Discussion ofNorway |
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Ken Roberts, March 2002 on rec.skiing.nordic: Subject: Norway XC skiing -- a visitor's impressions I've been having fun sampling the skiing in Norway for a week, so here's some impressions from an American which might help other visitors who might want to try skiing there sometime. I hope those with a deeper and more detailed knowledge will correct my mistakes, and add some insights. First, some places I skied: Geilo -- Most different from American skiing. Access to groomed, marked trails completely above tree-line, and also some pleasant lower trails. Lots of snow. Hemsedal -- Pretty good lift-served downhill skiing, in addition to XC which included a 5 km of skating trails. I'd say the downhill resort had advanced trails and tree skiing at least as good as the best northeast US downhill resorts, and also some above tree-line and touring access which count as superior variety -- bigger and more serious than lots of other Norway resorts -- but not up there with the best of the Alps and western North America. (Someone suggested that another resort called Beitostolen might be a place to mix XC skiing with more "family-oriented" lift-served downhill skiing-snowboarding). Jotunheimen Park -- This is a famous park with the highest mountains. I wanted to get in there for a day tour from Lom in the north. But the access roads looked uninviting to my rental car, and the map I had showed that you had to ski in a good ways just to get beyond the power lines, so I settled for taking some photos from the main road. My sense it that ski touring in there is a serious multi-day undertaking. Oslo / Nordmark -- Good for lots of interesting trails sheltered in the trees, easy metro train access (Frognerseteren station on the metro "T-bane" #1 train line), significant amount of skating trails, and seeing the Holmenkollen ski jump, stadium, ski museum. Snow quantity up there was way better I could have imagined from downtown Oslo, but not as much as other places further away. Definitely purchase the "Oslo Nordmark vinter" map from a bookstore if you want to ski here. Sjusjoen (near Lillehammer) -- Place where good XC skiing is the main focus. Different from American skiing in that many trails are on a high plateau with sparse little trees (but there's also some tree-sheltered trails a little lower). Trails that go to other places: Like one afternoon I skated to Hornsjo, Pellestova, and Nordseter and had hot chocolate at each one. Like you can ski the Birkebeinerrennet trail down to the 1994 Olympic XC ski and other events in Lillehammer, and take the bus back to Sjusjoen. Higher percentage of skating trails than I found at the other places. Big views to mountains all over Norway. Nice mix of gentle-to-moderate hills and flat sections -- I liked that there were lots of hills in the right steepness range for my Classic striding, but without much herringbone. Sjusjoen held good-quality snow up high even while everything was melting down in the valley. Some other impressions: Skiing and Living -- I was somehow thinking that skiing might be more integrated with regular living in Norway -- like skiing to work, or skiing to buy groceries. But it seems that most Norwegians get to work by train, bus, car, bicycle. It looked to me like the point where skiing is more integrated with life is at their weekend cabins up in the hills. Maps -- Although each ski region usually provides its own trail map, I was glad I had bought detailed topo maps in Oslo (where some bookstores to try are Norli, Quist, Tanum). Language -- Norway is the most English-friendly European skiing country I've found. I studied "Norwegian in 10 minutes a Day" on the flight, and it was helpful background. But in the various places or situations I was in, I never once had a reason to utter a single word of Norwegian. Car rental -- Rather expensive compared to other European skiing countries. Definitely not necessary, since Norway as a whole, and the ski centers I visited, seemed to have reasonably good public transportation network. I decided to rent a car, and I was glad for the flexibility it gave me to visit several different places quickly. But I spent a lot of time driving on curvy, snow-covered 2-lane roads with no shoulders. And once I got away from Oslo, even the most major roads had realistic travel speeds significantly lower than American roads of comparable significance, and were more subject to closures ("stengt") and restrictions ("kolonne") due to snow and wind. |
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