Vertigo

Last week, I took a couple of days off to go skiing with my friend Therese, who was visiting from Stockholm. We woke up early and took the train from Zürich to Andermatt, the place I went skiing with Swedish friends the winter before I moved to Zürich.

We had a great time skiing Wednesday afternoon, had a beer in the sunshine after the last run of the day, and then relaxed in the sauna for a while before having dinner and retiring for the night. I looked forward to a great full day of skiing on Thursday. Unfortunately, fate stepped in the way of that plan.

When I awoke Thursday morning and began to stretch and roll out of bed, I was hit with a wave of paralyzing dizziness. The world seemed to spin around me, and I could not tell up from down. It felt like being very, very intoxicated—only I was completely sober and had just had a solid night’s sleep.

I couldn’t see clearly, partly because my eyes were still cloudy from a night of sleep, but also because they were not entirely under my control. With each episode of dizziness, my eyes would shudder back and forth involuntarily. Still in the haze of early morning half-wakefulness, I was a bit unsure if I was truly awake, or just having a bad nightmare.

I sat up in bed. I felt sick to my stomach. Was it food poisoning? The dinner the previous night had seemed perfectly fine, and I had slept soundly. So that didn’t seem like a plausible explanation. I turned my head to the window to see a beautiful morning of white snow-covered slopes and bright sunshine. Another wave of dizziness and nausea overtook me, and I broke out in a cold sweat. I was terrified.

I stumbled out of bed and struggled to right myself. I fumbled around, leaning on the wall to remain upright. I managed to make my way to the bathroom, where I stood under the shower to warm up. I felt sick and chilled. The shower helped a bit, but I was still in a state of mild panic.

Thankfully, the scientist in me took charge at this point, and I began to analyze my situation. I realized that the dizziness was associated with motion—specifically, it got worse when I moved my head. I naturally became very slow and careful in my movements, turning my whole body instead of just turning my head, and getting up or sitting down without leaning over. I felt like an old man, moving in such a cautious and deliberate way; but it was working. The dizziness was subsiding, and the nausea and chills were gradually fading away.

I returned to the bed, propped up a few pillows behind my back, and just sat very very still. Therese kindly brought to me some breakfast from the hotel buffet. I managed to eat some cereal and drink some juice and coffee, despite a bit of lingering nausea. The fact that I could eat was a very good sign, I thought. Food poisoning, this was not. A bit of experimentation revealed a crucial detail: the vertigo was triggered when I leaned my head to the left—in other words, when my left ear was facing the ground. I then realized that the nausea and cold sweat were only side effects of the dizziness and panic, respectively.

This was the first time in my life that I had experienced vertigo like this, so its onset had surprised and scared me. Once I realized that the feelings of sickness were merely secondary effects of the dizziness, the situation began to feel less frightening and more manageable. The realization that I could control the dizziness to a degree by limiting my movements made me calmer and more relaxed. I could handle this. I was going to be okay.

With Therese’s help, I got dressed and walked to the doctor in Andermatt. His office was in an old building, and had lovely parquet floors and furnishings. In its appearance, it was was like a doctor’s office from 100 years ago. Visiting the doctor was a very calming and reassuring experience. A very friendly nurse there explained that what I was experiencing was quite common, and was caused by a mechanical problem in the semicircular canals of the inner ear. Apparently, bits of crystalline debris can detach and wander in these canals, causing irregular movement of the fluid whose flow in response to head movements gives us our sense of balance. I later learned that the condition is called benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. The nurse told me that BPPV often goes away after just a couple of days, but that it could last longer, and that in some people, it comes back weeks, months, or years later. The doctor prescribed a couple of medications: one for the dizziness and another for the nausea.

I was feeling a bit unsteady, and still suffering the after-effects of the morning’s exhausting episode; but I felt better and much reassured after visiting to the doctor. On the way back to the hotel, I even felt well enough to go by the post office and mail my application for a new U.S. passport to the embassy in Bern.

