain?
Abscissas some mantissas, modules, modes,
A root or two, a torus and a node:
The inverse of my verse, a null domain.

Ellipse of bliss, converge, O lips divine!
the product o four scalars is defines!
Cyberiad draws nigh, and the skew mind
Cuts capers like a happy haversine.

I see the eigenvalue in thine eye,
I hear the tender tensor in thy sigh.
Bernoulli would have been content to die,
Had he but known such a^2 cos 2 phi!

Edgar B Schieldrops vei 22B

2010-04-23T13:00:00.003+02:00

After requests, here is some pictures of my new appartment :) Happy now Marianne?? :)

Living room
Kitchen

Dining "room" :) With Martins awesomely cool chandelier

The view from the appartment: The ash cloud from Iceland over Trondheim (taken last thursday)

Øvre alle

2010-04-22T14:15:00.004+02:00

http://www.adressa.no/nyheter/trondheim/article1473665.ece

Where I used to live with Mari, sold for 1,6 million more than suggested prize!

Everybody who visited me there know that it was quite worn down (that an understatement :) Painting my room last spring might have been a waste :)

Switzerland

2010-03-16T20:39:00.012+01:00

Last week me and Martin visited Sigrid and Sindre in Switzerland. Also Eskild was visiting at the same time. Lot of fun, its still a beautiful country! We got time to ski a bit, boulder a little and visit my host family and some friends from my exchange year in high school. First day we went to Arosa, nice skiing, bad weather.. Second day, me, Sigrid and Martin went ski touring with Fabienne and some of her friends.

Fabienne and some swiss mountains.

Martin, lots of mountains and snow. So much snow actually, that the tour got a bit shorter than planned. But still fun!

Me

The day after that we went to Tessin to boulder a little. We got a lot of time on swiss trains, here illustrated by Eskild, and a few early morings at Zürich main station. (sunday moring around 7 there is lot of people with skis and snowboards there).
Eskild telling what he just did.

Martin
Me having trouble getting of the ground....

After a day hanging in Zürich checking out the sport shops and indoor climbing there, me and Martin went to Zermatt while Esklid took of in the direction of Sardinia to climb. First day was snow and mist... Here should it be a beautiful view....

Me and Matterhorn! Second day in Zermatt

Great English translation on the train to the top. Me and Martin has a competition who will first manage to publish a paper with a sentece with "In the view of the possibility.."

Martin

Inga Pudderludder in Zermatt :)

On the top of Kleinmatterhorn, 3840 m (i think..)

Zermatt do not allow cars up, however they have these cute little taxies and busses looking like Postman Pat cars :) And all have ski holders, and so does all the bikes we saw.

The castle in Lenzburg, where my host family from I was in exchange in high school lives.

Look, a castle!

Me and my host sister Franciska.

Martin fixing my host mothers lamp :)

Me and my friend Marketa from I was in exchange. Really cool to see her again too!

Me and little sister Sigrid, ski tour last Sunday.

Fabienne and me on the top. Notice my cool goggles! I stole them from Martin who had them as a child in the 80 :) I think they look way cooler on me!

New appartment

2010-02-20T12:25:00.001+01:00

A little update of my life: I bought an appartment!! :) At Vestlia, Nardo. Pictures will come when I move in after easter! I am really looking forward to it!

Sleepingbag testing in the cold

2010-02-04T09:29:00.004+01:00

This weekend me and Martin went to Dronningkrona to ski. We went there in the evening and slept over in tent to try out my new sleepingbag. However, it ended up being a lot colder than we thought.... We woke up in the morning and met some people from the climbing club, they told us that it was -23C and than we understood why we where so cold trying to take the tent down...

Full moon in the evening!

My sleeingbag really was warm and nice! :)

Going up

Here, after all the uphills, the other people we met turned around because it was getting late and the rest is just quite flat, Martin however insisted on reaching the top...

Martin taking of the skins in the sunset on the top :)

Me skiing down. The snow conditions and weather was absolutly beautyfull! (except the cold...)

Snowkiting in Hessdalen, or trying to...

2010-01-25T08:42:00.007+01:00

This weekend we went to Maris cabin in Hessdalen to go snowkiteing. Not to much wind, but otherwise awsome!

Hessdalen is the area in Norway with the most UFOs, here is one.

We also met an ailien.

We had do drag 6 kites on slegdes 5 km into the cabin, we started quite late in the evening from the parking, and used about 3.5 hours on a walk that normally is about 1 - 1.5 hour... Reason: We got completly lost just by the cabin, and managed to be within 100m of it several times without finding it. In the end we saw another cabin with light in, and they helped us by showing the way with their snowmobile :)

When we got to the cabin at 2.30 am it was kind of cold there....

Mari with her nice pink kite
Mari trying to get up her kite, Ingrid helping. It did not work very well, since it was very little wind, and when it came it was gusty and constantly changing directions...

Martin with the kite, Lars teaching.

Ingrid

Next day we just took the skies to hike a little. Lars is efficient and brush his theets while walking...
On the to of Rauhøgda (I think was the name). Mari, Martin, Lars and Ingrid.

Not very good conditions down...

Martin and me on the top.

Martin trying to telemark on touring skies down. Didn't work that well :)

Girl ski trip to Oppdal

2010-01-21T09:35:00.004+01:00

This weekand all the old girls from the NTNUI orienteering group went to Oppdal to go skiing and to afterski :) We also met up with Mette and Idun. Mette tried to film while we both were skiing me with her new camera that takes a lot of pictures after each other. Got kind of funny films :) and since I promised to be a better blogger I'll post them here!

New Year trip to Eresfjorden

2010-01-09T20:41:00.010+01:00

I know I have been horrible blogging lately, but finaly at least I am posting something again. I promise to get bettter again! :)

Also this new year we went to Eresfjorden to go skiing. It was not the best conditions, but we got an awsome trip to Kirketaket and Litj-Skjorta, and some really nice days.

Martin just got new skis :)

Vibeke on Kirketaket

Mari on Kirketaket

Vibeke, Kristin, Mari, Marianne and Martin.

Me and Maritn on the top of Kirketaket

On the way up to Kirketaket

Me and Skjorta

Vibeke on the way up to Litj-Skjorta

Testing of carabiners

2010-01-09T20:39:00.006+01:00

One evening in november we went to the lab and tested some of the climbing clubs old steel carabiners. All of them had been hanging at DragWall for a year and all except the ref. one had also been hanging outdoor in Hell for a summer. The results was that the metal wasn't damaged at all, but the fabric between obviously got worn out. Espessially the quick links was extremly solid. We also tried dropping a couple of biners (3&4) 7 floors in the science building to see if it had any effect, it didnt...

Results, in kN.

Fredrik. "What the ..., the biner broke!"

Hans the crazy basejumpin fracture researcher helped us.

Before
After

Test setup, Martin, me and Fredrik.

Hans dropping a biner 7 floors in the science building.

MN

2009-11-10T10:32:00.007+01:00

This weekend it was the Middel Norwegian (or however you translate midtnorsk?) championship in climbing again. Lot of fun! Petter took a lot of pictures http://album.pitte.net/midtnorsk2009/
Especially notice the last photos, which are from the guys finial, it was toprope with a jump on around 3 m....

.....

2009-10-28T09:18:00.003+01:00

http://xkcd.com/

Moss

2009-10-20T21:34:00.003+02:00

After Vegas it was of to my last stop and highlight of the trip, Moss! In Las Vegas however, I managed to forget my shoes on the Red Rocks camping, and I arrive at Gardemoen and Oslo S with jandals (as a good kiwi would). It was however kind of cold in Norway autum.... Luckely my parents are close and drop by and borrows me one of my mums pairs :) Me and Kristin got in some climbing at Hankø and a visit to Moss industrial museum.

Then it was back to good old Trondheim!

