Bob from Nature Travels explores to Rondane in Norway, the base for our Learn to Backcountry Ski in Rondane experience.
It was a beautiful afternoon in mid-January when I emerged from the terminal building at Oslo Gardermoen airport onto the station platform. I was immediately hit with a blast of freezing cold, but beautifully bracing, winter air – a stark contrast to the air-conditioned and regulated environment I’d been stuck in for the last few hours.
Surprisingly for Oslo, which often stays quite mild for much of the winter, temperatures were pretty low – around -20 degrees C or so – and there was a lot of snow about even here in the city. My winter adventure had clearly begun!
I boarded the train for the 3-hour journey to Atna and settled in to watch an ever-changing winter scene unfold outside the window as we made our way north and the landscape became progressively more mountainous. It was dark when we arrived at Atna station and Benjamin picked us up for the 30-minute drive to the Lodge.
It had already been a very long day (it always is when you start a trip from Dorset – I’m used to the early starts when travelling!), but the warm welcome and cosy feel of the Lodge and a pre-dinner beer followed by a lovely dinner soon restored my energy levels.
I’d be spending a couple of days here to explore and do some backcountry skiing up on the plateau. There wouldn’t be the opportunity on this occasion to do the overnight tour to mountain cabin which is now part of our Learn to Backcountry Ski in Rondane itinerary, but I was very much looking forward to strapping on my skis and getting out into the hills!
Waking refreshed after a very comfortable night’s sleep, it was time for breakfast. The Lodge has a clever system for reducing food waste, so often a problem with traditional hotel breakfast buffets. At dinnertime the evening before, guests are presented with a “tick-list” of options to order for breakfast the following morning.
You can order as much as you think you’ll eat, but I recommend erring on the side of caution – the food is plentiful and filling! There’s lots to choose from, from home-made Belgian waffles to muesli, fresh-baked bread and delicious cheeses.
Food is a real feature of any stay here, lovingly prepared by Benjamin’s wife, Karin, and her team – you won’t be going hungry!
Our first day would not be on skis, but rather exploring some of the other attractions of the Rondane region, in particular looking for some of the rare and mighty Musk Ox which roam Dovrefjell*.
*A Musk Ox safari is not a feature of the Learn to Backcountry Ski in Rondane itinerary. However, if you are travelling with your own vehicle to Rondane and adding an extra day or two at the Lodge before or after your ski tour, it’s a highly recommended excurision.
After an hour’s transfer and introduction from our nature guide on how to conduct ourselves if Musk Ox were sighted, we spent a very cold but utterly wonderful day snowshoeing into the reserve to look for some. And suddenly there they were – at first sight looking like huge boulders in the distance. They are truly amazing animals – massive, woolly things that seem to have escaped from the set of a Star Wars movie.
Musk Ox are very imposing animals indeed, so it’s important to maintain a respectful distance.
We spotted dozens high up on the mountain, but one pair much closer that we would be able to get a better view of. We took a wide berth to reach a suitable vantage point downwind, where our guide set up a viewing scope to allow us to observe them in detail without disturbance.
Back at the Lodge, it was time to relax in anticipation of another wonderful dinner and our ski day to come.
The next morning, the sun was shining from a glorious sky of unbroken blue – it was going to be a truly wonderful day, ideal for some skiing up on the plateau*.
*Our tour this day would be typical of the Day 2 of Learn to Backcountry Ski in Rondane itinerary.
Suitably fortified with another wonderful breakfast, we headed down to the basement to collect our skis. It took me a couple of changes to find the right size of boots – I usually need to go up a size or two for winter boots – but soon we were ready for transfer the 20 minutes or so up onto the plateau where we would start our day’s tour.
Backcountry skis are quite similar to classic cross country skis, but are a little thicker and more stable, with boots than are more substantial and similar to hiking boots. The skis we were using had a partial skin integrated into the base, offering much improved grip when going uphill. They don’t glide nearly as much as cross country skis, but they are very comfortable and easy to use and, unlike cross country skis, can be used for skiing both on and away from prepared trails.
The sun was climbing higher in the sky and shining gloriously as we started our ski tour. For the first part of the day, we would be using some of the extensive network of prepared and marked cross country trails in the area, before we headed “off track” for a while later on.
