 Poster: A snowHead
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We opted for more local (to us) skiing for our half term break this year, rather than brave the scrum of peak season in the French Alps. Hemsedal is a 6.5 hour really easy drive from Gothenburg, 2-2.5 from Oslo for those flying in from abroad, so it got the nod. Accommodation was an apartment in the Skarsnuten area, which is halfway up the mountain and accessed via either a toll road (toll pass included in the price of the apartment) or an old, slow 2 man chair lift. It's great if you want convenient access to the slopes (ski in ski out, even with very little snow) and has a more alpine feel than the main centre lower down; it wouldn't be good if you wanted apres but that's not our thing. The apartment was spacious, reasonably well-equipped and clean, and the one issue we had (a blocked shower drain) fixed quickly after reporting it. Self-catering is the norm in Norway, unless you have the income of a small country at your disposal, and since we drove up we brought (literally) all our food with us so no expensive shopping trips in resort. Mrs mgrolf (not skiing this year) did have a few coffees in the hotel just above our apartment, which were pricey but no more so than in a similar hotel in a UK city.
The ski area is relatively large for Scandinavia: 20 lifts and 49 pistes, maximum vertical drop of just over 800m and the longest piste 6km down into the village below. The lifts are a mix of fast detachable chairs, a couple of slow non-detachables (Olaheisen is particularly bad) and drag lifts. It has a more classically alpine feel than many of the other resorts too, combining different slope aspects with a compact layout, and plenty of easily accessed relatively safe off-piste. Most runs are gentle, though a couple of the blacks can be testing if the snow is difficult. There are several park areas, boardercross, slalom etc and some fun features for the young 'uns. Normally, it would be buried under metres of snow in February but this winter being anything but normal, the official site was suggesting 17cm of snow base the day we arrived - not a good sign. I was expecting a brown and grey scene but in reality it was far better than expected. All bar 2 or 3 lifts were running all week (though sadly not the Totten 2 t-bar that takes you right to the top of the resort) and about half of the pistes. There is extensive snow-making, and it had been cold the 10 days before so the pistes were actually pretty decent, if a bit artificial and scrapey in places. Most of the slopes are (roughly) north-facing which helped to preserve what snow there was. Route choice was a bit limited, since the 2 chairs up to the separate peaks (Tindenheisen and Roniheisen lifts) only had a single piste open from each. The long run down to the town was also closed due to the lack of snow. It was possible to do every lift and run in less than a day (saturday's challenge) but even so we didn't feel short of pistes. We tended to start on Roniheisen in the sun, then move round to the rest of the mountain after a few runs as piste 14 got scraped and less pleasant. Piste 16 down from Tindenheisen was a bit of a favourite, a gentle wide blue with enough space to carve long turns and also bits off the side to play in. Black nr 8, allegedly one of the toughest in Norway, was also good. The resort was busy but we rarely queued for more than 5 minutes other than first thing in the morning, and there was plenty of space on most pistes. Temperatures oscillated either side of freezing all week; by the end of the week, more and more ice was appearing on the busier pistes and it got noticeably quieter, possibly because of this. We were happy to be leaving when we did, with the Oslo crowd arriving for what must be the busiest week of the season, and no significant snow forecast, but for our week it was fine.
Highlights: nearly first lift up Roniheisen on Wednesday morning (totally inadvertently) giving freshly groomed cordurouy all the way down, in bright sunlight - one of the best runs mini-mg and I have done together, just so much fun  but sadly already cut up and scraped when we went back up; and mini-mg skiing black nr 6 (unpisted refrozen crud, 35 degrees) very capably and in control.
Lowlights: the lack of off-piste (and snow generally), plus the arrival on Saturday afternoon of far more aggressive skiiers. The quota of Kastle, Stockli and Norrona gear jumped noticeably, and the friendly atmosphere turned; one group of (adult) skiiers seemed to think it was fine to close up to literally less than 30 cm behind us, with their skis between ours (and sticking out in front of mini-mg's). No harm done, but so totally unnecessary and completely out of kilter with the normal laid-back, friendly Scandi feel.
Overall, a great week despite the lack of snow, and somewhere that should be on the radar for anyone looking for something a little different to the standard Alps fare.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Good TR. Well done to mini-mg skiing run 6...I know I couldn't.
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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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We love Hemsedal, have you tried Trysil?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@warbis66, did a day there 2 years ago when we stayed in Sälen, at easter. It was hot, slushy and mini-mg was rather tired and grumpy so we didn't get a good feel for the place! We will probably try it again soon though. My impression was that it felt more like a big hill whereas Hemsedal definitely feels like proper mountains.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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haha! really good skiing around the hill though!
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