Last day of the year

I hope you are all having a great time, especially on your last day in this year. After those cold days we have a milder one today: -4Celsius, cloudy and snowed a little. Seems like the weather plays its cards again, because the forecast is totally different than what we are having today(according to the forecasts from different sites it should be -17 Celsius). I think it is going to stay like this for a few days. Looking at the current weather we might have some snow later on.

On the picture you see Nausterhaugen signpost and Svartfjell (black mountain) in the background (one of the most scenic routes is going around the mountain).

Have a fantastic evening and Happy New Year for you all! See you in 2009.

Myafallet Tour

Another great snowshoe tour down to the waterfall, this time we checked out the upper fall as well. There are three steps/drops in the waterfall (the last one is the big one) and today we visited two of them. The weather stayed really nice, clear sky around -14 Celsius, bit more wind some parts. Should be similar weather tomorrow.

Tuesday

Same conditions as yesterday, clear sky, -16 Celsius, light air. Another Myafallet-tour coming up for some of us this morning. Almost all the tracks have been cut, Svartfjell Rundt has been driven too, but still a bit soft since it was just cut recently.

Krykjegardsfjellet Tour

We had a great time on our tour around Kyrkjegardsfjellet. It was pretty cold -20 Celsius some places, but the views were stunning. The weather stayed cold all day and we are expecting the same for tomorrow, maybe even colder with some wind. Trail conditions are good all around, the northern trails are also cut towards Indre Uksan.

Cold and crispy Monday

Beautiful morning, -18 Celsius, clear sky and back on track with "http://www.yr.no/" weather forecast. I think today and tomorrow will be colder and we can expect some changes for the days afterthat. Last night the sky was amazing, you could even see the Milky Way along with thousands of shiny stars. Today we have a ski tour around Kyrkjegardsfjellet from the southern part of Venabygdsfjell back to the hotel. More soon...

White Sunday

Just a little update: -8 Celsius, low visibility, foggy, feels much colder than it is, because of the high humidity level. We just had some dog sledding sessions this morning. This is one of those winter activities that you can do around here, along with others like snowshoeing, horse sleigh ride, cross country skiing (on piste, off piste). More information on http://www.venabu.no/.
Good Morning. -7 Celsius, calm, overcast. Seems like a good day again with some limited visibility up higher in the mountains.

Calm Saturday

Good Morning. Seems like another great day. -3 Celsius, gentle breeze, few clouds around. If you have checked http://www.yr.no/ lately you can see that the forecast is pretty different what we are having here. This is the time when they are probably on holidays too and a computer makes all the calculations.

Myafallet Tour

We had a wonderful sunny day on our Myafallet trip, please check out the views and moments what we captured. This was the first tour of the season to the waterfall (icefall) and I have to say I was surprised that it was all frozen (actually you could see through the ice and see the water rushing down). The tour was a bit difficult on some parts since the snow is deep and powderish, but no complaint... it was worth every drop of sweat.

Boxing Day

Good Morning. Clear sky, beautiful sunrise, -5 Celsius, same snow condition as yesterday. We are ready for a tour again and we are trying to get down to Myafallet (waterfall close to Myaseter), it should be all ice now. More later...

Sunny afternoon

We had some raindrops this morning, even it was -5 Celsius. Sometimes it happens when moisture developes over the mountains forming low clouds and warm air moving over them. Strange phenomena. The afternoon we had some sunshine and beautiful views of the Rondane National Park and the surrounding hills.

Hare track

Looking at a hare track you find and interesting thing. Which way did this hare go? You would think it is from the right to the left, but when you look at the second picture you see the paws` position, so when hares travel, first their small front paws touch the ground, then the larger back feet travel over the paws still on the ground, and land in front of the planted front paws. Therefore, tracks of the front paws lie behind the tracks of the back paws.

It is moving from the left to the right.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Good Morning! I hope you are all enjoying Christmas. We have another interesting day weatherwise. According to the forecast it should be -13 Celsius and sunny, but it is only -5Celsius and overcast, plus right now we have some light showers (close to rain, but icy). Otherwise conditions are great at the moment.

