 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi. UK family here. So we're all booked up to go to Trysil on 27th Dec 2024 for 7 nights staying at the Radisson Blu resort. If anyone has any knowledge/experience who can answer the following, much appreciated !!
1. How do the green/blue/red slope categories compare between Trysil and Avoriaz in terms of difficulty ? Reason for asking is that when we went on our 1st ever ski trip to Avoriaz early Jan 2023, the instructor told us that a French blue is typically a Red anywhere else. Which started to make sense because I went assuming I'd be fine on green and some of the easier blues but found a lot of the blues really difficult. Had a 2km walk down one of them as it was just too steep for me
2. How busy would the Trysil slopes typically be from 27th Dec to 3rd Jan. I assume it can't be any busier than our Avoriaz trip last year where snow conditions were awful and all surrounding mountains were closed which meant EVERYONE headed to the limited number of open slopes at Avoriaz.
3. I did a quick check on Trysil temperature last week showed minus 28 celsius. Are we likely to need specialist/expensive clothing to deal with those sort of temperatures ? We bought all our stuff last year from Mountain Warehouse/Decathlon so not sure if that quality will suffice ?
4. We're part of a larger group of 15 (mix of adults & kids). What are the social spaces like at the Radisson Blu resort ? Is there plenty of seating for families/groups to sit together or are we likely to struggle ? Do these social spaces tend to be in the hotel bar or does the lobby have seating as well ?
5. I know alcohol is really expensive but what about soft drinks ? I have no issue loading up my wives handbag with miniatures bottles of vodka and discretely slipping that in to a glass of Coke under the table.
6. Whilst I'm likely to get away with topping up a soft drink with vodka, I was also hoping to take my own beer which would be a lot more obvious. How likely is it that the hotel would be OK with me drinking my own beer ?
I know it's going to be an expensive holiday so anywhere I can save money is a bonus. And for anyone thinking well why did you book Norway, having experience very poor snow last year, we wanted to go somewhere where good snow was pretty much guaranteed at new year because our dates are restricted by school holidays.
Thanks all.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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| gavman99 wrote: |
Hi. UK family here. So we're all booked up to go to Trysil on 27th Dec 2024 for 7 nights staying at the Radisson Blu resort. If anyone has any knowledge/experience who can answer the following, much appreciated !!
1. How do the green/blue/red slope categories compare between Trysil and Avoriaz in terms of difficulty ? Reason for asking is that when we went on our 1st ever ski trip to Avoriaz early Jan 2023, the instructor told us that a French blue is typically a Red anywhere else. Which started to make sense because I went assuming I'd be fine on green and some of the easier blues but found a lot of the blues really difficult. Had a 2km walk down one of them as it was just too steep for me
2. How busy would the Trysil slopes typically be from 27th Dec to 3rd Jan. I assume it can't be any busier than our Avoriaz trip last year where snow conditions were awful and all surrounding mountains were closed which meant EVERYONE headed to the limited number of open slopes at Avoriaz.
3. I did a quick check on Trysil temperature last week showed minus 28 celsius. Are we likely to need specialist/expensive clothing to deal with those sort of temperatures ? We bought all our stuff last year from Mountain Warehouse/Decathlon so not sure if that quality will suffice ?
4. We're part of a larger group of 15 (mix of adults & kids). What are the social spaces like at the Radisson Blu resort ? Is there plenty of seating for families/groups to sit together or are we likely to struggle ? Do these social spaces tend to be in the hotel bar or does the lobby have seating as well ?
5. I know alcohol is really expensive but what about soft drinks ? I have no issue loading up my wives handbag with miniatures bottles of vodka and discretely slipping that in to a glass of Coke under the table.
6. Whilst I'm likely to get away with topping up a soft drink with vodka, I was also hoping to take my own beer which would be a lot more obvious. How likely is it that the hotel would be OK with me drinking my own beer ?
I know it's going to be an expensive holiday so anywhere I can save money is a bonus. And for anyone thinking well why did you book Norway, having experience very poor snow last year, we wanted to go somewhere where good snow was pretty much guaranteed at new year because our dates are restricted by school holidays.
Thanks all. |
Its a goodly while since i've been to Trysil, but I did do a feb half term trip there so here goes....
