Window view

Since Robert is away for a few more days, I had to sneak in to his room and take this picture so we could continue the serie with how Muen looks like every week.

Tuesday 31.

After all the wind yesterday we have groomed most of the tracks this morning.
So now Veslefjell, Trabelifjell, Kyrkjegardsfjell and Uksan is cut.

This morning it was sunny, lightly clouded and -7 C. The wind is still there but not as hard as yesterday.

Cloudy monday

Good morning.

This week starts with clouds, quite windy and -4. Though it is not so cold, it is much wind.
Hopefully it will get better during the week.

Sunday, daylight savings started

Good morning.

I hope you remembered to set your watches for daylight savings.

Today is a quite good day. -12 last night, and -2 right now. So with cold mornings there is a good crust to ski on still. No new snow, no wind, and lightly clouded.

And from now on there will be more and more daylight.
Life is great.

Winter is still here.

Good morning.

Within the last 24 hours there is a 3 cm fresh layer of snow comming. It is -6 right now, and it is lightly clouded.

Today shall be with a overcast, and tomorrow there shall be some more snow.

Myfallet afternoon trip

Yesterday I did a guided snowshoe trip to Myfallet. As you can see there has been a little bit thawing the last few days, with all the good weather. It is crusty and quite easy to get down there.

Friday 27th March

Good morning.

There was a fresh layer of new snow this morning. Half a cm.
Clouded and -10, so the sunny weather has left us for a while.

A little breeze also, but not too strong.

Thursday morning

Good morning everybody.

Last nights minimum was -17, and at 7am it was -15. Now at 8am it is -11, so you see that the temperature is rising quite fast. This means that it will be a quite icy day, if the weather stays good.
On the other hand, it also means that we are able to ski anywhere we like.

No new snow last night.

Sunny weather today, as it has been the last few days, and no particular wind to talk about.

Enjoy life and spend the time outside, at least I will today.

Kykjegardsfjell and Gulltjonn

Here are some images from today's tour around Gulltjonn and Kyrkjegardsfjell. As you can see there were lots of tracks here also. We could see many hare tracks, but also fox, grouse and mouse. No wind, sun and -6 degrees. Can there be a better place to be ??

Wednesday morning

Good morning.

The weather forecast was wrong. They said it would be clouded and quite bad. But outside it is -11, and the most blue sky we can offer. No particular wind to talk about.

With such low temperatures, and the icy crust you should be able to ski more or less anywhere you like without sinking too much through. Waxing can be a problem since it will be quite warm during the day. It is soon time for Tape grip, that will stick on almost for ever.

Another day in paradise

Sorry for the late update today.

It is getting a nice icy crust, so you are able to ski anywhere you like.

This morning it was - 10, sunny and a tiny breeze. The norwegian group is heading for Masaplassen today. Will be a great tour.

Early morning visit

As I walked out of my door this morning I saw a lot of bunny tracks all around. I guess the easter bunny comes a few weeks too early this year.

Monday 23rd March

Good morning.

Not a single cloud today. Sunny, and we are starting the guided tours at 10am. It is -7, so we are back on the good old blue wax.
It came 0,2 mm snow last night. That's almost half a cm real snow, and that will do good in those icy tracks.

Todays tour will be around Trabelifjell, with an extention around Kyrkjegardsfjell for those who wants to do some more kms.

Svartfjell sunday tour

Here are some images from the trip we did around Svartfjell today. A bit windy so the tracks was blown in, but it was nice and sunny. The wind made it easy going uphill. In the afternoon it started a little sprinkle of snow so it shall be exciting to see how much that will come during the night.

Sunday 22th.

Good morning everybody.

Karl Thomas is editing today. At 8AM it was zero degrees, which means it will be quite hard to choose wax. The weather is lightly clouded, and the sun is somewhere up there. I will break through soon. Snow conditions are good. Today it is comming a group of 13 Norwegians that are going to ski the whole week through.

Windy and mild morning

Since I have just left Venabu a few hours ago I can still give you a pretty accurate morning update: 8AM: -1 Celsius, moderate breeze, good visibility. One more mild day to survive and we will be back on normal "blue-blue extra" condition. Today is the Birkebeiner Ski tour race (54km) starting from Rena and going to Lillehammer, Birkebeiner skistadium. This is one of the biggest ski races in the world, expecting about 14-15000 competitors, recreational skiers.

Two weeks without Venabu

Just a quick note. I am on my way to Switzerland now for a guiding assessment, so I will not be around for 2 weeks, but I asked Karl Thomas to update the blog. Of course I might chip in some information if I can. See you all soon.