Christmas Carols

Christmas Eve went really well, lots of people, great atmosphere, delicious dinner and singing around our Christmas Tree at Venabu Fjellhotell.

Animal Track

Interesting track for you. You can see the wings making marks in the snow after a short run and jump then taking off. It is a ptarmigan track.

Sunshine and Christmas Eve

Sorry for the late post, we are having a really busy day. This morning we experienced some unexpected gusts, strong wind which changed the temperature. Since it was much warmer than it was forecasted (-5 Celsius instead of -10 Celsius), we are positive that we had the "Fohn wind phenomena" rushing through our plateau. Current condition: Blue sky, sunny, - 5 Celsius, light wind, good snow condition, blue wax. Most of the track are cut to the south including Veslefjell Rundt too.

Cloudy Tuesday

Good Morning! Overcast today, but good visibility, -9 Celsius, light air. Getting ready for Christmas period, lots of people are coming today. Next few days we are expecting sunshine and great conditions, temperature around -7 and - 14 Celsius. We are on blue wax.

Windy Monday

Windy start, - 4 Celsius and good visibility. In a few hours the wind will die down and starting to get colder, down to - 10 Celsius. The sun is breaking through now, so should be nice for the rest of the day and week also.

Shortest day in the year

I mean the day is not shorter, still 24hrs, but daylight is only for 5hrs 17min. Another colourful day, light breeze, -10 Celsius, good visibility. More snow coming in a few hours.
The shortest day: "The winter solstice occurs at the instant when the Sun's position in the sky is at its greatest angular distance on the other side of the equatorial plane from the observers' hemisphere. Depending on the shift of the calendar, the event of the winter solstice occurs some time between December 20 and December 23 each year in northern hemisphere.
The word solstice derives from Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still)."
We had a snowfall this afternoon and some wind and Veslefjell Rundt has been cut too. According to the weather forecast the upcoming week seems to be having more sunshine, visibility and not much precipitation.

More snow

Update: Clear sky now 10:30PM, -4 Celsius, few more centimeters of snow today and little extra coming on top tomorrow. It was windy this afternoon and the visibility was really limited.
Good Morning! It is snowing again and stays like this for most of the day. -4 Celsius, light air, limited visibility. I went out last night for skiing, it was great, watching the stars and enjoying the freshly cut trails. Hopefully we could find the remains of these trails tomorrow, but there should be more cutting in the next few days.

Sunny Friday

Back on the sunny side. -12 Celsius, sunny, light breeze, great day! Snow depth: 58-62cm. I am sure a few of you have already checked the blog for updates this morning. As you know we are getting closer to our shortest day here and at the moment sunrise is around 9:40AM and sunset is around 2:55PM, so I thought it would be nice to have some sunshine in my pictures. Normally I update the blog after 9 and try to have another one later. Once the season starts I guess I will be out most of the day that means I will be updating earlier and putting up pictures in the afternoons. Now here is time for preparing trails. Weekend forecast: Temperature between -4 and -9 Celsius, light to moderate breeze and expecting snow falls both days, but some sunny spells too. The following trails have been cut: Trimloypa, Trabelia loop, Kyrkjegardsfjellet loop, Forrestadseter-Brennflya-Oygradsseter-Stormyra, Buvatnet, Buhaugen, Granhaugen, Fjellmillom so far.

"Sour Cream Thursday"

Quick update: Another two inches of snow have fallen in the last few hours, so we should be around 60cm now. Less wind and temperature is around zero. Just came back from Ringebu (20kms south in the valley of Gudbrandsdalen) experiencing some heavy rain and sleet. It is clearing now and should be a decent "subzero" night. The roads are a bit icy. No summer tires please!
Despite we had a clear sky last night and good visual of the area, now we are back again in the foggy condition. -2 Celsius, light snow (on and off), windy, low visibility. Expecting a little more snow, temperature closer to zero for today and less wind, sunny and cold day for tomorrow. Hard to tell what comes for the weekend, but probably more snow (light) and less wind. Just a reminder that the weather forecast on http://www.yr.no/ is just an approximate idea (pretty accurate most of the time) what could happen up here. As we are located on a plateau and surrounded by some major features (like Rondane, Jotunheim National Parks, Gudbrandsdalen) and deeper in the mainland we have a unique climate here, so it is not so easy to forecast the weather. We are normally looking at pressure (isobars) and wind details on "yr- website" and wind direction, which gives you an idea about the upcoming changes.