Las Vegas og Red Rock

2009-10-19T20:34:00.006+02:00

Las Vegas is the both coolest and silliest place of the whole trip! The strip in Las Vegas is at first completely overwhelming, then it just gets boring... The Red Rocks however, just a 30 min drive away from the Strip is probably the most awsome climbing place I have ever visited! It really has everything, great rock, long multipiches and great sport climbing! (thats all you really need isn't it?)

Red Rocks. The part in the middle is Rainbow wall, which is one really cool looking wall! Of long routes we climbed Crimpson Crystalis (9 piches 5.8) on cloud tower which is on the right of the left mountain, Y2K 5.10a and The next century 5.10d on the rightmost pyramidshaped mountain.

Greg leading on Y2K 5.10a (I think)
Mike, Gregs pharmacy studying friend who we stayed with. I don't understand why people think it's funny that I was going to Las Vegas to climb and that I was going to stay with a guy studying Pharmacy on the university there :)

Julia from Wyoming explaing to me that any good American would have at least 3 kinds of Peanut butter with them camping. I spent the last day after Greg left and that Mike had to study climbing with Julia, Lauren and Dennins from Wyoming. They where really cool and let me slep at their camsite (I just love sleaping under the stars in the desert!) and climb with them.

Lauren climbing somewhere in Calico hills

I met Elvis and Marylin Monroe....

Mike and Greg staring at posters for strip shows :)

Me climbing! (photo by Mike)

Auckland

2009-10-19T20:01:00.003+02:00

After leaving Vibeke in Paynes Ford i headed against Auckland to say hi to some old friends the last days before leaving for USA. It was awsome to see Lisa again, still the same old, with the same old bad movie and TV taste :) For some reason didn't I take to much photos... I finally got to go to the museum in Auckland and back to Starbucks with Lisa :)

Me and Owen also when mountainbiking, first time I have ever been in a mountainbike park. Fun! But we had to borrow Andys single track bike, which I really see way people like, but also realize I'm not fit enough for, because it's damn hard!

Owen, Owens car and Auckland uni! Memories! :)

Those where the days

2009-10-07T06:32:00.005+02:00

My time with Vibeke is now over :( Sad but true.... We finished with some awsome days in Paynes Ford (North in South Island, NZ). No more Wicked Van, no more oat meal and coffe together every morning, no more gossiping about everyone else in norwegian... I still have one and a half week of traveling left, but I am going to sum up the trip so far now I think (I still have some hours till my plane leaves to go to Auckland)

Goals:
Climb 1080 and the letter G - no... (its a sign I have to go back one day!)
Stop drinking so much coffe - no... (I just made Vibeke drink coffe too... It seems like there is no hope for me on this point...)
Climb a lot - check :)

Other things accomplished:
Meet a LOT of really cool people!!
Realized I really love traveling and that there still is way to many places I have to go.
Started missing home a bit.
Taken some really big falls.

Quotes and words learned:
Answer to the question where are you from then?: "I'm from the moment now"
Capacetic (one of my favourits!)
Cobbelwassed
Cattie wombised
And some more

I think I'll catch my plane now so I get to visit my old flatmate Lisa in Auckland, and say hi to the other cool people there, and rather continue this summing up the trip later :)

Takaka Hills from Paynes
Vibeke climbing in Paynes
One day mountain biking in Takaka Hills, awsome experience! We did the Kildevil track, who might have been a bit to hard, at least for me (our ambition level and ability level doesn't always coincide and do sometimes result in this), but was way fun anyway! Switchbacks are not my biggest strength it seems like :)

Top of Kildevil track

Sydney and back to NZ

2009-10-02T04:14:00.015+02:00

The end of the trip is getting closer and closer, and we have now reached Paynes Ford, Takaka, NZ. An awsome place except for that it is raining right now, and we therefor are spending our day not climbing.... Since last update we have spent some days in Bluies, some in Sydney, traveled to NZ. Droven (with a new wicked van, that's less pretty..) form Christchurch to Queenstown, then to Castle Hill and then up to Takaka. We havent really gotten in very much climbing, but some, and also the bungy jump I didnt get to do last time I was here.

(sorry about lack of chronology on the photos...)

I finally got this photo and got the climb!! (alone this time :) last time I was here, me, Kristin and Ingrid worked a lot on it and got it together) Dream Thing 21, Wye Creek, NZ.

Somewhere close to Mt Victoria, Bluies

In the blueys there was a sand storm, biggest sand storm in 60 years in Sydney and area. Our car got completly red and we ended up spending two evenings on Trivita nights on the pubs of BLackheath and Mt Victoria (we where the only ones under 60) We also got a lot of coffe and saw two movies....

In Sydney we stayed with Vibekes friend Lina, who is on exchange. We went out on a trendy night club and felt we got a complete contrast from the Trivita nights in Blackheat and the climbing bum life in Arapilies with camp fires every day, no showers, baggy pants and fleece jackets.

In Christchurch we ended up having a really really nice dinner on a place called Octagon live. Live music and really good food! The owner (between us) liked us and gave us a discount and extra wine. Best dinner in a very long time! And the nicest people and the place was a beutiful old church.
Over this canyon we bungey jumped... 132 m with 40 m free fall.... Nevis, Queenstown.

Getting ready to jump.Vibeke was first, had no fear at all and got a gracefull dive.

I was however more scared and less graceful.....
Back in Castle hill

During the sand storm in the Blue Mountains we ended up making dinner in a parking house, nice and dry and no wind there....

Sydney :)

Still a favourite spot, Wye Creek, NZ

Vibeke trying on a V4, Castle Hill.

Running jumping start, V0, Castle Hill. You dont really need your hands at all on this climb... :)

A suiting phd comic, I should be about on the existential crisis by now :)

Update

2009-09-23T08:01:00.005+02:00

After two awsome weeks of trad climbing in Arapilies and Grampions we are now back in the Blue Montains. The weather is however horrible, with a LOT of wind.... I had no idea Australia was this windy... Peole ask me what we do over here, and its not really much to tell... We slep (a lot), then we eat (also a lot) and then we climb a little and hand out around the campfire (eating some more) and knit (we have started Arapilies knitting club...). So to anyone claiming Vibeke aleways stresses, she dont :) Because of this my blog do not really consist of much except climbing photos... Lisa once told me she didnt know anyone else who had traveled so much, and seen so little :)

I must however tell I have lost my phone (litterally). It fell down a multipich climb called Skink, and I could only find the batteri (smashed) on the deck underneath. So if anyone have sent me sms or anything like it and I didnt answer, no worries, I still like you, I just couldnt answer :) So to get in tuch with me, email is probably the only way....

Arapiles!!! It looks like a pile of choss, but its awsome!!

Campfire birthday party!

Vibke making brownies on the fire for my birthday.

Joris, Kayla and Katja made this beutifull birthday decoration :) Notice the carabiners :)

Me bouldering (trying to boulder) Woody (V4) which is a tree.... Climbers are wierd... Vibeke on the crux of Skink (18). (I fell here) I am actually belaying her from a hanging belay, not a fan... I did not only loose my phone on skink, I also fell myself... Pink is Vibeke belaying, blue me before falling and green after.. My first proper long fall on trad! Scary, but my pice held! This is also where my phone fell, it did however not have a rope like me. Vibeke making the rapell ready Me on Tannin (19), my favourite at Arapiles!

Arapilies and Grampions

2009-09-17T05:45:00.003+02:00

We are still alive and we are still hanging put in the area around Arapiles and Grampions, it is still the coolest place ever, and we do very little except eating, sleeping and climbing :)

Me leading my first 18 on trad, Walking on the moon, a wierd crack? chimney overhanging slab thing.. :) Awsome!

Arapiles

2009-09-11T08:51:00.008+02:00

We are now in Arapiles (or Araps) Which basically is just totally awsome. Imagine solid rock and trad climbing with perfect placements. Add some wierd moves and good exposure and lot of really nice people and you got it :) Perfect!

