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.

Skisafari, Thursday

9PM update: We had a skisafari from Gunstadseter, along Snødølhøgda and Veslemuen to Gråhøgdbu (DNT-hut) and back to Venabu. It was great, but challenging. Little snow and very icy in the beginning, then really nice conditions. Soft and wet on the way down from Gråhøgdbu. Interesting to see the changes in snow conditions, from dry snow to wet, as we went downhill.

Thursday

Good morning, at 6AM: -4.5 Celsius (I am glad that the forecast is wrong again!), light breeze from N-NW, partly cloudy, great visibility (even towards Rondane peaks). It is warming up quickly, so we probably stay on ice klister again. According to forecast we are expecting a cloudy day with mild temperatures.

Wednesday

6AM: +0.4 Celsius, light breeze from W, great visibility, partly cloudy. It seems like we are on ice klister today since overnight temperatures were close to freezing.
7PM update: We had a great, but a bit challenging tour to the northern parts of Venabygdsfjellet, skiing close to Bolhogda and Ramstinden mountains with the views of Muen and Rondane peaks. The conditions were fairly stable until midday and most of the southern slopes became wet and soft, which made it a bit hard. We were on ice klister all day - proved to be a good choice. Temperature stayed plus all day with a maximum of: +6 Celsius.

Skisafari tour on Trolloypa South

Another update: We also had a tour to Måsåplassen today. Strong wind from behind made it easy. Still nice conditions, but very little snow some places, especially where it has been windy.

Mild days- melting away

Good morning, at 6 AM: +3 Celsius, moderate breeze from W-NW, partly cloudy. Yesterday was the first day of this season when we had only plus degrees and I think there are more on the way - as it looks. Trails are rapidly changing conditions, so we hope we get some cold weather soon to preserve the rest of snow.

Late update: Nice day out on klister. It was fairly windy, so we tried to stay in forrested areas. Winter colours are slightly changing to darker pattern. Trails are still holding on to their structure, but some parts are softening up. Off piste tour options are very limited under vegetation line, in the mountains it is still fair condition, but some parts are icy or scattered with softer top layers.

Monday

Good morning, at 6AM: +1.1 Celsius, fresh breeze from W-NW, clear sky, great visibility. Last night we had a few attractions to look/listen/feel and be amazed at: Northern lights, high winds, icy surface and subzero temperature. Today has started mild and it will stay like this for a day or two. We need to prepare for a klister day.

Late update: Great day out on klister - climbing Dynjefjell, sadly the ridges were snowfree, but valleys were great to ski in.

Sunday

Good morning, at 7AM: -5 Celsius, light breeze, good visibility, overcast. We are looking ahead of a cloudy and mild day with stronger wind coming later in the day (staying for several hours).
Evening update: Yes it was/is mild, we were fine on hard wax (violet, red) until 1PM and it started warming up, then it was obvious to use klister (KR 60, Vario/ 0 to +5 Celsius) - which was just fine. The forecast was a bit off on most fronts: it was sunny and very mild.
Wind started blowing from midday on and it has been picking up since. Temperature reached plus degrees, it is around +3 Celsius now at 7PM.

Saturday blizzard and views

1PM update: Looking outside it seems like we are in a middle of a blizzard. It is snowing and blowing heavy - despite of the mild (+1.3 Celsius) temperature.
We just had a fun tour checking out our skisafari areas and found some amazing views including animal tracks. This could be the question of this weekend. Which animal did leave these tracks?(answer is in the title of pictures) Of course all these photos were taken before the snow came down.