White Heat Project

I few weeks ago, I went to an avalanche seminar hosted by the Centre for Avalanche Research and Education (CARE), here in Tromsø. The talk that evening was given by Thomas T. Kleiven, ski enthusiast and photographer. In 2014, the same year that we were caught in the avalanche in Kittelfjäll, Thomas triggered, and was completely buried by, an avalanche in the French Alps. One part of his talk shot straight through my armour: when Thomas talked about how his relationship to the mountains, and the feelings he experienced when in those mountains, had changed after the accident, I started to shiver and I felt tears falling from my eyes.

I and Thomas are very different. I am in no way a radical, or even skilled, skier, and I did not feel safe in the mountains before the accident. I have always had the heart of a hare. I have…