The motorcyclists and childhood friends Andreas Nyrén, Mikael Thorpert, Jesper Mattsson and David Skarin from Hisings Backa in Gothenburg were on a motorbike holiday in Norway.
One of the destinations on the destination: The popular serpentine road Trollstigen in the western part of the country.
The friends left the campsite just before lunch and slowly headed up the Trollstigen. Then a rockfall suddenly erupted. And the friends ended up in the middle of the rock slide. Something that GP was the first to report on.
– The feeling was that it went so damn fast. It almost felt like the ground was shaking from all these big stones bombarding us and the asphalt, says David.
– At first I didn’t understand what was happening, I couldn’t really connect it, but you realized quite quickly that it was quite serious. I was at the back and had an overview of everything, says Mikael.
“Thought I was going to die”
When the race was at its worst, the boys didn’t know if they would get out of the situation unscathed.
– So I thought I was going to die. I saw these big fucking rocks in front of me, and thought that at any moment a hit like this will happen and then it will just be black. We had no idea how long this would last. These pebbles might just be a prelude to something much worse. It might as well have rained with much larger stones, then it would have been over, says David
“Crossed my fingers and gassed”
Getting stuck in the middle of a rain of stones is not something that the average person happens to happen to very often. The friends had slightly different strategies to deal with the rain of stones.
– Andreas threw himself against the rock wall. I tried to accelerate as fast as I could from there and just hope that the rocks would stop falling. So I just crossed my fingers and gasped, says Jesper.
– My instinct was just to stand still, says Mikael.
Escaped unscathed
The stones, which the guys describe as big as “backpacks”, rained down on the citizens of Gothenburg for 20-30 seconds, but they managed to manage without serious injuries.
– We got a lot of pebbles on us. But very little in comparison to what it could have been, says Andreas as he talks about the large stones that fell just a few meters away from them.
The motorcycles, which protected the motorcyclists against the worst explosions, are, however, no longer drivable and need to be brought home to Sweden.
– All motorcycles are more or less unrideable now. They broke in different ways. They were hit. They are not safe to continue driving, says Andreas.
Made it to safety
After the intense rockslide, the boys rolled down the Trollstigen and made it to a safe place. There was no thought of calling the emergency services or the police. But eventually a police car rolled towards the rockslide, so the boys waved it in.
– We explained that we ended up in the middle of this, then the police stayed with us until we left three hours later. During that time, fire engines, ambulances, doctors, rescue workers and a geologist came, says Jesper.
Planning a new trip
But what happened has not scared the citizens of Gothenburg from returning to Norway with their motorcycles.
– Now we are planning the next trip back. We have to climb the people’s path, says Mikael and is agreed by the rest of the gang.
– We only need four motorcycles that work, says Andreas.