 Poster: A snowHead
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Before going on this trip I had no idea what to expect, so thought I'd post a short TR and some pics.
The numbers:
4 days in Norway, 3 days skiing
Cost of ski pass: around £100 for three days
Cost of a big cinnamon bun and fancy hot chocolate at a (lovely) mountainside restaurant: £7.50 
Cost of a small glass of wine or hot wine: £8  
Snow: lots, very soft
Best for: beginners/intermediates/park rats
So Hafjell is not the biggest of areas, but it is a good novelty place to go skiing and an excellent place for beginners or intermediates. The terrain is extremely different to the Alps - think rolling, tree-covered hills - and the max altitude is only 1,000m or so. We were lucky when we were there and it was around 2C to -3C, but it can get much colder.
First day was cloudy, snowing lightly and persistently all day. Vis was poor but the snow was so soft and forgiving that it didn't matter too much. To be honest a speedy-ish skier could cover the whole area in a day without breaking a sweat but I was there with a group of friends so took it pretty easy and stayed predominantly in the tree line. The one ill-advised trip we took up to the top was shortly followed by a swift descent to get out of the cold (why is it that the chairlifts seem so much slower when the weather is bad?)
Most of the runs are green/blue and only get purplish at most (though these 'purples' are actually lovely runs with some great rolling humps to keep you on your toes when you're skiing quickly  ). The Olympic run and associated mogul run was closed for slalom practice or race the whole time we were there, which was a little disappointing.
That evening I checked the forecast and was delighted to see predictions of sun  ...
... which the others cruelly mocked me for on Day 2, seemingly murky as the first. But! As we went up on the first long gondola we suddenly emerged above a temperature inversion into glorious sunshine. Dammit, I had lost faith in my own forecast and was now wearing bad weather goggles. We went up to the top to this view:
There was also about half a foot of fresh powder, which we played in doing circuits under the lift line. Funnily the lift did not seem so cold any more...
By lunchtime the others were hungry and I was still hungry for powder, so I snuck off to the quietest part of the resort and was rewarded by a load of untouched snow.
As you can see it isn’t steep but it was extremely quiet and you can keep yourself entertained - unfortunately there’s a lot of cross-country ish tracks and a lot of punting if you go down this side, not much fun for boarders. I also had a moment of fear dropping back down into the temperature inversion cloud that I had missed the lift and gone down a random XC track – almost but not quite. Soon I spied the lurid colours and baggy clothes of the park rats and realised i was in the right place...though not quite ‘steezy’ enough as half these kids seemed to spend most of their journey up the drag lift skiing on the back tips of their skis or dragging themselves from the poma...the top of the lifts are unmanned so there is nobody to tell them off.
Met up with the others again and watched a magical sunset before descending in the semi-dark and murk. The main slopes into resort are lit from about 4pm from the mid-station though we didn’t do any night skiing.
Day 3: conditions were much the same as day 1. By now I’d skied out the area and was happy just cruising and playing in the trees – some fun little chutes through the trees. There was a friendly looking snowpark which I did a few jumps in (note despite skiing for many years I really don’t do jumps so I’m not quite sure what I was doing on that box!), as well as a much less friendly one that crazies were somersaulting off while trying to hold their trousers on. Hafjell is actually a really good resort for park fans, I think there were 4 parks in total and everything was pretty quiet. The park enthusiasm must have infected me because on the way back down I took my life in my hands and got a small air in the boarder/ski cross course that runs down to the main ‘Hafjell 2’ chairlift (or ‘Diet Coke’ chairlift).
All in all, it wasn’t too expensive considering it was a long weekend (£200 ish shared accommodation in cabin, £100 flights inc carriage, £75 train to Lillehammer, £40 food, £100 lift pass). Recommended for something a bit different!
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Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Fri 7-03-14 15:55; edited 3 times in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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belette, top report. The Norwegians seem to love parks - Hemsedal has loads of them too.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Enjoyed that, thanks.
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