Near Nasby

Now that spring has sort of arrived, we plan to get out into the backcountry more and more. Last weekend was the first of our spring trips and the official title was 'climbing'. But more and more it seems that things usually turn out completely differently than planned so we left expectation aside for the most part.

Friday afternoon we set out in the school van for a relaxing weekend of climbing and near car camping. Our understanding being that we would walk fifteen minutes from the van and camp near a rock wall all weekend. On our way out Timo (our leader a.k.a team-bro) explains to us the basics of climbing. In particular he explains that there are three integral parts of climbing that can be summed up in the three C's of climbing. These are climbing, coffee, and candy.  So we had a quick pitstop at the candy store to stock up for the weekend. We arrived a little later at our wall and had high hopes of perhaps some dry spots as it was raining but quickly found that we were not getting anywhere higher then two feet that day. So we packed up and went to a wind shelter some Swedes had set up at some point to camp in the rain. As we had a fairly short walk to our spot we carried some serious food and some pretty heavy pots. For the rest of the day we talked a bit about wilderness shelters and the like, finally building a few in the surrounding woods. We then started a nice big fire and cooked some backcountry pizza in the coals. It was a great and relaxing evening. We had a large pot to make some cowboy coffee on but unfortunately it didn't have a handle. To solve this mighty problem we looked around for some wire to make a handle out. To my great joy and surprise we happened on some rusty barbed wire. With this we then fashioned a completely bad-ass (sorry, no other word to describe it) handle for our coffee pot. I felt pretty red-green. The next day dawned bright and sunny and we wasted no time in packing up and getting to the rock. Timo lead climbed three routes and set up a top rope on each. The routes were of varying difficulty and provided some pretty good challenges. So we spent the day eating candy, drinking (or watching others drink) coffee, and climbing some pretty cool rock. My new climbing shoes worked great, they hurt my feet like none other but they really help on the rock. Size 15 climbing shoes look pretty goofy. Anyway, we finished the day there and set up our camp on the top of the hill. We slept under a tarp, but carried tents for back-up. The next day we had a mighty surprise when we discovered that our leaders decided to leave the night before and ditch us with all our gear. They left us a map and told us not to walk through Vetlanda (which happened to be the most direct route back to school) and that we had to avoid main roads and hitch hiking was not an option (not that that was a big deal considering Swedes are too grumpy to pick us up anyway). So we were stuck with a large cardboard box full of food , five tarps and roughly ten five liter water containers plus two flippen long/heavy ropes (thankfully they took the gear rack back with them (which was smart of them cause we might have sold it on the way home)). At this point I had the opportunity to laugh at my friends who had packed way too heavy (for example, one brought a glass bowl), or brought uber light daypacks with crappy harnesses or only had running shoes or sandals. So we divided everything up as best we could and set off back to school (we had to skirt Vetlanda by at least two kilometers which was kinda depressing) It was beautiful and sunny and we saw some awesome countryside so we were having a great day. We had a goal of being back at school for 530 as we only had lentils for supper and that wasn't too appetizing after a day of walked with way too heavy packs. Well to cut a long story short, we walked really fast to get back for supper and ended up not being signed in for supper so we pulled out our stoves and cooked lentils back at school. As we had a pretty intense pace for the last few kilometers most people had some serious blisters going on and all of us were walking a bit funny for the next few days. Thankfully I brought liner socks and my backpacking boots so I was fine. Fun side fact, I like my pack hip straps really, really tight so most of the load is on my hips so I usually endure some level of pain after a long day walking. I guess I tightened it a little too much this day because my hips had small egg sized swelling on them, it was weird/awesome. I also got some cool cuts on my shins. It was a good trip.

One of our routes

German Melanie

Chris is thinking

At some Swedish firing range

Built in 1648

Random junk attached to my pack

Cool poisonous Swedish snake

Awesome swelling from my pack straps.

Ski Trip

Well as you have probably noticed, it has been several months since I last posted in this thing. However, I do have legitimate reason for this. Namely, not much has happened since my last post. I did travel most of western Europe, enjoyed three months of winter school at Holsby, visited Gothemburg, Stockholm, and the Baltic sea. After all Europe is mostly boring cities and old churches so I thought I would spare you the details of said old churches and boring cities.

But in the last few weeks something truly interesting did happen over here in Sweden so I thought I should share it with you all. We enjoyed our third trip of the year with the Discovery program up in Lappland, which is in northern Sweden.