Back at the hotel, I ate a bit more, took my medicine, and went back to bed. Therese went skiing, and I slept the whole day. I was mostly ok that evening, and felt even better the next day. By the time we had returned to Zürich on Friday evening, it seemed that the vertigo had almost completely disappeared.

I still experience a brief moment of dizziness occasionally—often when I rouse myself from sleep in the morning. I also sometimes get a faint sensation of my balance being a bit off-kilter; but these are minor nuisances compared to the debilitating dizziness I felt last Thursday. One of my mother’s best friends has a more chronic form of vertigo, and I have a deepened sympathy for her after having experienced a taste of it. I am enormously grateful for my good health!

Update

The Epley maneuver helps alleviate symptoms in many sufferers of BPPV.

Ski tour up Glatten

IMG_1815.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

I went for a ski tour with Simon this afternoon. We skied up a mountain called Glatten. It took about 5 hours to make our way up to the top, and another hour to come down again. Really fun, but incredibly exhausting. After returning to Zürich, Simon treated me to some excellent fondue at his place. I’ll post photos when I have them. Now I shall sleep. Over and out.

Update 2009-03-19: Photos are online!

View Larger Map

2009 ZRL ski weekend in Wildhaus

_MAL8481, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

This weekend it was time for the annual ZRL ski weekend. I joined my colleagues and their partners, friends, and family for two fun days of skiing in the Alps above Wildhaus, just nintey minutes' drive from Zürich. I made several friends and had an absolute blast on the slopes. Sunday we were treated to an entire day of good snow and glorious sunshine. I cannot wait to return to the mountains for more skiing soon. Take a look at my photos from the weekend.

Alpine touring in Stryn

_MAL1192, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

One week ago today, I returned from a weeklong vacation in Stryn. I have now posted all of the photos from the trip, including those from the last day, when the four men went ski touring up the back of the mountain. Above is a photo from that tour, made last Thursday morning. This was my first time to use randonnée bindings, ski bindings that allow the heel to move freely for ascents and traverses. We attached synthetic skins to the bottoms of our skis. The nap of the fur points downhill (toward the back of the skis), providing grip on the snow to prevent slipping backward, but still allowing the ability to slide forward. The rear bindings on my skis could be twisted around to provide three different heights of heel support, for varying angles of inclination when ascending a slope. Patrick hiked in snowshoes, with his snowboard on his back.

It was a lot of fun! We hiked for about an hour or so, almost to the peak of the mountain behind the ski area. Then after a quick breather, we switched to downhill mode. The three skiers removed the skins from the bottoms of their skis and converted their heel bindings to alpine mode, locking the heels in place. Patric stowed his snowshoes and strapped on his board. What followed lasted just a few minutes, but was without a doubt the best run of the week. We had a wide open bowl of fresh, totally untouched snow, all to ourselves. It was glorious.

When we reached the bottom of the bowl, we found ourselves at the edge of a steeper slope crossed by several horizontal crevasses. We could not easily see what lay beyond them (more snow, or glacial moraine?), so we backtracked a bit, hiked over some rocks, and found a higher slope that looked safer. On this slope, we could more or less see the whole way down, so there was less risk of ending up in unskiable terrain.

We skied down and across the slope, down toward the lake at the bottom of the valley. The road through the valley was on the other side of the lake, and there was no bridge across. I saw ski tracks across the ice and snow atop the lake, but I didn't dare follow them. The hike back to the ski center took half an hour.

I’ve been thinking about getting my own skis for the past few years. Now that I've tried randonnée, I think I'll get this kind of equipment. It offers a lot more freedom than ordinary downhill gear.

My Stryn photos and Patric’s are now online.

Summer skiing in Norway

_MAL0656, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

Greetings from Stryn!

