A proper day at the slopes. Oddur from work was going, and I was going to meet him there, but I ended up running into Fernando from school, and also Stebbi and Siggi, friends of Steinar's I'd met at Tindarstóll.

I'd been a little worried about the snow on the road up to the mountains, but it ended being much less treachorous than just driving around Reykjavik, before the plow comes through.

Started the day quite annoyed with people, and to tell the truth, the rest of the day my relations to other people remained at Cold War status. I was after a season ticket, and leaving the carpark I followed a sign that said "season ticket sales" past the big line of "ticket sales" and into another entrance, with another sign saying "season ticket sales". I waited patiently in line, (it was also the rental line, which was a bit annoying) for about 30 minutes (more annoying) only to be looked at long a moron, and told they don't do them here, go upstairs.

So I went upstairs. And got looked at foolishly again at the office and told to go to the normal ticket sales windows. (which had a long line)

Try hard enough and you might eventually get what you want. When you get about 95% of the way through the line, there's a small taped up piece of paper saying, you guessed it, "Season tickets". Thanks for nothing you disorganised morons.

Anyway, it was daylight, it was snowing some more, but the lines weren't horribly wrong, and I had a good couple of runs, getting a bit more confidence than the 30minute session the 2 nights prior, and checking my equipment and realising quite quickly that I was actually not completely incompetent as I'd feared. Turned around at someone shouting OZZIE but completely failed to recognize Oddur without his glasses and the camoflage cap he wears to work every day so I completely ignored him until he caught me later :)

Interesting conditions, mixed rough ice and delicious fresh powder. Different muscles getting sore compared to snowboarding. Lots of fun. Had a couple of falls, which was good, bindings seem to be set up just about right. Lost Oddur and his friend at lunch, I wasn't ready yet, having gotten there a bit late, and of course, with the lines, I never saw them again.

Left a bit before closing, there'd been some sort of accident, and it had resulted in a (temporary?) lift closure, but that made the adjacent lifts line even worse, and also put even more people onto the same run. My legs were starting to get tired anyway, so I called it a day.

This was the first weekend of the season that Bláfjall had been open, so it was absolutely packed with people. And lots of them that were probably having their only ski trip of the year. Incompetent bastards. Rampant queue jumping, lifties who didn't care, and even amongst the "line abiding" citizens, a continual need to step on your skis, ski over your skis, try and pass, pushing all the time.

Pity about the people, but the snow was good, and it feels so good to be physically active again.

Oh yeah! Bought my first ever season ticket. 25min to Bláfjall, so now my only obstacles are school twice a week, and petrol!