02/05: Skiing Åre

One of the big sacrifices I’ve made (oh boo hoo, my life is sooo tough) on this whole European adventure is that I have taken a significant hit on my skiing time. Last year I had one day of skiing, which occurred at Stevens with Jeff when I was back home. This stands in stark contrast to typical years when I try to make it up to Stevens or Crystal ever other week or so.

This year I got off to an early start in Dubai, but since that November trip I have been 100%-ski-free.

However, just as the shakes became almost too much to bear, some of Courtney’s coworkers organized a trip up to Åre (roughly pronounced Ore-uh, maybe with some severe rolling of the "R"age), Sweden’s most prominent mountain. The mountain was the site of the world championships of alpine skiing a couple years ago, where one of Sweden’s best chances for gold in Vancouver, Anja Pärson, won 3 gold medals.

At any rate, we took a long train trip up north, arriving in time to settle in, have a few drinks, and call it a night. The next morning we headed out, rented our skis and Courtney and I were off.

02/06: Day 1:

Courtney was still a little green, but she toughed it out and was cruising by lunch time. She decided to call it an early day and hit the sauna, while I instead headed out solo for a couple hours of more challenging runs. Here's a few brave souls hiking to find some fresh powder.


A small cafe stop designed to emulate a Sami house - the native people in northern Scandinavia.
A view from the top. Beware the rocks.


02/07: Day 2:

The next day Courtney and I ventured out for some more challenging runs. Here we are on a short break.
The most flattering photo ever taken of me.
Yeah ... it was cold. -21 C (-6 F)!



02/08: Day 3:

The next day we hopped on our skis and headed down from our cabin to the lodge. In doing so we both realized we were not feeling it, and instead elected to turn our stuff in early and go explore Åre Village. We then went to the Holiday Club, a big pool complex in town. We then hit the pool, the awesome water slide and the jacuzzi.


This was then followed up by a relaxing time in Sauna World, where they had like 10 different sauna experiences, ranging from a room filled with snow to a room that was kept at 80 C (176 F). The following are a few photos from their website:

The pool here was basically like ice water. Courtney and I both braved it before sprinting into the nearest room to be baked at 40+C.

We then met up with everyone and took a long long train trip back home that was 3 hours late. In the end though, it was great to get back on skis. Perhaps we'll even make another trip up this year.