Just popped in for å drink...

Yeah it's not every day the Crown Prince and Princess are down our way. In fact, we moved from Oslo to get away from all that jazz, but seeing as they were in the neighbourhood we thought it'd be nice to give them a warm reception at the hotel.

Yes!

This is what I was looking for, open grit country roads with great views. Unfortunately this one was only a few km long. Nice though.

That sinking feeling.

I probably shouldn't have done it like that. I was following a tractor trail in the forest when I came to a big deep puddle. I have it some wellie to get through, slipped the front wheel on a log and had to jump off, dropping my dear bike in the drink. I waded in to get it upright and try to start it, but not before I snapped this pic... which I probably shouldn't have done either, because it was a bugger to start afterwards. Double Do'h!

2 seasons why I'm not riding today.

It started raining just as I was finished fitting GPS to my bike (motor), and I snagged my finger on a shelf yesterday and made a hole in myself to let some blood out. And now it stings when I hold stuff. Ps: looks this bad because I had a plaster on it too long.

Downhillin'

I don't have any pics of the downhill. Imagine the steepest hill you could barely walk up, throw in some slippery, off camber roots, some loose rocks and make it around 10min long. Then ride down it on a 5 inch bike while swearing and hanging on for grim life. Yeah it was BRILLIANT! Really technical, sliding around and using ALL your bike skills in one sitting, and absolutely knackering! When you get down you just want to high 5 everyone. And that feeling lasts for ages! One week later and I'm still stoked!

View

This is the view from the top. Well worth all the up then.

Sweet!

After the tarmac and the grit road the singletrack was a welcome change. Unfortunately it was still up.

Tools

You gots to have the right tools for the job. C works as a personal trainer by day and I ride as much as possible. Oh yeah and we rode 5-6inch all mountain bikes.

Up up and away!

Full faced helmets and kneepads hung on the backpacks we winched our way up the mountain. Averaging on about 6km an hour.

Chocolate break.

When doing an epic ride like this it is important to come prepared. Lots to drink and chocolate for when you wanna turn around. We sat down and had a break, but it was actually quite cold, so we didn't hang around. This after about an hour's riding.

Finally

When we finally found the right turn off we almost wished we hadn't. It was all up. For about 14km! No flat bits, no down, just unrelenting up.

The torchrunner.

C and me went to Hafjell to ride the Torchrunner. A leftover from the Olympics in 94, it's a really steep, technical dh, but with no lift. So we rode up. Here's me after riding for about 5 min, on the phone asking for directions.