OLD NEWS >> October - November 2004

2004-11-29 The skiing season started rather early in Borlänge this year. The first snow came 11 days ago and now we have some 20-30 cm snow in the town and a bit more on the hills around. The photo is from Gyllbergen, an area located about 20 km from Borlänge which is like a cross-country skiing paradise. I would like to participate in some marathon cross-country skiing races this winter and perhaps also in Vasaloppet (probably the most famous skiing race in the world). Last week I also started to run in the indoor athletics track in Falun where I plan to carry out a part of my interval training during this winter.

2004-11-09 I spent last 10 days of October in Czech republic and Slovakia, visiting my parents, travelling around and of course training at different places. The programme of my visit was rather busy. Check the pictures (there are more than 130) to see how beautiful the landscape of those two countries is. Czech republic and Slovakia used to be "one country" called Czechoslovakia until 1993 when it was split into two independent states. Czech and Slovak are two different languages but they are very similar to each other.

Krkonose (Eagle mountains, Erzgebirge) are the highest mountains in Czech republic situated on the border with Poland, about 120km NE of Prague. We ran up to the highest top Snezka 1602m (Snow mountain, on the picture) from Spindleruv Mlyn. Krkonose mountains are popular for both downhill and cross country skiing in winter as well as for hiking in summer. I spent couple of training camps there before I moved to Sweden. Photos
Read more: www.krnap.cz

Prachov rocks natural reserve (Prachovske skaly) located near town Jicin (90km NE from Prague) covers an area of a "sandstone town". Some of the rocks are almost 40m high and it is a paradise for climbers. We were not climbing there, only hiking. The sandstone areas are popular among orienteers even if the best ones are protected and you are not allowed to run there. World Cup 1994 was organised only a few kilometres from Prachov rocks and many Czech orienteering 5-days bring the competitors into this special terrain. Photos
Read more: www.cesky-raj.cz

Ostrava is the third largest town in Czech republic (about 350 000 inhabitans) and a place where I lived during the first 18 years of my life. It used to be famous for its heavy industry - mining, steel works, chemical factories but many of them, and especially the mines, have been closed down after 1989. High unemployment is one result of these changes but also better environmental situation. The city is developing fast and I got surprised how much it changed since my previous visit. You can find some photos from the viewpoint located in the tower in the Town Hall, from mining museum and some others.
Read more www.ostravainfo.cz

Beskydy are mountains situated about 40 km south of Ostrava. The highest top is Lysa hora 1323m, which we passed during one of our trainings. There are some maps for orienteering in this area but mostly the terrain is too hilly. Stramberk is name of a beautiful village famous for its tower "Stramberska Truba", cave and limestone quarries (the first photos). Radhost is another mountain (1130m) with a small church on its top. There are many slopes for downhill skiing and also some areas suitable with cross-country skiing tracks in Beskydy. Photos.
Read more: www.beskydy.cz

High Tatras (Vysoke Tatry) are my favourite mountains located on Slovakia’s northern border with Poland. I used to spend here at least one week each summer between the age of 5 and 15. Even if it was the end of October there were still some tourists hiking in the area, wondering what kind of crazy people (me and Patrik) were running on the mountain trails. We were on the top of Rysy 2499m (Tatra's highest mountain which can be reached without a mountain guide), Priecne sedlo 2323m (actually a col which require some climbing secured by chains) and Krivan 2495m (pretty cold, foggy and windy top as you can see on the pictures). We stayed in Strbske pleso (1350m) - a host of world cup in cross-county skiing in 70-ies and in orienteering in 90-ies. If you want to go for altitude training and have only small budget High Tatras might be a good alternative since Slovakia is even cheaper than Czech republic. Czech and Slovak national teams in orienteering were preparing here for a few world championships. Photos.
Read more: www.tatry.net

More about the mountains in Czech republic and Slovakia: www.nasehory.cz

And of course we could not miss the visit of Prague (Praha)- the capital of Czech republic, which is considered to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The amount of tourists coming not only from Europe but also from Japan and the US is a proof of this fact. The town centre and the Prague castle are definitely worth visiting but I would never like to live permanently there. Photos.
Read more: www.prague.cz

2004-10-19 Raid Uppsala, in which I participated last Saturday together with Patrik (Team Maybe Silva), was my probably last adventure race of this year. We finished 2nd in the mix class, abouth 10 minutes after Lundhags Adventure (Hanna Wikberg & Sonny Petersson) and about 1 hour after the best team in "men class" Gainomax Recovery. Raid Uppsala was the last part of "Svenska Multisport Cupen" - the Swedish adventure series of races lasting 4-8 hours for teams of 2 or 3 members. This well organised race attracted about 400 participants. For results, photos etc, go to www.raiduppsala.nu (in Swedish only). The picture here was taken by Kalle Simm © (Sundbyberg Multisport).

>> Old news