Moving the blog!

Hi Everyone!

So now it is happening! From now on you can read my blog on a new webpage, it is:

www.staffanbjorklund.com

Check it out!

New Post

New Post. Hhmm, what would you like to read about.

I started a new trip heading towards Zermatt with a great group of people. Keni and I are back together as guides (last time you rad about him was when we where in La Grave, skiing!) and we have both been working with this people before. Some fresh blood joined up too witch is awesome! New people, new experiences to share!

Or: That I been training so hard last couple of days that my body gave up on me today this afternoon. I'm ordered to bed by Ken to get some rest and sleep and hopefully I feel better tomorrow so we can continue our journey smooth to Zermatt. 5100 meter of swimming and a 17 min/Km in one go plus 60 min of running apparently hit me hard. To this I should add that I was so sore from the days of training before this.

Or: Should I start a new widget here on the blog??? Gear of the week! Well, if I have to say so: Check this out, Ibex! Wool clothing with great design. I just got a load from america yesterday and it's sweet! THANKS ERIK & Jagged Edge, Telluride!

Or: That I was looking through some of my old hard drives and found some funny old pictures. So first, I haven't been taking a singel photo today and because I found this, what would be better to share some! =)

Finish line 2010 ÖtillÖ. Placed 13th our first year together racing.

5... or 6 years ago on our way to the topp of  Sönertväråklumpen.

At the summit. Still using the base layer from Peak Performance. Love wool!

Finishing up our trip around TMB.

As you all most likely heard yesterday was a black day for all climbers in Chamonix, 9 people died, 11 hurt or wounded somehow and still as few men missing. The mountains are alive. We do as much as we can to minimise all risks. A lot we add in to our calculation when entering this lively nature but yet, we can't effect everything. This time the avalanche hit the climbers around 05.30, roped up in teams of 14 they had no chance to escape.

I got back here today after a half day of hiking from Argientere in to Chamonix. This is a fast 4 hour but steep hike through Flegere. In town you could see a big different just from 9 days ago, lot's of more people, big climbing competition and after all that happend yesterday, many happy faces. Being back here again means we finished up our tour around TMB. Tomorrow we are of, maybe the weather will clear up so we can go climbing but the forecast dosen't look great, rain. And to be totally honest I don't concern much. Next six coming weeks I have one focus, to prepare from ÖtillÖ. Right now it feels good, I'm in way better shape then last year this period. The lap pool here in Chamonix might get a swedish visitor tomorrow. And when taking breaths, on one side see The Dru and the other side Brevent. Through work I'm getting free training and with having people and client's pushing and cheering me on I find it easy to motivate spending a lot of time training. After all, I love it so much so thank you everyone for giving me that support. My stomach are getting better finally, thanks to everyone who send me tips about what to do. What help was a bag full of plumes, that started the system again and after a night of pain and little sleep it was all almost gone the day after. It still comes and goes but that I can handle.

I must say, summer is here in Europe and The Alps is hot and sunny. Most people would claim I/we are living "the life", traveling from hotel to hotel each day, one day eating dinner at Michelin Star restaurants, next day having just white bread for breakfast. Not paying for much, a snack here and there maybe. Hiking for several hours a day, through the most amazing and stunning landscape, from one country to another, with wildlife, beautiful flowers, interaction with new people and kulturs. And after all, get paid for this. Just to slow down thoughts and imaginations, everything have up and downsides. We just try to make peoples holidays memorable. Now when most people are getting there time of, I want you to think about what you could do to make a stranger, friend, family or Loved vacations more special and memorable? I'm far away from being perfect myself but hey, dreaming and trying with curiosity might help someone to take that extra little steep to become something bigger! And what could be a better gift to someone? I think a lot about all people who is a part of my life on the trail. Here there is plenty of time for thoughts and I send them love and positive vibes, you are all importend and have a big roll in this big pussel. =)

Mike have been coaching me last couple of days training. He's a cross fit instructor back home in Telluride. This is the type of muscles I don't have, explosive muscles that are ready for fast - sprint exercises and activities. So after one day of 170 push ups and many minutes of core strange, one day of 30 sek sprints w. 2 minutes active rest in between 10 repetitions of the 30 sek sprints followed of todays one hour run I have to say I'm soooo sore in my upper body. Thanks Mike, this is exactly what I need in my training. We will be at 58 burpees when we end our next trip together in Engadine on the 21 of august. That will be a new record, so hang in there! =)

Rhone valley, one of the biggest and most famous valleys in the alps. From this valley you acces some well known ski resorts like Verbier, Saas Fee, Zermatt, Zinal, Chamonix and so one. In the summer vinyards are covering up the hillsides and the valley flor is covered with apricot trees. 

Mike with the Rhone Valley in the background.