1) Not been to Avoriaz but France has "greens" the rest of the world pretty much doesn't so your quote holds. I don't recall the Blues in Trysil being anything other than gentle, that said there are some green graded slopes in Trysil too, but there were mega gentle, and plenty of gentle blues too. All the steeper stuff is in area's that are easily avoided, typical of scandinaniva its a relatively low hill sticking out of a plain, not an alpine valley, hence you just dont get the "tricky home run down to the valley floor".
2) all i can say is Half term there was busy, but less busy than HT other Alps resorts i've been to, and massive generalisation, but the bigger French resorts tend to be the busiest of the Alpine resorts, as the french like to Ski and there are 60-70m of them vs 5.5m norwegians. I don't recall any significant lift queues. Scandanvia is north enough not be getting the lack of snow problems which you experienced in France this year.
3) It was -21 one day we were there, you needed a snood over your face as exposed skin soon hurt, but just take plenty of base / mid layers or jumpers etc. nothing super specialist or expensive needed.
4) there is a lobby area as well as the bar and there is a bowling alley area that served pizza etc. It was busy but not overly so as a lot of families would eat and return to rooms (or drink in their rooms see below). The bowling bit was quite crowded and I recall the food service was appallingly slow the evening we chose to eat there, but we got an upgrade to our half board another night to the posh restaurant to compensate. the half board food in general was very good
5) Nothing is cheap in norway, but I dont recall soft drinks being extortionate. Hot chocolate and coffee on the slopes were reasonable too, probably cheaper than france, but not as cheap as Italy. Restaurant dole out lovely tasting tap water for free.
6) you can buy beer and wine and spirits in the airport duty free on arrival and beer (not wine or spirits) in the little supermarket in the "resort village" by the Raddison. Wine and spirits have to be bought from the govt shop in Tyrsil town or from the bar.
We (and others) drank wine & beer in our rooms before going to dinner (and / or after) Hotel had no issue with that (nor with a subtle raid of the breakfast buffet for mid morning snack / ham roll in the pocket for lunch), I think they half expect you to buy stuff from the resort shop and consume it in your rooms. We were given interconnected rooms for the kids so just met up (2 families) and the kids chatted in one room and adults in chatted and drunk in the other.
I think topping up your coke with vodka from the handbag in the bar would be rightly frowned on if caught. Taking you own beer into their bar should rightly get you thrown out into the snow. Don't even think about it.
I think the rest of Europe is catching up with bar prices for beer in Scandinavia - you can probably find a beer in ski resort in France more expensive than in the radisson trysil to be honest.
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@ster @t44tomo - thanks both so much for your replies.
I figured drinking your own alcohol would be frowned on but no harm in double checking. We've booked directly with the hotel but for some reason there was no half board option to pick from so its just B&B for us.
We have plenty base and mid layers so sounds like snoods may be what we need. Do you reckon glove liners will suffice inside standard non-expensive ski gloves ?
As someone who wears glasses, I'm hoping its cold enough to avoid any goggle misting. Wasn't an issue in Avoriaz because with temps just above zero, never got cold enough to need the goggles, or at least not at the slow speeds I was going at !
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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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@gavman99, as @t44tomo says it can be extremely cold especially when you're going. I haven't been to Trysil but have been to Beitostølen in January and it was pretty cold so be prepared. It will go dark comparatively early as well.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Re gloves @gavman99, yes, if your hands are cold, wear another layer on your body, that's usually the issue and you body warms your core up by restricting blood flowing to your extremities. Keep your core warm and your hands and toes will be fine.
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@gavman99, last week was exceptionally cold across Scandinavia. So whilst -28 isn't way out of the ordinary, it's also not the normal temperature for Trysil at new year. One thing to bear in mind is that if it is very cold, it'll likely be a dry cold so much more manageable than you might expect. You may need an extra layer, mittens rather than gloves, and be prepared to nip into a varmestuga (literally, warm hut) regularly to warm up.
Most of the pistes in Trysil are fairly mellow. The Høgegga sector has the toughest slopes but apart from there, nothing else really matches french reds and there are some really nice mellow green & blue runs. Don't get tempted to try Eksperten (piste 75) though unless you are happy on steeps - it really is 45 degrees at the top. Even if it is busy, it won't feel like the Alps because in general people are more relaxed and polite in their skiing.
I wrote a trip report from 2018 here. Re-reading bits of it reminded me of the wind, which was more of a problem than the temperature that year.
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We were there Xmas 2019, at the mountain resort instead of the one at the bottom but we did go there on Xmas day to go surfing.
