Friday

Location: Åre, Sweden

The flight over was as usual not without hiccups, Chicago was closed and the flight was canceled. I had to cancel the day, head home and try again the next.  Thursday it worked, but of course it threw off all the plans.  I was hoping to have slept that day and travel up to Åre rested, but instead I had to arrive, take the bus to Uppsala and then catch the train direct up to the middle of Sweden. A six hour train ride.

It was good to see Markus, our son again, even though I was in a daze.  He is spending a year over in Sweden and now works at the main ski resort in the town.

After a good ten hours of sleep I bought a three day ski pass and went up on the mountain, Markus was operating one of the lifts so I started to learn the mountain.  He was the local expert on where to ski. I started with a few runs at the resort in Duved, where he lives and works and then moved over to Åre to ski the big mountain at 1420 meters. 

The wind at the top was gusting to around 60 mph with ice, it was to say the least an adventure in the arctic up there.

There is a small storm moving in tomorrow so that should make it all even more of a challenge;  Right now it’s time for a little red wine and bed with the jet lag.

Richard Boyer