Vibeke on Agamemnon (11) chimney
Vibeke

Vibeke seconding a pitch of Bard (14) consisting of 5 piches including a wierd traverse and some awsome exposure.

Araps from Bard

Some of the people we met on the local pub i Natimuk eating dinner. Me, Dave, Joris, peruian guy, Maria and Thy. I have no excuse if I climb bad anymore, Dave has no fingers on one hand and Thy is 1.50 and both climb WAY harder than me....

Nowra and Arapiles

2009-09-09T09:30:00.004+02:00

We spent 5 days in Nowra, before driving down to Melbourne. After bying climbing guides in Melbourne we drove on north west to a place calles Arapiles. Which is totally the coolest place ever! It has the best trad climbing I have ever seen!

By the way, I saw Hanna Montana on the plane. I kind of like the song :) (well, I should, its called the Climb)

I can almost see it

That dream I am dreaming

But there's a voice inside my head saying

"You'll never reach it"

Every step I'm taking

Every move I make feels

Lost with no direction

My faith is shaking

But I gotta keep trying

Gotta keep my head held high

There's always gonna be another mountain

I'm always gonna wanna make it move

Always gonna be a uphill battle

Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there

Ain't about what's waiting on the other side

It's the climb

A kangoroo in Arapiles

Vibeke excited about Arapiles

Point Perpendicular, sea cliff trad climbing, awsome views!

......

Dinner in Nowra.

Bluies and Nowra

2009-09-02T10:27:00.007+02:00

I am now finally completly well again, and we have started to really get in some climbing! We went to the blue mountains (the bluies) after driving down the coast from brisbane. The area was completly awsome! However, it was damn coold and extremly windy.... We spent two days there before desciding that we maybe rather should return there in some weeks when it hopefully is better temperature :)

So we rather drowe down to Nowra south of Sydney. Which is really nice, temprature and sport climbing.

The plan next seems to get down to Melbourne and climb at Grampions and Arapilies.

(Unfortunatly I havent got to much time to update my blog in the libary in Nowra, so the pictures are not cronalogical and I didnt mange to turn them... Sorry about that!)

Vibeke on a climb in Nowra
A German guy we met i Nowra, Christian. On a really nice 20.

Blue mountains

Me and the blue mountains. Look at my pretty new and very varm hat! :)

Me and Vibeke and sunset over Nowra

Kangoroo in South West Rock along the cost.

Me, Vibeke and the bluies

Some american dudes (walker and brian from ohio) we met in the bluies and Vibeke. (They where very proud of their flanel shirts :)

First days in Australia

2009-08-27T04:14:00.006+02:00

Well, now the road trip have started! We spent 2 days in Brisbane, which was not too exciting. It has a really nice climbing shop (that off all things also sell ice axes...) with cool people and a really cool crag in the middle off the city. We then whent to Boonha, where a crag called Frog butress is. Here I got quite sick with flu but Vibeke got to climb. Since I was to sick to climb we went to the coast to see if we (Vibeke at least) could surf a bit instead. Now we are in Lennox head near Byron bay, which is really nice (much nicer than commerciliced Surfers paradice!), and Vibeke is out surfing while I actually have time to update my blog....

In singapore airport Vibeke went to Fish spa where she got massage and little fish ate of her feets... Vibeke, me and Brisbane

Surfers paradice (which is really now surferce paradice...) But at least we have been there....

Our Wicked van!! (Thanks to Jake for that tip:) We love it!

Quote on the back of the van :)

Mt Warning. I had Vibeke run up to get out some energy after just drinving the day :)

Vibeke and the surfboard she rented :) Its pink! I want one too!!!! Vibeke surfing. As sick I am designated photographer...

Around the world

2009-08-23T12:06:00.002+02:00

Mine and Vibekes great climb and have fun trip has now officially begon! We landed in Brisbane this morning, surviving around 40 hours traveling. After trying hard to stay awake the whole day, its finally soon time to sleep :) I most say, Australia is looks good so far, I just look forward to see it in a less tired state of mind... I do however already miss Norway a little, getting involved with some stupid idiot (meaning really cool guy) just before leaving was definetly a good ide, but do have its downsides...

However, the point now was just to give a brief introduction to our great, but more or less non exixting plans for these months. We are as mentioned, now in Brisbane, on a youth hostel. Tomorrow, we are gonna pick up our Wicked Camper Van, that will be our home for the next 5 weeks. We are then heading to Glasshouse mountains and later Blue mountains, where we basically wanna climb. Then we are of to NZ, where my great goal is to climb 1080 and the letter G. We then split ut and I head of to US, Las Vegas and Red Rocks to meat Greg. After that I am gonna end my great round the world trip with a visit to Kristin in Moss!

I'll keep you all posted on what is happening! (Check also out Vibekes blog)

12.34.56 07.08.09

2009-08-07T12:36:00.002+02:00

Stryn

2009-07-20T15:33:00.008+02:00

Since me and Vibeke are off to Australia on our climbing/backpacking/whatever cool we comeup with trip in just one short month we had to make a little test run for our big trip. (Or we just wanted a bad excuse to go somewhere cool and do something fun :) Anyway, last weekend we went to Stryn, mainly to climb at the crag Bølgen&Beachen (the wave and the beach...).

The weatherforecast looked horrible, it was supposingly going to poor down the whole weekend. We descided to go anyway with the philosophy that a climbing trip and sleeping outdoor is fun no matter the weather! Since the norwegian weather is incorrigibly unstable, this philosophy is bound to at some point turn out to your advantage, for us this weekend! It was well above 20 degrees and sun the whole time! We got in some good climbing, concluded we suck on slab climbing and walked northern europes longest upphill slope (Skåla 1848 m up from the fjord)

The whole cracg is perfect because its a huge overhang like a roof above all the climbs, so its always dry!

Me on some random climb

One of the most pouplar warm up climbs was Nøtteliten, it started with climbing up a tree and everybody walked around humming the song for the rest of the day...

On the top off Skåla, Jostedalen glacier (continental euorpes biggest) in the background.

Because of the overhanging roof, we could just sleep under the crag :)

Cooking under/on Beachen

Eresfjorden

2009-07-08T10:35:00.009+02:00

Last weekend in June, me and Martin went to the cabin in Eresfjorden. The goal was to go on Juratind (1712m). We almost got to the top, but went up the wrong ridge, so we turned around just before the top. The trip was however awesome anyway, and we got to go back another time and get to the top! On sunday, we took a little road trip, and drowe through Romsdalen to climb a little on the way home.

Martin in the boat crossing Eikesdalesvatnet. A lokal farmer drive you over if you ask. He is however not to punctual :) Juratind in the background.

Just before turning around. With all the climbing gear we didnt get far enough to use :) On the way down we here followed by sheeps, I suspect it was mutated killer sheeps like in the NZ movie Black sheeps.

Picknic on Dovre on the way back. We stopped on the way in Romsdalen to, and climbed on a place we didn't find last time I was there, and that we used quite a while finding this time too...

Painting

2009-07-07T22:12:00.005+02:00

As I moved into Mariannes room after I graduate, I decided to paint it. Only demand from Marianne for doing this was before, during and after pictures. So, here they finally are! :)

Ofcourse, painting alone is incredibly boring, so I needed some slaves. Here is slave one, Martin.

Slave two, Christer.
And slave three, Mari, who also is my new flatmate. And my fourth slave was little Hege :)

Well, the living room didnt really look to nice with all my stuff in it.... But its impressive I can fit everything in so few bags and boxes!

The wall as it was, and with one layer pain.
After, I'm quite satisfied!
After

Graduation

2009-06-10T14:44:00.007+02:00

I am finally done! No longer a student at NTNU! (I am however an employee and is not going anywhere :) My thesis is handed in, I got the ring and everything is awsome! :) I must also mention that I am now moving away from Kristin who is leaving me to work in Moss, and instead, at least temporary, moving down to Mari with the goal to make her an A person who gets up really really early in the morings!

