Hardbakkedalen

30 minutes from my door you will find some of the finest technical and intense riding I have ever experienced. Hour long climb, hour long decent, breathtaking views, intense singletrack, rocks, roots, vibrant moods. Speechless.

PS: P. is no longer single. She is fantastic. Life is beautiful!

Life's Good

Solid

Tune of the Week

While we wait for something to actually happen with this blog...
Oldies, but Goodies.


Broken Social Scene
Almost Crimes
Arts And Crafts Records



Broken Social Scene
Fire Eye'd Boy
Arts And Crafts Records

Start of something beautiful

Looking for love in all the wrong places. My brand new eurospec plus plus Cannondale Caffeine F1. Long time coming. New adventures await.

What Am I Doing?

My destination from the beach in Voss. I have no idea what its called.

On route...

Sometimes I don't have the faintest idea and other days I have some grand plans. By the way I am living in Bergen, Norway, making $26 an hour working on some trick jazz at Sykkel Senteret (bike shop), learning to live without bike racing, just bought a mountainbike again, developing a hint of Norwegian accent and generally trying to figure stuff out. But more about that gradually later...maybe.
Anyways, more to the point I climbed a mountain on Sunday. Living on the west coast I am surrounded by mountains daily. The city is built in a valley surrounded by some fine, but minor peaks the tallest of which tops out at just over 600m above sealevel. They are the kind of thing you tackle during a lunchbreak or after work, nothing big, but a great jaunt none the less. This weekend I boarded the train to Voss, the extreme sport capital of northern Europe. After an hour of so of sharing a traincar with some incredibly easily excited and fascinated Japanese tourists I stepped of the train in fresh mountain air at a staggering altitude of...50 m. I took a quick look around and saw a few peaks with snow atop them, picked one and set out on a 7 hour round trip epic to the clouds and back.
I had a rough time finding a trail that could take me upwards, but after a few misses on tractor roads, hopping a couple of sheep fences and some bushwacking I managed to find some hikers who warned me of the dangers of the most attractive route and pointed me onto a safer alternative.

It was great to once again stand atop something substantial after a seriously greedy peak bagging spree back in Canada last fall. At nearly 1200m I could see the beauty of the area in full panorama. It was however a stark reminder of how much I miss the "old days" in particular the incredible partners in challenge I left behind, JSparls, Brooks, Haspinelli, Pip and many others. Types like you are few and far between, may we enjoy new adventures some day soon, you are all one of kind, I miss you all.

Voss from nearly the top of some mountain

From the summit of the same pile of rock

In other news I have moved into a new house, or villa as I would rather call it. It is a five bedroom masterpiece of turn of the century architecture nestled between the mighty Ulriken mountain and its smaller cousin the lofty Lovstakken. Central with only a quick tem minute spin to downtown and only ten minutes in the opposite direction to some of the most epic roads on earth. Our first floor is a tanning salon..."Brun og Blid" is the name of the tanning chain that runs it, translated thats "Tanned and Happy". More on my digs later as well, and the four roommates who are due to be arriving in short order to start the ultimate communal living arrangement.

Since Afica

Times have changed in so many ways. What have I done since last the last post, since Africa?
- Started an electronica group "Connecting People", played two shows.
- Rafted whitewater in Voss
- Been to my first Brann soccer game (Bergen's team, won the Norwegian Series last year).
- Done some hiking in the mountains around town.
- Ridden some of the most beautiful terrain on earth
- Got a job, www.sykkelsenteret.no
- Taken a freediving course, got my freediving license.
- Discovered indoor climbing again.
- Dramatically improved my soccer skills
- Played a bunch of beach volleyball at the local court.
- Enjoyed weeks of sunshine, warm temperatures and reaping the rewards of the best tan I have ever had in mid May.
- Bathed in the ocean on several occasions
- Learned to sail, done a few good trips
- Discovered the showman in me
- Played paintball
- Learned a piano piece and performed for the first time in 10 years.
- Summited the "7 Peaks" around Bergen in one day.
- Realized that life is so much more than bike racing.
- Realized that life as a bike racers is hard to beat, I miss it, I think I will be back.
A deeper explanation of the last two points to follow as well as a relaunch of pdotproductions into a brand new phase in the life of pdot.

Back on Board

I arrived back in Norway on Thursday and went from pearl white beach to...pearl white snow. It is a bit rough and I am experiencing a mild crisis on why on earth I live so far north on this vast globe of our after the Zanzibar experience. However, my return to reality was dampened by a highly anticipated envelope that lie in waiting for me. After owning a cell phone for several weeks I finally have the other half the completes the equation of effective communication...a SIM card. Due to my service provider, slow banks, slower registries and some bad luck it took nearly 2 months to finally get the card. But now I have it and can finally attempt to keep up in the high paced world of wireless communications among the digital generation I am surrounded by daily.

Effective communication in the wireless market in Norway results in the following service which I now enjoy. Check this:
- $0 per month base costs
- 120 minutes of outgoing calls free per month
- 90 outgoing text messages free per month
- Unlimited incoming calls and messages
- No timezones, all calls within Norway are local.
- Approx. 5 cents per minute for outgoing calls inside Norway after the fist 120 minutes are used up.
- Approx. 5 cents per outgoing text message after the first 90.

Telus is pathetic...