Yesterday evening the owners of the Strynsvatn camping site where we're staying built a bonfire on the old pier that juts out into the lake. I walked down to the pier, watched the fire, and struck up a conversation with Magne-Hild, whom I believe is one of the owners. She has lived in this part of Norway all her life. She was born in the little village of Flo, located on the hillside just across the lake and a bit to the Northeast from here. In the days of her youth, the road tunnel through the steep mountain ridges abutting the lake's Eastern edge had not yet been dug, so her village was accessible only by boat. She told me that it was exciting and scary around the time of year when the ice on the lake was too thick for boats, but not thick enough for foot traffic. If someone fell ill and needed a doctor, it required a perilous and uncertain journey. I thought this sounded like the basis for a wonderful story!

Today I did my first summer skiing, on a glacier in the mountains East of here. It was sunny and warm in the morning, and aside from the slushy snow, the skiing was quite okay. The clouds moved in this afternoon, and it's been cool and rainy since then. I managed to get a few good photos while the sun was shining, as well as a lot more in the haze and fog. Here are some photos from today and yesterday.

Tomorrow I think I'll take a break from skiing and go hiking in the mountains South of the here. There's a pass there that's supposed to be about an hour's hike from the water's edge. I'll pack a lunch and head out just after breakfast. With any luck the weather will be nice and I'll get some good photos of the lake from up there.

It's after midnight here (or almost midnight if you go by standard time), and yet the sky outside is not dark. The clouds hanging over the mountaintops are still glowing with the light of dusk-dawn (one and the same at this latitude and at this time of year). There is no night here in the summertime, only a darker twilight. In twenty minutes, it will be at its darkest and will begin to get lighter again.

It's time for me to get some sleep. I'll brush my teeth, crawl up into the top bunk of the bunk bed where I'm sleeping, and nod off for a few hours. Over and out.

Midsummer's eve in Stryn

Yesterday afternoon, Åsa and Patrik picked me up and we drove to Norway. We stayed the night in a friend's cabin in Trysil, and then continued our drive Westward this morning. We crossed over the pass, through a few tunnels, and down into Stryn, where we'll spend the next week. We're staying down in the valley in a cabin by the fjord. In the morning, we'll drive twenty minutes back up to the pass, where we'll ski on the glacier atop the mountain ridge. It should be great!

We just sat down to a lovely midsummer's eve dinner of pickled herring, gravad lax, boiled new potatoes, and broccoli and ham quiche. We washed it down with beer, and of course, Norwegian aqvavit. Damn, alcohol is expensive here. One half-liter can of beer in the grocery store costs about 4 USD.

If the skiing is too slushy on the glacier, there are other options down valley. We can go kayaking on the river or climbing on any of the many cliffs. The latter depends on somewhat dry weather though, and right now it's still raining. Typical midsummer weather!

More to come soon, including photos. Love from Norway.

Back from Andermatt

_MAL7593.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

After a fun and challenging week of skiing, I have returned home to Stockholm. I really need to take a few skiing lessons. I'm good on the groomed slopes, but really weak in powder and uneven snow. I also need to resume biking to keep my legs in shape and maintain my cardiopulminary endurance. Whew!

I took the photo above from atop the top station on Friday. To the left of the rocky crags you can see the right side of the valley where we did most of our skiing.

Snow has been falling in Stockholm since last night, when spent a few hours at Dubliner with Colleen and some of her friends. It was packed becuase of Saint Patrick's Day of course, and there was a live band playing Irish music. Fun!

Today the snow continues to fall in light fluffy flakes. Who knows? Maybe the temperature will even drop below freezing so that the snow can stick around for a few days.

Tonight it's time for a bit of climbing at Klättercentret. I've taken the ice tires off my bike, so I'll either take the bus or do the best I can riding my bike through the wet snow on my normal summer tires.

One last day in Andermatt

Today was our last day of skiing in Andermatt. It was cloudy in the early morning, but the sun came our around 10 and shone for most of the day. The temperature rose a few degress above freezing, resulting in heavier snow. But other than that, this was one of the best skiing days of the whole trip. We took lots of photos too, and I will upload them soon.

