I just had to go skiing, the Danish fish rep. onboard the Geco-Searcher had been to St. Anton a lot and he brought with him a map of the area as well. I have wanted to go to St. Anthon for a long time. It`s like New York I dream about it, but have never been there. So when I got my leave I just had to go too. I had been in Wienna before and in the Hintertux valley, I liked Austria. It`s clean everywhere you go and the people are nice to Norwegians. I felt alone in the bus and on the plane on my way to Austria, even though I met a Chief Navigator Trond, now on the Geco-Topaz. But that was not for long, it would not have mattered because I wanted to go skiing anyway. Charter tours are social, that after-noon I was dragged along with the others on the bus. I guess they noticed that I was alone and did not have anywhere to sleep. They were really ok people it`s maybe on trips like this you meet people that are just like you: Camilla and Magnus, Rune and Svein-Ove (Svein-Ove worked then as an athletic training Officer at Kjevik where I went for three years), Greger (he let me sleep in his double room), Terje and Espen, Line and Knut. I would like to see them all again!

We usually went to the Crazy Kangaroo and then down to Picadelly for the afterskiing. Then went home to Bacherspitze where dear Maria was GREAT, for a shower and then out to grab a bite at the pizzabar Dixie. It`s really easy to get to talk to people in St. Anton. We met 2 men and a women from the Swedish magazine "Âka skidor". The Photographer/Graphic engineer was Annika Brodèn
(Fax: +46-(0)23-654 89) and she is really good at taking action pictures. They asked me if I knew of anybody that was good at skiing. I just had to tell them about Svein-Ove and Rune on telemark skiis. The guys weren`t there that night, but we met the "Âka skidor" team the next day and the next day!

Stuben was best, and we stayed there the last part of the week. The most of the group were telemark skiers and I had problems in the slopes because of the telemark skiing, I had to go skiing off-pist to survive! The Alps are steeper than the ski areas in Norway and you become a better skier after beeing down there. I have been to Chamonix and Siviez before, but  St. Anton in Austria is the best right now (I am going back to Chamonix though). St. Anton is a social place, Chamonix is maybe too big?