It was just wonderful to be out in the mountains. The wide horizons of Rondane are liberating and exhilarating. There was barely a breath of wind and, despite temperatures being quite low (it was January after all), in the sun it almost felt like spring.
A striking feature of being here in January was the amount of daylight – yes, the days are certainly shorter than later in the winter, but there’s much more daylight at this time of the winter than in the north. In the far north in mid-January it would be dark by mid-afternoon, but down here in Rondane we had a full day’s worth of light ahead of us for skiing.
We’d be covering about 12km today – it would be an active day, certainly, but the emphasis was not on clocking up the distance, but rather on enjoying the beauty and tranquility of the plateau around us and the simple pleasure of moving through such a majestic landscape entirely under our own power.
We stopped outside one of the Norwegian Trekking Association (DNT) cabins for our midday break. Similar cabins are used for the overnight expedition that is part of Learn to Backcountry Ski in Rondane – there is a choice of possible locations which may be used for the overnight tour depending on conditions and skiing distance.
For lunch, we’d brought “Turmat” from the Lodge, high-quality Norwegian expedition meals. If you have any pre-conceptions about dehydrated food not being tasty, Turmat may change your mind. My salmon package, prepared with hot water from the thermos, was nutritious, filling and very tasty. As if that wasn’t enough, we’d also brought a sandwich or two and some fruit from breakfast. No chance of rumbling tummies on this trip!
Sitting there in the sunshine with full stomachs and such a view laid out before us, it was tempting just to stay all afternoon. But we still had some kilometres to cover to get back to the vehicle, so it had to come to an end sometime.
We packed our things together, strapped on our skis and headed off for the second half of the day.
Even those in the group who’d never used backcountry skis before were really gaining confidence by now and improving their technique. When we came to a long, sweeping downhill section, many of us climbed back up the hill a couple more times to have some extra goes just for the sheer fun of it before moving on!
As the afternoon wore on, the sun dropped lower in the sky and bathed the mountains in spectacular colours as we reached the end of our tour. It had really been a magical day…but the magic wasn’t over yet!
The skiing and the scenery is of course a major feature of any visit here, but equally so is the experience of the Lodge – its hospitality, the food, and, as we’d be finding out this evening, the sauna and hot tub*!
*An evening of sauna is included as standard as part of Learn to Backcountry Ski in Rondane. Hot tub is not included, as this requires considerable extra time and resources to prepare, but can be added as optional extra.
The Norwegians may not regard sauna with quite the spiritual reverence that the Finns do, but they still know the value of a good bit of relaxation after a day in the outdoors. There is really no better way to soothe and regenerate tired muscles.
Our evening sauna experience came with the option to take a short dip (under supervision) in the icy waters of the river which flows past the Lodge . On this occasion, I politely declined (though I was reliably informed by braver members of our party who went for it that it was amazing). Not to let the Nature Travels side down, though, I should say I have been known to indulge in such icy plunges on other occasions – you can see the proof here.
But once a couple of us had built up a nice heat in the sauna, we did take the opportunity to try out the family snow-racers. I have no photographic evidence of this – a flash photo of a half-naked, middle-aged Englishman careering downhill on a toboggan in the dark is not a mental image I would wish to inflict on anyone. But trust me when I say it was tremendous fun and we laughed a great deal.
As a special extra dimension to the evening, Benjamin had also kindly heated up the hot tub for us (a wood-fired hot tub takes many hours to prepare – it’s no small task). Alternating between steaming quietly away in the sauna and stepping out into the cold night air to luxuriate in a big wooden barrel of hot water, gaze up at the stars above and admire the silhouettes of the mountains enclosing us was, simply, blissful. I almost forgot I was working… 😉
And so, after one more excellent dinner and an equally excellent breakfast, we found ourselves once again standing on the station platform at Atna. The Oslo train rumbled in right on time, and we left Rondane to return to the hustle and bustle of the city.
It had been a wonderful few days. I felt more refreshed, more inspired, and a little fatter than I had when I arrived. I can’t wait to return.
Best regards
Bob from the Nature Travels Team
Learn to Backcountry Ski in Rondane is a 5-day/4-night guided itinerary offered as a private experience on dates by arrangement between January and April for groups of 1-6 persons. With 3 nights at the Lodge and 1 night in wilderness cabin, the tour features a private guided ski tour on Day 2 (similar to the tour described above) and 2-day private guided overnight ski expedition to mountain cabin.