We joined a bunch of my IBM colleagues for a couple of drinks at the bar at the mid station on the mountain. Then I skiied with them down the moutain to Andermatt. The snow on the lower part of the mountain was by that point quite slushy.

This evening we had dinner for the second time at Di Alt Apothek restaurant. We had such a good dinner there a couple of nights ago that we wanted to return. The food was delicious but unfortunately the service left a bitter taste tonight. Things started to go strangely when three of us who ordered lamb received beef instead. We didn't think it was worth mentioning, because none of us had had our hearts set on lamb and the food was good despite not being what we ordered. Aside from the mix-up, the service in the restaurant was quite okay.

However, the staff treated us differently when we retired to the adjoining bar. We drank for a while and chatted with the friends we had made earlier in the week. After an hour and a half, the waitress rudely suggested that we order something else or leave. The bar was not crowded, and this is an establishment where we've had drinks every night this week and eaten dinner twice! To kick out erstwhile loyal patrons because they don't happen to be buying drinks that moment is cheap, greedy, shortsighted, and just plain tacky. The waitress could have asked us to make the seats available to other patrons in a more polite way. Ot better yet, the staff could have seen the obvious fact that making us feel unwelcome was not the best idea. Until tonight, I would have been happy to recommend the bar and restaurant to friends. Now I'm left feeling that the business does not deserve my recommendation or patronage.

Tomorrow morning we'll do some last-minute shopping and sight-seeing in the town and then pack up the bus for the ride back to Zürich. From there, we'll take the quick flight back home to Stockholm. After a week of skiing, I'm ready to be back home.

Another day in Andermatt

PICT0018, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

We had another full day of skiing on Gemsstock today (the name Gemsstock means mountain goat peak in German). It was cloudy and snowing all day, so we had to take it a bit easy. At times, it was so cloudy and snowy that we couldn't see each other even though we were just twenty meters apart. The poor visibility and the soft powder snow combined to give a surreal sensation. Several times I was skiing but couldn't really tell how fast I was going. Other times I thought I was moving, but I had stopped in the thick snow.

Today was not nearly as lovely as yesterday. In fact, the only photos I took today were at lunch and once we had finished skiing for the day. It just didn't make sense to get my camera out while skiing. The visibility was simply too poor.

So rather than post a photo from today, here's another lovely one from yesterday. The gondola in the photo goes from the mid-station up to the top of Gemsstock. From there, today as yesterday, we skied the off-piste area to the left of the tall ridge running along the right side of this photo. It was a lot more fun yesterday when we could see where we were going!

Tonight we at dinner at a lovely and tiny restaurant attached to Di Alt Apothek bar we've been visiting each evening after skiing. The restaurant and bar are situated under The River House hotel/bed & breakfast. All three establishments appear to share the same owner, management and staff. Both the bar and restaurant disallow smoking, and they offer free wi-fi and have good beer; so the bar has been a frequent after-ski hangout for us and for many of the other Swedes vacationing here this week. The food was so good at the restaurant that we booked a table for Friday night too. They have only eight or so tables, so it's pretty much necessary to book in advance.

I have created a new photo set for the Andermatt, March 2008 trip. Take a look!

Greetings from Andermatt!

PICT0020, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

We've had a great time the past few days. We arrived in the afternoon on Saturday, and just took it easy that day, acquainting ourselves with the layout of Andermatt, a village of 1,500 inhabitants. Andermatt once saw much more traffic than today, because it lies just below the pass of Oberalppass, once the only way to go from this part of Switzerland to Italy to the South. Nowadays, there are tunnels that shorten the trip, so those who do venture up to the higher altitudes do so for adventure, not necessity. A Swiss military base in Andermatt closed a few years ago, taking with it 500 soldiers who had previously contriubted quite a bit to the local economy. So Andermatt is in the process of redefining itself as an out-of-the way tourist destination and Mecca for snow sports enthusiasts. The people here are very friendly, and most of them understand (or even speak) a bit of English. I've had the opportunity to practice my German a bit too, which has been a bit frustrating, but fun too.