Yesteday was the mechanical engineering graduation party, where we all got a plate with our name on!

Eve, Line and Gudrun did their thesises on the Hydropower lab and all got Pelton turbine necklage!

Almost all the girls :) mechanical engineering is still kind of male dominated....

Eve, Gudrun and me with our plates with names, study (NTNU PUP 2009) and the expression "Deus ex Machina", which is an old greek expression from theaters. Also notice that I finally have the siv ing ring! (a ring for all students graduating as master in science at NTNU)

Sunrise over Nidelven from the old city brigde on the way to Nachspill.

12 days left of my master

2009-05-27T16:37:00.003+02:00

Empty frigde
Kristin makes pizza with pesto, carrots and broccoli (=what was left in the frigde. its delicious!)
My caffeine tolerance is unnaturally high.
I dream about my simulations
Our flat looks like cracp
I've eaten dinner at uni almost every day
I consider the bad weather good, because then it's nice inside in front of my laptop
Visit dagbladet.no, aftenposten.no, facebook and my email probably 20 times a day, for about 10 sek each time. (I get bored, and a soon as I click into a page I get stressed because I should work, and I log out, and repeat)

But soon is it summer and i will be graduated as a master! :D

My master thesis as a video if anyone is wondering what I am doing :)

2009-05-20T12:19:00.002+02:00

Paris and Switzerland

2009-05-13T17:30:00.006+02:00

A couple of weeks ago I was in Paris on a meeting in Arctic Materials talking a little about my work. Since I was down there anyway I descided to go and visit Anita in Geneva and Marianne and Andreas in Zurich. It was totally awsome to be back in Switzerland! If only for a very short while... I wanna go back more!!!

The reason I haven't been writing much on my blog lately is that I have a masterthesis I am supposed to write on instead. Apperently it's supposed to be more imporatant, and I now have 26 days left on it....

Total tower, Paris - where the meeting was. Cool building :)

Christer, me and Paris!

Next stop was at Anita in Geneva. She is doing her master on CERN, on a project called CLIC (Compact LInear Collider) (CERN likes fancy acronymes...) .

I have always imagined CERN to be really fancy and high tech, but seriously, the place is incredible ugly! This is Anita and Anitas lab building. And this style is the standard on the houses... It seems like all the money goes on research instead of fancy buildings... If you want to see som pictures from inside, check out Anitas blog, because I didn't get the chance to go down in the accelerater or anything unfortunatly.

I managed to get well planed and organized Anita to go with me on a unplaned impulive trip to Zurich :) We had an awsome train ride with picknic and view to the alps!

Good old beutiful Zurich seen from ETH.

Marianne, Andreas and me outside the church Grossmünster.

Back at Anitas place outside Geneva (actually in france), Anitas scottish flatmate made typical german food called Saumage (meaning pig stumack), wich actually was good! (I'm just glad he didn't make haggis..). A nice thing with visiting one of the geekiest places in both europe and usa (CERN & MIT) is that I get to compare which is more geeky :) Unfortunatly most people I met both places was more very nice and cool but just really smart than typically sterotypic geeky. I'm kind of disapointed! Where are all the wierd geeky people with thick glasses??

Fløtatind

2009-04-26T10:43:00.008+02:00

This weekend me and Anette organized a ski and mountain club trip to Fløtatind. Campfire, sleep under the sky and awsome skiing!

Anette and Matias

Campfire and grilling

Nothing like waking up after a night under the stars!

I love wearing heels!

Going up

To this!

Group foto on the top

Anette

Matias

I have a plan for my life! (or at least for the next three years or something...)

2009-03-25T12:50:00.009+01:00

I got accepted into grad school! I signed my contract today, I am going to do a phd in modeling of fracture... Gonna be fun! :) (yea, I know, it's geeky.... I'm officially beyond hope)

Financial cricis and grad school enrollment...

just another normal day....

2009-03-20T18:43:00.003+01:00

Summerjob

2009-03-10T13:21:00.004+01:00

A new summer job add for SINTEF applied mechanics and corrosion is out. Espesially I like this part:

We appreciate if you were enthusiastic, creative, curious, offensive, attentive, sensitive, infinitive, musical/unmusical, positive, adventurous, a bit crazy, and a dedicated fan of Brunkeberg, Gryllefjord, Innset, Kåfjordkameratene or Odd, whether it is football, hang gliding, biking, swimming, drowning or mountain climbing.

And ofcours this year it is with another story/poem by my supervicor Erling (yes, I know, it's awsomly geeky!):

Thy King said:
”Thou shallt not fracture under strain and hardship”
Thy Arctic Knight rides in shining armour

Thy steel glimmers in the moonlit sky

But the villain speaks of eldritch intentions

“Thy armour will crumble, it welds will yield”
Thy Knight crashes on ice paved ground

Thy armour ruptured, his soul broken
Thy fracture surface lies bare and naked

Telling tall tales of fate and misfortune

His last words uttered:

“Damn those evil MA-phases. I thought I was above the ductile-to-brittle transition temperature”

Thy King addresses his court of Lords:

“Good men, thy council has spoken, we crave for steels much better. Summon the masters of the trade. Thy villain will never find shelter again”

- Sire Erling Østby -

Translation:

MA-phases = brittle phases initianting fracture

Ductile-to-brittle transition = the temprature above where the material starts deforming before fracturing and we therefor avoid brittle fracture

Famous?

2009-03-08T11:47:00.004+01:00

I kind of always wished that I would be so good in something it would make me just a little bit famous, not to much ofcourse, just a little. And now it seems like my climbing has taking me somewhere! In a way....

Coach course - Show what you can! Mari sitting in the rafter, I'm hanging upside down and Kristin spotting.... From the 50 years anniversary of the NTNUI climbing club in the student cabin (and yes, this poster is hanging around at uni...)

Actually it also turns out me, Kristin and Jake made it to a climbing blog about Yosemite this summer. This time, not for our great climbing either....
http://outdoors-adventures.org/camp4july2008.aspx

A quite perfect weekend

2009-02-19T11:21:00.008+01:00

This weekend me, Matias, Gaute and Ian went to my familys cabin in Eresfjorden to ski a little. Which turned out to be quite absolutly perfect. Sunday we had sun and 50 cm powder, I can't possibly see what more I could want than that, good company and some nice mountains with perfect slope!

Ian, Gaute, Matias and me (I actually look taller than Matias! :) Skjorta in the background!

I did however from time to time during the weekend wonder why I bother to go skiing with three boys, that are:

Smelly!
Annoying
Quarreling and discussing about everything
Eating a LOT (and mostly crap...)
And generally behave as 8 years old

Well....

But then again, they do:

Break the track throung the deep powder snow!
Teach me skiing better
Fix my car
Make bread :)
Sing, because apparently singing while skiing makes you ski better

The number one reason to ski with guys :)

Matias version of packing light, skies and bread baking maschine....

And then ofcourse.... (I'm not really sure if this count as plus or minus... :)

And then there was the skiing! indescribable!

Gaute
Brothers everywhere raise your hands into the air

we're warriors, warriors of the World.

Like thunder from the sky sworn to fight and die

we're warriors, warriors of the World

(Manowars - Warriors of the world)

Ian dropping!

Gaute somewhere.... :)

Matias

An' if you wanna get high,

Close to the sky,

Welcome to the mountain!

(Bigbang - Welcome to the mountain)

Trondheim in winter

2009-02-12T21:56:00.011+01:00

Time is going fast, and its already been some weeks since I came back from the US. Not much exciting exept my everyday life to report...

Most of my time is unfortunatly spent in Perleporten (where it seems like I'm gonna stay another 3 years! :)

Office 340 is my second home :)

Adina, me and Christer

The climbing club had 50 year birthday ball at the student cabin. Really interesting speaches. The climbers was much cooler earlier, doing winter first ascents in much worse gear and everything! I'm impressed!

