On the road again

14th April 2014

Last modified on October 21st, 2022

Another day, another resort.

Today, Alex and I, rolled into the resort of Hafjell that is about 20kms to the north of Lillehammer, the venue of the 1994 Winter Olympics.

We are currently on a short road trip round a handful of resorts in south western Norway – see here for our first report as we visited the largest ski area in Norway,Trysil.

The powder was fresh and we got a bit competitive – as boys do.

The joy of a road trip is the chance to see a bit of the country we were skiing in, so we pulled over in Lillehammer for an unscheduled look round.

Lillehammer itself is surprisingly small; I was expecting a city but it is no bigger than a large British town. It’s 1/10th the size of Luton.

Hard to think 2m guests were looked after back in 1994 in a town that had just 27,000 inhabitants.

We made the trip to the top of the Olympic ski jump and posed for the obligatory photo.

Lillehammer. Image © PlanetSKI

Unlike other Olympic cities the ski jump is not overgrown with weeds, but is still in use as the Nordic sports are more popular that alpine skiing.

It was the centre-piece of The Games and has provided a real legacy for the region.

Hafjell was also involved in the 1994 Games where it hosted the slalom and the giant slalom. It has since held  women’s World Cup downhill races

The Downhill was the first run that Alex and I headed to as we were on a mission to see some of the more challenging skiing that Norway has to offer.

I knew about the cross-country, the husky dog rides and reindeer safaris from previous visits to other parts of Norway; this time we wanted to see the skiing.

The Downhill was a fabulous roller of a run with steep pitches and sharp turns and we skied it in one go – our time was 3 minutes and 6 seconds from top to bottom.

Not quite as good as world Cup racers who do it in under half that time, but it was respectable nonetheless. And our thighs certainly felt it.

Well mine did anyway.

Racer ready. Image © PlanetSKI

In the tuck. Image © PlanetSKI

“You look a bit out of breath Dad,” laughed Alex as I arrived “several” seconds after him at the bottom. His legs are 20 years old – mine are 35 years older. I needed a rest.

The resort has 44km of pistes and 4 terrain parks. There are 17 lifts giving access to 32 runs; 11 blue, 10 green, 7 red and 4 black.

There are also a few après-ski bars.

After a day skiing in Hafjell there is only one place to go – Woody’s.

Apres ski British style. Image © PlanetSKI

It’s an English-run après ski bar and inside I bumped into several British locals at the bar including, Scott Hammond.

The locals. Image © PlanetSKI

Scott used to work in Verbier pulling pints in the Pub Mont Fort and working in a local ski shop, No 1. He was a Verbier seasonaire for a decade and now lives in Norway.

“There is no comparison in terms of off piste as Verbier is in a league of its own and here it is very limited. However the on piste skiing is some of the best in the world and the grooming is as good as it gets,” he said over a beer.

“If you want to ski hard and fast with no-one else on the slopes you can really blast fast here in Hafjell. There is good quality snow and it is cold and dry. I love it here and with Norway you need to treat if for what it is and enjoy it for what it is,” he added.

It was a good point.

If you compare the skiing in Norway with some of the A-List resorts in The Alps you are entirely missing the point of the place.

Worse – the main attraction of Norway is that it is NOT the Alps.

Views of Norway. Image © PlanetSKI

It has wonderful scenery, friendly locals, a variety of great food and the experience of skiing somewhere entirely different.

Our road trip, arranged by FlyDrive Norway, is perhaps the best way to do it; not least for some of the views while travelling round the country.

On the road. Image © PlanetSKI

Hafjell is at 180m above sea level and the skiing goes up to 1,030m. It is small by alpine standards.

The runs are cut through the trees, like in many North American resorts, though to my mind it has a far more authentic feel than some of the resorts of the USA where it can sometimes feel like skiing in Disneyland.

Others go further and say the USA is more like skiing in La-la land.

Norway is real.

Skiing, whether alpine or cross-country, is in the blood of Norwegians and is part of their national character.

It is more than a sport; it is a national pastime and everyone skis. People ski to work and kids ski to school.

Norway. Image © PlanetSKI

They are some of the friendliest and genuine people I have met.

Apparently they don’t have many swear words in their language, they are too polite, so people that want to curse widely have to use English words.

There is no need to separate skis at lunchtime as they won’t get stolen and at one restaurant I didn’t have enough money to pay for our two pizzas so the waitress said, “No problem just come back and pay later.”

That would not happen in Meribel.

In the ski hire shops the staff were some of the best I have come across as I reported in this earlier article from Trysil – they were the same at the other shops I visited in Hafjell and Kvitfjell and I have been in a lot of ski shops in my time.

Our night in Hafjell ended where our day had finished – Woody’s.

Closing time. Image © PlanetSKI

A local musician, Jules, entertained the bar with a fabulous set. As I thought of the number of bars and clubs in most ski resorts in the Alps a thought popped into my head.

You can only be in one bar at any one time and if it is a good bar there is no need to move on.

Better to have one good bar than a string of mediocre ones.

Woody’s was a good bar.

Perhaps too good, as tomorrow was an early start and I feared my head might be a little, er, fuzzy. Alex and I were off to our next resort – Kvitfjell.

Alex had retired to bed at a sensible time, but I’m afraid his Dad displayed his customary pathetic lack of will power.

Kvitfjell is home of a past Olympic downhill run and is currently on the World Cup circuit.  I needed to be on form.

Fact Box

James and Alex Cove are seeing Norway with FlyDrive Norway – see its web site here. 

The company offers adventurous skiers who want to discover the country and see as many resorts as they wish the opportunity to build their own bespoke holiday. 

It is a one-stop shop for flights, car hire, accommodation and excursions.  It offers 3 so-called,Ski Bum Tours, – The Central Tour, The Capital Tour and the Fyord Tour; see here for further details.