Sunday Matt and I joined a guided off-piste tour of the mountain's backcountry areas. It was exhausting but lots of fun. We found several slopes of untouched powder snow during the day. We were going with a bunch of guys who were quite good, so it was challenging to keep up.

Monday was a so-so day, with uneven snow conditions. We took the train up to Oberalppass at one point, because the top of Gemsstock was closed and we wanted to find some places to ski. But unfortunately, the lifts at Oberalppass were also closed due to poor visibility and high winds. So we sat in the bar there and had drinks with a bunch of IBMers who also happened to be there. Oh, that's an interesting thing about this trip. For the second time this year I have by coincidence booked a trip privately that was the same trip as one I could have booked through the IBM club. It happened in February when I met a bunch of IBMers at Kittelfjäll, and it's happened again here. My former colleague Maud is along with the IBM gang too, and it has been fun to catch up a bit with her.

Yesterday I joined a bunch of the IBM folks for some of the best skiing of my life. It had snowed all night the previous night, so there was a good meter or so of fresh soft powder covering the whole mountain. We went off-piste the whole morning, and were able to find untouched fields of powder snow by traversing across the valley. The sun came ouf around midday, and we captured some excellent photos. It's amazing how much more fun it is to ski when you can see where you're going!

It's been windy and rainy this morning, so I don't think the skiing will be as good today as it was yesterday, but we'll make the best of it. Matt, Lisa, Lotta and Johan are already up on the mountain, so we'll use walkie-talkies to try to meet up with in a few minutes.

Off to Andermatt!

Well, it's almost time for my ski trip to the Swiss Alps!

Tomorrow morning, I'll join Matt, Lisa & Lotta at Arlanda airport and catch the nine o'clock flight to Zürich, whence we'll take a bus to Andermatt. Matt's buddy from England will meet up with us in the airport in Zürich.

I anticipate an excellent week of skiing in Andermatt. It's a relatively small town, not as famous as Charmonix or Zermatt. There are a couple of ski areas in the vicinity though and I expect there will be more than enough there to keep us occupied for a week.

I hope to find a way to get internet access down there, but if experience is any guide, I might not be online very much of the time. I will of course take lots of photos. Expect to see some of them soon.

Three fun days of skiing at Kittelfjäll

_MAL4752.jpg, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

The weekend ski trip to Kittelfjäll was a lot of fun. I did have rent skis in Stockholm, because the ski shop in Kittelfjäll ran out of equipment. But the guys at the Alpint store new Sankt Eriksplan were very nice and I got a pair of skis I really liked. The skiing was much better than during the trip over New Year’s week. There was a lot more snow this time. We even got a bit of new snowfall the last night, so the final day of skiing was teriffic.

The hotel screwed up our cabin booking, but eventually made things right by putting us in smaller cabins and compensating us with free meals and a bit of money back.

I made several new friends on the trip, including a veterinary student in Uppsala (the second one I know now!) and a few more folks who are climbers here in Stockholm.

The photo above shows the view from the top level of the larger of the two cabins our gang of ten rented. Take a look at all all 67 photos from the trip.

By the way, I used Aperture 2.0 to process the photos from the trip. This version is a big improvement over the previous version, and I might even consider switching back from Lightroom to Aperture as my primary photographic workflow tool.

Greetings from snowy Åre!

I caught a flight up to Åre early this afternoon to join Stina and some of her friends for a weekend of skiing. Stina's friend Magnus flew in this morning from Göteborg, and had already been skiing a bit when he met me at the cabin where we're staying. Affer I dropped off my bags, I walked down to the ski rental shop, located just 50 m from our door, to rent equipment. I opted for the "advanced" ski package and got what look like brand-new skis and boots. Shiny!

