This can sometimes put off friends when during winter they ask of our availability for weekend plans. My response is categoric. We are unavailable until the first weekend of May.
It is said that Norwegians are born with skis on their feet, which explains why child birth without a midwife is unseen here.
Canadians have not quite evolved to being born with skis on their feet, for most of us it is skates, but herein lies a common love of winter activities.
Girl and I have a weekend routine that is both a compulsive and addictive antidote to the work week. Without it, we would surely perish at the hands of demons.
- We drive to our place (Girl’s parent’s place) in the mountains Friday after work
- We wake up early Saturday morning for first tracks and ski aggressively for an hour with most no one on the hill. 4 runs from ~1000 metres vertical does the job, especially if it is a powder morning
- We stop for a scrummy Norwegian breakfast: cheese, bread, cheese, bread, cured meats and pate, and cheese… and huge lattes (and a cheeky Marly light if BB is hung)
- We watch skiing on TV for a jot (cross country, biathlon, downhill, ski jumping…)
We don our cross country kit and head out for 2 to 4 hours in the boreal mountains in either the lower, mid or upper tracks, sometimes combining them. Sometimes we take our head lamps and don’t come back until it is dark (not hard as it gets dark 15:00ish in December when the solar noon altitude is ~7 degrees) - We sip an après ski aperitif (preferably bubbly if Mrs. BB, the champagne monster, has the keys to the cellar!) and watch more skiing on TV
- We eat dinner: raclette, fondu, elk, or other various mountain foods (preferably with a fine claret if BB or FiL have the keys to the cellar!)
- We talk about the day’s skiing and what we will ski tomorrow. The boys talk about riveting topics like the quality of snow, temperature, waxing (not of the Brazilian ilk), and techy macho bullshit stuff
- We go to bed and have passion in the Super-G, slalom, free ride, telemark or off-piste position
- We go to sleep dreaming about skiing… powder dreams are best as they are magical… avalanches are a nightmare
- We repeat on Sunday
We drive back to Oslo Monday morning, straight to work, and talk to everyone in the office about skiing on the weekend… and wait in great anticipation for Friday to come around.
If we are not in Norway, we make the pilgrimage to the Alps or North America. Though the routine may vary slightly, we are at the the big altar daily, of the 2,000 - 3,500 metre variety. Nothing stiffens one's faith like 6,000 metres of vertical before noon, hallefuckingluiah!
Now if you don’t ski, or even if you do, this may seem painfully tedious! I totally understand this and do not wish to appear a missionary seeking conversion. If I was reading someone’s blog about their obsession for say trainspotting or feltching, I would tune out immediately pal! One man’s hell is another man’s heaven, gender in-specific of course! The church of ski is tolerant.
When Beaverboosh met Girl, we properly courted for 6 months before consummating our relationship, at the beginning of the ski season. I know this is very old fashioned but we really got to know one another, and put a big tick in the ski box!
Thankfully after six months the natural talent for passionate cuddling that we Northern Hemisphere folk biologically posses from enduring long cold winters was unleashed. Thank effin god, my testicles had swollen to the size of a Moose’s!
We both knew, even in those early days, that one day we would look each other in the eyes, and say I ski do!
For a Canadian dude, you cannot get any better than this!
Beaverboosh
