Back from Sälen
I’m still alive and I didn’t break any bones 
We have had a great copuple of days. It started on thursday with a 6 hour bus ride on which we had a few beers. When we got to the cabins we had some more beer and sandwiches before we called it a night.
The cabins were great. We had two of them, each built for 24 persons. Since we were only 28 that acctually made it to Sälen there was a lot of extra space. We had two kitchens and two saunas in each cabin and pretty much all the latest technology you could imagene except for computers.
We got up early on friday morning, we had a big day ahead of us. We hit the slopes at around 9 am and was out until 2pm. At 3pm we met up again in the cabins and made our ay to the Scooter Safari. With two men on every scooter we started towards the Ice Carts.
It was my first time on a scooter and it was more fun that expected. And more work too. We maxed at about 70km/h and got close to tipping over on several occasions but the best part was yet to come; after about one hour on the scooters we finally made it to the Ice Carts.
Ice Cart is just like go cart only you drive on ice which means that you will slide through the corners. This was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done in my life. We starteed out with a few practice runs before the competition began. There were three qualifying heats per person in which you gathered points. I didn’t do that well during the quelifiers though.
First race gave me a fourth place after being pushed out in the first corner. The second race was a catasrophy for me. Not only did I get a really bad start but I also spun around not only once but twice leaving me battling for 9th place in the final corner. I lost the battle and ended up 10th and last. The last qualifier went very much like the first race. I had a really bad start but worked my way up from 9th to 5th place after pushing the cart to the max.
After these three heats I thought my racing days were over but I got a second chance. 16 players qualified to an extra heat where the 1st and 2nd in each heat (there were two heats) would go to the final. I got an excellent start in my heat and during the first lap I did everything right. After the first löap my lead was almost 1/5 of the course so I decided to take it easy not to risk anything. My lead held up all to the way to the finish line and I was in the final!
We were 8 combantants in the final round. I had a decent start and came out from the first curve in 2nd place but from there it was all downhill for me. I didn’t drive poorly but my cart didn’t get up the necessary speed so I couldn’t do much as the others went past me one by one. I finally came in on 5th place and I nust say that I was still satisfied with my results considering I have never driven a car or a go cart before.
After the Ice cart we got back on the scooters and drove up in the mountains where we had “Fjälltapas” for dinner. Then it was back to the cabins on a scooter sled for more beer, party and poker all night long.
On saturday a bunch of us stayed in pretty much all day and at 7pm pizza was delivered to the door. We played a poker freerool in the evening, I ended in 7th place after about 1½ hour, the blind levels where very steep so it was more about moving in than sitting patient waiting for cards. When all beer was out around midnight we went to a nightclub and that concluded the weekend. The next morning we got up and jumped on the bus home again.
