best Scandinavian cross country areas?

I was looking at some websites yesterday.....for Norway and Finland......and
while many areas don't seem to have much or any snow........I found Oppdal
in Norway with about 30-50cm......and Levi in Finland with about 20. I am
wondering, apart from Oslo and Lillehammer (both of which I have visited and
loved)...which other areas of either Norway, Sweden and Finland I should be
looking at. For example is Oppdal recommended? Levi looks very
interesting but getting there from the West Coast of the US looks like a
serious and expensive undertaking.
Feedback on any of these places would be appreciated.

Mark Eastman

Mark Eastman wrote:
I was looking at some websites yesterday.....for Norway and Finland......and
while many areas don't seem to have much or any snow........I found Oppdal
in Norway with about 30-50cm......and Levi in Finland with about 20. I am
wondering, apart from Oslo and Lillehammer (both of which I have visited and
loved)...which other areas of either Norway, Sweden and Finland I should be
looking at. For example is Oppdal recommended? Levi looks very
interesting but getting there from the West Coast of the US looks like a
serious and expensive undertaking.
Feedback on any of these places would be appreciated.

Mark Eastman


Hi Mark,
I spent a week skiing in Levi in April of '97. Many kilometers of
trails around the ski area itself, plus several trails that went much
longer distances between Levi and not-so-nearby towns. Perfect hard wax
classic conditions, day after day. Quite scenic - mostly trails on
rolling hills through forests or alongside lakes. There are several
small hotels either at the ski area or within walking / skiing distance,
and the shops in town are a short ski or walk from the ski area. It's
far enough off the usual tourist route that there isn't a lot of English
spoken, except on a few TV channels. I knew months in advance that I was
going and spent a good chunk of time learning Finnish, so between my
limited Finnish and the few people up there at the hotel that spoke
limited English, I got by fine.

As I recall, round-trip airfare from Helsinki + a weeks stay at a ski
area hotel (named `Hullu Poru', which translates to something like
`Crazy Reindeer') + meals + ski pass was about $1000. I never knew what
it cost from the US (Seattle) to Helsinki, since that was paid for by
the folks that invited me to lecture.

If you are in the Seattle area, you might call Nordic Saga Tours (ask
for Susie Main) - they have a specialty of arranging ski packages, and
recently arranged a killer deal for a week-long ski trip to the Giant
Mountains in the Czech Republic next March.

Chris

On Tue, 16 Nov 2004, Mark Eastman wrote:

I was looking at some websites yesterday.....for Norway and Finland......and
while many areas don't seem to have much or any snow........I found Oppdal
in Norway with about 30-50cm......and Levi in Finland with about 20. I am
wondering, apart from Oslo and Lillehammer (both of which I have visited and
loved)...which other areas of either Norway, Sweden and Finland I should be
looking at. For example is Oppdal recommended?

Some people in Norway recommended Dombås to me. It's a bit closer
to Oslo than Oppdal. Railway station is at 650 m, so it probably gets good
snowfall. It's also close to the big mountain areas of Dovrefjell (beware
of Dovregubben! :-) and Rondane. I've never got there in winter, yet.
I cycled through on a cold, wet July day.

Most of my skiing has in the area around Lake Mjøsa.
The 3 "Mjøsby" (and also the 3 Olympic towns) are Hamar, Lillehammer,
and Gjøvik.

Just north of Hamar, there is a huge network of trails on Hedemarksvidda.
Although it is often possible to ski all the way from downtown Hamar (I
started at the Vikingskip motel), the best trailhead is Gåsbu, about 15 km
from town, at about 500 m elevation. There are actually 2 trail systems
from the Gåsbu parking lot. On one side are the world class competition
trails of Gåsbu Langrenn Stadium. On the other side are the touring trails
which go on forever. One of the trails is groomed all the way to Sjusjøen,
just outside of Lillehammer. From Sjusjøen, a trail, Troll-løypa, goes
another 100 km or so to Rondane.
Here is a map (WARNING, big file) of the ski trails (red: groomed
first, blue: groomed less frequently, green: competition trails,
green-dashed: dog-sled trails)

http://www.hht.no/index.php?fo_id=1253

Hamar also might be a good base to ski the Birkebeiner route. There
are trains to both Rena and Lillehammer. There used to be a Hamar resident
(a Hamring ??) frequenting R.S.N.

