Thursday 31 December 2009

Last day of 2009

Good morning. 7AM: -12 Celsius, light breeze, clear sky.
We are just getting ready for our last tour of this year.
4PM: What a day! We climbed Dynjefjell from the western ridge and descended on the southern part in powderish snow. Great day to end 2009.
We are getting ready for the last evening.

Wednesday 30 December 2009

Another cold and sunny day

Good morning. 7AM: -14.9 Celsius, light breeze, clear sky, dark. Ready for another day to the north.
3PM: Great day spent in Uksan area, climbing Kloppjonnhogda and looking towards Rondane peaks.
We also had a costume ski race and horse sleigh event.

Tuesday 29 December 2009

Sunny day-long tour

Good morning. 7AM: -18 Celsius, light breeze, clear sky - feels cold. Most of the trails are prepared.
Today we are heading up North for a full day tour.
17:00: It was a great tour, pretty cold in the morning, but warmed up later on. We skied up to Grahogdbu DNT hut and climbed VesleMuen, where we managed to spot a small herd of reindeer.

Monday 28 December 2009

Clear sky

Good morning. 7AM: -12 Celsius, gentle breeze from west northwest, clear sky. Expecting nice weather for a few days.
Today we had a great day with stunning views. Also we managed to spot reindeer on Muen and their tracks close to Grahogdbu.
All trails are in good condition.

Sunday 27 December 2009

Calm Sunday

6AM: -13.7 Celsius, light air form south-southeast, overcast and dark. We had more than 12mm of precipitation in the last 36hrs, so according to my calculation we have more than 60cm of snow.

Saturday 26 December 2009

"Boxing Day"

Good Morning. The change has arrived early this morning along with snowy and windy condition which will probably last for another 12hrs or so. 8AM: -10.4 Celsius, fresh breeze from northeast (pretty windy condition).

Friday 25 December 2009

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a beautiful Christmas Eve and enjoying Christmas Day with your loved ones.
We had some snow in the last 24hrs (3mm precipitation - equals about 3cm snow).
Weather update at 8AM: -7.6 Celsius, light breeze east-southeast. Light snowfalls are expected and temperature around -6 and -10 Celsius.
Enjoy your day, whereever you are in the world.

Thursday 24 December 2009

More snow coming for Christmas days

Good morning! 7AM: -9.2 Celsius, light breeze from East, overcast, light snowfall. Last 24 hours we had about 3-4 cm of snow again and there is more on the way.

Wednesday 23 December 2009

...and here comes the change again

Good morning. 8AM: -13.2 Celsius, light snowfall, light air from S and SE, limited visibility. Do not look at the forecast, according to that it should be -22 Celsius now. I personally believe the temperature would stay closer to -10 or even warmer and with some extra snow. We will see, but I am sure it will be a white Christmas. First time at Myafallet this year, it was already frozen and stunning.

Tuesday 22 December 2009

Colder again

Good morning. 8AM: -23.7 Celsius, light air, clear sky and still dark. Waiting for a beautiful sunrise and a great day out. It was!

Monday 21 December 2009

Grey morning, wonderful sunset

Light snowfall and grey horizon started our day and gradually cleared out and delivered a beautiful sunset before it took its dark coat again. Around -14 Celsius and almost no wind surrounded us today on Trimloypa.

Sunday 20 December 2009

More snow

Weather update at 5PM: -14.9 Celsius, light air, dark. We had about 5cm of snow in the last 24hrs, but very lightweight version (about 2.1 mm precipitation, almost like feather with perfectly shaped crystals)
It was partly cloudy today with some sunny moments. Forecast remains similar.
Most of the trails have been cut today (Trabelia, Uksan, Svartfjellet).

Saturday 19 December 2009

Weather update-change

What a change today. 1PM: -17.3 Celsius, light snowfall, limited visibility. Uksan trails and Svartfjellet round have been cut recently.
Yesterday we had some weather here in Norway, some places recorded below - 40Celsius, fortunately we had milder temperature here, but still between -28 and -32 Celsius.
Weather forecast: similar pattern for a few days as today.

