the swede

One of the nicest people you could hope to meet and always a pleasure to share a session with

vemdalen

This is the top of the main lift out of the carpark in Vemdalen at about 9.30 am - it's a quiet resort as you can see.

This was my first trip to Sweden although i've wanted to go for a long time. The idea of how expensive it is stopped us for ages but given the pound/euro rates in the last couple of years, it's really not much different than a trip to the French alps. Unless you want to get drunk of course. Supermarket beer is about a pound a can but it's a max of 3.5%. Vemdalen is so small you have to put an order in with a local butcher 48hours in advance to get anything stronger sent over from the nearest proper town! Moral of the story is stock up in duty free!!

Vemdalen itself is little more than a couple of lifts, cafes and a ski shop and feels more like a tiny US ski hill than anything in Europe. Just like many US hills, it's quiet during the week and it's got a limited number of runs. The pistes are kept in excellent condition, real corduroy groomers which stay firm but not icy no matter how long ago it snowed. I think this is because the top layer never melts and refreezes because of the prevailing low temperatures. Geilo last year and here definately had the best on-piste conditions ive seen since we last went to Tahoe!

The mountains themselves are low, looking more like rolling tundra than craggy mountains so nowhere is that steep and there aren't any real cliffs to fall off by accident. Avalanche risk stays pretty low too and the forests between the runs are made up of pretty widely spaced trees. If it snows, all this adds up to really fun, easily accessible, safe off-piste that doesn't get tracked out very quickly. The resort was nearly a metre down on it's usual mid january base and i still had face shots in the trees and some really good pow turns, even if i did get told off for cutting through a lift line by the ski patrol!

There's some good natural hits and i'm told it's even better with more snow. Park wise, theres a small one but it's definately not the focus for the lift company and geilo in norway last year was much better set up for that. On the down side it is small and as a resort definately suited to learning to ski or snowboard rather than a place to put the miles in. I did every run on the hill with the Neilson rep in two hours! Admittedly we weren't hanging about but still!

It is a good place for families, youngsters will progress well and it's quiet. Look elsewhere if you want to party hard though!

winter wonderland

So last week i picked up a new winter wetsuit. It's a hooded 4/3 from the new Hasu range from Nineplus.

It's mostly single lined apart from the bottom of the legs and feels very lightweight. Seams are liquid sealed and the torso and hood is lined with fleecy material. It's a chest zip entry, the neoprene is yamamoto feels lovely and supple.

It's supposed to be plenty warm enough for our winter (water around 8 celcius) but i must admit i wasn't entirely sure as i sauntered down to mid tide 2 ft windswell a few days ago, it felt thin and too easy to get on compared with my old xcel suit to believe id be warm.

How wrong i was. I'm not going to claim it's warmer than a 5/4, it's probably about the same (although having a full time hood reduces flushing and the fleece lining in the hood had my head sweating!) What you gain is in flexibility, it feels as though you have a summer suit on, in fact less restrictive than some 3/2's i've worn. The seams let very little water in and i was perfectly warm, even hot, for an hour on a windy grey day. Admittedly it was a small day and i was on a log so i didn't spend a lot of time under water.

 So far so good and on first impressions i'd heartly reccomend it.

Only time will tell on durability and if the warmth of the suit lasts and i'll keep you posted..........

Rob from the Nineplus shop has a new blog for the shop itself up and running, have a look here

Meanwhile, "surf city" Newquay has a fine looking new shop up and running with a cafe upstairs called Watershed. Their blog is here Looking forward to checking them out next time i'm down the coast.

end of a long, happy, day....

dawn breaking....

As you head north, the trade off for shorter days is witnessing some beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Fingers and technology battling the below zero mercury

p.o.v

So, first film through the lomo lc-a came out, making it an utter ebay bargain at a tenner when they regularly go second hand for £60 plus. Slightly weird having to factor batteries into the equation when taking it on a trip and it didn't like the cold that much. I lost out on a couple of beautiful landscapes because the minus temps killed the battery. Not a problem with the mechanical holga or diana. That said, i'm really happy with the results!


The thing that struck me this year, and it's obviously a personal thing, is how devoid of stress snowboarding is, how much  pure enjoyment without baggage. My days of scaring myself over big kickers are gone and given the confines of family snowtrips, the chances of getting to stray too far out of bounds and into harm's way are slim. I'm proficient enough to take most things easily accessible from a small resort in my stride and experienced enough to slot back into the groove after a long break fairly quickly.It's instant gratification with little effort.


I've snowboarded a lot longer than i've surfed and i've seen snowboarding grow from the fringe, frowned upon, poorly equipped pastime it once was into the corporate run bona fide sport it now is. Many things have changed over that time (17 years, kinda depressing when you type it!) but one thing hasn't and that's the pure fun of riding powder.

For th un-initiated it's like taking the essence of swooping around on a perfect rippable wave and adding the ability to repeat as desired without the effort of paddling or relying on so many fickle elements falling into place. It's effortless weightless floating, swooping, slashing, playing out your every curren/slater fantasy on snowbanks. Racing friends through trees like speeder bikes in "return of the jedi". Cold shots of snow in the face making you feel alive as you power through the flakes still in the air from your turn before. It's the quiet that the woods and the poor visibility the heavy snow brings, the resort empty as fairweather types stay inside, your board swishing along, no louder than your breath steams out. It's big smiles..........................