Everything is clean, people are pretty relaxed and the slopes are not very busy compared to France. Norwegians do a lot of x country skiing and while driving to a resort is ok, every town pretty much has a local hill which is good for 3-4 runs if you don’t fancy the drive as you live in that town. New Years is more special for them compared to Xmas.
There is a supermarket in the town (green light but can’t remember the name) but even supermarkets are expensive.
You can usually make a packed lunch from breakfast. Normally they have paper bags you can ask for or which are visible to put your made sandwich in. So we’d have a nice big brekkie and then make a sandwich for lunch. As we had a kitchen we would cook the evening meal.
Temps were -5 to -10. Nothing ridiculous like -28 or -40 (thanks Canada 2023!).
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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So in response by point
1. They are easier for the same grading, nothing holds many terrors except as mgrolf mentions Eksperten (piste 75), its steep but its not long, not to far to fall/slide, but be warned once you get to its lip you take it or its a bit of a schlep to another way down. But if you want to do it then seize the day if you see it open as it was often closed, in the 12 days skiing we've done there it was only open for a couple of days (poor snow cover/fog).
2. Dont know about Avoriaz, but Trysil really doesnt get too busy, and the first few days of Xmas period might be quiet when people do Xmas at home then drive up to their ski lodges there afterwards. In any case, the queues are orderly and people polite.
3. When we were there it wasnt so cold as the days had lengthened. But I did get thin balaclavas from Decatlon, then returned them unopened as unused.
4. The pool is good, has seating poolside and a bar! The bowling gets busy so if you want to bowl then, book early. There is a bar area in the lobby (we didnt go).
5. We got the half board option, if you want it and its not on the website to book there, just ring them up and they can add it, its well worth it. Will you have a car? If so you can stock up at the supermarkets in town (not too expensive), and its a 5 min drive. My daughter brought a soft drink to the buffet every evening and they werent fussed. But for alcohol , as said, buy at duty free, the one in Olso is pretty good if you cant be bothered lugging it from UK. If you go get the half board, its in the buffet (pretty good and has something for everyone) but for one night they let you eat in one of the other restaurtants in the hotel (to a limit) which is a nice change. We did eat in the pizza place in the lobby, its pretty good, and the American burger bar at the bowling, a bit greasy to tell the truth.
6. Thats really a no no in most places.
Like I said, get the half board, load up at breakfast, then a snacky lunch, the waffles are a good bet, Knettsetra is a good place for those, otherwise Barbacoa at the base of Blue 20 is not too pricey.
Last edited by Ski the Net with snowHeads  on Tue 9-01-24 22:09; edited 1 time in total
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Agent Orange wrote: |
There is a supermarket in the town (green light but can’t remember the name) but even supermarkets are expensive.
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There are a few actually, a couple along the main highway (Kiwi and Rema 1000 (mid price range) that face each other with their carparks in between, you cant miss them), and one if not two a bit further away in the town shopping centre where you need to cross the river (the more expensive set ups) . Theres also a Europris on the main road in but to the south which is a weird mix of a few bulk food items and household wares (prob the cheapest if you can find what you want in it but I wouldnt count on it)
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@gavman99, who did you book with, to or diy?
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@gavman99, we just got back from Trysil this Christmas, 2 adults and a 9 year old, so:
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1. How do the green/blue/red slope categories compare between Trysil and Avoriaz in terms of difficulty ? Reason for asking is that when we went on our 1st ever ski trip to Avoriaz early Jan 2023, the instructor told us that a French blue is typically a Red anywhere else. Which started to make sense because I went assuming I'd be fine on green and some of the easier blues but found a lot of the blues really difficult. Had a 2km walk down one of them as it was just too steep for me
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I can't speak of Avoriaz specifically, but the general consensus is that the Trysil grading is 'easier'. Some of the greens run across the main slopes so you often get a chance to turn off (from a red or blue onto a green), however on a snowboard as they (the greens, in particular number 19) are quite narrow and flat in places I found that more of a pain! The blues are milder than most we've encountered on our travels (mainly comparing to Austria) and although I didn't manage to explore as much as intended, red 77 is very mild, with only 1 tiny steep section about 3/4 of the way down that is probably the same gradient (or perhaps even more mild) as the entirety of a 'normal' red run. The other reds are closer to 'true reds'.
We didn't do Blue 26, however an instructor told us that was the steepest blue there, so if we wanted to take a more mild route then you can start on 78 and join 49 to get to the same endpoint.
