Winterwonderland

Merry Christmas!

It's so beautiful here now!!!! -10 to -15C. Lots of soft fresh snow, snow on the trees, the waterfall is covered with ice (but it's icy and hard to get there), beautifull colours on sunny days. great for skiing, great for snowshoing. All the rooms booked at Venabu. Just like it should be at Christmas!

Robert is back in a week, so the blog will be updated more often I guess....

Cold days

-23C at the coldest yesterday. Beautiful colors at sunrise and sunset.

Soon December

16-18th of November we had perfect conditions for skiing, then the mild weather came...
We had about 0C in the mountains, so we got mostly wet snow, not so much rain, but the conditions turned rather bad. Then on Friday the 23rd it turned colder and we got a few cm of fresh snow on the top. So the fact is, now we have a rather hard base with fresh, soft snow on the top, and they forecast cold weather and maybe some more snow throughout the week! Perfect!!!

The photos are from Gålå, at the west side of Gudbrandsdalen, where I ski most as long as I'm not working at Venabu, but although it's the "wrong" place you can enjoy the nice light of the sunrise and the view towards Rondane with the fog below. The last photo is how it looks when children are asked to pretend they are swans when they are skiing. Try yourself, it's not easy!

Nice cold morning

We have had some warmer days, but not warm enough to melt the snow. It was raining in the valley, but snowing in the mountains :-) They have started to prepare tracks, and it's possible to ski, but since only a few of the tracks follow the roads, we still hope for more snow. Nice to have so many comments, then we know you follow the blog. The winter season is about to start at Venabu, mostly week-end visitors. Guiding starts at Christmas. Look forward to seeing you all again!

Waiting for the winterseason

Hello everybody! A short summer season i over and maybe some of you have started looking at the blog again to see if there is any sign of winter. It is! Look at these photos that Lars took yesterday. Beautiful. I had my first skitour on Tuesday. Great feeling!!!

Warm!

Someone turned the heating on! 21,4 Celcius at Venabu yesterday. Seems like it's going to be just as warm today!

Beautiful weather today! 9 degrees this morning, and the ice melted yesterday.

Believe it or not, but it’s still possible to ski. These photos was taken Thursday 10th of May. It’s on the west side of Gudbrandsdalen, with good view towards Rondane and Venabygdsfjellet. I was out early in the morning when the snow was still hard and it was perfect conditions for skiing/skating. May is so far colder than usual and we still get some snow in the higher areas. In the areas close to Venabu it's not possible to ski, but for those who are willing to carry their skis for a few kilometers towards Muen and Gråhøgdbu..... they won't regret! :-)

Summer?

I summer just around the corner? The flowers are at least thriving in the sun. We have had a little bit of snowfall the last week, but the warm temperatures keeps it off the ground. Today: partly cloudy and 6 degrees.

May

It's May already, and the days are passing by so fast. On friday we woke up til snow on the trees, but all this is gone now, and the snow is melting fast. Today we have partly cloudy weather, and 2 degrees. Have a good week :)

Sunny days..

The sun is shining from a clear blue sky, and the snow is melting more and more every day. Today is wonderful for sitting outside in the sun, dreaming of summer which is just around the corner... The temperature is 7 degrees, and the weather is going to stay like this for the next couple of day.

End of the winter season

The final week of the winter season is soon coming to an end. But even though the guests will be absent, we still have snow, and quite a bit of it after this weeks snowfall. Today has been partly cloudy, with temperatures around 0 degrees. Muen is covered in white and some of the tracks are freshly cut.

Back to winter

Last Saturday the Troll skimarathon was arranged on nice conditions, but they decided to start 25 km further south, at Øksendalen (http://www.trollski.no/)

Just after the marathon had finished it started to snow and the area got 30-60 cm of fresh snow within a few days.

This is the last week of the winterseason at Venabu. Just like every year, that is the wintersportweek for disabled people. This year with really winterconditions!

Apart from Venabu, there is not many people in the mountains now. That's sad, since it's so beautiful! I went skiing yesterday; freshly cut tracks and blue extra/violet conditions. Today I took my son to Kvitfjell; 30 cm of new, soft, fresh snow and 10-15 people in the whole alpinearea, during the whole day! Those people had a once-in-a-lifetime-experience!!! :-)

Scroll down to see some more about Easter.

"Let it snow, let it snow, let i snow.."

