DiMM course Arolla

During 5 days in the Swiss alps, the last course in the UK Diploma in Mountain Medicine curriculum was held in Arolla, a parallell valley to Zermatt. In the charismatic hotel Mont Collon we held base, under Andy´s supervision. Graham led the guides as usual, the staff consisting of Steve, Nigel and u.t. It was a pleasure to see Brian again and along with Andy, the two created medical scenarios in the field. Heatstroke, cardiac problems and a sprained ancel were some of the problems that had to be solved. Two of the nights were spent in mountain huts, spending the day before and after to practice different alpine skills. All were drilled in crevasse rescue, prussiking and other rope techniques. As usual, with Brian on the team, the week ended in the piano bar. Another good week logged;)

Lost phone!

I have lost my mobile phone.
I´m only available on mail for the time beeing.

Crossing the Swiss Alps

My first stop in Switzerland was in Samedan, to visit Manuel Genswein. We had nice day bicycling around the engadin area and had lunch overlooking St Moritz and the Bernina range. He promised me wildlife, and we really got it when we walked into a heard of steinbock. Although it is now hunting season, these majestic animal let us get pretty close as long as we kept a low profile. It is truly amazing how they move in rough terrain - as expert climbers the jump from rock to rock without failing a single step! I also got a nice roundtrip on the Rega base, and over some glasses of wine the ideas are forming for the next JOSMAR. On saturday I took the Glacier express to Sion, by that crossing most of Switzerland from Zürich in the north to the south-western border. It will now be good to have a full week in the mountains!

Gol´s new playground

There is a new crag in Gol. Well, it´s been around for a couple of years, but it´s new to me. Last weekend I had a good session with Bjorn, Per Ola and Jorgen, some of the developers of the crag and responsible for several new great routes. In between cleaning and climbing routes we got to drink a lot of coffee and celebrate Leo´s birthday with Markus and Nina; He´s now 3 years old!

Spanish lessons, tango and more snow

Starting on my spanish course, I moved to the town of Bariloche. Joanna at the Patagonia School brushed dust of some old grammar I haven´t heard of since high school. Small but tough, she guided me and a new friend from New Zealand through the week. Though very short, a week is enough to at least understand basics which was immensly helpful. The rain eventually became snow. With Ramon I enjoyed some beautiful skiing days the last week, although short due to school. Of the extra-curricular activities the school offered was a tango lesson. Feeling pretty good by the end of the night having learned the 8 basic steps, I was heavily put in place watching a couple dancing in St Elmo, Buenos aires on my return. To bad I didn´t have time to practice either tango or spanish any further...

Powder, slush and lack of shovels

Almost a week has passed in Bariloche, a charming little town just 30 min from the ski slopes on Cerro Cathedral. Ramon, my host and doc in the ski patrol, has busy days on the mountain as it is still high season. Every day huge buses arrive packed with tourists. Although the ski resort itself is not much bigger than Hemsedal, the tourist facilities surpasses Norway by many times in terms of commercializing the concept of lift-based skiing. One example: I planned to go back-country touring, but forgot my shovel at home. I have visited at least 14 mountain stores, but although most shops have the most advanced in googles, sunglasses and fashion ski-wear, nobody sells touring equipment. In one store they didn´t understand what I could possibly need a shovel for while skiing and advised me to try a store that sells gardening equipment! This is also a problem for the local mountain guides; they have very little work during winter as hardly anybody goes touring or off-piste skiing. This is really to bad, as Patagonia has a number of well maintained cabins that provide bases for a vast amount of spectacular ski touring. The skiing is otherwise pretty good, escpecially in the woodlands where I've enjoyed both light powder and heavy slush the past week. However, heavy rains the last 36 hours have made sightseeing Bariloche a more pleasant activity. For the coming weekend and next week I´ll be a student with the Patagonia School where I´ll be taking an intensive course in spanish. Hopefully with a little skiing in between.. No vaccaciones en el Patagonia!

Turtagrø

This weekend I met Benjamin at Turtagrø. He's got a lot of film and photos from JOSMAR 2008. The editing process takes a lot of work, but the results look good. Hopefully we´ll have a trailer ready in a couple of weeks. While at Turtagrø we used the opportunity to air out our brains in Skaga-/Styggedalen.