At this
time of writing I am in Stockholm working. About 3 months ago I left Stockholm
and drove south to the Alps for some skiing, climbing and the first course for
the mountain guide course. Unfortunately this winter hasn´t reached any records
yet when it comes to snowfall. Green Christmas celebrations had been reported
from all over the Alps. With a quick stop in Chamonix to collect some gear I
went to pick up Gustav Mellgren at the airport in Geneva. We had both done some
research on for that moment the best ski locations. Andermatt was high up on
the list, when Gustav on top of that by coincidence met his friend Klas Englund
at the airport with the same destination in mind, the choice was made.
Being the days just before new year´s finding accommodation was not the
easiest, luckily at the famous ´´Swedish house´´ a.k.a. ´´Villa villakulla´´ (a
group of seasoneers that rent a house and nowadays work and live fulltime in
Andermatt) they were kind enough to let us stay for some nights, even though it
already was very busy.
In
Andermatt we actually found fairly good conditions. We varied lift skiing with
some easier touring. Al the time we had to be quite cautious because of the
tricky avalanche situation that is the main theme in the Alps this season…
The main discovery of this trip was the Gotthard tunnel to the Swiss kanton
Tiscino. On the bad weather days this was the quick escape. With a ride of just
under one hour from Andermatt you enter a complete different world; sunshine,
warm temperatures, palm trees and one of the best bouldering i´ve ever done.
 |
| Klas Englund cruising in Andermatt |
 |
| picking lines in Andermatt |
 |
| Cogne with warm temps |
After the
trip to Andermatt I went to Cham for a couple of weeks trying to make something
of the conditions. I filled the days with some skiing, working out, drytooling
and some easier alpine climbing. Something that´s almost a must do is to start
a ski or climb from the aiguille du midi-lift but for the first time on I don´t
know how many trips to Cham I never made my way up there…strange idea.
 |
| Short visit to Verbier |
 |
| Gustav Mellgren climbing rock instead of ice... |
 |
| Sunshine skiing with my dad :) |
Before it
was time to go back Sweden, I went to Davos. Even I you would think that, I didn´t
go there for the WEF. In Davos the ´´Schnee und lawinenforschung´´SLF is based.
This is one of the world leading institutes on avalanche science (www.slf.ch). The Swedish mountain guide organization
(SBO) had planned a week long avalanche course for us as part of the guide
training.
The course started with a refresher of our skills and a visit to the ski patrol.
Two full days where spent with Manuel Genswein, a real guru, and probably the
mind behind your transceiver. By his lead we trained a lot on transceiver search
methods and how to solve tricky multiple burials. If we got cold that was easily
solved by practicing digging, jup even that you can optimize by digging in a
V-shape or so called conveyor belt.
The other days we had some shorter lectures about snow physics and national avalanche
forecasting but mainly we were out in the field together with Stephan Harvey, a
mountain guide working for the SLF. We dug snow pits to examine the snowpack,
trained on route finding in avalanche terrain and much more. It was very interesting
given that there was a lot of avalanche activity. We even managed to trigger
some small avalanches from a distance, a clear sign of instability.
 |
| Conveyor belt or V-shape digging |
 |
| Stephan Harvey measuring density |
 |
| Mikael Almlert checking out the avalanche we triggerd remotly |
 |
| Can you see the weak layer? |
