My Norwegian Ski Trip
I’ve been working at a Norwegian bank for over seven months now. In that time, I have taken three trips to Oslo for work, but haven’t been able to spend much time exploring the country with the exception of going out to dinner after work. I decided for my trip at the end of March that it was time to take advantage of the opportunity to be in Norway so much, so I booked my return flight on a Sunday instead of my usual Friday and planned on staying in Oslo for a weekend. But what should I do with that extra time?
Ever since I skied at 7AM for a few hours before work that one time, I’ve been dying to go skiing again in Norway. I was bit by the ski bug (pre-mom breaking her leg) and have made it a small goal of mine to start skiing at former Olympic mountains. For those of you who don’t know, Norway is home to two former winter Olympic Games (1952 and 1994). The decision was pretty easy - I would do a ski day in Norway. I just had no idea where to go or how to get there. Luckily, I have some colleagues who were there to guide me.
Norefjell and Hafjell are the two mountains I had to choose from. Norefjell was two hours away from Oslo while Hafjell was three. Both had a bus that took you directly to the mountain from the Oslo bus terminal. Round trip bus and one day lift ticket cost 590 NOK or roughly 67 USD. I ended up choosing Hafjell because it looked like it had more trails.
The morning of the day trip I woke up at 6AM to catch the 7:15AM bus. By 10AM, I was renting my skis and hopping on the lift for my first run of the day. The bus left at 4:30PM to return to Oslo and I was back at my hotel by 8PM. Perfect amount of time for a solo ski day!
At the end of the day, I had mixed feelings about the whole trip. Let’s take a minute and unpack:
The views were breathtaking. At certain points on the mountain you can see a river with the most icy blue water. Once the sun came out that afternoon, the views were even better.
The conditions were great despite being the last week of March. I am not looking forward to going back to the icy conditions of east coast skiing!
The mountain was surprisingly easy. The height seemed to be just as tall if not taller than some of the mountains I’ve skied on in Vermont. Despite that, the trails were very easy with only one black diamond on the entire mountain. This was a little disappointing. I had a good time for the day but would probably not spend a full weekend skiing there.
This was probably my first time skiing alone ever in my life and honestly, I wasn’t that big of a fan. Which brings me to…
This trip was exactly one month since my mom’s ski accident in Vermont and I did not anticipate how hard it would be for me to ski without her. Skiing has been our thing to do together since forever but especially since I graduated from undergrad. Her leg was broken really badly in February and she kept talking like she may never ski again. As I was skiing in Norway, I felt myself getting quite emotional. Not only did I miss her, but in a way I was probably mourning the possibility that I may never ski with her again. I even facetimed her while eating lunch and turned into that crazy American girl crying her eyes out in a bar… Skiing solo was my new normal and it was hard to accept. (I actually haven’t accepted that fact yet - I’m currently taking applications for new ski buddies. Apply in the comments below.)
So, would I ski again in Norway? Probably not (unless I go with my coworkers for a work trip). But I definitely want to ski again in Europe! Any suggestions on where I should go next?
xoxo - Kim