However as always snow conditions make a difference, despite a poor snow forecast we had snow (almost) every day this year, which made life simple. Perhaps in icy conditions my view would be very different!
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2. How busy would the Trysil slopes typically be from 27th Dec to 3rd Jan. I assume it can't be any busier than our Avoriaz trip last year where snow conditions were awful and all surrounding mountains were closed which meant EVERYONE headed to the limited number of open slopes at Avoriaz.
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Much less busy than France/Austria, we found it was probably busier the last couple of days, but over Christmas and in the run up to New Year it was fairly quiet (even though the hotel was full)!
The longest we queued for the main lift T2 (from your perspective coming from the Radisson Blu) was around 20 minutes at a guess, although the chair lifts did annoyingly stop an unusually large number of times and it can get quite windy!!!
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3. I did a quick check on Trysil temperature last week showed minus 28 celsius. Are we likely to need specialist/expensive clothing to deal with those sort of temperatures ? We bought all our stuff last year from Mountain Warehouse/Decathlon so not sure if that quality will suffice ?
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When we checked the forecast we too saw a -28 day and a couple of other cold ones, but luckily for us when we got there the first day peaked at -17 then it got warmer, with a couple of days around -9 and the rest between -3 and -7 (ideal skiing temperature in my view)!
With regards to clothing, I bought some new Level mitts which say good to -17 and my hands got cold on the colder days on the lift. On the milder days I wore a baselayer a flannel type shirt and a shell jacket and on the colder days I replaced the shell with an insulated ski jacket (but as I say we never had extreme temperatures).
Definitely take hand and foot warmers for children, we bought heated gloves (not the USB chargable ones as we were warned off them), but found in the end traditional well insulated Hestra gloves with a merino inner layer we got from the Ski Star shop (and a toe warmer wrapped around the thumb) was the ultimate combo!
Her jacket was Mountain Warehouse and helmet Wedze and we didn't have too many complaints about a cold head or body (she did also wear a neckwarmer from Mountain Warehouse and a ski mask).
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4. We're part of a larger group of 15 (mix of adults & kids). What are the social spaces like at the Radisson Blu resort ? Is there plenty of seating for families/groups to sit together or are we likely to struggle ? Do these social spaces tend to be in the hotel bar or does the lobby have seating as well ?
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There never looked to be much seating, but equally we never struggled to find any, so I guess there's more than it seems!
There are some larger tables in the bar area, however you may need to get there early and camp out to secure one (although later on it does empty out too).
There isn't really any additional seating in the lobby, but the Brasserie restaurant next to the bar has additional tables which are separate from the eating area so you can probably join some of them together without getting in anyone's way.
Also the Bowling/American Diner tends to have seating free, but its set in 4's.
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5. I know alcohol is really expensive but what about soft drinks ? I have no issue loading up my wives handbag with miniatures bottles of vodka and discretely slipping that in to a glass of Coke under the table.
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Whilst we were there one guy brazenly took out a bottle of whiskey (750ml not a minature!!!!) and started blatantly pouring it at the table, unsurprisingly he was escorted out of the bar area quite quickly!
After the first couple of days they always had to security people watching the drinking area, they spoke to quite a few people, but it was in Norwegian so it may have just been friendly chat rather than telling people off.
A soft drink (e.g. Coke or Fanta) was 42 NOK which looking at Revolut was £3.28 when we were there. A glass of Reisling for comparison was 143 NOK, which was about £11. They also have free water available in the corner.
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6. Whilst I'm likely to get away with topping up a soft drink with vodka, I was also hoping to take my own beer which would be a lot more obvious. How likely is it that the hotel would be OK with me drinking my own beer ?
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See above, if spotted you may be marched back to the room (not entirely sure what happened to that guy, I assume they just told him if he wanted to drink his own alcohol he had to do it in his room).
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I know it's going to be an expensive holiday so anywhere I can save money is a bonus. And for anyone thinking well why did you book Norway, having experience very poor snow last year, we wanted to go somewhere where good snow was pretty much guaranteed at new year because our dates are restricted by school holidays.
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That was exactly the same logic as us!
We have been to Are, Sweden twice, Voss once and most recently Trysil...our plan is to spend as much time in the Nordics as we can going forward, so if you can get past the cold its worth it in my view!
The only things to look out for (other than the cost and the cold) are the piste labelling, which is non-existent in places and also the piste map, which is a bit imprecise (for example you can't get T8, join green 24 and then green 19 even though the map suggests you can)!