On the other side of the big lake is Gjøvik which has about 400 km of
trails, about 50 km lit at night. It is not a resort at all. The only
people skiing there are the locals. There's about 6 trains per day from
Oslo. I have heard of people skiing from Gjøvik to Oslo (130 km) in one
day!

--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
email:
WWW pages: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/dermott/

David Dermott wrote:

Some people in Norway recommended Dombås to me. It's a bit closer
to Oslo than Oppdal. Railway station is at 650 m, so it probably gets
good snowfall. It's also close to the big mountain areas of
Dovrefjell (beware of Dovregubben! :-) and Rondane. I've never got
there in winter, yet.
I cycled through on a cold, wet July day.

I think Norges Idrettsforbund have some buildings there (Dombåstun?), with
beds for a lot of people who come there to train. There are groomed trails
and trails with light, and Norwegian championships have been arranged there.
I have been there. Unlightened groomed trails up some heavy hills to
"vidda".

--
Terje Henriksen
Kirkenes

Thanks for the wonderful feedback so far. I will keep researching my
possibilities. I like to have a few places in mind which I watch and I'll
pick a place kind of at the last minute. I usually take a trip during the
first week to 10 days of January. Strictly recreational touring on tracks.

Mark
"Terje Henriksen" wrote in message
...
David Dermott wrote:

Some people in Norway recommended Dombås to me. It's a bit closer
to Oslo than Oppdal. Railway station is at 650 m, so it probably gets
good snowfall. It's also close to the big mountain areas of
Dovrefjell (beware of Dovregubben! :-) and Rondane. I've never got
there in winter, yet.
I cycled through on a cold, wet July day.

I think Norges Idrettsforbund have some buildings there (Dombåstun?), with
beds for a lot of people who come there to train. There are groomed trails
and trails with light, and Norwegian championships have been arranged
there.
I have been there. Unlightened groomed trails up some heavy hills to
"vidda".

--
Terje Henriksen
Kirkenes

On Tue, 16 Nov 2004, David Dermott wrote:

Just north of Hamar, there is a huge network of trails on Hedemarksvidda.
... trail map:
http://www.hht.no/index.php?fo_id=1253

I found this : the local hiking federation, HHT, has set up
a WEB camera and weather station by the Stenfjell Hut (serves coffee,
waffels etc in winter), elevation is 750 m.
The picture is not good news. There is not a patch of snow in sight!
At that elevation in mid November there should be lots of snow. There
is a measuring stick in the middle of the picture, the top is 2 m.

http://www.hht.no/index.php?fo_id=912

--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
email:
WWW pages: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/dermott/

Thanks for that photo......depressing lack of snow!
Funny that Oppdal reports from 50 to 100 cm. They have a photo that looks
quite snowy. I wonder if it is machine made snow though.

Mark
"David Dermott" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 16 Nov 2004, David Dermott wrote:

Just north of Hamar, there is a huge network of trails on
Hedemarksvidda.
... trail map:
http://www.hht.no/index.php?fo_id=1253

I found this : the local hiking federation, HHT, has set up
a WEB camera and weather station by the Stenfjell Hut (serves coffee,
waffels etc in winter), elevation is 750 m.
The picture is not good news. There is not a patch of snow in sight!
At that elevation in mid November there should be lots of snow. There
is a measuring stick in the middle of the picture, the top is 2 m.

http://www.hht.no/index.php?fo_id=912

--

David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
email:
WWW pages: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/dermott/

"Mark Eastman" wrote in message nk.net...

(...) Levi looks very interesting but getting there from the West Coast of
the US looks like a serious and expensive undertaking. Feedback on any of
these places would be appreciated.

