First the good news; that snow I was hoping for in my last entry is now here! Here in Chamonix we got about 40 cm of fresh last night and about lunch time everything was looking good. I was cruising around in the so called “dream forest” on Grands Montets, enjoying the powder and launching some cliffs.

I met up with photographer Linus Meyer for a photo session and totally on my own initiative the airs got a bit bigger. I bit too early for that though, I was soon reminded that there are a lot of sharks under the snow. As you probably have understood; we have now reached the bad news. I launched a cliff, flew a couple of metres and hit a rock. I don’t really know what happened next except that my right thigh was in big pain and I was feeling the taste of blood in my mouth. I cooled the leg with snow and got off the mountain as soon as I could.

Back home, I quite quickly realised that I’ve got some internal bleeding in the thigh, which hopefully shouldn’t be that bad; I’m hoping for a 4-5 day recovery. Too bad with the new snow, it’s snowing again at this very moment, but I guess it’s a way of telling me to spend the first days of the year in front of my computer setting up the Everest expedition…

I’ll be back on skis just in time for a planned trip to Sestriere in Italy around the sixth January if all goes as planned. Please, keep your fingers crossed! Happy new year!

Posted by Tomas Olsson at 07:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I have since two weeks started my training for Everest in Chamonix; so far a very cold winter. I am today heading up with the cable car to Aiguille du Midi (3842m) where it according to the weather forecast will be -30 degrees Celsius and a northern wind with 100 km/h. My down jacket feels like the most essential equipment detail on this trip…

Skiing has been ok, have look at the photo below of me skiing (a picture says more than a thousand words) taken by photographer Fredrik Schenholm. But we now need more snow and it looks like it coming this weekend; the forecast tells us that a big storm is supposed to hit us tonight so keep your fingers crossed!

Posted by Tomas Olsson at 07:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In May 2006 the ambition is to stand on the summit of Everest, take a deep breath in the thin air and point the skis toward Tibet and ski down the north face of Everest. I would say it’s the ultimate first ski descent from the summit of the highest peak in the world!

My name is Tomas Olsson; I'm a 29 year old Swede living in Chamonix in the French Alps. Here you will be able to read about my preparations for the expedition to Everest and of course; the expedition itself from end March to beginning June 2006.

Enjoy!

Selfportrait on the summit of Cho Oyu (26 905 ft)

Posted by Tomas Olsson at 07:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBacks (0)