Hafjell ski trip with Audrey

It's winter! However, despite this winter being faaaaaaaaaaar too warm, the skiing season has started. At least the ski resorts in Norway have enough snow to have the slopes open and have the season going.
This is also the time for Audrey and me to go skiing again - from Friday 20/01 afternoon until Sunday 22/01 evening :-) It was just us two and we decided to repeat a trip we did already last year: to Hafjell.

So, once more we took the train after work from Oslo to Lillehammer where we had stayed at Clarion Collection Hotel Hammer.

 

Initially we had the idea of trying the Quality Spa & Resort Hafjell, located near the ski centre. However, the bus connection from Lillehammer train station was not very good on Friday evenings. We would have had to wait over an hour. On top of that we would have had to pay pretty much for eating à la carte in the restaurant for dinner while the dinner at the Clarion Collection hotels is always included in the room rate in form of a "light evening meal". This would save us some money.
The next morning we got up early to have breakfast and leave the hotel at 9 a.m. We walked some 7 minutes to Lillehammer train station to take the bus to Hafjell Alpinsenter which welcomed us with "some" fog!

 

Unfortunately Audrey and I lost nearly an hour to get the ski pass, to rent our ski equipment and to get ready for skiing before we hit the slopes. We had figured out that it was much colder than we thought so we had to put one more layer of clothes on as well.

But shortly before 11 a.m. we eventually managed to take the first lift. Once on the slopes it actually wasn't only foggy, but also snowing pretty much. This was good in one way as the snow conditions on the slopes were pretty nice: not much ice, but a layer of fresh, fluffy snow :-) But apart from that, the continuously falling snow combined with wind and low temperatures made us wrap all over with wind/snow proof clothes like hoods covering the whole head, snow and fog skiing goggles etc.

This weather made it absolutely impossible to take pictures. First of all I didn't dare taking out my camera due to the cold, second for it getting totally covered in snow in the few seconds I would have it out and third for not having been willing to take my hands out of my warm gloves for even 1 second!

The first picture I took of that Saturday was at lunch break when we stopped at some "hytta" for a goulash soup. However, due to the temperature change for the camera from the cold outside to the warm inside, the lens immediately steamed up.

So for this day I just gave up taking pictures and we just enjoyed the skiing.

Unfortunately, the black slope no. 8, which we had declared last year to be our favourite, was closed as in use for some slalom competition during the whole weekend. Thus, Audrey and I stuck to all the other slopes which were fine as well.

At 4 p.m. a large part of the lifts had already started closing and so Audrey and I declared the skiing being over for this day and returned to the ski storage room. This place was full of kids that had spent their day on and especially off the slopes improving their skills in free style skiing. While skiing for me has always been a big event taking place once a year during one week of holidays with my family. For the kids in this area skiing is the most normal thing to do on a weekend. Like other young people play soccer those hang out on the slopes and afterwards in those common places like this storage room... eating the lunch packages made by mum :-)

After getting changed, Audrey and I took the bus back to our hotel in Lillehammer - just on time to benefit of the free waffels offered in the Clarion Collection hotels in the afternoons :-)

The rest of the day passed pretty relaxed with some shower and the dinner later on. We enjoyed our dessert in the library of the hotel while watching the semi finals of the selection of Norway's candidate for the Melody Grand Prix competition in spring. What a shame to admit that I watched something stupid like that!

 

The next day we got up at the same time to take the bus again at 9 a.m. to Hafjell.

There was still not much sun today, but it was snowing much less and it was a couple of degrees warmer.

So at least one time I dared taking out my camera for 30 seconds. However, it was still cold enough to keep the face and head as wrapped and protected as possible.

Also on Sunday we enjoyed the skiing and sometimes repeated the slopes we liked best until the closing of the lifts in the afteroon. We returned our skis and boots and while waiting for the bus to Lillehammer we warmed ourselves up with some hot chocolate at a bar.

 Back in Lillehammer we strolled along the main street to our hotel...

...where we one last time prepared ourselves a couple of waffles with jam and cream! Then we quickly got changed and hurried back to the train station as at 18:12 the train brought us back to Oslo.

Pretty tired from the weekend we passed the return journey half sleeping half reading. Well, I actually read most of the time, despite having been super tired. But I wanted to finish my book before arriving in Oslo - and so I did with the last page the moment we drove into Oslo Central Station :-)

Thanks, Audrey, for this skiing weekend. Always a pleasure :-) I'm looking forward to our next tour - whenever, wherever with whoever hopefully soon!