Orage european freeski open

In short, this is what I did on my trip to Laax for the european freeski open.

I went to Vejle in denmark to pick up some new Orage gear at Funsport (stoked!)…

Then me and my dad drove to Laax in a super sweet car (BMW M6)…

On our way down though europe I got pretty sick…

After 2 days of laying in the bed and not getting better, I went to the doctor and got some penicilin…

I probably skied 6-7 runs in Laax before the qualifiers, and it took all energy out of me…

To my luck the “race” officials accepted my request to get moved from heat 1 to heat 4, because I ad no chance getting out of the bed on the morning of the qualifiers… Heat 4 got moved to the next day because of wind!

On the morning of my qualifying heat I finally felt healthy enough to ski… I managed to qualify to the semis.

In the semis the level was a little bit too high for me, especially after my lack of practice… Tom Wallisch did the run I wanted to do, but with no practice I didn’t feel safe enough to even try it.

The judging was a bit sketchy, and there were a couple of people who got raped – noticebly Andreas Håtveit and Fridjof Fredriksson…

Anyways, here is some footage from my trip.


Orage European Open 09 from HJ Brandt on Vimeo.

And some photos of my new gear…

still growing the stache

Box hiking

I just liked this shot...

7 people in a 6 people chair. Strenio, me, Mustad, PK, Colby, Dølplads, Håtveit...

Snowstock

In the last post I totally forgot to mention anything specific about how this weekends comp really went…

We only got 3 warm-up jumps and it was snowing pretty hard, so people had a hard getting the speed right. I did one speed check, one rodeo 5 and one sw 7 which I tok waay deep… Then it was straight on to qualifiers, which was a 2 jump, best jumps counts format.

Due to an open training on friday (which I didn’t get to go to), the level was super high just after people had their speed dialed. Thomas Dølplads leaded the charge throwing dub cork 10 on second hit followed by PC Fosse doing the same trick, everybody else doing sw 10′s, and the 15 year old Jens Gunhildsrud doing dub cork 12 after only a few hits…

In the qualifiers I did a suuper sketchy sw 10, and put my hands down in the landing in my first hit, and really good rodeo 9 in my second, but I washed out in the compression after the landing, so it did really matter how it looked in the air… I didn’t qualify.

Here is a clip from the contest so you get a better idea…

The level of skiing in Norway is absolutely insane right now… The guys who did good in this contest could have won pretty much any big air event this year! I’m just trying to tag along…

Val Thorens sick count…

Its been 6 days since I left Val Thorens and I’ve found out that I wasn’t exactly the only one who got sick after the trip.

Here’s the sick count from my apartment…

Dennis = SICK

Dennis = SICK

Hannibal = SICK

Hannibal = SICK

Maja = SICK

Maja = SICK

Niller = SICK

Niller = SICK

Lars = even SICK while we were there...

Lars = even SICK while we were there...

Cap P = not sick

Cap P = not sick

Troels = not sick

Troels = not sick... UPDATE: SIICK

Sune = SICK

Sune = SICK

Michael = SICK

Michael = SICK

me = SICK

me = SICK

9 out or 10 people – that’s got to say something… And I know atleast 10 more people who got sick aswell!

Did you get sick in Val Thorens?

The big one

Lets take it back a little bit… When I landed in Oslo yesterday my skis obviously came out last so that my 10 minute margin to make the bus from Oslo og Hemsedal went straight out the window… So i had to hang out in the city for a few hours which was actually really nice since traveling takes so much energy out of you when you are sick..!

Lots of snow in oslo...

Lots of snow in oslo...

I really wanna go back to Oslo as soon as possible and get some rails on film, but I’ll have to wait and see about that.

Today i woke up (thank god) to pretty much the same weather I have woken up to for the last 2 weeks or so… Grey skies and a bit of fresh snow. But this time there was no wind, and I was back “home” in Hemsedal!

looking out the window at 10am

looking out the window at 10am

I went straight up to the hill and met up with some friends right away… It’s so nice to be back because you can just go out, and there is always someone good you can ride with so you get right into doing tricks you wouldn’t do right away if you were by your self. They almost have the park all done now so it’s super good (forgot to take pictures, sorry. I really need to get into blogging mode), and with the new snow the landings were pretty soft. Such a good day to come back and just get to know the park again!..

On to the big update…

I gave myself a deadline to have this blog ready mid-December to be able to keep people up to date during my winter season this year, but of course that didn’t happen! I spend way too much time trying to figure out how I wanted to do it and how I wanted it to look… as you can see i finally settled with a design, and even thought i haven’t made it myself as I wanted to I have to say I’m pretty stoked on it – and I hope you are too..!

If you were wondering why i write in English its pretty simple. I was born and raised Greenland, I’ve lived in Denmark for a few years, and now i live in Norway – so to be able to keep everyone up to date English was the way to go. Plus English sounds so much cooler then any of the Scandinavian languages, so I thought writing in English would make me sound all cool and stuff…

I spend the last month or so in France. I did some small danish comps and got a few shots in the bag.

The trip was alright… I’m having a hard time staying positive about it even thought i had a lot of fun… It started out in Avoriaz where the annual Danish Championships are held. I went down there 1 week early to get some used to the jumps and what knot, but the park wasn’t even open. Luckily it dumped 1 meter of snow the day i got there so we went out and build a BC booter on day 2 and got to hit it the day after. It was pretty much my first real day in the back country and it was really fun, but a lot of work! here’s an edit RAD films made from the day we hit the jump…

I couldn’t figure how to embed it, so here is the link.

http://freeride.dk/index.php?option=com_hwdvideoshare&task=viewgroup&Itemid=64&group_id=2

If you like the song (I can’t get enough of it) check out Ou Est Le Swimming pool… they are awesome!

After almost 2 weeks in Avori-ass i went over to Val Thorens with my sister and Greenlandic super shredder Michael Damgaard.

MD - sorry about the quality. All these photos are taking are taken with my phone..

MD - sorry about the quality. All these photos are taking are taken with my phone..

Val Thorens was a disaster… We were there for 2 weeks and the weather was horrible for 13 days! the only really good day we had there was the last one – but that day was so good we almost forgot all the bad ones, almost.

The last week there was Frostgun week. We build a huge jump for the Frostgun Invitational, but because of the weather I only hit it a few time with some straight airs and the big air comp was canceled – it sucked big time! Mads and Troels sacked up and did some spins, but is was super gnarly!

here’s an edit from the last day in Val T

http://freeride.dk/index.php?option=com_hwdvideoshare&task=viewgroup&Itemid=64&group_id=4

so yeah, that was the last trip i was on, and now that the blog is up and running be sure to look out for more updates real soon.

Luv HJ

Travel sickness!

Okay, so I don’t get travel sick…

poor kid...

poor kid...

but I can’t wait to get home, and I’m pretty damn sick right now. So I think the title of this post fits pretty good anyways!

It is commonly known that travel sickness or motion sickness, as it is better known, means that you feel dizzy, fatigue and nausea (If you wanna know more you should check out www.travelsick.com)… In my case i have a hard ich in my throat, and a ticklish nose full of yellow goo – and my whole body feels overly sensitive… just a good ol’ cold!

I’m Leaving copenhagen in 2 hours and I cant wait to get this trip over with and go shred my local resort of Hemsedal!

HJ