Northern Hemi Season Trip Report thingy - Sälen, Sweden
I saw what you did there!!!!!
So it has been yonks since I updated this. I’ve wanted to but the forums being re-built and whatnot and more and more stuff happening that I hadn’t written about, it felt like an impossible mountain to climb….also I just got instagram and that feels easier somehow. I’m not using any photos from my phone, so there shouldn’t be too many photos that those of you who follow me will have already seen.
We’ve also been busy working quite a lot, making future plans (more on those plans later), we had our end of season staff party, watched season 2 of Homeland….and been snowboarding too of course!
Last I wrote, we’d had crackers brothers, troutface and blindboy visiting for a few days. It was up there with the best days of the season, in terms of riding and also because its fun to ride with a crew of your people, and these guys are definitely my people!
We had cracking weather the whole week, rode heaps, (including a day trip to Trysil in Norway), drank, ate, played ninjas on the xbox, talked large amounts of rubbish and laughed til we cried on several occasions. One of the times, Dork got the giggles and we all just lost it for several minutes, I’ve never had so many tears rolling down my cheeks while laughing and I won’t forget it any time soon.
It is fun to be away, meeting new people and doing something different, but there is certainly something that cheers the soul when you’re once again amongst your friends who know you the best.
Here is some pics from their visit:
Troutface, nosegrab in the first jump of the red line in Pink Park, Lindvallen
This was a fun day with just me, trout and blindboy riding, cos Freddy and dork were home injured. Trout and Blindboy did this jump but I was too chicken…I did it the next day I rode after they left instead, which was dumb!
Most fun was had in the green line of 5 small jumps, with us challenging each other to different things like doing a different grab on each jump (indy, mute, stalefish, melon then whichever one we liked again),etc. Trout and Blindboy were good at that game but I couldn’t do it so I didn’t like it very much. haha
Trout was doing switch shiftys and 540s, I learnt to do backside shiftys and stiffys (dunno what they are really called, but its when you go over a jump, straighten your legs, have your arms straight and by your sides and your torso and head stiff and straight - anyone know what they are really called? I think it is called a stoney baloney when you spin while doing it?)
Pics from our day in Trysil, Norway:
Blindboy was doing some nice shiftys at the end of the day:
Freddy nosegrabbing. I have no idea how he does it like this with his back leg so straight!
Trout and Dork on the lift in Trysil:
Me trying to learn to do methods:
Trout nosing about again:
More from Trout and Blindboy’s visit:
Backyard beers, fire and talking of rubbish - trout in full flight with that 
Some random dudes in Lindvallen dressed as Witches hats. They were riding the rails in pink park and they were really good. Spewing I didn’t get footage:
Riding in Tandådalen the first day they arrived…I haven’t ridden boxes much this season but I’m kind of keen to learn frontside boardslides as I think they look super sick. Whenever I jump on, I have my arms the wrong way (like I was going to be spinning backside). Here is my very average effort, followed by troutface showing me how it should be done!
Me:
Trout:
More backyard hangs: Freddy, Blindboy and Dork:
After the boys went home it was Easter weekend. In Sweden, kids do something sort of similar to trick or treating at easter time. They dress up as witches and come knocking on your door and give you a drawings they have done and you give them lollies or something in return. (Here is a really cool explanation of why they do this cool tradition that is completely foreign to all of us (http://witchawarenessmonth.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/blakulla/)
We had some mini witches turn up to our door, but Fred didn’t think we’d get any knocking so we weren’t prepared with any lollies, so we gave them 20kr each instead (about $3). These little girls were so cute, so Freddy explained that I was from Australia and that we don’t have that tradition here and could I please have a picture with them?
Shame I was in my snoopy pjs at the time but oh well…
Me and the little witches:
I suggested that we go and get some lollies in case more kids came knocking, but Freddy was still convinced that it was unlikely….how wrong he was…we ended up giving out about 150kr before he came to his senses and we rushed down to the shops to get some lollies to give instead! The easter drawings were really cute, but I don’t have a pic of them at the moment. I’ll try and get one and add it in.
