No-Way Norway is amazing
I am still completely blown away by the accessibility and gnarliness of these mountains. Everywhere I look I can see great lines, and roads that access them. If the roads can’t access them the boats can. It’s unparalleled in terms of access, at least from what I have seen in my travels.
Fjord Norway hooked us up with a wicked trip on a boat with Actin.no. This boat, Maud, is a 53 ft 100 year old fishing boat and is manned by a great captain. It’s not a boat that you can sleep on, simply a boat for access. I also think it is rare that it sails, it mostly motors around. We left Aleslund and boated for three hours till we found our first objective.
Like everything around here it looks huge but somehow at 1073m/3502 ft is not really that big a hike. So even though it was 2 pm when we started hiking it didn’t take us too long to get up the south face and stand on top of our second Norwegian summit of the trip.
A sketchy little sideslip off the first peak led to a boot pack up and over a peak and onto the summit.. It’s so amazing to stand on a summit and look way down to our boat waiting in the fjord.
We slid down to our line and waited for the others. Chris is pretty psyched on where we are, and also that there is some nice west facing powder below. 
We shredded our lines being filmed from the boat and the ridge. Midway down we had to work around a waterfall or two and then some serious bushwacking led down to the rocks. A small wait at the fjord and then our trusty captain picked us up.
Thursday we headed up and did not feel as excited as we should have been. We played in a few zones and had some fun but overall the features were not exciting. Rubens buttered a shweet turn and we headed down. While we were there we unlocked the secret and figured out that the snow was great on east slopes and west slopes.
Friday we skinned up behind the house we were staying in and had a wicked day. Since we aren’t getting up super early we realized that the west faces are were we would nail the shots. We found some couloirs and small faces to ski. A bunch of laps got us some great footage, by evening we were boot packing up a majestic line. Slowly changing to alpen glow with the fjord below us we couldn’t have been in a more fantastic spot.
As we climbed our way up the face, we realized that the slope had previously slid on a rain crust. We had found this layer everywhere but it was mostly buried, even on this slope it was buried for almost all of it but the middle was like a skating rink. This crust almost turned us around but we persevered past it and made it near the top of the feature. The first turns were incredible, the best snow of the trip but I had to be wary as the rain crusts was waiting. Carving fast pow turns I pulled the brakes and found myself sliding a bit on the crust. It was tough to gauge were the crust was, so to be super safe I boot packed down 100m and finished the run. Andreas being the bad ass that he is, took out his ice axe and side slipped this same section. Here is Chris enjoying some evening turns.
Andreas also took a shot of me cruising down into the fjord.
Saturday we had a great day filming with the fjord below us. I spent most of the day with Anthony nailing some backlit shots and the others played in their zone. Anthony and I bagged another summit and once again were awed with the huge cliffs, spires, lines and everything around us. By evening we were heading down and the boys slashed with some back light.
I was taught a new photoshop trick so Chris looks a little super imposed but I had to try it out my new skills. Probably need to work on them to make it look more realistic.
Today we went fishing and caught some fish right off the bat. I have not caught a fish in years and it took me two minutes to catch one. It was pretty exciting. Captain Arne boiled the ling cod, that Jeff caught, in salted water and we ate it immediately. Typically I am not a fish eater but this was so buttery and good. Tracey is going to be super surprised to hear how much fish I have eaten on this trip!
Our stay on the boat is almost but we leave with lines like this one as memories of things we didn’t do but can always come back for.
Salomon Free Ski TV
One of the best things about being a Salomon athlete is being invited on Salomon Free ski tv shoots. I wasn’t sure where I would be going and when I got the call in Feb that I would be joining them on a Norway trip I was psyched. I have skied here one day in 2011 but never really experienced what Norway has to offer. This time though it is a trip of a life time.
We are here for two weeks and the first two days have been off the hook. Yesterday we toured way above a fjord and had a look around, more of a ski tour. A trip to check out the snow and take a look around. It is an endless sea of mountains, with beautiful lines cascading off all the peaks. It had snowed here a few days ago but lots of wind had followed it so we were sussing out where the powder was hidden. We didn’t “suss” too well because all we found was windslab and sustruggi. Nonetheless we skied a fun line and got some decent footage.
The peeps on this trip are Chris Rubens, Andreas Franson and myself as athletes and Anthony Bonello, Jeff Thomas and Mattias frediksson as filmers/photgraphers. A pretty wicked group of boys to hang around with especially as the sun sets, photo by switchback entertainment. 
What has blown me away so far has been the incredible access to so many summits and lines. Everywhere we drive there are lines coming right down to the road. Wild, alpine lines, couloirs, faces you name it. All are accessed via roads. Since the peaks are all around 1500m-1800m, 5000-6000ft, it is possible to do them all in a day. Incredible.
Today we figured we should check out this couloir that looked wild. Possibly never skied before and walled in by huge overhanging cliffs. 
This was a pretty “Cool”oir so we booted right up it.
The snow was pretty firm but the ambience awesome. The whole couloir was probably 400m/1400 to the cliffs. Up and up we booted, filming along the way.
With Jeff on the other side of the valley Andreas shredded it top to bottom. Leg burner…
While Chris and I took our time getting filmed on the way down.
Two days and so far Norway has blown my mind, I can only imagine where the sailboat will take us tomorrow…
The new guide book
A lot of inspiration has come from David Jones guide books of the North and South Selkirks. Many hours spent pouring over pictures of alpine lines that could be great ski lines. He has re-vamped his book and made one specifically for Roger’s Pass. There are many more pictures and quality descriptions of the 300+ climbs in this area. He has also included some of our ski descents. Which is really fun, and may get some clarity on some of our descents, whether others had done them before us. 
David dropped this book of a few weeks ago and I have been wanting to ski a line out of it. One that I had never done. We had dreams of line 223, but instead decided on a repeat of Mark and Coners wild Mt-Copper line.
This is one of the more impressive couloirs in the Pass. Especially since it starts of a summit and then wraps into a couloir that lasts 2000+feet.
Bruno, Aaron, Joey and myself headed up Mc-Gill shoulder to access Copper mt. The most direct way seemed to be the best so we cruised up the ridge and kept the summit in our sights.
I had never been up this ridge and the travel was pretty good. We got to a point where we realized we should get a little run in. So we carved our way down a little couloir. East facing and filled with carvy fast snow we were psyched for the copper descent. If it had snow similar to that run we would be in steep skiing heaven.
With the excitement of our descent ahead we charged up the west couloir on Copper. The alpine temperatures were staying cool and there seemed to be little to no overhead hazard.
What a magnificent spot… Mcgill huge in the background and standing on a summit that none of us had ever stood on. Since we were not entirely sure of where the line entered, I got onto belay and sussed out the entrance. No cornice or anything, a perfect shot from the summit. Damn it rarely gets this good!!Belayed into it I realized that it was a little wind hammered at the top. It’s an exposed summit and that can happen but the couloir could not be that bad. Using the belay for a ski cut I then unropped and shredded down to the couloir entrance. Well maybe not shredded….more of a sideslipping, jump turning sort of thing. 
Standing on top of the couloir it looked like the snow would improve. Textured and soft it was inviting. We eeked our way down the first 50m, where it pinched to around 180cm wide. Then the couloir opened up and remained steep for the rest.
It looked so promising but overall the thing skied terribly. I found the occasional soft turn but most was avalanched and then windslabbed…
Joey and Bruno both said it was their worst ski descent of their lives. I felt like I have had quite a few bad ones so this just ranked in the top ten. Regardless I was so excited to be there and use David’s new book as inspiration to ski this wild line. Thanks David.