 

TMB

We are still on our way around the Mont Blanc Massif. Last couple of days I have had severe stomach ache that dosen't wanna go away. I have never had anything like it before, hard to concentrate when you're reminded by pain 80 % of the time. I have to ignore it when we hike, today 5-6 hours. Trying to eat different now and are hoping for some fast recovery. I look pregnant and are very svullen, all tips of what can be done are welcome! Even tho to this I had to go swim and run today in Champex Lac, close to Verbier in Switzerland, water temperature where as low as 9 celsius. It was pinching me in the face and on the arms before everything went numb. Than it's actually okey to keep on swimming as long you are moving. Here is some pictures from early morning and yesterday.

We meet this tiny little hiker girl high up on the alpine meadows. Happier then ever with a big smile on her face!

Mike hiking w. The Grand Jourasses in the back ground!

At 05.00 am the first light from the sun hit the Mont Blanc it self, yesterday morning!

More ÖtillÖ training!

After a full day of hiking we arrived Les Contamine, south of Chamonix. This is the first stop if you're doing The Tour Mont Blanc which I'm guiding with Mike for the moment. This blog is now a part of and link to the official island to island website as one of the ÖtillÖ blogs. So for all new readers, welcome! Todays action, except of hours of hiking in the rain turned into a run and swim session up at 1700 meters. They have a great and really weird artificiell lake for all Italiens tourist that come up here in august to spend their vacation bathing and playing. But by now it's still cold, really cold. They use melting water from the mountain glacier to fill up the lake. I could stand 500 meters. Then I run back to our hotel and took a few more laps in the hotel pool that was way better temperatured.

Not from today, but an totally awesome day and night in the archipelago some weeks ago!

Chamonix from it's prime side!

Day of and the Alarm rings at 7.40. I already been awake for an hour looking out the window and clearing my thoughts. Together with Mike we pack up our bags and walks out in to a sleepy Chamonix. We run in to some random people with baguettes under their arms, cigarett in the corner of the mouth and the hat on the side of their head. Like true French people! We also pick up some big breakfast sandwiches and coffe before heading over to the bus.

In Vallorcine we continues by foot up to our climbing crag, 5 picthes with 5.8+ later we're back on the bus to Chamonix. Swedish fika, quick stroll through some stores. Spend some money on a pair of new trail running shoes. Back to the hotel, get changed for running and swimming. Run over to the lap pool, 1200 meter of intervalls in the pool followed by 70 min of running. Dinner, meet up with a friend for a beer and finally time for bed. That's how a day could be spent in the Arve valley!

At the top we got a great view over Vallorcine.

Back pack garden!

Blizzard of... No, just Mike and I having a good time!

Chamonix

After 10 hours of train riding and bussing we finally arrived Chamonix late this evening. On the map it seems so close from Soglio to Chamonix, but what really needs to happend is to cross a country (Switzerland) to get here. Hauling our luggage through the town up to one of our favorite hotel here, Hotel Richemond right in the center we crashed and had a big yard sale on the room. Tomorrow is of and we have planed for a play day in the mountains with climbing. Let's cross our fingers for great warm and sunny weather. I also have in mind that I will have a few hours when we get back down for training, hopefully both swimming and running.
This morning before taking of from Soglio I received an email from my dear friend Peder. He was kind enough to join Jonas and I for our frist and probably only ÖtillÖ training session together some weeks ago on Sandhamn. It was 9 celsius in the water and the sixth time Jonas & I ever meet. Two of does six we been racing the island to island race! Peder took some great pictures from the boat when he was following us. Thanks for the Great pics!

Bomben!

Jonas & I, people looking at us from the sailing boat as we are nuts... And maybe we are. 

I'm taking a big breath in the freezing water.

Jonas & I about to get wet...

Making waves!

I always get inspired when I get in to the upper Engadine valley by a few simple things: 1,700m lakes for training, enormous mountains, friendly people, and amazing cuisine. I feel totally fortunate that each time I get to swim, there is a different scenery for me to see. Most people that are training for Island to Island are inside with only the bottom of the pool to look at. Each breathe that I take during training is totally different and unique. Because of this I'm always excited to keep training hard. For example, today's training started with a 4.5 hour hike followed by a run to the summit of Piz Lunghin (2780m) then the descent to Maloja and finally a swim/run session back to the hotel in Sils Maria.

Unfortunately, my second R/W tour is ending so there is some free time coming up. What do you think I should do for the time off:

A. Travel to Finale Lingure for 1.5 day of climbing on the Med. Summer climate, amazing Italian seafood and sport climbs coming out of the sea. 

B. Sit and drink tea and watch the rain fall in Chamonix. The next trip starts here.

C. Ponte Brolla, south of Andermatt. A multi-pitch climbing destination.

Tell me what you think!

Happy as ever!

Blue - Run                       Red - Swim

Shorts, T-Shirt, Swede, Iceberg. YES!

1....2.....3!!