Our trip started the Sunday after regular winter school ended. We prepared gear and food for several days beforehand and finally set out early Sunday. We rented a large Ford european style hutterite van and started our drive up north. Another guy came along to drive and give us weather reports as he has to work up north away. We stopped in Stockholm to pick up our Finnish telemark ski guide who would be joining us for the trip. She has worked at Holsby for a term or two so had a few connections to the school. We then continued to drive until late evening and stopped at the base of large hill on the Baltic coast. After an hour hike or so up the hill we reached a small cabin at the top where we would 'spend the night'. Which really just means that the two girls on the trip slept in the cabin and the rest of us rolled our stuff out on the snow under the stars, which was nice as well. Speaking of which, our team consists normally of 8 people, four girls, and four guys. Unfortunately, one girl couldn't come along because of breathing trouble in cold climate and two others backed out days beforehand because of illness. So our team was greatly reduced to the four of us guys and just one of our female team members. Back to the story, we woke early the next morning and continued our drive north. The town where we stayed for a few days to learn telemark and sleep is called Tarnaby and apparently all the good downhill skiers to come out of Sweden have come from this one small town. At our arrival in Tarnaby we went straight to a small church building where we would stay the few days before our trip. The next day we went straight to the ski resort at Tarnaby and rented our equipment. Tragically, telemark skiing is a sport reserved for those with small feet. The first day out I received the biggest pair of telemark boots currently in production, size 31.5. After skiing a day in the boots I concluded that I would be able to join the trip, but I would not have toes afterwards. As we thought that this was an unacceptable price to pay for a few short days of skiing we went back to the ski shop to look for alternatives. They ended up giving me the largest alpine boots that they had and a mixed binding. The boots fit well and the binding also allowed me to participate in our trip. The skis had an alpine/telemark mixed binding. Which means that the binding was a regular downhill binding that pivots in front of the toe. So for the touring portion of the trip I would have a loose heel and be able to move just as well as the telemarkers and for extended downhill portions i could simply lock my heel into place and ski downhill normally. So that was a huge relief.

With our skis all figure out we were finally ready to depart to the backcountry. We ran into some problems the first day in form of pouring rain down at the base of the mountain. Thankfully, the rain let up my 11am and we were able to set out. Unfortunately, we lost enough time that we wouldn't be able to reach basecamp the first day. After riding the chairlifts to the top of the hill we were able to start off into the backcountry. After a few hours of skiing we reached our first camp next to a small cabin in a mountain valley. We dug our tents and kitchen areas into the snow and set up camp. The next day we left and arrived at our basecamp site early in the day. We spent the next sixish hours digging. Digging in tents, digging kitchen areas, digging snow caves, digging bathrooms. Being fairly exhausted after so much digging sleep came easy, whether or not you were basically sleeping in a large snowbank. The weather wasnt totally agreeable. It was windy, snowy, and worst of all, warm. The daytime temperature hovered somewhere around zero the whole trip. So when the snow fell, it instantly turned to water as soon as it touched you. Making for a very very wet week. Our second day in camp saw us head out to hike up the largest mountain in the area. Unfortunately, some extreme wind and snow forced us to turn back several hours into the trip. On the way back whiteout conditions made navigation difficult and slowed us quite a bit. Also, this hefty wind decided to switch direction at the last second and blow from the opposite way from the days before. So many of our snow walls and windbreaks were useless or worse. So for the rest of the day we dug. Dug more walls, better kitchens, bigger snowcaves. A pattern started to emerge in that this trip would be more digging and less skiing. That evening left us extremely wet and cold. When you would sit in a windbreak or snowcave any snow that touches you would immediately melt. Then as soon as you stood up into the wind you would immediately freeze solid, making for a really interesting situation. The following day was a decided rest day (not that we had done much skiing anyway). So we headed down into the valley to a small cabin/hostel thing on a major snowmobile route. We hung out there that day and dried a lot of our gear in their drying room. Our driver, Peter, came up and cooked us moose fajitas which were awesome. After the afternoon there we skied back to camp and readied for the following day. We planned another day trip the following day but unfortunately it was so windy and warm that we decided to stay in camp the next day. So we basically chilled in snowcaves and dug some more. This last day was the conclusion of our trip and unfortunately we didnt actually get to do much ski touring but had a good time nonetheless. Our final day out was going to be pretty intense. We woke up at 430am on Tuesday and literally broke camp. There is this slight paranoia that they have over here, we literally had to destroy everything that we had made. Our snow caves were under almost two meters of snow and we had to dig off the roofs, stomp it down and then fill in the holes. It was exhausting and took a long time. By the time this was all done we were able to set out at about 7am. We skied until about 230pm and made it back to our home base. We showered, saunaed and then ate one more meal there before heading out. We left Tarnaby at 530pm and drove until 1am. On the way we saw some awesome northern lights as we drove south. It was a great cap to the trip and and a first for a lot of the Europeans with us. At 1am we stopped at a rest stop and slept on the ground outside the bus. We then woke up after a few hours and continued our drive back to Holsby.