Snowing and blowing

You can see my window, I could not open it this morning, so much snow built up, but I managed to take a picture from another window. Enjoy the view. -3 Celsius, moderate breeze and the most important thing that we have about an extra 10cm of snow (actually it is about 40cm around my windows). We are expecting more snow tomorrow and windy conditions.

Light snow and wind

Another evening update: still snowing (light) and blowing, mild, -2 Celsius. Low pressure system is coming through, bringing some warmer air and precipitation. Hopefully it will be still in the subzero range, will see tomorrow night. Actually this mild temperature is going to have a nice effect on our powder snow, we might loose depth, but could be great for skiing around Christmas and New Year. I have just returned from my "Tuesday evening training" on Trabelia race circuit. It was a bit difficult condition, but great workout.
Finally the snow is here and coming. Even it is just light snow fall we were still looking forward to it. Current condition: - 3 Celsius, windy, limited visibility. We have about an extra 2cm of snow, but seems like it is getting reorganized by the wind, so will see what it brings. We are expecting more snow and wind today and tomorrow.

"White Monday"

"Sour cream" morning. -5 Celsius, light air, low visibility. Another picture from my window here. Please look at the labels of my posts, when you see "view from my window" that is actually taken from the same spot all the time, so you can compare and know about the current visibility and view. Even the big blog picture was taken from there. Today`s condition is more about exploring the nature from a different aspect (being short sighted), looking at snow covered trees, lichens, maybe ptarmigans and feeling the remoteness of this beautiful winterworld. Please comment on anything on the blog, so I would have an idea what people/you like. We expecting more wind tomorrow and some snow in the next few days.
Just look at the tree (it is the same one from different directions, North, West and South) and guess the wind direction.

Yes, it is from the South, all the moisture froze on the trees, building up long ice and snow needles. Now you can see that the prevailing winds are coming from south or southeast and that is actually the direction where we are getting decent precipitation from.
Have a close look at these snow needles:

I just came back from "Veslefjell Rundt", which has not been cut this season, so it took me awhile to fight my way around in the "sour cream condition". Muen behind me.

Ski-Orienteering weekend

Just a quick weather update: low clouds, bit more visibility than yesterday, little snow last night 0,5-1cm, -4 Celsius and light breeze from the southeast. Expecting light snowfalls in the next few days and temperature around -6 Celsius. Wax tips: I used green base with a layer of blue on top yesterday, worked ok, but on uphills I had to shorten my strides since there was less grip. Today I am going out on blue / blue extra. Snow condition is still a bit powderish, but in the last few days it became a little better having that extra moisture in the air.

I spent a couple of hours skiing around Holtesetervegen and Lundtjon area watching the ski-orienteers. It is pretty amazing what skills you need. I have been an orienteer for more than 20 years, so I have got an idea about the bases, but combining it with cross country skiing, it makes it extra hard, both mentally and physically. Just to give you an introduction what is actually ski orienteering:
http://www.orienteering.org/i3/index.php?/iof2006/content/view/full/1044

And look at the map, I hope it makes sense.

Ski-Orienteering weekend

Another foggy morning. -13 Celsius, no wind. We have a Ski-Orienteering weekend here with lots of top athletes around Venabu Fjell trying to find control points on skis.

Snow crystals

Transformation of snow crystals. I went out this morning, it felt like skiing on sand. It has been pretty cold, so the snow is transformed to powder. It was difficult to get a good grip on the uphills. I was on BC gear and had backpack on, moving in a reasonable pace when I saw a "serious skier" training on the Trabelia Rundt. He kept looking back and checking me coming, because he was having so much trouble with the grip. It looked strange seeing him ahead of me for more than 4kms, but I have to say I felt great :).

Weather has changed a bit, minus 8 Celsius, grey and overcast, no snow yet.

Pictures from last two seasons