Easter is now over and most of our Easter guests have left. The winter season is soon coming to an end, with this week and the next being our last weeks. As for weather/skiing conditions, we got quite a bit of snow today and the mountain is covered in white yet again. Beautiful! The weather forcast for this weeekend predicts even more snow, and with temperature around 0 and -1 to -3 Celcius, let us hope most of it will stay.

Easter

Everybody that reads this blog know that it was warm, too warm, before Easter. While last Easter just melted away, this Easter was different. The temperature changed from +10 to -10 within a few days. That made the tracks very hard, but with a few cm of snow on the top most places, it was still possible to ski, especially in the higher areas. In addition to skiing, the tracks was perfect for walking, and you could also walk everywhere else, so Svartfjell, Trabelifjell and Kyrkjegardsfjell where nice places to enjoy the good view. Some people also realized that it was perfect for biking.

The photos represent some of my memories from this Easterholiday. They are not taken at Venabygdsfjellet, but at Kvamsfjellet, about 35 km further north.

Easter

In Norway we have a strong tradition of traveling to the mountains during Easter. We also have some mountainroles of what you have to bring with you. Of course you need the right kind of clothes and the right kind of hat. This Easter it seems like you also have to bring a lot of equipment to manage with all kind of weather/conditions.

Sunday -white morning

8AM: -3.9 Celsius, Light breeze, 2 m/s from west-southwest, a little bit of snow.
Late update: Approx. 2 cm of snow during the day. Changing weather; sunny, cloudy, snow, increasing wind, 5-7 m/s. Waxed with blue extra today!! :-) 10PM: -9.1 Celsius.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday - colder days

Thursday morning it was -3 Celsius, that was also the minimum during the night. It was only +1 at the warmest. Friday and Saturday were even colder, less than zero all the time. It's still windy, from 6-10 m/s.

On Thursday we had a nice tour from Venabu to Øksendalen/Måsåplassen. It was strong wind from north-west, 8-10 m/s and the snow was hard and a bit icy, so the wind blew us along. It was sunny and a little warmer when we skied down to Måsåplassen, which made it easier. One of the other groups went from Gunstadseter and back to Venabu. They had a nice but hard day, because they had sidewind for a long time.

Friday morning the two Norwegian groups went home, the English group skied to Måsåplassen. The conditions were approximately the same as Thursday, but a little bit colder, which made the snow even harder. Today they went over Dynjefjell, partly skiing, partly walking.

They forecast cold weather for most of the Easter. That means it will be possible to ski, as long as we avoid the open rivers, but it the snow will stay hard and icy as long as we don't get any more snow. Walking and snowshoeing will also be okay. For more adventurous people I will recommend to go by bike, if they have the right kind of tires. The snow is so hard that they can bike everywhere, and also places with no snow, of course. Luckily they forecast less wind from now on.

The blog will not be updated daily from now on, but we will try to do it about once a week.

Wednesday -Things are changing

Minimum temperature during the night: +2 Celsius
Temperature today: +2-+3 Celsius. Changing weather; sunny, cloudy, snow for a few minutes and increasing wind, 9 m/s at the most. Colder from now on.

We went to Svartfjell today, skiing and then walking the last part to the top, and managed to reach the top exactly at the same time as it started snowing. A few minutes later it was sunny again. A tourguide should be able to plan better than that??? :-)

We have three big groups this week, and even though the conditions haven't been the best we have managed to find nice tours for everybody in different areas every day. Today we realized that the southern and central parts isn't good enough for skiing anymore, there is too much water and bare patches. The northern and eastern areas are still okay. Some Germans went from Venabu to Måsåplassen today and phoned back to tell us that the conditions were fine.

Even warmer Tuesday

No good news!
The minimum temperature last night was +4 Celsius and at the same time we had strong wind the whole night and the whole day. I've never seen the landscape change so quickly. Aprox. +10 Celsius in the afternoon. Still we had a nice tour to the northern areas, with a good view towards the highest peaks in Rondane. Sunny, but more misty during the day because of the high humidity. On my way home from work I found an early sign of spring.

Warm Monday

At 7AM we had +2 Celsius. More cloudy today. Aprox. +8 Celsius i the afternoon and increasing wind. We had a nice tour in the Trabelia and Svartfjell area. We found a sheltered, bare patch where we had a little break.

Sunday

6AM: 0 Celsius. Another nice, warm and sunny day. +6 Celsius at the warmest. Easterconditions and still good for skiing. It looks like we might get more snow in the middle/end of the week.

