Interview At Planetmountain.com

Here's an interview with me from last week at Planetmountain.com. Check it out here.

Lyngen Descents Episode 2

Here comes the second episode from our Lyngen trip last spring! We got blessed with unreal snow conditions and during these three weeks we definitely got to experience the best mountain time last season. Tribute to amigo Felix Hentz! For more great mountain episodes, check endlessflow.posterous.com

Lyngen Descents Episode 2 from Bjarne Salén on Vimeo.

Value

In my line of work I have had to learn how to see things as they are, meaning I have to cut through the veil of feelings that’s coming in to existence to just be in this moment of action-reaction.

In that place things are easy and clean cut like a hospital ward. Life’s easy there because it’s a land beyond thought. I don’t have to ask myself about the risk I take, I don’t have to ask myself about the value of my life and I definitely don’t have to get in to the question of happiness. None of these concepts exist in the hard and clean-cut world of rock, flesh, ice, snow, warmth and cold.

But to get depth in to existence one has to travel in between this world of action into the world of thoughts. It’s the only way for the actions to reflect themselves, stick to something and become reflections.

The risk of getting stuck in the world of thought is that, if you’re there for too long, you’ll only have thought to think about – reflections reflecting upon them self in to infinity. Reality becomes blur, genuineness and clarity get lost.

Value is something complicated. In economics value is that which does not exist in big quantity and have a great demand. We usually strap this same idea on to our everyday lives in our search for value in life.

Most truly intelligent people in the western world would agree that a valuable way of life does not depend on money when the basic (western) needs are satisfied.

I define happiness as being present in this moment of action, in other words being in the first clean-cut world I was describing firstly. To keep things easier to follow I define value in life as the amount of memories and reflections of these happy moments.

Sitting in a cave like hostel room in the Argentinian countryside, the things I find most valuable in my life is not the memories of ski descents I have done, even though I stay there for a glimpse and marvel on the escapistic reality I’m blessed to live. No, I feel the value in the small moments of interaction between myself and other human beings.

I see in front of me the touch of love from my girl, or that instant when time stops when two lovers eyes meet. I dwell in the instant caress when she touches me at the kitchen table just passing the room, her finger touching my neck. I get stuck in the warm hug or in the making of love.

I see the countless facial expressions of friends in joy from powder days, sharing the mutual feeling that we are truly having a great experience. Those memories are by far greater and more valuable than the actual turns we made or the depth of the fallen snow.

I can go on and on talking about countless memories of love and joy in human interaction, and I probably will in future posts, but I leave it there for now. I’m just, in this moment, very happy to have had the chance to live my life in the way I have had and that I have been able to share it with all the great people that have crossed my path.

For me, value lies in the interactions between lovers, family and friends. I sure hope I will learn to truly live this truth out in action…

Just one more thought. If we have the world of action and the world of thought as two worlds divided (I divided them earlier to simplify the text), what, then, happens when we are thinking of an action? Isn’t that an action in itself? This is where the world starts to spin – this is where the rabbit hole begins. 

Patagonian Adventure Part 3 – Failure And Success On Cerro Grande

We have travelled to the other side of the world to do create an adventure.

I talked earlier about the analogy of a good adventure and a high jump competition where, if you aim high, there is a big risk you walk away with nothing. On this trip we have aimed high in our goals and we have failed in most of our objectives – except, luckily, the biggest one on the Whillans ramp over at Poincenot.

Skiing on the East Ridge of Cerro Grande, Cerro Torre Massif, Argentina

On our last little excursion Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, we walked in once again to the Torre valley to try to ski the most beautiful line we have spotted there – the north face of Cerro Grande.

The walk in took us nine long hours with heavy packs. Then we pitched our tents on the glacier, ate some, slept some, ate some more and then left for the mountain at 4:30 AM.

Refrozen breakable crust awaited us in the dark on the steep slopes on the side of the highly crevassed glacier. It was impossible to walk with the skins, it was way too slippery, and instead we had to boot pack 1000 meters in the boot deep crust.

At nine something we made it up to the plateau under the north face of Cerro Grande. We got welcomed by a really beautiful face in great conditions, but after my mind game at the Whillans ramp a couple of days earlier I got a bit intimidated by the seemingly really steep face. I used to think that anything with snow is easily skiable, but after our last adventure I wasn’t that sure anymore.

When coming closer though, I could see that this face was like any other – just a steep and easily skiable ski run – and all my fears for steepness disappeared.

Another thing worried me though, and that was the warmth. It was really warm this early, and almost no wind. Warmth in the mountains when you are there to ski, is usually not a good sign, at least not when you have snow covered rock faces and ice mushrooms above you.