We hit the slopes around 15.30, just as the majority of the lifts on the mountain were being closed for the day. The only lift left running was the VM 8 lift. There's a single ski slope down from the top of that lift that is brightly illuminated all night long (24-hours per day actually). So we stuck to this slope, sking until almost 17.00.

The snow was probably great this morning, but by the time we go to it, it had been cut up pretty badly. There were patches of hard icy snow and thick clumps of heavy wet snow. Inconsistent snow makes for challenging skiing, and I fell a couple of times. These skis are really amazing. They're sharp and hold contact with the ground very well. This actually caught me by surprise one time, leading to one of the falls of the day. I caught a bit of air jumping over a clump of chunky snow, and landed on a flat icy patch. My uphill ski caught the packed snow and came off in an instant. I might tighten the bindings a bit tomorrow.

The sun set around the time we began skiing, and was followed by at least an hour of dusk. The thin reddish-orange cresent of the moon was silhouetted against a deep azure sky. A light veil of low clouds was switfly passing overhead. Eventually, the clouds became thicker, and as we finished skiing for the day, the moon and sky had become completely obscured from view.

Around 17.00, we dropped off our skis and we changed into regular boots so we could comfortably walk into town to do some shopping. First we picked up some wine & glögg at System Bolaget, because they close at 18.00. Next we bought dinner and breafast fixings at ICA. We're gonna have tacos tonight, preparing dinner just in time for the arrival Stina and the rest of the gang. They are driving up from Stockholm.

I brought my camera with me, but I haven't taken any photos yet. I didn't dare to bring it with me on the mountain today. I will have to get very comfortable with my equipment and the snow conditions before I'll dare to bring my expensive little toy up with me. I might bring it up on the mountain tomoorrow, but I kinda doubt it. Maybe if the sun comes out and it's a really lovely day.

Three fun days way up North

_MAL1872, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

The trip up to Riksgränsen was great! Åsa & Patric and I booked our tickets Thursday morning, went to the airport around lunch time, and flew up to Kiruna in the early afternoon. The flight took a bit less than two hours. From Kiruna airport, we took a bus to Riksgränsen. We got up early the next morning and caught the train across the Norwegian border to Narvik, where we skiied the whole day. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant in Narvik and then returned by train to Riksgränsen, where we spent the next two days skiing. The sun shone on two out of our three skiing days, and the snow was quite good. We met lots of friendly folks, and spent a a fair amount of time in the evenings at the hotel bar. Check all 267 photos from the weekend!

Last-minute trip to Riksgränsen!

This morning I booked a last minute trip to Riksgränsen. I'll fly up there with Åsa, Patric, and maybe one of Åsa's friends.

The name Riksgränsen means, literally, The Kingdom's Border, and the name is apt. Riksgränsen lies just next to the border with Norway, in the Northwesternmost part of Sweden. This will be my first trip to a part of the world North of the Arctic Circle. It shouldn't be too cold though; Sweden is having unseasonably warm weather these days, and the travel agent informed us that its -5 °C and sunny up there right now.

I'm lookin forward to a few days of excellent skiing too. There's supposedly a lot of fresh powder on the slopes. The best part is that we got the trip for a steal of a price: 995 SEK per person paid for airfare and accomodation for three nights!

I'll take photos but I doubt I'll be able to post any before I return Sunday night.

Ski weekend at Kittelfjäll

_MAL0001, originally uploaded by Michael A. Lowry.

I had a great long weekend of skiing at Kittelfjäll. Aside from the minor bus accident on the way home, the trip was just pefect. Joining me on the trip were Lotta, Matt & Lisa. We took a sleeper bus up on Thursday night, arriving early Friday morning at Kittelfjäll. We changed into our ski clothes and hit the slopes around 11. That first day was quite cold and overcast, so we made a couple of trips to the warming hut to sit by the fire and sip hot cocoa.