All in all it was a great trip, the weather wasn't always great and we didn't do as much skiing as planned but it was still a great time. This spring the Discoverry trips come pretty fast so hopefully I will post in this thing more. Bye!

The view from our first rest stop on the drive north

our tent

unfortunately this lovely waterbottle took a tumble at some point in the climb to basecamp.

Backpack at the start of the trip

view from the top of the ski resort

Swedish Military training.

First Camp

Windy/Snowy

Small Snow twister

again for some reason

the valley

Our Camp

German Chris

Our viking Alfred in the wind

Down

Six days of Grease

donezies

DreamHack Winter 2011

This weekend 8 students from Holsby and one staff member travelled to Jonkoping and attended the nerdiest thing known to man. DreamHack. DreamHack is the largest digital gaming festival in the world and set three new world records this weekend. It runs from thursday to Sunday and is the biggest LAN party in the world.

We woke up early Saturday morning and left for Jonkoping by 8am. We arrived when the doors opened at 10am. This is not to say that people hadnt been gaming all night. We walked in, bought our daypasses and walked into the first of three giant gaming rooms. We were all shocked at what we saw. Several thousand desktop computers, complete with either gaming humans or humans completely out on their keyboards. There were rows with table that held all the computers and it was a mess to say the least. Two days worth of empty coke cans and energy drinks, stacks of empty fast food cartons and blankets, pillows, and cabels all over the place. We proceeded from that room to the main one where there was a stage set up and some kind of techno pumping out for the gamers to stay awake on. It was quite the sight to see several thousand glowing monitors in a dim room with zombies walking around in the one piece fleece suits they were selling there. There was also something with displays by various gaming companies giving away free stuff and demoing their games. There was also tournaments for professional gamers that took place in a large thingy with lots of seats and a big screen. It was ridiculous, being gave standing ovations for somebody getting shot on a video game. The prizes were fairly large, the biggest being about 100 000 dollars for the winner of StarCraft 2.

I have never seen so much gaming and I felt sick after only one day just looking, not even playing in there. Some people were literally at their computers three days straight. This isnt to say that it wasnt a good experience. Ive never seen something like that. They set the record at somewhere above 13 000 joined computers at a single event. The internet was 120 gbit/s. Apparently that is stupid fast, but I wouldnt know. I got a few free shirts out of the deal and came out feeling really good about the fact that 

I have friends and dont spend all day gaming. 

 

Sleeping!

sleeping stuff

Enough Coke?

Counter Strike Finals. Prize, 150 000kr

Sea Kayaking Nov 10-13

Sorry it took so much time to put up this post but I have been really busy... or just really lazy.

Well anyway, a couple of weeks ago we went on our second trip of the year, sea kayaking in the Baltic. There was already a travel weekend planned for this weekend so we didn't have to miss any classes. Travel weekend started on Thursday and ended Sunday evening so that was to be the length of our trip. We left thursday morning and drove about an hour and a half to the ocean, where we picked up our rental kayaks (which were actually pretty nice). After about an hour of learning how to pack these blasted compartments properly we carried the kayaks down the pier without dying on the slippery wood and tossed them in the water. We then proceeded to enter the kayaking without stepping in the goose poop which was everywhere. Thankfully my feet fit in the kayaking but I still had to take off my boots to sit properly. When  figuring out what you are going to do with your boots you are faced with the tough decision of whether or not you should put your dirty boots with you in the kayak or if you wash them off in the sea and then put wet boots with you in your kayak. Either option kinda sucks but having lots of water is better then lots of dirt. Anyway, once safely in our kayaks we started on our way. Each day a different pair of people navigated and led the group in our travels. The first day I was co-leading with Danielle (from BC). As it was completely foggy we really had to rely on our maps and compass. At times we would cross large stretches of open water in which we could literally see nothing. At this point we really hoped that our compasses were accurate and that we weren't too stupid to use them. Thankfully, we did know how to use them and successfully navigated through the fog and the ten million islands around. Our first campsite was pretty soggy as we found it in near darkness and we were pretty rushed. Once my tent partner (Christopher (the german)) and I had set up our tent we figured out that we set up right on some pretty funky mushrooms that made us smell like really strong garlic. It wasn't  ideal. Anyway, we had a good night there and woke up to clear skies, which was a nice change from pure fog all day. The next day we started and actually got to take a look at the scenery which was nice. Its very similar to the whiteshell but with more rock. The tides are almost nonexistent and the sea was completely calm for three of the four days we paddled. That night we set up at a very nice spot inside a fairly narrow channel and actually got to see the sun go down. I also tried to fish a bit as we had a brought a very old fishing rod with us that had a knock-off mepps with only two thirds of a treble hook attached. Well i started fishing after sundown and would cast for a bit, pack it in, then immediately turn back as some idiot fish would jump exactly where I had been casting one minute ago. This happened about three times until i got too frustrated to try again. The next was even foggier than the first and we did a lot of blind navigation which was cool. Unfortunately we almost ran out of daylight looking for a camping spot and we picked a spot on the windward side of an island. A light wind kicked up in the evening and the fog got pushed up on land and  soaked everything. Our tents were under trees and it sounded like it was raining there was so much water dripping from the trees. The last day had a bit of wind but nothing to complain about with all the calm we had had the days previous.

