My Blog

Opening Day at Meland Golf Club

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:31:18 +0200

Yesterday was the day that has taken the place of Christmas as best day of the year for me. The opening day at the Meland Golf Club. I daydream about getting back on the course all through the Winter.

The weather for the opening couldn’t have been better. The course was in fine shape despite the long winter. It’s amazing to see how quickly it awakens in the Spring. It only takes 2-3 weeks.

This year, during early practice at the driving range, I discovered that I suddenly had a very good swing and was hitting everything straight and far with just a touch of draw. I went to the range every day in a desperate attempt to get the swing to stick.

I thought I had it, but the monster that is Meland brought me quickly down to Earth again. My first couple of 9 hole rounds were not horrible, but they weren’t any better than last year’s rounds. This was not what I was expecting.

I’m not giving up yet though and feel confident that good stuff will happen during the year.

It’s already happening for son M who set a new 9 hole record score yesterday (75, down from the previous 83). The course is so long it’s really unfair for a 9 year old, but he is undaunted.

Here he is hitting a power fade from the par 3 9th tee (which he, impressively, bogied).

As I was leaving to play today, V just said, “See you in the fall”.

Someone said that golf is life, improved. It sure feels that way when you’re on a beautiful course like Meland.

Austrinden, Gullfjellet

Wed, 1 Apr 2009 21:24:46 +0200

As Spring approaches, the mountains are usually well covered with snow - at least above a certain elevation. The days lengthen, and we start to think about getting to some of the summits.

Last Tuesday, a colleague from work and friend Vidar joined me on an attack of summit of Austrinden. Austrinden is a smaller sibling of Gullfjellet which I hope to ascend soon.

Near as I can tell from some lousy online maps, the ascent is about 500 meters. It goes up pretty quickly, so there was a lot of huffing, puffing and sweating on my part. We carried our skies the first little bit.

The view from the top is huge and ranges from the highest mountains in western Norway out to the North Sea which reflected the sundown in the distance.

The trip down was along a new line for me. It was steeper and northerly facing. The snow was perfect and we got in a lot of good turns.

Then, suddenly, the slope ended in what I, with a well developed fear of heights, would call a precipitous fall into a ravine.

We looked around for awhile trying to find a safe place to descend. There was a cornice that ran along the entire edge and which featured a 1-2 foot crack all along the ridge. I started thinking about the story Thierry Donard (the guy behind this and who sold me my ski outfit) told me about his 45 horrifying minutes buried under an avalanche.

As is obvious, since I’m writing this, there was no problem. My colleague figured the crack wasn’t much to worry about because it was cold enough that the snow and ice was bound pretty well. He said he would have been more worried had it been a warmer day.

This starts the wind down of a good ski season which, for the first time in several years, was completely on the snows of Norway. That was fine, but I hope to get back to the Alps or North America next year.

Meanwhile, I’ll reminisce about nice trips like this.

More pictures from the trip are here.

Gigapixel Bergen Picture

Wed, 4 Mar 2009 22:08:58 +0100

You can’t get a better view of Bergen without travelling here.

Click here.

Click around in the picture and use the controls to see the city in great detail.

You can zoom to great detail as the following clip shows. This building, one of my favorites, was recently nearly destroyed in a fire.

Glad I Wasn’t There

Mon, 2 Mar 2009 13:16:01 +0100

I’ve driven past this spot many times before. So have Mom and Dad. It’s on the E39 highway that runs through Romarheimsdalen between Bergen and Sognefjorden.

Here’s a helicopter carrying a geologist up for an inspection of the source of the rock fall. Apparently, there are other large blocks that might fall.

And a closer view.

Icy Mast on the Star Herdla

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:55:13 +0100

The picture below was sent to me by the Master of the Star Herdla and is from a recent crossing of the Pacific Ocean. Thanks to the great circle distance being the shortest route on a sphere, vessels sail far North when moving between North America and Asia.

The results are striking. I’d hate to have to go out on deck when conditions are like that.