Marja Persson

Living in a backpack
Favorite Packs: Aura 50

Life with Marja, can be irritating, frustrating, cold, testing and neglecting, but also adventurous, exciting, fun and varied; From lying in a car passing 5 countries in 24 hours, to hanging out in the freezing cold stuffed with down jacket and avalanche gear the next or showing me off for people one day and forgetting a stinking and rotten banana in me the next. I guess one of the most positive things is that we get to see the world.

Why don't I tell you about some of my trips the previous year? We, Marja and I, started off by going to South America in August 2004. We spent hours on buses criss-crossing Argentina to chase the snow that wasn't there. In one place I got strapped onto pack mule free running across a dry and stony desert to get us to some untouched terrain. Like a miracle it started snowing and transformed the terrain to a completely white avalanche danger zone, the skiing stayed as a far fetched dream and instead we had to stay inside the leaking stone house, huddling around the stove. At least we found snow before we returned home.

Hanging out in a closet in Sweden while Marja wasn't traveling turned rather tedious for me after a while, therefore I was stoked to be stuffed to the max and shoved in the Swedish family car to head down to the Alps in the beginning of January. Marja seemed to be happy too, who wouldn't be when you get to ski beautiful snow some cold and crispy powder days in Austria?

In the end of January I suddenly get tossed onto a plane to Japan. Surprise, surprise, Marja is going for the powder again. Ten days with constant snowfall in -15C gave us ultra light, fluffy white stuff. Marjas smile was constant, even though it might have been partly frozen in place. I got involuntary splashed with miso soup, soy sauce and any other Japanese food that involves eating without fork and knife, like a souvenir of how poorly Marja eats with chopsticks.

All fun comes to an end at most times, but apparently not for my travel companion. 24 hours after we get back to the Alps, we hop on a plane to Kashmir, where the where the airplanes land as steep as they take off and people talk on the cell phone while flying no matter how much the crew forbids them. There is military and guns everywhere. Every person we meet is a ski guide even though none of them have never ever been skiing themselves. Gulmarg having the most snow in history and we are enjoying perfect skiing conditions. Marja didn't seem to mind that the promised helicopter and a working lift up to 4300m were myths. She hiked while monkeys were chatting in the trees above and wild dogs were chasing below to put tracks in some amazing pillow lines.

As if going from Japan to India wasn't a contrast pronounced enough; when we return, she takes us to film with the Warren Miller production in Courchevel. Suddenly there is no lack of food or lifts, but the filmers ignore the fact and force us to go hiking in the backcountry to ski amazing powder snow on top of nothing. The skis get hammered by the rocks so after ten days we are taken to a relaxing castle in France. Marja looks misplaced, but I feel right at home, way better than being neglected in a closet.

From one film to the next. This time we went filming with the Swedish ski movie "Freeradicals" right after Easter and once more we get insanely deep powder to play in. One metre of powder everywhere and I hear Marja saying that it is one of those days where you can drop off anything without getting hurt. Well, she was wrong. She fractures two vertebrae due to a hard landing and I get closed into a closet for three months again. Somehow I think it was ok this time.

To summarize I guess that life could be worse than smelly climbing shoes during summer, smelly back protector during winter and the odd rotten fruit every now and again. As for next winter Marja has promised to get strong enough for more deep powder turns and we get to keep on traveling the world. Not too bad, aye?

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