Rondablikk Tour

Just a recap from our tour yesterday. We had nice 33km tour from Rondablikk to Venabu Fjellhotell. 18 of us went along the Trolloypa, some parts we were fighting a bit with the challenging conditions such as high wind, warming up, interesting snow, but other parts we were enjoying the sunshine and the beautiful scenery. We had lunch at Eldebu and after about 6 hours of skiing time we arrived to Venabu. Good tour!

Friday - long tour on the Trolloypa

Good morning. 7AM: -5 Celsius, light breeze, partly cloudy. We are heading (getting dropped off there) to Rondablikk today and skiing back to the hotel. Conditions should be challenging since it will warm up soon.

Muen Tour

Another amazing sunny day in the mountains. Today we had a 25km tour to the highest peak of Venabygdfjellet. Muen (1424m) , the cone shaped peak to the north, probably every single person who visited the area have taken a picture of this lovely peak. Climbing in winter could be challenging, since the conditions are not always favourable, high wind, icy and steep slopes or very deep snow, etc. could challenge the explorers. The view is stunning, on a good day you could see easily as far as 60-80km. We had a great view since the weather was absolutely fantastic: light air, sunny. We managed to spot a big herd of reindeers (north east, about 5km away) and all the big mountain ranges around. On the way back we visited Grahogdbu DNT hut and Dorfallet canyon. Exciting tour!

Sunny Thursday

What a morning again... 7AM: -12 Celsius, light air, sunny. Seems like we are back on the cold starts, but I guess it will be warmer around midday, might be close to zero again, but lets just enjoy the condition. Yesterday we ended up on red wax (first time this season), but I think blue extra/violet will last today. Trails have been cut around Veslefjellet, Trabelia, Forbundsfjellet, Fjellmillom and up to Dorhogda and Fremre Uksan.

Svabudalen Tour

Great start, windy and sunny moving from Venabu to Gunstadseter behind Indre Uksan, Ramshogda and going down in Svabudalen. The weather started being serious around midday with fresh breeze and some stronger gusts and around 3PM it started snowing, cutting the visibility to a very low level. Despite all the weather factors everyone enjoyed the tour.

Wednesday

Update at 1PM: +2 Celsius, fresh breeze, sunny, few clouds on and off. Warmer and much windier than it was expected from the weather forecast. Now we finally moved from blue extra/violet wax combination to red, which is not the greatest news, but here we are. Expecting a few more days of this and some colder air later this weekend or next week.

Good morning. -5 Celsius, light air, light snowfall, fair visibility. Expecting a little bit more snow, less wind than yesterday and hopefully some sunny moments.

Tuesday

Good morning. 7AM: -4 Celsius, gentle breeze, partly cloudy, good visibility. Expecting more wind, light snow showers, and subzero temperature. Yesterday we reached +3.2 Celsius (no rain at all), which was the warmest in this year, but looking ahead it seems stable and cold enough to hold the snow.

Monday

Good morning. 7AM: -7 Celsius, light air, cloudy, good visibility. Looking at the weather forecast it seems like we might be around zero today and have a little precipitation, but I think we would rather pick snow then rain ;) As you all know the sunshine in March and April gets much stronger, so once we have proper sunny days we start feeling the warmth and strength of it. Snow condition changes faster so we might experience faster tracks, crusty snow surface with the overnight freezing and warmer days. It is also time to use more sun protection. Wax recommendation: blue extra (I have not changed my blue extra on my skis for 15days - I hope I am still getting the grip from the wax not some dirt and twigs I picked up out there)

Sunday

Late update:11AM: -5 Celsius, light air, partly cloudy, good visibility. Good snow condition and most of the trails are cut, including Trolloypa to Masaplasen.

What a Saturday morning!

Good morning. 8AM: -10 Celsius, light breeze, local fog. Just walked around the hotel this morning and what a great views we had/have as the fog was/is lifting up. Blue sky, interesting icicles and bright sunlight.

Foggy Friday

Good morning. 7AM: -5 Celsius, light breeze, low visibility. The weather looking stable and mild for the next few days (colder mornings and close to zero temperatures for the afternoons). Time to cut some trails again, after having a lot of wind and snow yesterday (total 7cm of snow in last 24hrs).

Snowy tour around Kyrkjegardsfjellet

Challenging day out, snowing and blowing, but we enjoyed our skiing. We saw some interesting snowpiles on trees and bushes, I thought I share one of them with you all. What is it? Polar bear? Easter Island head sculpture? or? You name it.

