Ponytails of fury.......

Had another fun day of XC skiing at Bymarka yesterday.
We got a nice bit of snow last week so the trails were freshly coated. Joel and I decided to try out his new GPS on the ski trails, which was only partly successful. It's hard to figure out exactly what you're looking at sometimes on a 3 inch map screen when you're basically surrounded by snow and more snow in every direction. We skied around for a while on an ungroomed trail and decided that was no fun, so we got back on the groomed path and went back to our usual hut at Elgsethytta for a snack. On the way back we decided to go all the way down to the golf course which meant a trip to "the hill of doom". We had been warned about this hill long before we actually saw it. But the first time we went down this trail a few weeks ago, Joel, Leif and I looked over the edge and all basically came to the same conclusion - "there's no f!$*ing way I'm skiing down that on XC skis". Fortunately there is a wussie trail off to the side where ex-pats and other fraidy cats can take off their skis and walk down. We actually saw some Norwegians walking down as well so we didn't feel too bad. This time I had made up my mind though that I was going to give it try - what could go wrong?*
So when we reached the precipice of the hill of doom, I sent my trusty unamed* videographer down to the bottom to record the event in case of a you-tube worthy yard sale. "Man impaled on ski pole" would be the likely tag line - 500,000 views. Anyway the longer it took **** to get to the bottom and set up the more wobbly my knees got looking down that slope. Having just seen the ski patrol going to pick up an injured person that we had passed on another hill a few minutes earlier wasn't helping either. Eventually all was set* and I set sail down the hill. I momentarily thought about going into a full tuck, but the rapidly increasing speed in the first 50 feet left me in more of a "don't crash, don't crash, don't crash, half crouch. Through some miracle I made safely to the bottom and zipped up the smaller hill on the other side, Hooray!

My feelings of triumph were quickly squashed minutes later however, when three Norwegian girls who were all of 10 years old came down the same hill with pigtails and ponytails flapping madly in the breeze. I don't even think they paused their conversation on the way down. Arggh. Now I have to find an even BIGGER hill to scare the crap out myself on...

*note
Due to "technical difficulties", the video of this historic event was apparently lost. This is why the videographer will remain unamed.