Here is some more background info about Fred Syversen’s gnarly crash in Tamokdalen, Norway. I called Aadne Olsrud who was working as a guide on the accident site when the crash happened. I ask Aadne a bit about the background of the accident and the scene in Tamokdalen in general.

Basically I wrote down a story told by Aadne – it gives you some more background and also some overview on how a film group and professional riders work together in the mountains.

Aadne Olsrud worked as a back-up guide for the Missing Link film group

The team of eight persons was filming for Missing link. The team consisted of following people: three riders, Fred Syversen, Dennis Risvol and Lars Fidjestøl; the head cameraman was Norwegian Peter Nyquist (quite famous in Norway) and his assistant Finnish Jani Johanssen (Btw. he is a great telemarker too!); and Jarkko Henttonen and Aadne Olsrud worked as guides. Helicopter pilot was a local guy called Mathias.

The mountain they had been sessioning is called Blåbærfjellet (”Blueberry Fell”). The accident happened on the mountain’s northeast face. One day earlier the riders had been warming up with mellower lines, and by the friday the 7th of May, the riders were ready for some harder lines. Aadne worked as a back-up guy for the filming crew, waiting with his snowmobile at the bottom of the mountain, ready to pick up riders and filmers and move them quickly to the new filming zones and/or pick up zones for the helicopter.

The conditions had been great for the whole area in early May: snow was good, the base was deep and the conditions had been stable for a while – perfect spring skiing conditions for Northern Norway.

Fred Syversen had eyed the line in question for days. And on Friday he lent Aadne’s binoculars and checked the line once more intensively and thoroughly for thirty minutes, then deciding, “calculated risk but I am ready for it”.

The accident scene – what happened right after Fred Syversen’s crash?

The line itself is something one would call “hairy”, “gnarly” or something similar in “skier’s jargon”…it is about 40-45 degrees steep, has three back to back mandatory airs, and is in Aadne’s own words “just wide enough for good turns – for a skier like Fred”. What makes it really hard though is the short distance between the cliff drops, by Fred’s own estimate there was enough space for maybe just one or two quick turns before hitting another eight to ten meter (around 30 feet) air.

When Fred crashed Aadne was waiting to carry cameraman Peter to another location on his sled. Aadne didn’t see the fall but hear shouting and saw a small avalanhe coming out of the chute.  Then he saw Fred lying at the bottom of the line and cameraman Peter running to him. Fred seemed to be able to move his hands and legs though. Aadne drove immediately to the waiting heli where they had a radio connection and heard Fred reporting, “I am OK“.

Aadne then tried to drive the sled up the hill to where Fred was lying. But the hill was so steep that he had to stop about 200 meters before Fred’s location. Fred then managed(!) to walk down the steep hill (with deep soft snow) to the waiting snowmobile. Aadne was just thinking to get the man to the helicopter and back to the base camp they had down in the valley. He also called an ambulance. It took only thirty minutes for the ambulance to arrive in the base lodge. (Scandinavian public health care system has its good sides)

The aftermath – analyzing and calculating figures of the Fred Syversen’s crazy tumble

When Aadne saw the video clip of the crash, he did some analyzing from the screen.  He wonders mostly Fred’s cat like ability to hit everything skis first. It is also evident that to take this much of abuse requires the physics of a high level athlete. We both agree that even a normal, relatively fit skier would probably had much more serious injuries. So it is not totally about the luck either!

As for trying to find someone or something to blame, Aadne simply refuses, “it was no ones fault“. In the chute/couloir the snow was probably a bit dryer and deeper than anybody thought causing more snow than expected to wash out in the air from the spindrift. Everything also happened very fast – a skier going at around 60 km / hour and the whole scene lasting only about 20-30 seconds.

There wasn’t just that much time to react once Fred was at speed. He took the calculated risk and this time it didn’t go as well as planned. The most important thing is that Fred is alive and skiing again soon, and that the whole team worked effortlessly together even in the sudden accident situation.

The fall itself is hard to grasp. Based on Aadne’s calculations the fall was about 250 meters of vertical and around 350-400 meters of distance.

PS. If you are interested in Tamokdalen as a skiing/riding or climbing location check out this cool facebook group The Northern Playground

Photos in the post by Aadne Olsrud, used by permission. Thanks Aadne – we look forward to ski with you in the future!