In terms of riding, after they left I just wanted to keep trying methods. I was pretty sure that I’d done a couple of ok ones, as they just felt right and Freddy, Trout and Tom had said I was doing proper ones but I had no idea what they looked like. Freddy took some pics one day when we were riding, but I didn’t see any until I got back to the car. I nearly fell out of the car when I saw this pic (this is cropped and zoomed in)
Methods are something I’ve always wanted to learn and have looked up to riders who do them well (Terje, Nico) but just always thought would be too hard for me. I could kind of do backside airs but never dreamed I’d really be able to do anything that looked like the above pic. Is the method I do perfect? No of course not, but to have learnt to do them at just shy of 31 years old, I’m pretty damn happy with it!
Most of my peers are spending most of their time thinking about houses, jobs and babies…I just like thinking about methods!
I feel like some kind of fraud though because if I see a picture of someone doing a method, I unconsciously make assumptions/judgements about how good a rider they are and what other stuff they are capable of and I assume they are fairly good….I can’t even do an indy grab! I can do the movement, but I can never actually reach the grab. What a kook!
The only other exciting thing we’ve done in the last few weeks is before work one day last week, we went to Hundfjället and did the steepest slope in Sweden. Its called Väggen and it means ‘The Wall’. Its 45 degrees. It isn’t really that big of a deal to have done it, but it felt a bit stupid to go a whole season here and NOT have done it. We tried to go for first lifts and be the first ones down the hill on the freshly groomed slope, as with it being so steep, it becomes icy pretty early on in the day, but uncharacteristically, freddy forgot his jacket and only realised when we were in the carpark, so we had to nick home again and we were 15 mins late for first lifts. We were about the 5th and 6th people down for the day, I think. Here is some pics:
Väggen from our living room window….it is the slope to the far left of the picture.
Freddy at the top, ready to head down…looking back over towards our house. As you can see, it is steep enough that you can’t see over the edge from the top
It is pretty steep when you do look over the edge:
Been there, done that! Freddy at the bottom with the slope in the background to the left:
In the lift on the way back up, another angle of how steep the slope is:
Another view with the slopes of Tandådalen in the background. Pretty scenic!
The view over to the resort of Trysil, over the border in Norway:
I’ll finish up with a photo from today of me on the first red line jump in Pink Park. Pretty stoked to be doing jumps this size and being that high in the air:
I really, really want to do a good method off this jump. Its so slushy now that it is perfect for trying with lack of consequences. Lifts close here for the season on sunday, although there is easily enough snow for them to keep it open for a while longer. There aren’t even any bare patches in the slopes yet! Stay tuned!
My idea of heaven!
Cords did you make it over there for the first day of the season? It would be great to be able to say you rode first lifts and last lifts of the season!
I have never done that in all my seasons! Either one or the other!
Oh and so when are you moving on? Whats next? I know you have the round the world tickets and are planning on an american road trip but whats in between?
Best. TR. Ever. Looks like you’re gonna be doing methods like a pro soon.
My idea of heaven!
Couldn’t agree with you more Kim.
Cords awesome ridding and awesome TR.
put 80cms of pow ontop of that groomer and then we will be approaching my idea of heaven.
Rad TR though, i really want to hit up sweden at some stage. The wife is Finish and has dual citizenship, will have to make use of that one day aswell!
Best. TR. Ever. Looks like you’re gonna be doing methods like a pro soon.
Totally agree with this. Such an epic trip report, cords. Thank you for sharing your adventures with us! 
All the photos in this thread have now been fixed. It didn’t look like there was going to be a quick fix for this, so I manually went in and fixed all the photo codes. Now that we have automatic image resizing, there’s no need to use any width=700 codes etc any more (so stoked about that). The video embeds will hopefully be activated over the weekend, so no worries about that.
put 80cms of pow ontop of that groomer and then we will be approaching my idea of heaven.
Hells no groomers are for groomers!
Pow for trees, bowls and side hits!
Pow has no jurisdiction. Give it to me anywhere and everywhere. We can carve after the storm. 
Love the TR cords!!!!!
The latest update has too many bits to even single out somethin to mention!!!!!
I’m actually glad that it took ya yonks!!!!!
Pow has no jurisdiction. Give it to me anywhere and everywhere. We can carve after the storm.
:where’s the damn like button:
This has been an awesome TR, more like a trip blog really! I have definitely enjoyed it and have been insanely jealous all summer. Your riding looks great now cords, well done.