Mari and me

One of the guys who had a speach and slide show, bouldering the fire place with Trond spoting :) We actually also ended up climbing the roof. With dresses...

Walking up to Storhornet

On top, me, Matias, Rolf and Sindre (Ivar) and Gaute in front.

Going down was a bit steeper and harder than my comfort level. But the fun thing about skiing with only boys is that I end up doing a bit scary thing. And you should do one thing every day that scares you! This is Sindre (Jomar) I think.

Matias

The orienteering group this year had AC memory tournament on ice. Apollo had a team, but didnt get very far....

Apollo atackers! Me (played by Gaute:), Matias and Sigrid

Bernhard with good style on Okla

Hedvig and Anette on O-ball (the anual orienteering club ball)

More O-ball!

Summer?

2009-02-09T12:26:00.001+01:00

I was in town doing a little shopping the other day, and I see they have gotten sunglasses and summer stuff while all winter clothes is on sale... Seriously! It's -10 degrees, snowing and not gonna be sun or warmth for months!

New York, New York

2009-02-04T13:15:00.002+01:00

New York is not really similar to anything else I've seen. I'm not a city girl, but New York was definitivly worth the visit!

For Hege and Gudrun :)

The highlight for me in NY was seeing the musical Wicked on broadway! (it is a musical about the witches in The wisard of Oz) It was totally awsome!

Time square

Christer eating hamburger in NYC, very american! Except that we ate vegitarian hamburger with jam fires....

Climbing Lincoln on Wall street :)

Brooklyn brigde

Christian and Christer

Central park (there is actually bouldering in central park!!)

Virginia

2009-01-26T12:53:00.007+01:00

And so we went off to Virginia. Changed plane in New York into of all things a Dash 8!! Like the ones that goes from Mo i Rana to Trondheim or Bodø that we always took when I was a child. I really didn't expect that kind of plane in New York! But it was really cozy and me and Stella made friends with the pilots.

I think the name of the guy with sunglasses was John

A Dash 8 at LaGuardia airport New York!

Arriving ar Roanoke airport, Virginia kind of explanied the size of the plane. Christer and Stella had never seen an airport that small I think. It was larger than Mo i Rana airport though :)

From Roanoke we took the bus to Blaksburg, which is a town consisting of only one thing, Virginia Tech university, and nothing else... You have more shops selling Virginia Tech clothes (and absolutly everything else with Virginia Tech) than normal clothes...

Virginia Tech is as some might remember the university where there was a massacre a couple of years ago. Horrible. Actually, a couple of hours after we arrived again a girl was killed... Kind of scary...

The point with visiting Virginia Tech was to visit Diana, a really cool professor who told us a lot about atomistic modeling.

Everyone exept Christer (since I stole this pic from Christer, creative rights or something no?)

The Hookie of Virginia Tech made of lego!

Boston, the sequel

2009-01-23T03:55:00.007+01:00

And then I was back in Boston and MiT, staying with Stella at no 6. Almost feels kind of like home there by now :) (and the guy at Laverde at the MiT student center even recognized me after a while and new I wanted a bagel with cream cheese and tomato in the morning) Boston was suprisingly cool actually, and the brits in the room next to me and Stella build an "igloo". Exept that I did some studying and enough Rock Band playing that I got a blister...

Joe, Ned and the "igloo" (sounds better than quincy:)
Joe froze an union jack to but on the "igloo", and to make it more visible we had to iron it :)

Me, Christian and Stella in Cambrigde

Inside the igloo

Cold and snowy in Boston

Norwegian professor trowing snowballs on John Harvard!

A random eventing at No 6. Stella, Joe and Manu

Iceland

2009-01-20T17:13:00.004+01:00

On the way to Boston me and Christer descided to take a day stopover in Reykjavik, since we where flying with Icelandair and it was really cheap. I have never been to Iceland before, and shortly listed Reykjavik can be described as:

The "city" I know with highest small nice cafes to inhabitants ration
A small enough country that we met one of the few famous Icelanders (the vocalist of Sigur Ros dressed as Sherlock Holmes in a nice little cozy cafe)
A city where it seems like everyone is alternativ and artistic and makes conserts and exhibions for each other
This tendensy to artisity among the inhabitants seems to also have resulted in a lot of really cool grafitti
They also have termal pools just by the airport, that you can visit before leaving so you can travel on relaxed and happy

Me and Christer in Reykjavik!

The Blue Lagoon termal pools

Grafitti of Reykjavik:

Christmas and New year trip

2009-01-13T00:15:00.014+01:00

Christmas was celebrated at home in Mo i Rana as usual. Here is it "same presidure as every year" with a lot of food, sking, the traditional salmon party and family ski trip with the Rundhaug family. This year for the first time the skiing was on telemark/randonee skies instead of normal cross country skies!

Vatne and Rundhaug family christmas trip!

What went wrong...?

New year trip: After christmas some wierd crazy american dude called descided to come to Norway... This meant we had to try to be cool and also show him norway form its best side! Didn't turn out to bad I think. We proved that there is sun in january (for about 5 min), such thing as to much powder do exist and whale meet is not that bad. And since I got new camera for christmas it also resulted in some hundreds of pictures... :) (more on my gallery!)

We tried to find the Kongsvoll waterfall, but got kind of lost... We found this instead however. I think it is the TV waterfall? Greg leading and Kristin belaying.

Greg had a close encounter with norwegian waterfall ice

On the way up against Dronningkrona. We didnt get up due to short day and late start...

Pippi and Kari on the way to Dronningkrona

Just next to Kristins cabin we found an absolutly awsome waterfall! 50m from the road, and with a three in the middel where it is really easy to make topropes!

Me :)

New years eve on Kristins cabin! The american got to try traditional norwegian christmasfood like pinnekjøtt!

First day of the new year, with the first ski trip of the new year with absolutly perfect powder!

Me and Eivind got to the top on the first :) First peak of 2009: Storhornet!

Marianne. We got one day with really bad weather that we spent in the ski field in Oppdal. The powder was awsome but it was kind of really windy and misty...

Eivind jumping in Oppdal.

After Oppdal we went to Eresfjorden to stay at my cabin, and we gave Skjorta a try. This is the start of the way up early in the morning.

Lunch and view on the way up to Skjorta

I fell in the skifield in Oppdal and hurt my shoulder, but skiing with one arm wasnt that hard, it just looked kind of silly :)

Me, Marianne and Mari on the top of Skjorta!

Mari, powderskiing and the fjord in the background!

Matias doing a fake telemarkturn on the way up to Varfjellet :)

The last day the avalance danger was so huge we didnt really dare to go anywhere, so then we spent the day jumpign from the roof instead!

Back in Trondheim Lars made whale!

Happy new year!!

2009-01-11T21:09:00.002+01:00

Just wanted to say I wish everybody a happy new year!

Lately I have been quite busy doing thing I could write about in my blog, but this has caused no time to actually write about it... I'll try to get on it soon!

Financial crisis?

2008-12-18T16:46:00.002+01:00

Post exam destressing

2008-12-16T20:13:00.005+01:00

I am finally finished with the LAST exam before I have a master degree! It is a truly amazing feeling :)

I am now also finally getting something back for working hard from the beginning of the term, because while other people in my class is completly stressed out about their spesialization projects that is due on friday, I am quite relaxed, because I am almost finished, without any stress :D Since I have didnt have much left on my project I actually took a weekend this weekend, and went on the SINTEF christmas party on friday and skiing both on sunday and today! It is such an awsome feeling to have a life outside my office again!

Going up to Ytre Sula

Anders on the way down(with awsome style!), Ytre Sula. (Some of these pictures are his btw, more on his blog)

On the top of Ytre Sula, sunday. Benni, Gaute, Fabienne and me. I think the exchange students Benni and Fabienne where quite happy with norwegian mountains, and they even got to see a moose on the trip!