Friday 18 December 2009

Winter update

Good morning. Bring an extra jacket it is getting colder here and also make sure if you drive up here your car is ready for the challenge (antifreezer, chain, etc)! 9AM: -27.8 Celsius, light air, clear sky. I guess today is cold almost all around Europe with some extreme temperatures.
I added a new feature on the right sidebar from youtube and throughout the season we show some new clips of areas, technique, preparation and useful information (sometimes just trying to be funny). I hope you all like it. Please let us know what you think.
First clip:

Thursday 17 December 2009

Real winter

9:50PM: It is good to be inside now since it turned out to be a cold night: -24.1 Celsius now. I had a nice sunset tour, but it was challenging to keep myself warm while I took some photos.

Cold and sunny days

Good morning. Still waiting for sunrise, but as it looks we are going to have a beautiful sunny day. Time to check out the northern trails and conditions. Few facts: sunrise 9:36, sunset 14:55, 9AM temperature: -17.9 Celsius, light breeze from north, no precipitation in last 24hrs.
Checked Trabeliafjellet Rundt yesterday afternoon and found some streams still running (Langbakken, Holtesetervegen, Lundes-Freska and also between Granhaugen and Lundtjonn) which represent small obstacles in those trails. Looking forward to this cold period, so all water sources will freeze to their base.

Wednesday 16 December 2009

Windy Tuesday and grey Wednesday

Just a picture form yesterday morning looking towards Rondane National Park. It was clear for most of the day, but fairly windy leaving no trails left. Temperatures were between -4 and -11 Celsius in the last 48 hours and we had about 5cm extra snow.
Current condition at 10AM: -10.1 Celsius, gentle breeze from northeast, still cloudy, but slowly clearing, snow depth: 48-50cm. Expecting colder days ahead (maybe as low as -20 Celsius, thanks to a high pressure system bringing cold air from polar regions), no siginificant precipitation until the weekend.
Most of the ski trails have been cut this season including Trabelliafjellet, Kyrkjegardsfjellet, Veslefjellet, Svartfjellet, Uksan area (Forbundsfjellet has not been cut) which gives us a very good base for the upcoming months (normally we do not have enough depth to cut all the trails this early). At the moment "Trabeliafjellet Rundt" is being prepared.

Monday 14 December 2009

Light snowfall

Last week before the season kicks in. Quick weather update: light snowfall, -6.5 Celsius, light air from south-southeast, limited visibility. All these light snowfalls added about 3 cms of snow in the last 24hrs and we might get a little more tonight.

Sunday 13 December 2009

Ski orienteering weekend


Another year has passed since I saw the ski orienteering group here. Almost 100 athletes gathered here to train and compete and get further preparation for the Ski-O season. They represtented many age groups and fought hard on this "2day- 3race" event.
Today was a bit "white" compare to yesterday's colourful scene as the clouds moved in, but it was still ideal: 8Am : -3.8 Celsius, light wind, cloudy-all white.
Few light snowfalls are expected, but nothing significant... and maybe a cold front?
Trails in the forests are better than in open areas, since we had windy condition yesterday further north. I did night skiing around Veslefjellet (night means 6PM) and it was windy, but really peaceful with clear sky (windblown tracks though).
One more week to get ready for the Christmas invasion.

Saturday 12 December 2009

It is good to be back





Finally I am back at Venabu and I can give you a day to day update. As you all know we have plenty of snow and we could have started our season much earlier as locals and skiers did. I went out this morning to check snow depth and it was between 46-50cm and around -3 Celsius. Good condition for skating and classic, but only in tracks, since it is very loose off piste. The snow froze through several times and consolidated it, so now it is almost sugar type snow with a few distinctive layers reminding us about the different snowfalls we had in the past weeks. I will be out for more and check different areas and give you an overall update.

Took a few pictures, so you can all see how it looks now before Christmas. Driving up from Ringebu you will be surprised of the sudden change you see in snow depth, there is almost nothing in Ringebu and the snow/subzero line start just around Venabygd and above.

I looked at the forecast and pressure maps and it looked very dramatic a few days ago with that massive low pressure approaching from the Atlantic, but it has changed, so instead of -18 Celsius we are on a more bareable temperature range with -3 to -9 Celsius. Svartfjellet and Trabeliafjellet Loops are prepared today and Veslefjellet and Trimloypa are also from yesterday.

Tuesday 8 December 2009

Half a meter of snow :)

The last days it's been snowing so now it is 52 cm. snow.

Temperatures around zero, and quite good conditions to ski.
The trails around Trabelifjell, Kyrkjegardsfjell, Svartfjell, and Uksan is prepared regular.

Veslefjell will be marked as soon as the weather permit.