Last day of 2010

We really hope that we have some snow before New Year. It has been rather windy last night and mild, which seems like the pattern for a day or two. 7AM: -6 Celsius, gentle breeze from W-NW, fair visibility. Enjoy the last day! Happy New Year!

Milder Thursday

Good morning at 7AM: -4.4 Celsius, light breeze from NW, fair visibility and about 1cm of fresh snow. Seems like we might get that change what we have been waiting for. We also had our lowest temperature of the month yesterday: -25.6 Celsius

Great snowshoeing day

Since it was -24 degrees this morning, we decided to explore new pastures. In stead of the usual waterfall tour, we did our tuesday summer walk in the opposite direction: Varpet-Trabelifjell-Lundtjønn-Holtesætervegen-Lundes-Venabu.

It's a wonderful tour. We only needed to follow foxes, rabbits, mice and ptarmigan to get to the summit of Trabelifjell, and then a fairly easy walk down the mountain to the marked trails at Lundtjønn back to Venabu.

Sunny day

Great sunny day again, wish we had more snow. I checked the trail conditions in several areas. It is possible to ski from Venabu Fjellhotell to Buhaugen, Frisketjonn, Granhaugen, Lundtjonn, Trabelia and even Langbakken area has a ski doo trail. Unfortunately Holtesetervegen area is full of clear roads with lots of gravel on. Altough it seems like a great idea to ski from Lundtjonn to Holtesetervegen it is actually a ski and a walk since those roads have messed up the final 1 km. Langbakken should be done uphill not downhill since there is a lot of vegetation in the trail.
Kyrkjegardsfjellet Rundt has seen skiers as well. Lundes has most of its trails running in every direction, only Friska River trail is not really up for the challenge. Svartfjellseter is still a very good option and Trimloype area is also getting better.
Noon update: -21 Celsius, light air from N-NW, sunny, great visibility- but clouds are moving in.
Please still be careful - there is not a lot of snow cover and the bushes and rocks could give you a hard time.

Cold morning

Back on the colder weather, 7AM: -24 Celsius, light breeze from NW, fair visibility. Looking at the forecast we might get lucky on Friday and receive some fresh snow. More trail hunting today.

Tuesday

Good morning! 7AM: -14 Celsius, light air, ice crystals falling. For a few days the weather is not changing much: nice and stable. After the windy day we had we are now trying to drive some of the trails we had prepared before and add some new ones. Unfortunately we still have not got enough snow to drive with the machine.

Little change

8AM: -10 Celsius, gentle breeze from N-NE, feels windy and cold, overcast, light snowfall. We are expecting more wind and a little more snow today. Enjoy your second day of Christmas.

Christmas Day tour

Another nice, cold and sunny day out - skiing around the central part of Venabygdsfjellet. Tested a few trails on both side of the road and found them in reasonable condition. We probably go out and drive a few more tracks with skidoo - start preparing them in the next days.

Merry Christmas!

Good morning! 6AM: -24 Celsius, light air from N-NE, clear sky. Enjoy Christmas days!
Additional track to the map I posted: Buhaugen-Lundes and Stormyra -Saltashaugen direction, but only a loop on the lake and connected to the track towards Buvatnet.

Cold and sunny!

Great day! Trails are holding well and we managed to add a few more tracks mainly around the hotel. We had a very cold and very nice day! Temperature was below -20 all the time and we probably face an even colder Christmas Eve and Chrsitmas days. Merry Christmas!

Ski trails

Good afternoon at 3PM:-20Celsius, light air, good visibility. Brilliant day out , managed to prepare some trails and cut a single classic track with a skidoo. At the moment there is a little loop towards trimloypa, it does not go all the way, but it is about 3.5km. There is a trail going from Venabu Fjellhotell to Buhaugen, Frisketjonn (trail to Lundes from here and back to Venabu) and up towards Svartfjellseter (after the gate it becomes a double track) and back. Also another one to Stormyra and after about 200m turns left and runs across the lake and terrain until it reaches a road where it turn left and passes Buvatnet and joins the track from Venabu (please see map). Most of the summer roads are good for skiing as well, but watch out for cars - somehow there are a few.

Close to Christmas

6AM: -15 Celsius, light air, normal night visibility and overcast, about 1.5cm of fresh snow in last 24hrs. As it seems there has been a major disruption in Europe's weather - if we look at the precipitation charts and temperatures. Also not to mention the transport situation. We look forward to our new presents for this Christmas Eve: guests
Yesterday we managed to prepare some skating and classic trails on the lake front of us and put out some skidoo trails around our hotel. We are still waiting to get more snow to start operating on normal level.