Me skiing down from Ytre Sula on sunday. (I know my telemark style is not very good, but it was steep and hard snow!) The view and light was however beutifull!

Hedvig and Gaute was with me on Ruten today.

Gaute has a revrend on his skies and Hedvig has a french prostitute, the perfect couple! :)

Funny stories from Brøsetveien 155

2008-12-07T21:52:00.003+01:00

Funny story one: Me and Kristin planed to go cross country skiing today. But my skies was at my mums place, so I had to drive down and get them. And as everybody knows me and my sister have a car, which is working, more or less... Right now the driver door look doesnt work, which meant I had to go in the passenger door. And since its like -7 degrees I had to skrape the snow of the windows. And since I thougth I'd be smart I start the car so it would warm up the car while doing it, I started the motor, went out of the car and closed the door.... So far so good. Except that I had closed central locking, and the passenger side door dont have the thingy to prevent stuff like that....

So the car is running, and its looked, with my keys inside... I need Sigrid to get her keys and look it up. So I walk over to Sigrid, noone there. I walk home to get my phone and try to call, but ofcourse my house keys is on my car keys.. And no Kristin home. Luckly Astrid (my almost flatmate) is home, and lend me her phone. No Sigrid answering. And I try Hedvig and Anette (Sigrids flatmates), noone answering... So I try walking back to Sigrids place, luckely this time Hedvig is home, but we cant find the keys, and she can tell me that Sigrid descided to go for a long run, just before I came! So when I finally get the car up it has been running for over one and half hour!

So if the temprature rise noticibly after this and the ice caps melts even more, I am really truly sorry! Didnt mean it, just being me :)

Funny story two: This is actually not me, but Astrid! :) Yesteday morning, Astrid comes over and says the lights went out, and ask me if I know how to fix it. I say, sure, we just go in the fuse box (sikringsskap) and turn over the thingy. But its looked! And we cant find any keys.. And SiT janitor is closed in weekends. So we give up, and I go to school. Today Astrid told me she had manage to fix it. (she had to, she really wanted to see Jul i Blåfjell :) She had called Securitas!! The securitas guard actually comes, and picked the lock to the fuse box for her, so she could fix the light. And then she manage to get out from it without paying anything, because the securitas guard felt sorry for her :)

You know...

2008-12-04T13:28:00.003+01:00

... that you have been studying too many years, too long and too hard when the following expressions are normal:

Calculate in pseudo time
On a material with no surface
You have to whach out for the ghost atoms
Not forget the virtual forces and fictitious stress
And also remember that matter is disributed troughout the space it occupies

Mid-norwegian championship in climbing

2008-11-25T08:43:00.003+01:00

On saturdag it was mid norwegian championship in climbing. My first proper rope climging competition! It was really fun, and I got a 4th place I am quite proud of :D (Results) Well, some of Bernards pictures:

Mari on the first qualification

Kari and me trying to read one of the climbs

Crazy swiss people, here represented by Fabienne

Me in the girls final - spotlight, onsighting and a lot of people whaching! I was so incredible nervous!

Yes I am studying...

2008-11-24T16:22:00.001+01:00

From http://thisisindexed.com/

SNOW!!

2008-11-19T09:46:00.002+01:00

The world is white and beutifull!!

Geekyity

2008-11-16T13:06:00.006+01:00

I forgot my fracture mechanics projects, so now I am stuck the whole weekend working.. And to get in the right mood, its important to embrace you inner geek with some appropiate music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTby_e4-Rhg

And comics: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php

The text of the song is so awsomly geeky I put it here :)

Finite Simple Group (of Order Two)
The Klein Four Group

The path of love is never smooth
But mine's continuous for you
You're the upper bound in the chains of my heart
You're my Axiom of Choice, you know it's true
But lately our relation's not so well-defined
And I just can't function without you
I'll prove my proposition and I'm sure you'll find
We're a finite simple group of order two

I'm losing my identityI'm getting tensor every day
And without loss of generality
I will assume that you feel the same way
Since every time I see you, you just quotient out
The faithful image that I map into
But when we're one-to-one you'll see what I'm about

'Cause we're a finite simple group of order two

Our equivalence was stable,
A principal love bundle sitting deep inside
But then you drove a wedge between our two-forms
Now everything is so complexified
When we first met, we simply connected
My heart was open but too dense
Our system was already directed
To have a finite limit, in some sense

I'm living in the kernel of a rank-one map
From my domain, its image looks so blue,
'Cause all I see are zeroes, it's a cruel trap
But we're a finite simple group of order two

I'm not the smoothest operator in my class,
But we're a mirror pair, me and you,
So let's apply forgetful functors to the past
And be a finite simple group, a finite simple group,
Let's be a finite simple group of order two
(Oughter: "Why not three?")

I've proved my proposition now, as you can see,
So let's both be associative and free
And by corollary, this shows you and I to be
Purely inseparable. Q. E. D

Boston in pictures

2008-11-10T23:03:00.012+01:00

I am now well back in norway and my phone is still dead. I did however have a really great week, learned a lot, meet a lot of fun people, got to go to lecture both at Harvard and at MiT, and even got to climb a couple of times. Here is some pictures:

This is where MiT students voted :)

Stella!

Harvard is pretty even on a rainy autum day

Mr Harvard himself!

When I was at lecture at Harvard thursday we got these for free outside the lecture....

My supervicor Christian and his old phd student Andreas from Statoil who was visiting from Huston

The coop is the bookstore of MiT and Harvard, the one at Harvard square is HUGE!!

New England coffe - Primary source of energy for MiT students :)

Joe and Ned, two british Cambrigde students doing exange at MiT took me iceskating and climbing

The Metro rock Boston climbing gym! Wish we had one like this in Trondheim! One of the people you dont really see is Halvard, a Harvard phd student and kiwi (!) and climber who went climbing with me.

They even had a climbing treadmill....

MiT is a complete mix of all kinds of styles, completly random and very relaxed. Once someone put a fire truck (full size) on the top of the dome.

And some other students hacked the light system of this building and used it to play tetris.

The Strata center MiT - some arcitect gone mad? It cool!

On Logan international airport at gate B13 there is a rocking chair!

And Sindre turned 21 today! I at those pics to while I'm at it :) Me, Matias, Gaute and Øyvind bought him new climbing shoes since he had the most trashed shoes ever! I think he was happier than he looks here :) But Matias got the wierdes gift, since he turned 22 the day after the election I had to get him a republican party card deck with among other McCain in superhero suit... :) Amazing that it even exist!

Sigrid made him cake! And so did Matias, and also Gaute... I'm full! Sindre, Øyvind, Gaute, Hedvig, Rolf and Matias at Sigrid & co's flat Apollo 21.

Boston Part 2

2008-11-05T20:15:00.002+01:00

Obama won!

And I was in the united states of america on election day! I did however not try to vote as Christer and Greg encouraged me to, neiter did I party or follow the election from a cool place, I didn't even climb as I planed to (because I got lost finding the subway where I was supposed to meet some other climbers). What I did do however on this historical day was to get completly hit by jetlag and fall asleep way early after studying....

Fun t-shirt at MiT shoop: HARVARD, because everyone doesnt get into MiT

Boston Part 1

2008-11-03T21:08:00.005+01:00

Yesteday I arrived in Boston. That turned out as a funny experience!

My luggage got lost as usual and I took a cab to the adress Stella (who I am staying with, she is a civil engineering bachelor student who work with my supervicor at MiT) gave me. When I got there and was trying to find 428 Meomorial Drive, I could only find 410 and 450... The cab leaves and I try to call the number Stella gave me. Its about midnight and some really tired voice answers the phone. No Stella... wrong number.... So there I am, in the middle of the night, lost in a strange city, almost out of batteri on my cell and without luggage... I just couldn't help laughing of myself :)

After checking the number I called I luckely realized that I had dialed a 9 instead of 6, so tried the number I wrote down instead, this time it's luckily Stella answering! And I have just enough batteri to say where I am. Stella was also nice enough to borrow me what I didn't have due to my lost luggage.

