Cold and sunny morning

8AM: -22 Celsius, no wind, great visibility, clear. It seems like the arctic condition has returned. Nice morning with great views. No tracks have been prepared in last two days.

New week

Temperature around -15 Celsius, little wind, partly cloudy conditions welcomed us this morning. The trails were covered with a layer of feather like snowflakes, which gave the tracks a bit more grip than usual, but still kept our skis gliding well enough. The light conditions were amazing all day, so as the snowcovered trees and formations.
Great news: we have just passed our 30000th pageviews today. Thanks everyone!

Weekend update

Nice snowy weekend with light snowfall, temperature around - 10Celsius and little wind. Yesterday it became almost sunny, but the clouds and fog took over again. In last 24 hrs we received about 3cm of snow. Total snowdepth after these windy and snowy days is around 75cm (windblown and consolidated state). Today at 7AM: -11 Celsius, almost no wind, fair visibility, light snowfall. Most of the trails were prepared yesterday - I guess with some snow on them now. Enjoy your weekend!
Sunday afternoon update: What a day! Sunshine, cold, deep snow and great trails.

Snowy Friday

Great day out in the deep snow around Kyrkjegardsfjellet. It has been snowing and blowing on and off for the last two days, but could not stop us from exploring our "snowcovered wonderworld". After a few off piste challenges we were delighted to ski in freshly prepared tracks too.

Snowing and blowing

7AM: - 11 Celsius, wind from S- SE, fair visibility, overcast, light snowfall. We had about 2-3cm fresh snow in last 24hrs. According to forecast this weather pattern will remain for another day or two, light snowfall, increasing wind and overcast. Let's enjoy our more weather sheltered areas. 5PM update: We had a great and heavy snowshoe tour around Myafallet and Trimloype areas. Grand effort in deep snow, but lovely views and company.

Wednesday

Cold (7AM:-20Celsius) and sunny start and suddenly around 10AM turned into a foggy day. Later on the visibility got better, but started snowing. The wind picked up in the evening, so it will be interesting what tomorrow will bring.

Northern lights

We just talked about the day, but look at the night. Northern lights all night long, full screen, HD from our windows!

Tuesday views

Lovely day -started foggy and turned out to be a great day.

Foggy morning, but a nice afternoon

7AM: -14 Celsius, overcast, local fog, light breeze, limited visibility. Looking at the forecast there is more snow on the way from Thursday on. We look forward to that, meanwhile lets enjoy our snowy landscape.

Monday

8AM: - 10 Celsius, overcast, light breeze from S-SE, fair visibility. Most of the trails have been cut yesterday.

Calm Sunday

Good morning! -8 Celsius, almost no wind and fair visibility welcomed us this morning. Seems like a nice day. We had maybe half a cm of snow last night which made our total snow depth about 70-75cm. 9PM update: It was a nice day - skiing on and off piste.

Snowy Saturday

My first day could not be better than skiing in snowy, windy and cool conditions. All those factors make our next days even more enjoyable. It was around -10 Celsius all day, windy in open areas, but really nice in forests. Most of the trails dispappeared, but we did mind having more snow underneath our skis, which came to an extra 5cm by 7PM. Weather forecast seems similar for next week, but we will see.

Another nice day!

-10, sunny, no wind. That must be close to perfect? Took a few photos on the way to Indre Uksan

Changing conditions

The weather changes quickly this year. Last week it was -18,5 at the coldest and +1,9 at the warmest. We had gale force wind on Friday, together with heavy snow. We still managed to go out, but we stayed mostly in the forest. Interesting to feel the wind, not often it is that strong! Hot chocolate in front of the fireplace is also recomended on such a day :-)
Today we had -3, no wind and good conditions.

Question of the week

Where is this place located? How far is it from Venabu Fjellhotell on skis?

Winterwonderland

This has been a really nice week! Tuesday we went round Kyrkjegardsfjell and to the top of Forbundsfjell. Freshly cut tracks most of the time, cut two days ago over Forbundsfjell, that gave everything a nice soft, beautiful, glittering surface. Round Svartfjell on Wednesday and round Veslefjell today in really strong wind. The temperature has varied from minus 12 to minus 5.

Questions of the week

Where is this signpost located? Name it and name the mountain in top left corner for extra points. And if you still find it too easy, please answer the following: When (year, month, day, hour) was this picture taken and by who? Thanks for playing.

Snowing again today. The whole world seemed quiet, white and soft. Skitour round the Trabeli mountain. Full moon today, took these photos yesterday.

Happy new year!

Happy new year from all of us at Venabu!
The blog is always best when Robert writes it himself, but since he is not at Venabu yet, I'll try my best. I was a bit worried three weeks before Christmas because there were hardly any snow. But luckily, it came, and we had more snow this Christmas, than last year.

Actually the whole year of 2011 was unusual. Less snow than usual, a very warm April that made us give up skiing in the middle of the Easter Holiday, then too much rain in June and bad flod in the Gudbrandsdalen valey. Even the main road, E6, had to cloce for 2-3 days because of too much water on the road (up to half a meter). The whole summer was more rainy than usual. Then it seemed to be no rain left, so the automn was dry and milder than usual, so when we started waiting for snow in october, we didn't get any! Luckily everything seems to be back to normal now!
I startet guiding again the 3rd of January and I had really been looking forward to it!! And since we got some more snow last week, I would say the snowconditions are very close to perfect by now! Almost all tracks are cut, and they even forecast more snow at the end of this week.

The light is always spesial in Desember and January. When we go out in the morning, by sunrise at 10am, the mountains are colored pink, and when we get back at 2pm we have the nice colors again, just an hour before the sun sets.

On Thursday we had a nice tour all the way to the top of Svartfjell, and we saw two elks on the way. That doesn't happen very often. The elks seems to be further down in the forest in wintertime.

Happy New Year!

I guess - as you all I am also looking forward to see Venabu this year. The conditions look just great and there has been some great trips already. Sadly I was not part of it, but in two weeks time I will be joining the team again. Look forward to post more nice pictures and stories. Please see pictures from exactly a year ago. There is more snow now! See you soon. Greetings from Robert.