trip report: Lillehammer

Had the great chance to get to Norway to ski this week. Here are some
observations...

1. Lillehammer has several ski shops, but none actually rent skis.
We were told to try the Hafsjell Alpine Resort up the road, and they
had skis, poles and boots in all sizes. We rented a great pair of
Madshus skis (with a primo wax job) for three days (very good deal).
We asked how much the trail fee was at the main desk, and the nice
attendant just smiled, and said "the trails are our national treasure,
we dont charge for them, everyone uses them all the time".

2. Along this idea, there arent cross-country ski "areas" as such to
search out. Around Lillehammer there are trails everywhere (easily
walkable from the hotels), and most seem to interconnect depending on
how far you want to ski into the system. We drove 10 minutes north of
town to the Birkiebineret Olympic ski stadium for a day, and it was
great fun. Some very fast skiers were up there doing intervals,
training hard (and flying past us). The main board in the stadium
listed the air temp, snow temp, humidity, wind speed - all very
impressive. Would have liked to stay around Lillehammer a bit longer,
but the big 10 year anniversary festivities for the Olympics were
taking place, and all the rooms in town were booked.

3. The next two days we drove north of Lillehammer and drove out of
the Valley up an 18km road (chains recommended) to Hornsjo, in the
Oyer Mountains where we stayed at super friendly Hotel at the very end
of the road. The wilderness in this area has 250 km of linked trails.
The whole region here was beautiful and remote, with nearly four feet
of snow. The trails were in great shape, two sets of classic with
skating lane down the middle. The wind was a bit strong on our second
day, and with the lack of tree cover, the tracks can get obscured in
some places by afternoon, so some trailbreaking was in order.

All in all a great trip. We found many more classic trails than
skating, but either way the fantastic norwegian waffles most hotels
will make for you after a day skiing are simply the best!

Anatoly

"anatoly" skrev i melding
m...
Had the great chance to get to Norway to ski this week. Here are some
observations...
1. Lillehammer has several ski shops, but none actually rent skis.
We were told to try the Hafsjell Alpine Resort up the road, and they
had skis, poles and boots in all sizes. We rented a great pair of
Madshus skis (with a primo wax job) for three days (very good deal).
We asked how much the trail fee was at the main desk, and the nice
attendant just smiled, and said "the trails are our national treasure,
we dont charge for them, everyone uses them all the time".

True, the trail use is free, but this may not last forever, I am sorry to
say, as the work with the trails is getting more and more expensive for the
resorts.

2. Along this idea, there arent cross-country ski "areas" as such to
search out. Around Lillehammer there are trails everywhere (easily
walkable from the hotels), and most seem to interconnect depending on
how far you want to ski into the system. We drove 10 minutes north of
town to the Birkiebineret Olympic ski stadium for a day, and it was
great fun. Some very fast skiers were up there doing intervals,
training hard (and flying past us). The main board in the stadium
listed the air temp, snow temp, humidity, wind speed - all very
impressive. Would have liked to stay around Lillehammer a bit longer,
but the big 10 year anniversary festivities for the Olympics were
taking place, and all the rooms in town were booked.

Correct observations.

3. The next two days we drove north of Lillehammer and drove out of
the Valley up an 18km road (chains recommended) to Hornsjo, in the
Oyer Mountains where we stayed at super friendly Hotel at the very end
of the road. The wilderness in this area has 250 km of linked trails.
The whole region here was beautiful and remote, with nearly four feet
of snow. The trails were in great shape, two sets of classic with
skating lane down the middle. The wind was a bit strong on our second
day, and with the lack of tree cover, the tracks can get obscured in
some places by afternoon, so some trailbreaking was in order.

Also correct.

All in all a great trip. We found many more classic trails than
skating, but either way the fantastic norwegian waffles most hotels
will make for you after a day skiing are simply the best!

Again, quite true, there are as long as it lasts much more classic trails
than skating trails. Glad you liked our waffles! Waffles, often with sugar,
blueberry/cloudberry/strawberry/other jam, or sour cream, I think you call
it ( = "rømme"), are typical and very popular Norwegian "fastfood" when
outdoors skiing, skating, jogging, running, or timberlogging/woodcutting, or
whatever activities you may be doing, often with hot, black (or with cream)
coffee to go with them. Welcome back!! You are most certainly most welcome
back to us here.

"Inger Skramstad Jørstad" wrote in message ...

True, the trail use is free, but this may not last forever, I am sorry to
say, as the work with the trails is getting more and more expensive for the
resorts.

Wouldn´t any attempt to establish trail fees clash with the
"allemansrätten" (Swe; Nor?)?

In Finland, the public right to use a trail has been succes-
fully denied only when a loop was specially constructed
(with a "refridgeration" system) and there was no natural
snow cover.


Anders

On 14 Feb 2004, anatoly wrote:

Had the great chance to get to Norway to ski this week. Here are some
observations...

1. Lillehammer has several ski shops, but none actually rent skis.
We were told to try the Hafsjell Alpine Resort up the road, and they
had skis, poles and boots in all sizes.

I think there is a sports shop in Sjusjøen that rents skis.
It's right on the Birkebeiner trail.

But you are right about the lack of rental places. All Norwegians have
their own skis.
I did see a ski rental place - in July!! On the top of Sognefjell (elev 1470 m)
I was red-klister conditions (but the rentals seemed to all wax-less). You
would also need sunscreen with a very high SPF! Sadly, I didn't get skiing
that day- I had many Nordic miles (mil) to cycle that day.

(Norwegians and Swedes often talk about skiing/skating/cycling several
mil per day, and in English they often say "miles". 1 Mil == 10 km )

...
We asked how much the trail fee was at the main desk, and the nice
attendant just smiled, and said "the trails are our national treasure,
we dont charge for them, everyone uses them all the time".

"Trail Fees???" Those foreign tourists ask the strangest questions!
:-) :-)

...
All in all a great trip. We found many more classic trails than
skating, but either way the fantastic norwegian waffles most hotels
will make for you after a day skiing are simply the best!

But you should also stop in a trail-side cafe while skiing and eat waffles
then, and drink "Solbaer" (hot black current juice)

--

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

Anders Lustig wrote:

"Inger Skramstad Jørstad" wrote in message ...


True, the trail use is free, but this may not last forever, I am sorry to
say, as the work with the trails is getting more and more expensive for the
resorts.


Wouldn´t any attempt to establish trail fees clash with the
"allemansrätten" (Swe; Nor?)?

It would indeed.

You can charge for other services, like parking, but not for making trails.

Terje

--
-
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"