Now that I have kinda outlined the trip I can give a few details.
Well, my cook group and I had the great idea that we should have instant mashed potatoes for one of our meals. This was a mighty fine idea, however, we (not me though) only brought one packet of potatoes instead of three. So we had potato soup. It was awful. Unfortunately, you cant just not eat, so we ate soup that tasted like butter and potatoes and water. But mostly water.
I have always liked canoes better than kayaks, maybe that was because I had just canoed more in the past but now i know exactly why. Getting out of a kayak is like playing russian roulette. It was by-far the most dangerous thing I have done in Sweden so far. Its completely unreasonable how uncomfortable, inconvenient, unstable and every other kind of un- or in- word that you can think of including unawesome. Anyway, people almost ate it trying to get out for pee breaks all the time. Slippery rocks and kayaks dont mix well and the Baltic sea is literally completely surrounded by slippery rocks. So the moral of the story is, I still like canoes better.

Oh ya, when you think your going in a straight line towards one point in fog you are actually not. You're slowly going in a circle but you think your such a pro and really keeping your reference point in the fog. But your wrong, your not a pro and your actually 60 degrees off. But thats what compasses are for so no worries. You just have to be staring downwards at your compass constantly. 

And fleece liners are awesome. 

Thats all I have for now!

First sun of the trip second day

Alfred's sweet sunglasses
 

Our only sunset

Icy kayaks and fog makes for cold mornings

fleece pants are awesome

no-shave progress Nov 12

Great View!

Christopher and his skirt

First Trip

Last week we embarked on our first Discovery trip of the year! We were told almost nothing before the trip started apart from the length. We only learned of our departing time the day of, and even then we didn't know where we were going (not that it mattered). We had five two-man tents and were split up into tent partners and food groups of two or three. Food groups planned suppers together and divided up the weight of the four dinners we would be bringing on the trip, breakfast and lunch were both individual meals.

On Wednesday last week we left Holsby at around 1:00 pm and drove for about forty five minutes to some random back road where we started our trip. It just so happened that moose hunting season started the day before the start of our trip so we were required to strap a goofy orange or yellow vest to the back of packs to avoid being shot by some crazy Swede. Within the first 100 meters of our trip we saw a huge, fresh gut pile. We then assumed that the we would be constantly surrounded by carnage for the next five days but we actually did not see another moose, dead or alive and only ran into a few hunters who were too lazy to get off the road. Anyway, we walked 10 km the first day and camped at a nice little lake in a fairly remote area of southern Sweden. The next day we were woken up before sunrise to the slightly annoyingly peppy voice of our leader, Timo. We went on to walk just over 20km that day and camped on the top of a hill overlooking a small town. The next few days continued in the same manner, we usually walked a bit over 20km each day at differing speeds and camped near various lakes and rivers. It got seriously cold at night and things definitely got interesting as some of the girls brought summer bags that were rated to somewhere around 5 degrees celcius. As the temperature outside was around negative five to ten this posed a serious problem. My own sleeping bag, rated to negative 10 or so was fairly decent but I had cold feet at a few points, the fleece liner will definitely be coming on the next trip. That furry Patagonia sweater I bought was probably the best purchase ever and is so awesome for being warm and furry at the same time. I almost forgot to mention that the weather was almost perfect. Clear skies every day except the last, which started with heavy fog but lifted by mid day and we had sun. By the second or third day we started to realize that we were walking back to Holsby and it was quite interesting to find our way as we had different student leaders every day who worked the map and compass. About three quarters of the trip was done walking on backcountry roads (they are everywhere in Sweden) and the rest was on trail through forest and swamp. We ended up walking 92 Km in just over four full days and getting really sore feet (no blisters though, liner socks are awesome). It was a great first trip and I"m really looking forward to the next one in November. Seeing as we were already cold on our first 'warm' fall trip it will be interesting to see how we fair on our winter trips! Here are a few pictures from the trip. Almost forgot, there was the ice cream truck that taunted us during the second day. We could here its really annoying little anthem thing from way out in the bush and continued to hear it for a while as we made our way to camp, seemingly always where we had just been. Just saying, those Swedish ice cream trucks are just all around awful.

we are really visible

sunset first day

great moose hunting stand

sunrise third day

the group minus Emelie

basically the Dead Marshes 

lots of frost

sunset third day... we are still walking at this point

Me!