The shortest day and Lunar eclipse

This morning I enjoyed my skiing at full moon, then in less than 2 hours we lost sight of it - moved in to the earth's shadow. It is called Lunar Eclipse, which is a fairly rare sight, the last one was about 2 years ago and the next one will be soon on 15 June. Most of the time it is partial eclipse, but the above mentioned dates show total ones. 8AM: -23 Celsius, light air, good visibility.
Most of the summer paths and roads have sufficient snow to ski on plus it is possible to ski from Venabu Fjellhotel to Buhaugen and Frisketjon and join the summer road towards Spitsbergseter. Trimloype only has a skidoo trail. Please be careful on those trails and even off piste, since there are a lot of rocks under the surface. We also set up a 1.2km loop on the lake front of the hotel.

Getting colder

10AM: -19Celsius, light air, overcast, limited visibility - with some glimpses of blue sky. Looking at the forecast and our current situation it seems like we need to settle with the amount of snow we have ... for some time. I am heading out to find and mark trails for the upcoming Christmas days, it would probably be different than in other years. Not much chance to go further up in the mountains due to lack of snow and the condition of the snow. More updates soon.

Mixed weather

11AM: -14 Celsius, very light snowfall, light breeze from N-NE, fair visibility. The snow is freezing through/ transforming, so in a few days`-if not already- becomes very powderish. I went out a few times to check the condition on Trimloypa and the nearby areas and I already found it difficult to have proper grip through the loose snow, plus I caught a few rocks too. Although we do not complain at all, it is very nice and cold out there.

Morning snowfall

11Am: -10 Celsius, light breeze, limited visibility, it has been snowing on and off for a few hours, but clearing out now. We will see how much precipitation we get by the end of this weekend (not much forecasted).

More snow needed

4PM: The morning snowfall did not last long, but the day was pretty nice.

It is snowing

Good morning. 9AM: -12 Celsius, light breeze from S-SE, light snowfall (1,5cm already), fair visibility. Expecting a little more snow in the next 48hrs. Yesterday I checked the condition on some parts of the "Veslefjellet Rundt" and I found it in a much better condition than I thought to be. We still need to see Brennflya area and find the right spot for crossing the wetland. Higher and rocky areas still do not have enough snowcover to ski on them.

Windy and grey morning

After a great sunny day yesterday we finally entered the change we were looking at on the weather charts. We received some white stuff overnight which we were very happy for. 8AM update: -10 Celsius, fresh breeze from N-NE, overcast but good visibilty, about 3cm of snow in last 24hrs (but it is probably blown away towards Lillehammer). Looking at the weather forecast it seems to be that we are sitting in the middle of a low pressure system and hard to see what is going to happen. Lets hope for more snow. The picture was taken yesterday at sunrise, I think it is a better view than this morning.

Weather mix

What a mixed day! Foggy, cloudy, sunny conditions and some light snow showers were filled up our day. I went out for another tour to see the condition and the areas where we could cut trails. At the moment we still don't have enough snow to use the machine for cutting, but most of the summer paths and open areas (lakes, lower fields) are good for skiing and ski touring. The lakes are actually very good for skating style, but also good for classic if someone lays down a track. I will check out the higher areas before Christmas, so I can give you fair view of possibilities. We still believe that we get some snow from Thursday on, but not sure how much.

Light snowfall

Good morning! 9AM update: -7 Celsius, light air from SE, limited visibility, light snowfall, about 1.5 cm of fresh snow overnight and looks very calm at the moment. Looking at the weather charts we might get some snow from Wednesday on.

More Ski Orienteering

Another great day on the courses. Today was a bit colder and the snow condition looked better. I took a tour around and enjoyed the sunny and cold day.

Ski orienteering weekend

Despite of the snow depth in Venabygdsfjellet, we still host the annual ski orienteering weekend. The organizers are putting in an amazing effort to make it happen. Facing lack of snow, wind and long hours of preparation. The competitors also face most of these challenges once the courses are cleared for each race. Yesterday first time in my life I decided to participate. After sppending more than 22years in competitive orienteering and many years in skiing I finally put them together. Of course I did not dare to compete with the elite men, but I completed the elite women's course, which was about 6km. Since I do not have my "fancy competition dress" here I represented a new "ski guide class" with heavy boots, backcountry skis and classic style. I probably went to slow to be challenged technically, but I hadf to put some decent effort to finish. I was pleased to cross the finishline after 46minutes of battle, which put me more than 13minutes behind the best time. The conditions could have been better, but I think most of the competitors have got what they came for. Norway hosts the European Ski Orienteering Championship in February and Sweden the World Championships, so this competition is part of the long preparation for most of the elite athletes. I also discovered many clubs and even other nationalities on the start list. Lets hope for another great race today.

Positive change

Good morning! Few things have been changed around Venabu. First of all myself - reported for duty. Secondly the weather has changed a bit and brought some new snow and warmer temperatures. As you might know records are being born every day here in Norway, especially when it comes to weather. Last month has been the coldest for decades with avarage temperature under -10Celsius. Yesterday we had a lot of wind and up to -3 Celsius, which felt like spring.
The snow depth is slowly increasing, but at the moment it is around 15cm. Hopefully we get more once the high pressure system clears. 8AM, -7 Celsius, moderate breeze.