Bruksvallarna, Vassfjellet and some of the things in between

Last weekend was the tradisjonal cross country ski trip with the orienteering club to Bruksvallarna in Sweden. It turned out to be an eventfull weekend. The trip started with quarter of an hour of waiting in the rain and sleet for the bus, so that everybody was nice and wet when the bus came. The busdrive stared as a usuall bus drive does, with chatting, quiz and whatching the old boy band parodi movie "Get ready to be boyzvoized!". The bus followed the road against Røros, took of to the smaller road to Sweden, drove nicely on this road, untill suddenly, we wheren't on the road anymore...

Instead the bus had 3 windowes broken, some brances through the windows and the front was standing in 65 degree angle on the side of the road. The whole bus was leaning on some threes that just saved us from spinning around and landing on the roof! All in all really scary! Luckely there where no serious injuries (just a cut in a hand) since everybody where wearing safty belts. I am never going to ride bus without saftybelt after this! We got out of the bus through a window, with help from ambulance, police and firedepartment, and got another bus who drove us to Bruksvallarne. Our usual evening session was cansled though...

Our bus!!

Rest of the weekend was a bit more as expected, awsome conditions, completly exausting sessions (almost 5 hours for me and sis last day..) and a lot of swedish "små godis" (cheap candy) eaten together with nice people!

Rest of the week has been quite normal. Only thing is though that I am getting increasingly stressed out about beeing in my 4th year, and haveing to soon deside my research topic and stuff, and most of all about finding a good summer job. On tuesday I went even to a job fair of other reasons than getting free candy, pens and key ring for the first time! I think I just can't imagine that I am soon finished studying and are soon supposed to soon be grown up and responsible :) And saturday evening me and Kristin took Hege climbing for the first time in her life. She was really good! And we had Drag Wall (the uni climbing gym) almost for our self! Unusual!

Hege in Drag Wall

Today Me, Kristin, Line and Mari (a friend of Kristin) went to Vassfjellet, which is a small, but nice, ski area close to Trondheim to do some telemark skiing. This can just be described in pictures:

Kristin, Mari and Line

Me, elegant as always :)

Mari on the same jump

Line in a beutifull turn!

Koietur to Telin

Here back in Norway the school is well started and everything is normal again. My papers are actually really good, and the afternoons goes with climbing, cross country skiing, jogging and such. The first weekend back in Trondheim was used to go to a Telemark course with the uni Ski and Mountain club. This was absolutly awsome! I managed the turns quite well in the end, and no longer feel so klumsy with downhill skies. Unfortunatly I have no pictures, since I was to busy skiing :)

The last weekend I went on koie (small cabins the uni sport club has) trip with Kine Sofie, Line, Katja and Nina. We had a really nice trip, even though the weather on saturday was a bit against us and got almost snow stormish and misty so we didnt manage to get to the mountain we wanted. Instead we had to go back to the Koie and we used the rest of the day and evening on cardplaying, singing (we got through almost all the songs we knew in the songbook!), eating gourmet food and drinking wine and bailyes. Sunday the weather was a lot better, and we spent it playing in the snow, before we went home. All in all, a really good trip!

Nina in the nice weather.... We kind of decided to turn around about here...

Singing, drinking wine and eating choclate mousse :)

The cabin Telin and the area around.

Line!

The wind was so strong on saturday the the door almost blew of, the upper part is now loose... But look how cosy the cabin is!

Some pictures of me taken by Line. More pics on her blog, http://folk.ntnu.no/linesjod/

A really elegant fall by me.... To my defence, we tried to find a really steep hill and fall as much as possible in the nice soft snow :)

Patriotisme

One last patriotic picture from Mo i Rana:

Sigrid and Sindre on the way up on a tele skiing trip, Mo i Rana in the background. You see the end of the Rana fjord where the Rana river comes out, this is where the town is.

New years eve

New year eve on Lovund was a big suksess, some key words:

• Perfect Turkey (actually first time ever I tasted Turkey, and its really nice!)
• Absolutly awsomely beutifull nature and weather
• Polar light!
• Crazy drunken cigarsmoking people with way to much firework...
• Party in an old barn with country music (Lovund is kind of rural:)
• And of course, really nice people!!
  