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You know it makes sense.
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Thanks all for some really good info there.
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Will you have a car? If so you can stock up at the supermarkets in town (not too expensive), and its a 5 min drive.
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No we won't have access to a car and we're in a standard room so no kitchen facilities to cook anything. Are we likely to save money going half board versus eating at hotel and/or restaurants within walking distance ? I assume the nearby restaurants would be open in the evenings. One downside to half board is it forces your hand to eat there so is there likely to be enough variety to last a week ?
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who did you book with, to or diy?
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So far its DIY. Based on current exchange rates, 2 standard rooms for 4 people comes in at £2,680 so £670pp B&B for 7 nights. I thought that was quite reasonable tbh. Plus flights on top of that obviously.
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Definitely take hand and foot warmers for children, we bought heated gloves (not the USB chargable ones as we were warned off them)
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I didn't realise you could get heated gloves which weren't charged via USB. Can you provide any more info on these ? I was planning to take the little pouches that heat up and put them inside the gloves.
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Whilst we were there one guy brazenly took out a bottle of whiskey (750ml not a minature!!!!)
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I'm brave but I'm not stupid !! I reckon we could get away with using 30ml miniature bottles. Sounds like the beer option is a non-starter though.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| gavman99 wrote: |
Thanks all for some really good info there.
No we won't have access to a car and we're in a standard room so no kitchen facilities to cook anything. Are we likely to save money going half board versus eating at hotel and/or restaurants within walking distance ? I assume the nearby restaurants would be open in the evenings. One downside to half board is it forces your hand to eat there so is there likely to be enough variety to last a week ?
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You do the research but almost certainly yes, and there wasnt much other places to eat bar the radisson if you have no car. A pizza place near the supermarket IIRC unless there has been loads added recently. The locals in the lodges tend to self cater I think. I'd go either HB in hotel or proper self cater. You also might want to price up DIY vs a package thru is it "Skistar" who own the whole resort anyway, that way you get the transfer bus thrown in?
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Quote: |
I didn't realise you could get heated gloves which weren't charged via USB. Can you provide any more info on these ? I was planning to take the little pouches that heat up and put them inside the gloves.
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These were the heated gloves:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07V4BL8WW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1&psc=1&tag=amz07b-21
They do heat up, however the heat doesn't seem to disperse, so parts stay hot, some parts such as the thumb did not get warm.
The combo that worked for us was:
Merino mitt liners
Wrap one toe warmer (purely because of the shape, this worked better) around the thumb
Hestra mitts
Handwarmers too on the colder days
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No we won't have access to a car and we're in a standard room so no kitchen facilities to cook anything. Are we likely to save money going half board versus eating at hotel and/or restaurants within walking distance ? I assume the nearby restaurants would be open in the evenings. One downside to half board is it forces your hand to eat there so is there likely to be enough variety to last a week ?
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There are 4 restaurants in the hotel:
The Hill (buffet)
La Piazza (Italian)
The Brasserie (French style steak house)
Chill (American Diner)
There is also a coffee shop called Mt Mocha open from 10:00 - 17:00.
We didn't try the Brasserie, but others we spoke to said it was decent, Chill frankly looked pretty uninspiring so we avoided the food there.
The Italian place was pretty good (you can also order from there when sitting in the bar and get pizza in takeaway boxes to take back to the room).
The buffet was actually quite impressive, it doesn't look particularly big at first, but the selection was decent over the week and we didn't get bored.
In addition within walking distance there is another Pizza place called Pepe's (which I think is a Norweigan chain), a pub (which I think does food too) another Italian (which was pretty good) and another one called Taste (which seemed to be the easiest to get a table in due to its size at lunchtime). Not sure how to describe the cuisine, it had a pretty small menu, burgers mainly but not fast food style. Then there is a BBQ place (which was always rammed but not that great frankly) and another seemingly more budget traditional style pub, which looked good, but was always really busy.
I'm not sure how late those restaurants near the lifts stay open.
Half board on the day is I think around 400 NOK, and I think a pizza from the Italian in the hotel is approximately 230 NOK for comparison (if you get a starter and desert then it would work out roughly the same). The pizzas are fairly filling tbh, we never felt hungry afterwards even without starters.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Yes Pepes is a chain but you have to love the scissors they give you to cut your pizza with.
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FAQ