Today I have gotten my luggage and the grand tour of MiT from Stella. Its a quite nice university i'll say, but not revolusonary different from NTNU or Auckland Uni for that matter. Well, it have better food than Auckland and more diverse food than NTNU. But just as many bikes as NTNU, which suprices me, I always thougt american just drive and eat crap, and then both in Portland, Corvallis and here it is plenty of nice organic food and everybody bike it looks like. The fun thing is that they have a LOT more MiT souvernirs than NTNU and AU had. I defintly have to buy a t shirt or something :)

And if anyone is wondering what I'm doing in Boston, I'm here to visit my supervicor and work with my spesialization project, It's unfortunatly not hollyday (It's actually buissniss according to my visa, buisniss seems to be if you are here not n hollyday and someone else is paying). Pictures from this trip will come when I get back to Norway, but I might write some more before that. How much I write will most likely just depend on how bored I am sitting here in the really beutiful engineering libary of MiT working :)

Mandarins

2008-10-29T10:36:00.001+01:00

There is just something about mandarins. You only get them in November and December, which also is the time of year I have had exams and term test since I was about 12. This in addition to the characteristic taste and smell of mandarins has resulted in that I might have a bit special relationship with mandarins I realized today. I was eating my first really good mandarin of the year while I was at uni working on my project and listening to music (as I usual). While eating the mandarin I got the typical exam time feeling, and I realized I started working harder and more concentrated! It really gets me in exam mode. When thinking about it it's no wonder since I only eat mandarins while studying for exams. And then I also remembered, the exam time before Christmas this year is probably my last... And that’s actually kind of sad... Mandarins will never be the same!

Birkebeineren

2008-10-26T14:35:00.000+01:00

Textmessage from Mette: " Inga, come join biking Birkebeineren next year"
Answer from me: "Sure, why not?"

And suddenly I am registrated for my first mountain bikning competition ever and the biggest in Norway, and should probably start serious training some mountain biking...

3B

2008-10-25T18:31:00.013+02:00

My fingers are bleeding
I can't close my fist
My arms hurts
Most of the rest of me kind of hurts too
I'm starving because I forgot to eat
I'm kind of dehydrated because I forgot to drink
My troat and nose is dense with some wierd white powder
All of me is kind of white actually...
I figured out I suck in bench press and biceps curls

I LOVE bouldering comps!

3B - Bench, Biceps, Bouldering :)

What happens when you are to indecisive and honest...

2008-09-24T19:33:00.007+02:00

...except that you say things straith out and not think about them and always end up saying something stupid and inapropiate ofcourse...

Well, the thing is, the dollar was really really low when we where in the states, so we bought a LOT of stuff there. And I descided, why not buy a new bike? And after a lot of looking in bike shops and learning about what makes a good bike, I found the perfect bike in a little kona shop in Bend, OR. So, since I totally fell for the bike, I bought it. And i got it for less then half the price of the same bike in Norway. So far, no problems. Then the trouble starts, I need to get it back to norway. Well, I think, just pack it and bring it on the plane, should work. And first it seems like it does, the nice lady at portland airport tells me to pay 20$ and I will get it in Trondheim. But when we get home, no luggage and no bike.... 2 days later, our backpacks shows up, but no bike.... I call and call... nothing... But suddenly, three weeks later, the phone rings "We have a bike for you

"Jippi!!! i think, and gets really exited! But now the sad part starts... when I get the bike it has quite a lot of damage on it... After enought trips to the bike shop next door, that they know me by name, i get a paper saying the bike is damaged for 6000 NOK (which is quit a lot more than I gave for it) and I get the bike fixed up enought that I can use it which is around 1200 NOK. But the frame is still damage. And I try to get everything back on my insurance, I send in the paper that tells how much it cost to fix all the damage, and the other stuff they need (after a looooot of emails ofcourse. I think there is an upper IQ level to get employed in the insurance customer handeling departments :)

Then one day the insurance guy finally calls, saying they have looked at my case, and are gonna pay me. "Have you fixed the damage yet?" he ask. I answer honestly, only parts of it, since the rest is not so bad that you have to fix it strait away. This is where I whish I was capable of lying at least just a little bit... (but I like to think that its better to be honest than rich anyway :)

A happy Inga on a happy bike, at the Grasslands in Smith, before trouble

I would rather be less indecisive though (and less forgettful for that matter!), because that would have helped just as much. You see, when I was in the states I never managed to descide whether or not to buy trad gear. When I got home I really regreted. And then I see that there are sale on a web shop on trad gear, and Matias saies he can bring for me. But guess who is to slow to order before the sale is over?? By then I want the trad gear so much I descide to buy anyway, but when Matias is at the shop they dont have... So I order through internet. And lucky me, it arrives 2 houres after Matias leaves... So I end up buying gear when the dollar is 5.6 (it was 5 when I was there) for full price and had to get it sent to norway. But at least it seams like ill get gear! (its still not here... Still I only have the one gold cam (and my first ever) I got from Sigrid (with the note: Now you can climb Gold rush:) the rest is however reported to be on the way)

When I am in the writing mood, over to something else: The other day I bought Klatring (Norwegian climbing magazine) and what do I see? Its a big article about Smith Rock!! Awsome! They write about how cool Monkey face (which we climbed!) is, and several other climbs. (I knew that!) and they write about how you should take a rest day in Bend (According to Lonely planet, everyone wants to live in Bend! :) and that there are several cool bike shops with "cool, radical and liberal dudes and chicks" (I bought my bike there!). And they also write about how the micro brewery in Bend is something you got to go to (which we never got time to...) It so much fun to read about places you actually know! :)

I never understood why people call the free camping in Smith, the grasslands, when the real name is SO much cooler! "Where are you staying tonight?" "Skull hollow ofcourse" :)

Fale

2008-09-22T16:06:00.008+02:00

This weekend I turned 24 and got my first cam (which is an important step in a girls life). Me and Ingrid also organized Ski and Mountainclub trip to Fale in Sunndalen, which turned out as a great sucsess! We had a really great weekend, with awsome weather at least on sunday (night to saturday the left overs of Ike hit Trøndelag, and made it a bit wet and snowy, but not complaining) and we had an awsome group with us! (I just have to say that I think it is awsome to go to a university where a hiking/trecking/mountaineering club like the Ski and mountain club can organize 3 hard trips on the same weekend, and they are all full!) Some pictures:

Ingrid and Kristin didnt really manage to finish their birthday preset to me :) But pink leggings was a awsome gift!

They did however bring a cake!! :D (its mountains, and me in skirt (no idea why :))

Reinrose (reindeer rose) One of my favourite flowers, and on my blog to annoy Kristin :PBurritos to 13 people is quite a lot of food...

Dinner time!

Kristin and Mari like to be creative with daypacks :) And I have always missed the red Ts that markes the tracks in the mountain in norway when I have been abroad. The mountain far in the background is btw very climbable and I want to climb it!
Lars and Mari on top of Tåga

We traverst and scrambled the rigde back down from Tåga

Kristin found a really nice way to be really sure not to fall down from the rigde on Storsalen :) That rigde looked way scarier from Tåga than when we walked it the day before.

I am really wondering how they made this brigde?

Kristin falling down from the snow! :)

Fabienne (our swiss excange student:) and Mari looking for Kristin..