First picture in the new year, birgitte, anne katrine and me

Lovund

Anyone wants to belay me here when it gets warmer? Probably never been climed, solid rock and looks like good protection, and comes with the view bellow and midnightsun :)

So now we are well into the new year, and it looks like its gonna be just as good as the last one! On monday uni starts in Trondheim, and on sunday i'm driving down and moving into my new room. This time i luckely don't have to drive alone, Anders is coming with me, which makes a lot nicer drive but is gonna be interesting to see if we can fit 7 pair of skies, snowboard, paraglider, kite, crash pad and all the other stuff into my tiny car, but with the training from the first South Island trip it should work! :)

Christmas

Christmas in my family is a sacred time, and traditions is the main point. To do something different than last year is not even a question :) So here I give you all: Christmas in the Ringdalen Vatne family!

The last weekend before christmas was then used to do the last preparations for christmas, and my favourite christmas preparation, make gingerbread house!

Me, Sindre and Sis building and baking

The finished building! (It's a star obervatory :)

On the 24th almost everything is supposed to be ready. Me and little sis use the day to whatch the same TV programs as we whatch every year. This means the czech movie Three nuts for cinderella, and the norwegian movie The journey to the christmas star. For lunch we have some family friends over and eat rice porrige. At 5 pm christmas starts, and we eat salted dried sheep ribs that is boiled with mashed swede and potatos for dinner. After dinner we walk around the christmas three and sing, and then it is present time! :)

Christmas dinner!

First day of chrismas is time to just relax and do nothing. Me, sis and our dad, ended then up whatching Southern Faces (NZ climbing movie) and then we decided maybe we should try to tabel travers the living room table, which actually worked really well. My mum put her foot down first a couple of days later, when Sindre suggested it would be cool to try it with crampons...

The second day of christmas is the annual salmond christmas party that my parents have, and it's also the big day out, where everybody between 20 and 30 in Mo i Rana goes out on the one and only place to go out, Ramona, and meets a lot of old friends and ends up looking like this santa: (I think me or sis made it once...)

Today (the 30th) we had another christmas tradition, the annual christmas ski tour. Which mean that we and another family and whoever else that wants to come, uses the little daylight for a little hike on skies. This year we went to Bolna, a mountain on Saltfjellet (the salty mountains). We had about -14 degrees, beautifull weather and nice ski conditions!

Skiers and Bolna in the background. We actually saw the sun!

We started by the artic circle center, so to everybody far away, this is how it look like to cross the artic cricle! :)

Tomorrow is new years eve, and then me and Birgitte is going to Lovund (my favourite norwegian island!) to visit Anne Katrine and celebrate! That is going to be awsome, and it is really cool to hang out with my two best friends from high school again!

And if anybody managed to get through this long blog entrance, I can tell you that i have gotten a place to live in Trondheim, and is no longer homeless :) My adress is Brøsetveien 155-28, 7050 Trondheim. This is in Karinenlund student village, just next to Frode Rinnans. Everybody is welcome!

Thats all for now, so I wish you all a
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

And just a note at the end in case someone read this and just know me from NZ or just thinks I'm kind of confusing. My sister is called Sigrid, I just like to call her little sister or little friend in norwegian, which I find translates well into sis in english :) Sindre is her boyfriend, a cool guy and good climber, whom I find I have the right to treat as a little brother (in good and bad :) as long as he dates my sister.

Advent in Norway

I have promised some of you that i'm not going to stop writing my blog just because i'm back in Norway, and that promise i'm intending to keep!

So, what i have been doing the last couple of weeks is working most weekdays, and living home with my parents and beeing a good daughter :) Exept last weekend, because then I was in Trondheim, since I had an exam on monday the 10th, so i was hanging at school trying to study, but using most of my time to play achtung die kurve or card games, drink coffe and other stuff not including studying. But I think I passed so it's okay :)

This weekend I have been a really good daughter though, I have been mostly at home, helping my parents with cristmas preparations, making cristmas cakes, rolls and stuff like that. I had planed to try my kite (I bought one!!) and go tele skiing with some people from the climbing club, but the weather is hopless, its raining, 5 plus degrees and no wind what so ever! (global warming sucks!) Me and my dad went out tele skiing on saturday even though the weather sucked. I borrowed my mums beautifull new black diamond tele skies and tried it for the first time ever. It was kind of wierd for a snowboarder/cross country skier like me, and I didn't really feel that my clumsy skiing was worthy the nice skies...

