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Saturday, June 30th, 2012

My dad on how to not get sick!

My dad has the best health of anyone I know. He is simply never sick and has never in his whole career had a sick leave from work.

He has plenty of theories about everything between heaven and earth and of course he has his own remedy on how not to get sick. There is no science behind this what so ever – only his own thoughts and experience. But the fact remans that he seems (know on wood) immune to sickness, so I’m just guessing he have some stuff to teach us weak people. Below are his nine most important tricks for staying away from sickness:

1. Wash your hands!
When you meet a lot of people or when you have been outside, keep a habit of washing your hands regularly.

2. No sugar!
If you feel like you are about to get sick, avoid anything with sugar.

3. Be happy!
People that choose to be negative or unhappy are proven to be much more sick than the people with a positive view of life.

4. Don’t eat pigs or bears!
I have no idea about stuff, I’m a vegetarian anyways, but he claims that they have too close of a DNA for the humans to be able to handle it.

5. Take Showers!
Take a shower every day if you are a city person (Once every second day is still ok). If you are outside you don’t have to shower at all!

6. Sleep!
If you feel tired, sleep.

7. Eat fruits!
Lots of it!

8. Be outside as much as you can!
No comments.

9. Exercise!
“I have to agree I’m not following this one as much as I could, but I still think it’s important”.

Saturday, June 30th, 2012

On the move

Yesterday I got back from a good week in Whistler with Mike Douglas and the Switchback Entertainment crew. I had a really good time with Mike and his family with lots of work for the upcoming movie project, skiing, running, biking and sightseeing. Now I’m back in Luleå for one day and tomorrow we are leaving once again – this time for Lofoten, Norway. We are planning to stay there for at least one and a half month and it’s going to be great to get some time for climbing and just being at one spot for some time. One and a half month seems like an eternity compared to the busy travel schedule I’ve had this spring.

Henningsvaer, in the midst of the magic islands

Now I’ll switch back to climbing and running mode for some time. I can’t wait to get back to all the great people, rock, landscape and running trails of the magic islands!

Blair, Jeff, Mike and Leslie at work

Canadian cars were not as big as the Alaskan ones, but not to far of…

Mike fueling up in Squamish… I have to get back here…

Seattle from the air

Finally back in Luleå, Sweden

Thursday, June 28th, 2012

And a new Twitter!

I’m usually the kind of person that goes the whole way with the things I do, so I thought: if I get a Facebook page I might as well also get in to Twitter. So If you want to follow my adventures from up close, check out @freedompeaks!!!

Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

A new Facebook page

I just made a new Facebook page where I will post news, updates and ideas from along the way. Check it out and “like” at www.facebook.com/thoughtsfromhighplaces…

Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

Skiing at Blackcomb with Douglas

Today Mike showed me the skiing at Blackcomb. It was the first good weather day in a while and the skiing conditions where actually really good. After a few runs in the bumps at the glacier we skinned up on the backside to Blackcomb peak, did a short detour to the summit, and then dropped in to the D.O.A couloir.

The snow was good, as its been refrozen over night and then the top surface had melted enough to serve perfect corn conditions in the early afternoon. A sushi on top of that for lunch and we had a really good ski day.

And, oh yeah, I saw my first Canadian bear in the slopes. Mike actually betted that he would move from Whistler if we wouldn’t see one during the whole day, but it only took five minutes, and sure enough we saw one under the lift.

A Canadian brown bear

The classic buss that takes you around the mountain to the summer skiing

Skiing – summer style

Blackcomb snowpark

Mike showing his bump skills from the good old days

Whistler Blackcomb backcountry

Trevor Petersen memorial near the top of Blackcomb peak

Rock n rollers at the summit

Mike and myself at the entrance of D.O.A

Mike in good style

Myself on the lower slopes

That was a great ski!

D.O.A

Blair and Jeff at the www.switchbackentertainment.comoffice…

Monday, June 25th, 2012

Whistler

On Friday after the guide course I jumped on a plane to Vancouver via Frankfurt from Geneva. At the airport my friend Mike Douglas picked me up and drove me to his home in Whistler. The last two days we have been working on a ski documentary for Salomon in between sightseeing, running and mountain biking. It´s been a great time so far with the Douglas family and it´s a dream coming true to finally get to visit Whistler!

At Frankfurt airport in Germany

In Vancouver

A photo from a beautiful run almost to the top of Whistler mountain. I had to turn around as I saw I was going to get late to work.

Pancakes with maple syrup, Canadian style

Mike at work in town

Going for a bike ride… When leaving the road for the super mellow trails there was no chance i could take photos. It was the first time in my life that i’ve done downhill mountain biking and there was just no way i could keep up.

A seriously secret place in the forest.

Whistler’s bike park

Whistler mountain

Mike working late hours at the office

Saturday, June 23rd, 2012

Guide Course no 3 – Day 6-8 – 4000-meter peak bagging and snow climbing above Zermatt and Valle d’Ayas.

On the last days of the course we moved to Zermatt further east in Switzerland and took the lift up to Klein Matterhorn at almost 3900 meters. From there we traversed the glacier east in a total whiteout and climbed Pollux 4092 m in a snowstorm before we made our way to the rifugio Guide della Val d’Ayas, by many regarded as the best hut in the Alps. We received extremely good service and Italian food and most of us were agreeing that it was the best hut we had ever visited.

The next day it was really bad weather with snow, rain, no visibility and really hard winds. We did a try on the 4226 m high Castor, but turned around at the base of the mountain.

It’s always good to practice turning around and we still got a very good theory day in the hut.

On our last day we woke up early as usual and started the day by climbing Castor traversing the summit ridge back and fourth for training, and then we walked over to Breithorn and traversed the ridge between the west and central summit before we called it a day and went back down to Zermatt.

Overall it was a really good course with a good team of candidates as well as instructors. Now, after three courses we are about half way to our aspirant exam next spring and we have been training in four countries.

Next course is ice-climbing and navigation up in the north of Sweden in November.

For more information about the Swedish guide program, visit www.sbo.nu.