Bjarne followed me up the face to the bergschrund, but during our half hour climb, ice and rocks started to fall down the mountain with higher and higher intensity.

I wanted to ski this line so badly, but we had no other choice than to turn around.

In the mountains you have to have a great up-craving to get anywhere, but you also have to turn around when your gut feeling or your intellect tells you it’s a no-go.

The friction that the craving to fulfill an idea and real mountain sense creates – it´s one of the most painful feelings I know of in the mountains. When you are there it hurts, but when you come home you’re proud you didn’t “fail upwards”.

Usually it goes well even though you know you should have turned around, but inside of you, you know you were playing the game of fluke.

I have learnt that you have to nourish both sides of the coin: both the “up-craving” and the will to run away, because it’s the balanced dance these two are dancing that creates the power for accomplishment and the will to persevere.

At the bottom of the mountain we sat down and had lunch. We had walked a long way to get here and we were not able to live this beautiful experience that was waiting for us.

After this quick stop we walked around to the east side and Bjarne, once again followed me over the bergschrund and then skied over to a spot on the plateau for filming. I climbed the East Ridge as high as I found snow, about 50 vertical meters under the summit, and then skied down this line. I found some really technical passages, but nothing that raised the pulse, and in the end I had a great ski down one of the most beautiful mountains in the massif.

The next day was even warmer and we walked back to town. In the end we got 16 hours of walking there and back for about 2200 vertical meters of skiing (Bjarne about 1500m).

I’m really impressed by the mountains here. They are definitely the wildest low mountains I have ever encountered. It doesn’t feel like it’s made for steep skiing as it’s so rough and wild, but there are definitely lines here for the coming generations to enjoy!

The last two days we have just rested in town and been exploring the bouldering potential. Tomorrow is another ski day, but this time close to the road.

The lack of photos here lately is only due to extremely slow Internet. We got plenty of photos, but if would take days to upload. :)

Tribute to Rémy Lécluse

Mika, Rémy and myself on the North Face of Tour Ronde direct 2009 (Photo: Tobias Granath)

I only got the chance to ski with Rémy Lécluse once, back in 2009 when Tobias Granath and myself met him and Mika Merikanto on the north face of Tour Ronde in the Chamonix massif. We had climbed the north face and they had climbed the Gervasutti couloir and we met at the top at the same time. Being acquaintances from before we decided to ski the line together. It was a great steep skiing season back then and Remy had thought the same thing as me, to ski the direct line without rappels that’s very rarely in conditions.

We started down the route, me first, then Rémy and Mika following us. We skied the face with great care and took our time, enjoying every great turn.

We were chatting the whole way down and I remember Rémy cursing my kick turns and arguing how I should use the double pole plant technique in my skiing. At the mixed section further down we all got quiet, concentrating while down climbing the rocky passage with skis on. At the bottom we shock hands and said we should do it again sometime.

We never did. Winters pass by quickly in a skier’s world and he was busy guiding and I was busy doing my thing. Every time we met in town, we talked about lines and dreamt away on what we could ski together.

Time flies, and so do life.

Rémy and his climbing partner Greg Costa are missing after the avalanche disaster on Manaslu, the world’s eight highest mountain, a few days ago that took 11 lives.

He was one of the best and most experienced steep skiers of all time with more than 500 first descents from all over the world under his belt. He would go “out there”, in to the mountains, often solo, to “live, think and breathe” mountain skiing.

But it’s as a guide I’m mostly impressed by Rémy Lécluse. Never have I heard clients be so euphoric by any guide as by going out in to the mountains with him. We would give his clients the best days of their lives, all the time – as a profession. If you get judged when you die by something or somewhat, then bringing meaning and joy to so many will count for a lot.

Also know for wise decisions, mountain sense and gentleness towards the others he will be remembered and missed by all who had the chance to cross his path.

Thoughts and love goes out to all the departed, their families and friends! 

Read more about the accident at:

www.greghill.ca

daily.epictv.com

www.planetmountain.com

Lyngen Descents – Episode 1

Last spring the Salén brothers and myself went to the Lyngen Alps in the north of Norway for three weeks of ski touring and ski mountaineering. We were extremely lucky with the conditions and even though we got to turn around a lot we managed to pull of six first descents and experience the magic of this amazing place among friends.

This is the first episode out of three. For more movies from our adventures together check out Bjarne’s video blog at endlessflow.posterous.com. 

Lyngen Descents Episode 1 from Bjarne Salén on Vimeo.