PlanetSKI Takes an Easter Break in Gausta, Norway
30th March 2026 | Simon Wilson, Gausta, Norway.
Last modified on April 3rd, 2026
PlanetSKI’s Simon Wilson is on a family ski trip to Gausta in the Telemark region of Norway. There’s near perfect piste conditions today with fresh snow overnight to top up the already excellent and well looked-after slopes.
It’s a small ski area by alpine standards with only 35 km of marked pistes, but the resort makes up for it with a well thought out lift system.
Plus mercifully empty pistes for anyone who’s used to skiing in the big resorts in the Alps at this time of year, in the run up to Easter.
At the beginning of the week the weather was cool for the end of the season with a hard freeze overnight and the snow softening on lower slopes only after about 2pm.
The resort has 35 slopes that are accessed by its 13 lifts.
Gausta averages over 2.5m of snow each winter, and is often the first resort in Norway to receive snow.
Gausta, Norway. Image c/o Norway – Home of Skiing
Season: December – May
Nearest airport: Oslo Airport
Transfer time: 3.5 hours
Transport: Train / Bus / Private transport
Elevation: 3150 ft
Vertical drop: 1804 ft
Ski lifts: 13
Runs: 35
Grade: 10% Advanced, 40% Intermediate, 50% Beginners
See more in this earlier post on PlanetSKI:
Plenty of cruising piste skiing is possible.
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Gausta, Norway. Image © PlanetSKI
The main off piste attraction is a unique funicular ride up the inside of the imposing Gaustatoppen mountain which towers over the resort and a marked itinerary on the way down.
The train heads 850m into the centre of the mountain and then there’s a change to a funicular for a 1,000m, 39° ascent.
It was originally built as a top-secret military listening post to spy on the Russians during the Cold War.
The area also played a pivotal role in the Second World War when Norway was occupied by the Germans.
The Nazis took over the hydroelectric power plant at Vemork, a UNESCO Industrial Heritage Site, that is next to Gausta.
As well as a marvel of engineering, the daring story about the 1943 sabotage of the heavy water plant here featured in the 1965 film ‘The Heroes of Telemark’, that starred Kirk Douglas.
The founder of Gausta Ski Resort, Olav Svartdal, was Kirk Douglas’s stunt double in all the skiing scenes that feature in the film.
With the proceeds from this, he was able to build the main hotel in the resort which was recently refurbished to a high standard in 2022.
Gausta, Norway. Image © PlanetSKI
As the Easter weekend started on Good Friday we had 15cm of fresh snow and temperatures dropped to -6c overnight.
All this ensured an excellent day of piste skiing on Good Friday with good cover across the resort.
Gausta, Norway. Image © Simon Wilson/ PlanetSKI
Once Easter got underway it was busier with a larger percentage of Norwegian families on the slopes compared to earlier in the week.
And for the first time we started to see short lift queues of 15-20 minutes, whereas earlier in the week there were virtually none.
However, in contrast to some other parts of Europe, the lift queues here are terribly polite and orderly.
Gausta, Norway. Image © Simon Wilson/ PlanetSKI
There’s no pushing in and people quietly filling all the seats on the chairlifts to make sure the queue moves faster for others.
I know a few resorts in France – to name just one country – where this hardly ever happens.
All is set fair for the rest of the Easter weekend, with a fresh snowstorm due to swing through tonight leaving another 20+cm of powder for Easter Saturday.
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