Piz Lunghin - 2780m

On the top, looking in to the Bregel valley. 

Run session, two days ago.

Run session yesterday.

Kiteboard madness in Silvaplauna.

Mike is leading the way to Sils.

Space for sale. 

We are too lucky!

This is a tree believe it or not!

Engadine Valley

What do you get out of the mountains when you're in the mountains? Questions like this pops up on trails and long given discussions will continue. What makes this a great question is that all of us have different answers. Even if I got the same question day after day the answer would probably be different. Even days when the answer is he same the journey to the answer might be different. The answers to that question depends on how you feel at that special moment and reflects about you as a person.

Finally I got the Müsli I been dreaming about, for almost a year. In Pontresina at the Steinbock Hotel. They have the best Birchermüsli in the world. If your passing through, might be worth a stop. And it was well deserved after a running and swimming challenge with my self to set a new record on the cours I have set up here. It starts in Pontresina, through a beautiful forest on a gravel walkway to a pond. This is located in between Pontresina and St:Moritz and are about 400 meter long. Than up to continuing down towards St:Moritz running, there cross the bitter cold lake (It snowed here 2 weeks ago...) of St:Moritz and than backtrack my way through the pond to Pontresina. Old record, 1,20 minutes, todays time: 1,04 minutes! Hoyaaa! =)

Tomorrow, Sils Maria!

Great Barley soup with fresh goat cheese!  

Happy Hut people!

Yes, this is how a restroom could look like on 2700 meters.

On the left side you see ST:Moritz!

Back in Engadine

As of yesterday I spent the whole day traveling, from Austria to Switzerland. Many of you who knows the area would think this don't take a day and so did I. But I was wrong, 9 hours I arrived Scuol, close to both the Italian and Austrian border but still in the Süd Tyrol. Today we hiked from Scuol to Guarda,  took us a couple of hours and when we got to our hotel I went for one hours of running!

So lot of people wonder how I stay in such good shape even when I'm of training. And it's a great question to ask. What I do is staying active through what I chose to work with. Because that's what I do, I just work with things that I can support and love doing. For exemple, in he morning today I woke up. Had a great breakfast, fantastic Müsli and some salmon. At ten a'clock we started to hike until 4 pm (16.00) for 20 km up and down in the mountains. I had one hour of rest before I went out running for 60 min, uphill intervals backtracking the trail we came in on to Guarda. Now I just push the button repet for tomorrow and it will be simular to today =) I also do push ups, core straight and lower back training everyday at lest one time a day. 

Tomorrow we're heading up valley towards my favorit part of the Engadine valley.

Me traveling w. everything I own basically, to big bags and my back pack. I had to change from train to train to bus five times before I reach my final destination, Scuol in Engadine. 

The sign told me I was on the right way! Ritzy St: Moritz! 

Great window decoration.

Hiking along beautiful and flowery hillsides!

The Shepard keeping track of all the sheep. Awesome backdrop and still plenty of sone covering the mountain after one of the best winter season this area have seen in many many years!

Day of.

A day of were about to be spent in the mountain above Cortina with a multi pitch climb on one of the towers of the famous rock lump of "Tre Cime", but plans where changed. Due to a late start we hit the road and called some friends in Pörtschach am Wörthersee. The temperatur showed 28,5 celsius and the water was not far off. We ended up wake surfing all afternoon, laughing and playing in the water. I finished our session with a "shorter" swim along the shore. Training for ÖtillÖ.

Peter eating it!

Peter and Lulu!

Captain Alina.

Superman, no... it's just Peter!

10 points for Babsi water ballet acrobatics, but weren't we supposed to stay on the board? 

Alina is dancing.

Martin, the floating artist with majestic mountains in the background. 

Lulu is the Pro.

PRO!

Lot's of pointers, do this and that, I still eat shit. But I learned one thing, if you have to pee, you have to pee, Thanks Lulu!  

Glad Midsommar!

As Swedish Midsummer as it can be in the Italien Alps, Dolomites. We're staying in a 4 star hotel in the little town of Corvara, in the center of Dolomite Superskis. But we are not skiing this time, we're here to hike from west to est in the Dolomites with people coming from all over the world. La Perla is the hotel we been in last two days, the best hotel I have ever stayed in. Everything is so well set up and I can't enough tell you how great it is if you haven't been here you're self. As of today we spent 5-6 hours hiking, 2,5 hours on the climbing wall training fall technic and finally finished of the day with a One Star Michelin Restaurant 5 course dinner, Cheers!

 

Lunch pic nick on the high alpine alm. 

There are several dinning room and each of them have their own theme.

Dinner was amazing, Sallad buffe followed by Smoked Salmon and Trout, Gnocchi and Kantarells, Fish and chip Italien way. Finally some Italien vanilla Gelato with Strawberries. Pretty Swedish after all. 

The meny! 

Sella Gruppo!