Tele skiing with dad, Sweden in the background

I also got time for a little party. My old high school friend Renate and her sister had a birthday/cristmas party in the cafe by the cave Grønnligrotta. Those of you who have been there, knows that this is a bit outside Mo i Rana, and up a really steep windy gravel road, and this road gets really slippery in winter, espessially when it is plus degrees. All this i knew, but i still desided to give it a try to get up, even though my car is not that good. And no suprise, the car started spinning, then it stopped and slowly it slided backwards and into the snow at the side of the road, and i was completly stuck.. Luckily I got rescued by someone smart enough to use four wheel drive, and had a really nice time at the party :)

Me and Reante (We rocked in chemistry lab in high school!)

I also finally got the dresses I got made in Indonesia, so here Devi, is the promised picture of me in one of the dresses! I love it!

And now I am going to make swiss cristmas cakes, and lasagna for dinner. Miss u all! (exept those who read this and is in Mo i Rana :)

Back in Norway in the city of moustaches

I am now finally back in Norway, and even though I love New Zealand, I must say it is wonderfull to be back in Norway to! (I just love it everywhere it seems like :) Since I came back I have met family and friends. Been hanging at school, trying to study for my last exam (not with much luck...) , but my class have really cosy study area this year. I have been climbing a little bit, and got to try my new shoes, which are amazing! I have also proved to my friends that i haven't changed much but are just as messy and confused as I always have been :)

Waffels, "boller" and "gløgg" in my mums flat. Kristin, Karianne, Line and Katja

Cross country skiing with little sis (it's 3 pm! I kind of struggels with the darkness...)

One week in paradise

A poem written on the wall off the toilet on Hangdog camp, Paynes Ford:

Hello climbers, welcome to Paynes!
Where it hardy ever rains,
Except when the masses arrives from the city,
Than the whether is generally shitty

So what routes should you climb?
I will tell you through this rhyme,
I’ll give you hints about what to do,
Through this words written on this loo.

The Rawhide roof is steep and long,
It’s many moves out to the lip,
And that is your first clip
If you fall you’ll hit the dirt
And, believe me, this will hurt.

Ed bouldering Rawhide roof (22)

If you want to climb Temples of stone,
Rest assured, you won’t be alone,
There is often a queue, so don’t be late
But the climb is worth the wait

Ingrid on Temples of Stone (18)

Tenuite Wall has Go with the Flow
Layback the stal is the way to go,
Just be careful not to slip,
As you’re doing the second clip
The routes on the wall are a lot of fun
But get there early before the sun

Responsible lounges and Convex Slope
Have dashed many climbers hope,
To do these routes, you have to crank,
But leave some gas in the tank
Else your fingers might go limp,
As you do the final crimp

One of the finest is Globe wall
An excellent place for a fall,
Make sure you have a good belay,
On Dave’s arête or Make my day,
The final move before the top,
Is the place you’re bound to drop

If you want to try your luck,
To see if you can Superconduct,
You will need to effortlessly flow,
Else the crux moves you will blow

Greg on a climb next to Superconductor

If these climbs are much to hard,
Then Little Lost Wall may be your card
The cliff is low and not so steep,
The holds are friendly; big and deep

1080’s a route you ought to try,
Climbing upside down like a fly
Keep on moving, do not stop,
And don’t get psyched out by the drop,
Soon you’ll arrive at the cave,
Take a rest; to the audience wave

Jake resting in the cave on 1080 and the letter G (23)

An excellent cliff is the Wall of Thugs;
Don’t expect to find many jugs
Adrift in a sea of slopes,
Your climbing will be franatic gropes,
You’ll be pumped out of your brain,
Before you finally reach the chain.

If you like climbing on rock that’s steep,
Then head to Pohara and Bo-Peep,
Despite appearances, the rock is sound
Better climbing can hardly be found.

Jake on Why not? (26) on Bo-Peep slab(!!!)

At the end of a long hard day,
No more climbing, you want to play,
To the swimming hole you ought to run,
To go for a swim or lie in the sun,
The perfect way,
To end the day,
Of excellent climbing,
In Golden Bay

Rescuing the dog Chewie on the slack line over one of the swimming holes

Todays gravity on Hangdog camp

Maching fake Mad rock tatoos :)

Group photo: Me, Ingrid (cool norwegian), Jake (annoying american 1), Ed (true kiwi), Greg (Annoying american 2), Kristin (cool norwegian)