Geilo Skiing Weekend

You might - or might not - have read my post on January 8 about a couple of friends meeting for planning a skiing trip to Geilo. 

Every year at the first full moon weekend of the year, Geilo, a town about 250 km away from Oslo, hosts the Ice Music Festival. Jana knew about this event as her boyfriend Helder has in somehow been involved in its organisation the passed years. So Jana always wanted to attend this festival and since Geilo is also a pretty known skiing area Jana could win Audrey's, Germain's, Tim's and my support for her plan to combine the Ice Music Festival with a skiing weekend. Even Sarah, my friend from Germany, liked the idea and decided to join us once again for an excursion and booked a flight for the last weekend in January.

The weeks before we had organised accomodation with good rates, transportation and the rental of skiing equipment and on Friday 21 of January we were ready to leave :-)

Friday, 21 January:

While most of us were still at work Sarah arrived at Oslo Airport in the afternoon.

Upon arrival downtown she picked me up at the office and we went together to my place where I got my suitcase and other stuff packed for the weekend. Right around the corner of my place we decided to meet up with the others, because it was close to the Avis rental shop where Audrey organised a rental car. Tim came along with his own car.

We quickly stuffed everything into the boot of the cars and left Oslo at around 7 p.m. ... a bit later than initially planned, but Tim didn't manage to leave the office on time.

Due to our late departure from Oslo, we also arrived pretty late in Geilo. Through my company and our good contacts to this supplier I arranged and booked for us a beautiful and cosy "hytta" (=cabin) at Geilolia Hyttetun.

 

Nearly starving we quickly unpacked the cars, attributed the three bedrooms, set the table and prepared some food that we brought along - simple but good: Spaghetti with tomato sauce, pesto and oven baked salmon... and not to forget (quite) some wine :-)

For dessert Jana, our "baking queen", still had some banana cake and I brought the chocolate "Pandoro" (kind of panettone) which I had bought in Italy for an occasion like this.

By the time we finished dinner it was already quite late, so we more or less went straight to bed; tomorrow we wanted to be fit for a whole day of skiing.

Saturday, 22 January:

We started our day pretty early, but with a good breakfast though. We got into our skiing clothes and at around 9 a.m. we left our cabin...

... heading to the close by ski shop where we got the ski passes and rented out the needed equipment. Audrey, Jana, Sarah and I chose to go for alpine/downhill skiing. Tim started as well with alpine skis, but later on joined Germain on a snowboard. They were both pretty good skiers and decided to give it a try to something new on the board.

Once we were all equipped and after a quick look at the map of the skiing area we were ready to start our skiing day with a first lift up.

Arrived at the top, the others directly rushed down the first slope, while I spent some time (an hour and a half?) on the first hill with Sarah. It was her first time on skis which required not only some basic instructions, but also a little encouragement :-) To be honest, the slope wasn't as green (=easy) as indicated, that is especially in the first part right after the first lift. Not the best part for someone standing the first time on skis, I admit.

But after a "little" while, Sarah could be really proud of having overcome this initial incline - and you can see she was happy :-) Very well done, Sarah!!!

 

Lunch break. Around 2 p.m. we stopped at the base terminal to get some food - junk food :-)

But our day wasn't over yet. Due to different skiing levels we hadn't been all together the whole time, but had split up. Then, after lunch in the afternoon we changed the "configurations" a little and so now I rushed down the hills together with Audrey. Jana stayed with Sarah and the guys improved together their skills on the snowboard.

 

 

By the end of the afternoon, the sky finally brightened up and we had some last runs on one of the red slopes before making our way back to the cabin.

We didn't spend much time in the cabin, because at 5 p.m. we wanted to be at the stage of the Ice Music Festival where something was going on already.

 

Bill Covitz, a famous ice sculptor, turned a massive block of ice weighing 200 kg to an ice sculpture and more specifically...

 

...into a tiger.

After the sculpting of the tiger, Bill was challenged to make two hollow mugs which could be used for real drinks. The conductor of the evening asked the crowd to guess how fast Bill can create them, and the winner could win the mugs. Bill finished the mugs in little more then 3 minutes - I didn't win them.

After the show we went back to our cabin where we warmed up at the fire place while sitting and chatting together and taking a shower one after the other.

Later in the evening, at around 9 p.m., we made our way again towards the Ice Music Festival area. However, we first stopped at the Kikutkroa ski centre for a drink.

Shortly before 22:00 we went over to the close by stage.

 

The festival's evening programme was about to start with the "Ice Music Meditation" where we were listening to the sounds of ice.

While sitting down on sheep skins we were listening to Terje’s improvisations on his ice instruments. Pretty interesting! The guy was touching, hitting and knocking the ice elements on the stage and on the wall and they all emitted different tones.

After the meditation part, we went the few metres back to the Kikutkroa restaurant/bar to enjoy a light but tasteful evening meal which was included in the festival programme.

Little before midnight, we headed back to the ice stage in order to attend the highlight of the Ice Music Festival: the midnight concert.

 

Sitting again on the sheep skins under the shine of the stars, we listened to the performance of Terje and his band.

After 40 minutes, though, the concert was over and it was time to go. We took the shuttle bus back to the village and headed quickly towards our beds.

We all enjoyed this evening of a different kind and were now looking forward to another day in the snow.

Sunday, 23 January:

Pretty tired, the day started. However, there was something great in this morning: the prospect of a beautiful, sunny day :-) Quickly after breakfast we left the cabin. Today's day was supposed to bring us on the opposite side of the valley. While we discovered the Western flanks of the Geilo mountain area yesterday, our plans for this day envisioned the Eastern hills with the slightly larger skiing area.

And indeed, it turned out to be a wonderful day!

 

 

We started with a lift that brought us up to the mountain peak of this skiing area.

It was a beautiful morning and we enjoyed the silence and loneliness of this place combined with a fantastic view over the valley while rushing down the slopes.

That's where we have been the day before:

 

 

Jana hadn't been with us anymore during this day as she had to catch the train back to Oslo around noon; she was still flying up to Tromsø the same day. However, it was a great day! Sarah advanced a lot, Audrey and I went down some black slopes and together with the others discovered the variety of the area (mind you, the variety of the Geilo skiing area, not of the French Alps!).

In the afternoon we had to leave the hill and gave back our skis etc. Back in the cabin we had a kind of lunch and did a final cleaning before handing back the keys at the reception.

So, in the late afternoon we said goodbye to Geilo and left, driving back to Oslo.

Though the weekend passed too quickly, we had a really good time.

When I was younger I regularly went skiing with my parents for about 10 years. However, due to the development of my life the last years, I didn't have the occasion anymore to go skiing and during this weekend I realised how much I missed it, the "real" skiing (sorry, but I haven't developed that same passion yet for cross country skiing).  So, I just say: to be repeated :-)