Me and Innerdalen

A list of useless information

2008-09-17T18:53:00.001+02:00

The European Group for Fracture had to change name to European society for structural integrety because it is political incorrect to use fracture and european together.
My workmate Kristoffer at the libary: "Raincoates are just like democracy" (?)
I think the elevator for employees at the libary is made with inspiration from Hitch hikers guide to the galaksy, because it is extremly annoying voice saying "The doors are closing", "This elevator goes up", "You are now in third floor" etc. when you take it. And it is now option but using it when closing up the libary!
I have been to my first "bedpres"! (companys presenting themself and adverticing for the students and trying to get them to apply for work there. They are totally desperat for engineering students...) I'm proud of myself manageing through four years without going before :)
Its getting cold in Trondheim!
The province of Finnmark has 15% of the area in norway, but only 1.6% of the population.
I won a pair of REALLY bright red old fashion orienteering tights in the mid norwegian orienteering championship.... Its the uglyest prize I have ever won! (actually I think I won pot holders, but it seems like it was a little switch when Isa Mari collectet her first prize with my third prize :) Picture will come!

More basejumping

2008-09-11T20:50:00.003+02:00

I just have to put up more about Hans, that guy managed to get on NBC today and got a trip to New York! Here is the interview: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/26656327#26656327

And Hans managed to say holy shit on amerian direct tv :) awsome! (or the funnies is actually that its a bad thing to say in the us!)
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26655760

And the funny thing is that norwegian newspapers dont care about the story that american tv gets him all the way to New York for, but to say Holy shit on direct american tv is worth writing about! http://www.kjendis.no/2008/09/11/546561.html And Hans that told me he was more scared of being interviewed than of jumping of a cliff :)

And the other funny thing is that Hans barely got to go on that interview, because he did not have electronic passport, so they wouldnt let him into the states before he managed to get a new one! :)

Hans

2008-09-03T11:24:00.001+02:00

This guy has the office next to me and Anita:
http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/nyheter/spill/verdi/70639

Telemark

2008-09-02T13:46:00.004+02:00

Deal with Anita: If I telemarkski in skirt and old fashion clothes and with one pole as old times she will join me backcountry telemark skiing. :)

We'll see...

(http://www.inga-laami.no/eng/page.php?id=8)

Innerdalstårnet!

2008-08-19T18:58:00.009+02:00

Innerdalstårnet:

In Innerdalen, Møre og Romsdal
1500 m
4 hours hike in
Exposed
Scary
Well protected
Awsome view and nature

In other word completly perfect for me and Kristin! :)

Tårnet seen from the way back

Kristin seconding third pitch and the shadow of the montain far down in the valley

Innerdalen and Innerdalshytta

Up here! Its just a HUGE pile of rock, but a cool one! :)

We climbed the north west rigde. That would be the left side up from the little peak, about where you see on the pic. And yes its the montain used in the TV seried Jul i Blåfjell :)

SEM is cool

2008-08-18T15:00:00.007+02:00

On friday Anita who also write her spesialization project for SINTEF arctic materials took me to look at fracture surfaces of high strenght pipe steel in SEM (scanning electron microscope) and it was really cool! I know its geeky, but we both got really exited over these pictures :)

We dont know exactly what we see though....

Road trip USA

2008-07-28T16:52:00.011+02:00

One month with traveling and fun in the US is over, and it has been completly awsome! Here is a map over the trip, me and Kristin actually got 5 states now! I'll try to tell the most interesting thing that we have experienced on our travels underneath, and post a lot of pictures. But in general I can just say that US was a lot cooler than I ever thought, with a lot of really really awsome nature and climbing, and that the people are a lot friendlier and nicer than I thought in my media influenced prejudice. I got a positiv surprice, you can say a lot of negativ things about the US, but its not possible to deny that it is a really cool country too!

(Remember to scroll down under this post for new USA trip blog post :)

And for more US road trip (or NPNW tour, Norwegian Pasific North Western tour) see Gregs blog. He has climbers profiles! :)

Leavensworth

2008-07-28T16:49:00.007+02:00

From Mt. Washington we headed up to Leavensworth in Washington state. Leavensworth is a fasinating little town. Its a town so cute and nice and friendly that it almost makes you nauseus :) The town has taken on a complete bayerish theme, and everything is in bayerish style. You can buy bratwust and sourkraut and there are people in bayer costumes and bayerish paintings on every wall! I can just say: Only in America!

But the reason we went there of course was for the climbing. Around the little town there is a lot of really nice granite walls with som beutifull cracks, which we spent a few days climbing on.

One day we did a little speed climbing competition :) Up condorphamine addiction which is a 7 pitch climb, 5.10a or b. Norway vs USA. USA won of course, with a lot more big wall experience and the advantage of having climbed it before they did it in only 49.24.19 while Norway was not far behind at 1.00.09 (not counting penalty min for one fall and one take..). We do have videos from this but I have problems uploading it... Hopfully one of us will get it up, because those videos are good! :)

On the way back from Leavensworth we drove through Seattle and got to see the big market there. The americans found me wierd wanting to find the hospital in Grays anatomy (it seems like it dont exist! disapointed!!!) more than to see the fish trowing guys (at the market, its some famous stand where they trow the fish around...)

Little boys with all their toys!

Team USA celebrating with corona on top of Condorphamine Addiction

Team Norway doing the same :)

Jake on Classic crack, which is an absolutly beutiful 5.8 sandbagged crack. Its just perfect!

The Javelin! Strange, fun, layback, undercling and the climb on the front page of the Leavensworth guidebook

We also went minigolfing one day, since it was way to warm to climb in the middle of the day anyway. And I, who have never minigolfed before, and hate everything golf related, got hole in one on the first hole!!! :D

Portland, Smith Rock and Mt. Washington

2008-07-28T16:46:00.007+02:00

We finally met up with Greg in Portland, where he took us on a boat trip on the Willamette river, and we got to try bot intertube and wakeboard. Wakeboard was really cool, almost like kite surfing, exept you dont need to think about the kite all the time :)

Boat trip in Portland!

Jake and Greg at French's dome by Mt. Hood outside Portland

We then headed to Smith Rock and climbed some awsome climbs like Monkey face. We also got time to climb Mt Washington before heading futher north.

Jake on second pich, monkey face. Me and Kristin belaying

Monkey Face from Wherever i may roam

Greg on last pitch of Wherever i may roam (5 piches, 5.9)

Greg, Jake and Jakes brother Tim on Mt. Washington. Three finger jack and ? in background.

Jake leading last pitch on Mt. Washington

Greg, Kristin, me and Tim on top of Mt Washington

Nevada, Eureka and Lost Rock

2008-07-28T16:44:00.009+02:00

From Zion we drove through Nevada, and in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, on what is called US loneliest highway Kristin suddenly notice blinking light behind us while we are driving.... I get a bit scared an pulles over, and since no one comes I open the door to get out of the car. This makes Jake pull me back, saying I should never do that! When the police officer comes he is really mad and says that no one not having done anything wrong would get out of the car like that! He gets me to go out of the car, and sit on the front of the police car, and starts asking me out suspecting me to have drugs and acting exactly like police in a movie!

The reason he pulled me over he claims is because I was to fast through a stop sign (it was completly flat there and not a single car for houres...) but he probably just stoped us because we looked a bit shabby and young, and therefor could have drugs... I seriously was about to cry sitting alone on the front of the car waiting for the officer to call whoever he was calling.... After showing norwegian passport and looking really scared he luckely let us go quite fast (at least fast compared to what he could have done according to Jake). If there is something I really do not like about the US its the police! And an advice to everybody: never EVER go out of the car if you get pulled over in the states!

The next day we drove through northern california and experienced more than 45 degrees C in Redding and some huge wildfires closer to the coast. At one point me and Kristin just sopped telling our mums what we where doing :)

We then went to Jakes parents in Eureka, got some really good food and slept in beds, and then we headed towards Oregon and Portland, with a stop for some beach bouldering in Lost Rock and a stop in Corvallis.

Jake and his mum Sarah like brown cheese!!! :D

Kristin in Lost Rocks

Lost Rock

In Corvallis I finnaly got some proper american hamburger!!