In the evening after the lifts closed, Matt & Lisa and I walked about a mile down th road to the “Handlar'n” grocery store, where we bought food for two dinners. After a quick sauna, we had a dinner of pasta with meat sauce and crashed for the night.

Saturday was a bit warmer and brighter. We were also well rested, so we all felt more confident on the slopes. Kittelfjäll had had record amounts of snowfall in recent weeks, so we could not have asked for better snow conditions. Most of the terrain at Kittelfjäll is unprepared, so we spent much of our time blazing our own trails through the trees on untouched powder — really fun, but also quite exhausting.

Saturday afternoon after the lifts closed, I sat for a while in the hotel sauna. There, I met Stina and Johan, two friendly folks whom I learned are fellow Lindy-hop dancers. Sometimes it really is a small world!

Dinner on Saturday was roasted chicken with Basmati rice. After dinner, Matt and I went to the bar at Kittelparken, where we chatted with the owners, who also run a heli-skiing operation during the day. A woman whose name is Ulla (I think!) played guitar and sang.

Sunday was even better than Saturday. The temperature had risen to just six or eight degrees below freezing, and the sun shone all day long. We spent much of the mornning skiing the far Eastern side of the mountain, accessible from the top of the Jan Express lift. No one else was skiing over there, so we had the area to ourselves. The top of the slope was a wide-open expanse of gently sloping terrain with sparse scrubby birch trees. But lower down the terrain plunged into a couple of powder-filled ravines, each lined with an assortment of birch and pine. The ravines were like half-pipes in a way — lots of fun, and thanks to the powder, forgiving of mistakes.

After an exhausting morning, we cruised down to the bottom of the mountain and had a bite of lunch at the bar at Kittelparken. There, we ran into Micke, the heli-skiing guide we had met the night before. On a whim, Matt and I decided to go heli-skiing after lunch. We went first to the top of a peak on the Southwest side of the valley, essentially opposite the valley from Kittelfäll. (I don't remember the name of the peak, so if you know it, please remind me! ) The top was a bit steep and somewhat icy in places, but once we got lower down the snow was a bit softer. Or to be clear, there was more wind-blown powder on top of the harder stuff beneath. It took a while to learn to read the snow conditions quickly. I tried to turn on patches of powder rather than the icy patches but it wasn't always easy to tell one from the other. What seemed at first to be soft often turned out to be hard and slick. There was a lot of hardened wind-blown snow up there too, making some bits quite bumpy. Lower down it was just powder galore, and lots of trees. My thighs were burning by the time we skiied onto the frozen lakebed for our rendezvous with the helicopter.

To conclude our heli-skiing adventure, we flew up to the top of the saddle above the area we had skiied in the morning. We then just skied down until we reached the part of the ski area accessible from the lifts. Heli-skiing is a lot of fun, and I'm glad I tried it. I'd recommend it only to stronger skiers though, mostly because of the wide variety of terrain and snow conditions one is likely to encounter.

After we had paid our heli-skiing bill, Matt and I headed back over to the other side of the mountain again, where we quickly hooked up with Lotta & Lisa. Kittelfjäll is a relatively small place, so if you get separated from your skiing buddies, you'll probably run into them again before you know it. I saw Lisa skiing down while Matt and I were on the lift on the way up. When we found them, Lotta and Lisa were sitting on the edge of a ridge, resting before their descent. The four of us did a few more runs together as a group, catching the last few runs and soaking in the last rays of the setting sun. Kittelfjäll is a blast. I can really recommend it to anyone who enjoys skiing on unprepared slopes.

After another quick sauna, I joined the group for dinner; and a bit after that, we packed up the bus and hit the road, homeward bound and expecting to sleep the whole way to Stockholm. As you know from my previous entry, our evening was not destined to be that simple. But all's well that ends well. Be sure to take a look at all of my photos from Kittelfjäll.