Me and Ulrika took the train up to Riksgränsen for the Scandinavian big mountain championships. On the same day as the qualification run almost everyone we spoke to had already done the face several times apart form us. So before the run we hiked up and traversed onto the face to check out our lines. The face was extremely  steep and the snow condition was pretty bad as so many people had made their runs the face. It was completely powder free! Considering the conditions we both decided that it would be unwise to take any risks so we just focused on getting down. Ulrika was number 6 on the starting list and I was number 80.  Ulrika set off but half way down she pulled the backside of her knee as she was turning and couldn’t finish the race. After a long wait at the top it was my turn. As we’d only done a quick recce of the face I didn’t have many lines to choose from, but after checking out some of the guys from the starting gate I saw a jump that I wanted to do. Nervous as usual I set off. I took the jump but had no idea about the landing so I fell and all of a sudden I was half way don the steepest part of the face on the worst snow this year. I finished the race but it all went by so quickly. The goal was to make it all the way down which we did, one way or the other. Sadly for Ulrika it caused here a knee injury and I finished second to last.Despite going home earlier due to Ulrika’s injury we had a great time and I’m happy I tried out the jump in my run. It didn’t matter that I fell, I feel that I could do the run again and it would be fun to try it out another time.

I’m super impressed by everyone that competed, well done! Great to see that we have so many awesome freeride skiers in Sweden!Keep smiling!

/Isabel Mattsson