The Nordic Championship 2011 -Seen through the viewfinder

“Not so fast!” my dad shouts as Im nearly drifting our light gray Volvo through the roundabout. “Justice” is pumping out the car stereo and the sky is clear and blue, thinking the track conditions must be superb I am more than excited about getting to Hafjell fast and getting in a few runs myself, before my evening photo shoot with Joachim Mathisen.


As we finally arrive the cabin, both me and Joachim quickly changes to our riding gear, and head down to the gondola. The track conditions are, as predicted great, nice and dry but not too dusty. We take our first run through the trail that's gonna be housing the Nordic Championship on Sunday. Its a really fast track, with a few really gnarly rock gardens, a bit too gnarly for my little freeride sled. I also manage to do a little crash down a steep loose corner, just rode into it without checking my choice of line first, something I clearly should have done on that one.


As the clock is nearly closing time for the lifts, I head up to the cabin to get my photo gear. Joachim and I catch the lift's last ride up the mountain for the day, and stays behind at the top as the last few riders roll down the trails. Now we have the whole mountain to our selves, and can start shooting at leisure.


I quickly discover a big bummer, apparently I forgot the batteries for my flash, so I have no external light source other then the sun. It turned out I just had to think differently and try using the sunlight in a creative way instead of the flash. Which resulted in a few shots I am quite pleased with.


The day ended with homemade pizza, photo editing and watching clips from our GoPro and Contour cameras. I also made sure to have batteries for my flash, wouldn't like to make the same mistake the next day.


My iPhone had constantly predicted that it would be raining on the Sunday, during the competition, which we all hoped would not become a mud-race. As we woke up on Saturday the sky was a bit darker then the previous day, so we begged for it not to get worse.


Saturday was official training day for the racers competing in the Nordic Championship, Joachim took a few laps on the course, while I were blazing down the other more freerider-friendly trails. The weather was holding up good and also that day got finished off with a photo shoot in the woods. Only this time with a functioning flash.


Race day had come. We got up early so that Joachim could get in a few practice runs before the seeding, which started at 10am. I packed my camera bag and rode the gondola to the top. When the seeding runs kicked off I was all set on the sidelines and started filling my CF with two-wheeled goodness.



It turned out my iPhone had got it all wrong the whole time, the rain had yet to show up and the track was still dry. The weather was cloudy with the presence of a chilled breeze, perfect for riding.



Norwegian Zakarias Blom Johansen who had his senior class debut this year, took home the win in men senior.




As the competition was over we packed our cars and headed home, just as we got into the car the whole sky fell down on us, mother nature has got her timing dialed, thats for sure.

/Fredrik Hansson.

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