Stonelifting Tour: Iceland 2007

[Stahmixson]

Stonelifting Tour: Iceland 2007 by Randall J. Strossen, Ph.D. | ©2007 IronMind


We don’t know how many Ivy League educated MDs visit Iceland to do battle with giant stones, but one who does is Dr. William Crawford.



”How do you train to carry a heavy stone? Carry heavy stones.” And that’s just what Erik Sauve is doing. Photo by Bill Crawford.

MILO readers know Bill Crawford has already joined the mighty group of people who have successfully made the full sterkur with this legendary testing stone.

Steve Jeck and Peter Martin’s book Of Stones and Strength introduced the lifting world to the special magic of the classic lifting stones and Bill Crawford is quick to credit this book and Steve Jeck’s DVD Kviahellan: The Pen Slab for firing up himself and Erik Sauve when they shook hands with the stone in person last year.

Back for more this year, Bill Crawford, Erik Sauve, Dana Florence and Robert Troupe will be locking up with Kviahellan and the Dritvik Stones, not to mention spending some time with such great names in the Icelandic strength community as Petur Gudmundsson and Hjalti Arnason. Appropriately enough, the T-shirt that Bill Crawford designed for the trip is emblazoned with Jon Pal Sigmarsson’s famous line “Petta er ekkert mal” (It’s no problem for Jon Pal”). Off to Iceland on Friday, the group will return next week, but don’t think these guys just rolled out of bed one day and decided to do this.

“We have trained with heavier stones and with more intensity than last year,” Bill said, which means some pretty serious preparation underlies this journey. Earlier, Bill had told IronMind, “We are still getting snow here in New Hampshire, but we shovel the snow out of the way and carry the stones. Good stone lifters train in the rain, snow and cold because you need to be ready, mentally and physically, for the conditions of a stone lifting tour as anything can happen. Again, ‘It is better to cry in the dojo, than to weep on the battlefield.’ “

With training like this, can you doubt Bill when he says, “Honestly, I am more than ready to make this trip.”

Bon voyage!




Bill Crawford, undaunted by the snow on the ground, ready to roll with a 400-pound rock. Erik Sauve photo

[Lanfeust]

Binnen 15-20 jaar ben ik ook een beetje sterk en sta ik daar ook. Eerder moet ik er niet aan beginnen, want ik ben nog een snotneus en verre van sterk

The goal is set, the route paved

[JBremers]

http://www.realdutchpower.nl/uitslag...togalerij4.htm

Hoef je niet voor naar Ijsland, doen we bij ons in limburg ook, haha

Wel een aanrader om een keer heen te gaan Ijsland, ben er 2 keer geweest en is echt helemaal kicken daar!

[Stahmixson]

Origineel gepost door JBremers

...::: Fotogalerij Sterkste Man van Limburg 2005 - REAL DUTCH POWER - www.realdutchpower.nl :::...

Hoef je niet voor naar Ijsland, doen we bij ons in limburg ook, haha

Wel een aanrader om een keer heen te gaan Ijsland, ben er 2 keer geweest en is echt helemaal kicken daar!

Idem ! Ben met de kerst geweest, om 11 uur werd het pas licht en om drie uur was het weer donker. We hebben in 5 dagen sneeuw met zon, en daarna 4 dagen regen gehad.... Ga zeker eens terug in de zomer !

[JBremers]

Ben 2 keer in de zomer geweest, echt super daar!

Check: http://www.besko.nl/reizen.html

is de site van mn vader, staan hoop mooie foto's op van die reis naar en door Ijsland.

[Stahmixson]

The Brotherhood of Stone by Randall J. Strossen, Ph.D. | ©2007 IronMind


They’re back from the Land of Fire and Ice, and IronMind is very fortunate to have just received this report from Dr. William Crawford.


Bill Crawford with the largest of the Dritvik Stones. Erik Sauve photo.

“Hello Randall,

We are back from Iceland and what an epic journey. We stayed with Petur Gudmundsson and he put us up in style as well as feeding us traditional Icelandic fare. On Saturday, we met Hjalti Arnason and took us to Jon Pall's grave. Hjalti then drove us through the neighborhood were he and Jon Pall grew up. We then saw the Jon Pall documentary at Hjalti's house. Wow, what a great movie! Truly a labor of love by Hjalti.

On Sunday, we drove to Grundarfjordur and met Geirmunder Vilhialmsson, a friend of Petur's who had lifted the Dritvik Stones many times, and his son who is a strongman went as well. We went to Dritvik to lift the stones and a reporter from the Reykjavik newspaper Morganbladid came to file a report. The largest of the stones was very heavy and very, very smooth. I was able to lift the largest stone and stand with it, truly the most defiant stone I have ever lifted. The largest of the Dritvik Stones is an unheralded superstar of testing stones.

On Monday, we went to Husafell to test ourselves with the ultimate crucible of testing stones, Kviahellan. I was a little worried because we had lifted a Husafell replica that Hjalti showed us on Saturday then completely spent ourselves lifting the Dritvik Stones on Sunday and here we are on Monday in Husafell. I was able to carry Kviahellan completely around again in Full-sterkur style. The heavy and frequent training paid off to prepair me for that schedule. We got video footage of the carries well.



Erik Sauve wit the Kviahellan replica. Bill Crawford photo.

We drove back to Reykjavik and Petur arranged for us to meet Magnus ver Magnusson while he was training, an added bonus to the trip. We ran into Stefan Solvi Petursson, one of the top strongmen in Iceland, who knew we were coming to Iceland after seeing us on the IronMind website.

Petur has invited us back to go to the Western Fjords to lift another set of heavy testing stones, so we will be back and look for Petur to show me how to lift stones. There can never be enough stones. We met Andreas, Petur's brother and he has a pair of frightening hands, no doubt a key to his great strength. Basically, there are lots of very powerful Icelanders, whom I feel are the strongest people in the world. Just my opinion.

Anyway, an epic journey. A full report to follow for Milo.

Jet lagged and happy,

Bill”



Left to right: Bill Crawford, Robert Troupe, Erik Sauve, Dana Florence at Kviahellan. Jason Stack photo.

[Stahmixson]

Wanneer gaan we ?

[ZoutZak]

Lijkt me dat zo'n steen nog makkelijker tilt, meer grip, dan zo'n ronde kogel...

[Lanfeust]

Origineel gepost door Stahmixson

Wanneer gaan we ?

ik ben nu 23jaar. Binnen 10-15jaar? Als ik groot en sterk ben...

[chunky]

hehe, zie sign