There are regular flights to Kittilä and Ivalo, and then
it´s just a short shuttle ride to Levi or Saariselkä. If
you book a package of travel and accomodation (and, better
yet, of your West Coast-to-Helsinki flight as well), I´d
imagine the Helsinki-to-Levi/Saariselkä-leg wouldn´t be
unproportionally time- or moneyconsuming.

(OTOH if your transatlantic flight takes you to Oslo or
Stockholm, you´ll have to make *yet* another flight, which
may well be one more than you´d care to do...)

Both destinations, and IMHO especially Saariselkä, are
excellent for splendid recreational skiing. In early
January there´s no risk of a dearth of snow, but some
risk for the weather being a bit on the cold side - but
the dry cold in Lapland is so much *nicer*:-)

http://www.laplandfinland.com


OTOH in early January there´s bound to me plenty of snow
in Vuokatti as well and if you like your skiing terrain
and landscape a bit more forested and hilly - Finnish
Lapland is mainly flat unless you make a point of ascending
and descending one of those "fjells" - it´s the place to
be (and only a flight to Kajaani away). Hotel Suvikas has
a well-deserved reputation for being a favorite haunt of
XC skiers.


http://www.vuokatti.fi http://www.suvikas.com


Finnish Meteorological Institute gives you a quick idea
of current weather, including snow depth and the probability
of a white Christmas in different parts of Finland:
http://www.fmi.fi


Anders (who this morning could see the first snow of the
winter: a thin, powdery layer that didn´t even do
the job of painting the ground white...)

hey
if you come to Oslo in January as you wrote there will be excellent XC
conditions "everywhere". From airport go directly to
Lillehammer/Sjusjoen or Oslo/Holmenkollen.

If you want to ski in November you must take train to safe places like
Geilo, Gol, Liatoppen. All these are reached by the train that goes
from Oslo to Bergen. Stop midway. Sometimes man made snow in Nov,
sometimes natural.

For snow depts in Norway look up the latest at this overview place
http://www.skiinfo.no/
It shows how much snow, what conditions for XC and where in Norway the
resort is. (Click "Klikk for full snørapport" and look for
"Føreforhold langrennsløyper")

Today I can see that top three snow depts are 139cm, 115cm and 110cm
at Sunnmøre, Strandafjellet and Oppdal. Natural snow.

Enjoy! :-)


"Mark Eastman" wrote in message ink.net...
Thanks for that photo......depressing lack of snow!
Funny that Oppdal reports from 50 to 100 cm. They have a photo that looks
quite snowy. I wonder if it is machine made snow though.

Thanks for the information. I have been following the snow reports
myself........I see that as of today 23 November.....Nordsetter and
Sjusjoen report less than 20cm......whereas the Peer Gynt region reports
about 35cm. I think also Hovden has some good amount of snow. Can you
recommend areas other than the Lillehammer area....that have good
prepared tracks. For example what do you think of Peer Gynt Area...or
Hovden.

Thanks again for the information.

Mark

"Lars" wrote in message
om...
hey
if you come to Oslo in January as you wrote there will be excellent XC
conditions "everywhere". From airport go directly to
Lillehammer/Sjusjoen or Oslo/Holmenkollen.

If you want to ski in November you must take train to safe places like
Geilo, Gol, Liatoppen. All these are reached by the train that goes
from Oslo to Bergen. Stop midway. Sometimes man made snow in Nov,
sometimes natural.

For snow depts in Norway look up the latest at this overview place
http://www.skiinfo.no/
It shows how much snow, what conditions for XC and where in Norway the
resort is. (Click "Klikk for full snørapport" and look for
"Føreforhold langrennsløyper")

Today I can see that top three snow depts are 139cm, 115cm and 110cm
at Sunnmøre, Strandafjellet and Oppdal. Natural snow.

Enjoy! :-)


"Mark Eastman" wrote in message
ink.net...
Thanks for that photo......depressing lack of snow!
Funny that Oppdal reports from 50 to 100 cm. They have a photo that looks
quite snowy. I wonder if it is machine made snow though.