Foggy start

After a wonderful sunny day yesterday now we are back on the mysterious side. 7AM: -6 Celsius, gentle breeze, fog, very low visibility. Expecting more snow and windy condition today.

Wednesday

Good morning. 6AM: -7 Celsius, light breeze, partly cloudy, good visibility. Seems like we are going to have a sunny day up here. More snow expected tomorrow and a day after, but we are a bit uncertain about that. I keep you posted.
We have another tour on the Trolloypa today, probably with some fanatastic views, maybe some reindeers too. It is also a day to remove the pile of snow from around my window, if I want to post more pictures soon :)

Turned out to be a sunny day

Update: 1PM: -2 Celsius, light breeze, partly cloudy, feels pretty warm on the sun. I am glad that the forecast was not correct, so now we can enjoy the views. Finally we have proper visibility and we can start cutting more trails to the north too.

We had a nice morning around the central areas and we were delighted to see and feel the sunshine again.

Foggy Tuesday

Good morning. 7AM: -5 Celsius, light breeze, foggy, low visibility. Similar condition as yesterday and we had about 2cm of fresh snow and slowly passing 110cm - snow depth. Looking at the weather forecast it seems stable with mild temperatures throughout the week (around zero for max. temp.).

Windy Monday

Good morning. 8AM: -5 Celsius, gentle breeze, fair visibility. Rather windy today, stronger gusts, no more snow expected (according to the forecast) for a few days. Another 7-8cm of fresh snow in the last 24hrs. Trails to the south will be cut today.

Snowy Sunday

Good morning. 7AM: -5 Celsius, light breeze, snowing, low visibility. Last 24 hrs we had about 6cm of extra snow and we are expecting more today with some strong wind.

Saturday

Good morning. 8AM: -6 Celsius, gentle breeze, limited visibility. More snow coming this weekend with high wind. Trails are in good condition at the moment. (Wax: still on blue)

Friday, Masaplasen Tour

Just recap from yesterday. We had a nice tour from Masaplasen back to the hotel. The weather was challenging some parts (high wind, white out), but we all enjoyed being out there and completing 25km on the Trolloypa.

Friday,

Good morning. 7AM: -5 Celsius, light air, light snow shower, fair visibility. Most of the trails have been cut yesterday. Weather forecast: more wind and snow coming throughout the weekend. Today we are going to have a go on Trolloypa again, starting from Masaplasen and skiing back to Venabu.

Thursday

Good morning. 8AM: -5 Celsius, light breeze, fair visibility, snowing. Light snowfalls all day and less wind. Trails to the south are recommended, since there is not much visibility higher up to the north.

Wednesday

Late update: 11AM: -2 Celsius, gentle breeze, light snowfall, limited visibility. Snow condition has changed a little bit, since it has been warmer, so it could be a bit stickier. We need to pay attention on well prepared skis (blue extra, violet wax). Expecting more wind and a bit colder temperature for the next few days. Trails to the south are prepared today, the rest have been done in the last few days.

Veslefjellet/Myafallet combined ski/snowshoe tour on Tuesday

Just a quick tour report: Yesterday we went out to see Myafallet again. Since we have had about 20cm of extra snow in the last week, it was a very different tour again. We enjoyed skiing down to Myaseter and cutting our trails on snowshoes down to the upper waterfall. Some of us went down to the main fall and the others kept going around Veslefjellet, which was just amazing, beacuse the sun was breaking through the thick clouds and surprised us with a very unique light condition. Nice day out again. Yesterday teh reindeer herd was back in action moving around Muen area. Tracks were/are visible from the hotel (in good visibility).

Sour cream Tuesday

Good morning. 8AM: -6 Celsius, gentle breeze, foggy, very low visibility. Expecting windy condition today with light snow falls. Trails to the south were all cut yesterday and also Indre Uksan, but I am not sure what is left of them after the windy night, probably better stay in the woods.

Monday-more snow

Good morning. 7AM: -6 Celsius, light breeze, light snowfall, limited visibility. Last 48 hours we have recieved around 15cm of snow and seems like we are reaching the meter mark. I guess the trails are covered again ,so more cutting is on the way. More wind, light snowfalls are expected.

Sunday

Good morning. 7AM: -10 Celsius, light breeze , snowing. We have got about 6cm of fresh snow in the last 12 hours and it is still coming. Visibility is limited and probably most of the trails have disappeared. According to the weather forecast we are expecting light snowfalls in the next 24 hours, some wind (up to moderate breeze) and milder temperature (up to -2 Celsius).