Saturday

9AM: +2.6 Celsius, gentle breeze from W-NW, good visibility, overcast (sun is visible through). Most of trails will be prepared today.
Late update: Another nice day, +4-5 Celsius. I think I saw the tail of a mermaid!

Friday - sunny and beautiful

7AM: 0 Celsius.
We had a sunny, warm day, without a single cloud and with no wind. We went to the eastern areas, along the canyon and towards Gråhøgdbu (DNT). The snow was hard enough, so we could ski offtrack most of the morning, but about 1PM everything got soft and wet, so we had to follow the track back to Venabu.

Thursday update

We had a nice klister-tour round Kyrkjegardsfjell. A bit more cloudy today and quite windy.
Robert left today :-( but we will try to keep the blog updated for the rest of the season!

Thursday

6AM: +3.9 Celsius, moderate breeze from W-NW, good visibility. It seems like another nice - spring like - day with mild temperatures.

Mild Wednesday

Good morning at 6AM: After a few colder days we are back on milder temperatures, +3.5 Celsius, gentle breeze from W-NW, good visibility, overcast (sun is visible through). Most of trails were prepared yesterday. Back on klister.
Late update: Lovely day out in northern areas, close to Ramstinden (on universal klister all day). no signs of reindeer or other creatures except a big "cloud bird".

Tuesday - Trolloypa S

Good morning, at 6AM: -8.7 Celsius, almost no wind, good visibility, overcast. Today we are back on Trolloype S - testing conditions and ourselves. Most of trails are being/will be prepared today.
Late update: We had a really nice tour today to Oskendalen in variable snow conditions. We managed to stay on blue wax all day (on some sections we had either too much grip or too much glide). Nice skiing with interesting cloud colours and lights. Some parts of Trolloypa had patches of no snow - otherwise good cover all the way.

Monday - surprise blizzard

6AM: -9.8 Celsius, moderate breeze from W-NW, overcast, some precipitation overnight (nothing significant), good visibility.

Late update:
After a nice calm morning - snow started falling.
It became rather windy -reducing visibility.
We enjoyed a day out - having a nice workout.
Now our landscape is white - to make it right.
No feeling of "blue"- once our skis have no glue.
Total received precipitation yesterday: 4.5mm

Sun-day

Good morning, at 7AM: -8.8Celsius, sunny and clear, light breeze from N-NW. We had 0,1 mm of precipitation last night. Looking ahead - colder day or two with some precipitation (or not) and it seems to be the same pattern of weather what we had last week.

Saturday - trail and snow update

Good morning, at 7AM: -4.2 Celsius, light air, clear sky and great visibility. Ahead of another nice and sunny day. We are looking at a similar pattern of weather what we had in last days: colder start and mild conditions during afternoon.

PS: Snow is needed!

Trail, snow and weather update: I have decided to go out on our well known "Outer Circle" to see the conditions on our outer trails. I started from Venabufjellhotell: Heading south I found ok trails/snow towards Kyrkjegardsfjellet, then I headed up to Forbundfjellet where I found snow in only patches. Down to Trabelia was fine. Good trails up towards Svartfjellet, but on highest point - almost no snow. The descent was fine, but hard and icy snow. Then I continued up through Kvandalen where I found a short section with little snow and some rocks showing through. Indre and Fremre Uksan was fine. Oygardseter area- very little snow, but trails were holding. Around Veslefjellet was ok - beaten trails (prepared 2 days ago and there have been many skiers in the afternoon periods when snow was soft). Finally I came to Trimloype which was prepared a few days ago, so I was challenged by the beaten trails back to Venabufjellhotell.
Close to roads snow was retreating, so I had to be careful not to ski on rocks, gravel and dirt.
As we look around we can find most of the mountain tops snowfree at the moment, hopefully we could get some new snow to patch them up.
Overall trail condition is still good - it seems like we are in mid April.
Weather was fine - it turned out to be cloudy, but still had/have great visibility. Temperature was close to zero all day (around +1 Celsius) with some wind. Looking ahead I have just checked the forecast where I saw some promising sings for next days - even for tonight. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

Colder start - Friday

Good morning, at 6AM: -6.2 Celsius, light breeze from N, great visibility, almost clear sky with a few clouds here and there. As it looks we are moving back to winter conditions in the next days, now we just need some snow.
Late update: Nice morning, warm afternoon (+6 Celsius, just like previous days). Good skiing on iceklister and vario later on. We had a nice tour around the southern trails looking at the views of Rondane peaks, Venabygdsfjellet and Gudbrandsdal.