Hallo from Norway!

I was hoping to wait until something more exciting happened to start my blog, but since just being in Norway is so cool, I'll start with that. I'm here with Matchstick Productions, hoping to get some skiing in, and perhaps make a movie in the process. We took a gamble on a zone in Norway that we didn't know too much about--we just knew there were mountains of some kind, fjords, and there was a helicopter waiting for us along with all of the necessary permits, because there is technically no heli-skiing in Norway. So when we got here to Stranda, our base, we were stoked to drive in to amazing peaks--definitely good lines to be had. We had a sunny day right off the bat, and our initial reconn showed tons of potential. The snow, however, is a different story. There were about 6 cm of dust on a gnarly ice crust--totally scratchy and pretty scary. We found a few lines with deeper dust, pretty fun if it was smooth underneath, but then you would occasionally encounter some buried avie debris or sastrugi, and almost lose your teeth from the bone-jarring bumps. So, needless to say, in the week since then, we've seen rain to the top, which totally screwed the snow, and now we're just waiting for the reset button, and trying to find ways to amuse ourselves in this tiny little Norwegian town of Stranda, or Stranded, as we've taken to calling it. Which brings me back to my first point--just being in Norway is amazing. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen--fjords and small, colorful towns in steep valleys, with huge peaks rising in every direction. The people are extremely nice and friendly, and we even saw Troll houses the other day, when we took a drive to a neighboring town. No joke--little tiny troll houses alongside a mountain lake, at the base of a huge peak. Awesome! There was a huge telemark race at the local hill here yesterday, which provided some good entertainment as well, and a crazy party last night where we saw firsthand the different social customs--people are way more forward here when it comes to, um, socializing with each other! Luckily, it's snowing right now and should hopefully for the next few days....then we can get down to what we came here to do--skiing, not sociology.