Anyone back from Norway?

[Tighe]

How was it? give us an update. They are not updating the site with final results. I read that Alex's kite tangled with someone elses, is he ok? Was the riding awesome? Please, inquiring minds want to know.

[joe]

Most of us are back from what proved to be a great week of snow kiting. We did most of our riding on the rolling hills of the Hardangervidda plateau, near Geilo. The terrain there is a snow kiters dream and we had wind everyday. The skill level of the euro riders is pretty amazing, and Alex was right there with them, even without his equipment which took a detour to India. Alex appeared to be winning his last heat before tangling lines with Fabio Ingrosso. Alex ended up third, I was sixth, Anna ended up second for the women and Aaron Sales finished seventh for the snowboarders. The competition was almost secondary to the great freeriding we got to do. It was quite an eye opener to see what people could do with the terrain. If you get a chance, i would highly recommend taking a trip to the Geilo area, you won't be disappointed.

[Coach]

We did most of our riding on the rolling hills of the Hardangervidda plateau, near Geilo.

Sounds like a line out of Braveheart, or some movie about Vikings... or outlaws, or something...


Congrats on doing well at the event.

[Matt Z]

I fully concur with senor joe. The snow kiting was out of this world; it really put winter kiting on a different level. After watching the crazy French guys jumping off the huge hills and getting 20-30 sec of hangtime and flying who knows how high and far (50 feet up and 100 yards long?..hard to judge), Joe and I had to try and it is a totally different deal. With good wind you can go 20 mph up a 40 degree slope no problem and then when you get to the top all you can see is miles and miles of rolling snow covered hills, no roads, no power lines, no nada. I know I'll be going back and I also encourage anyone else to go also. They have these huts out there in the middle of the rolling snowkite heaven and you can kite from hut to hut. The Norwegians were haveing some sort of 300km race this weekend where they kite from point to point, hut to hut. Good times, but it sure was nice to get back on the water yesterday.

[Tighe]

thanks for the update. sounds incredible.

Way to go Anna, Joe, and Alex.

Must of been a blast!

[Eric S]

The snow kiting was out of this world; it really put winter kiting on a different level.

You could tell by the way Matt Z was describing the snowkiting in Norway that it was somthing special. Here's a random thought I wrote derived from what he told us on the beach at Waconia:

His eyes blazed

From the beach

He waved his arm across Waconia with a sweeping motion

And we saw a rolling plane of snow covered hills appear

His talk continued

Sun struck his face through the cold, and ours now.

As he told about the the renewable huts and Powerlines

In Norway

Our minds wandered back to last winter here

And forward to next

Perhaps Norway


Thanks Matt, Joe, Anna, John, Alex and the rest. I'm thinking about buying a ticket for snowkiting there next year!