Hemsedal

Looking down a fat, powder filled, double bowl on the frontside

Looking down a nice bowl on the north side of the resort

I have found a new favorite place to ski! I had to travel to Europe for work for a couple of weeks in January/February.  Mike dropped everything and flew to Norway where we met and tried out a new place.  From Oslo we rode a bus 5 hours north to a little town called Hemsedal.

Looking up at the resort from our apartment at sunrise

The town was small and the resort was big.  The snow was fresh, and the temps were so cold that the powder wouldn't compact into ice.  We had blue sky, fresh powder, and almost nobody on the runs for the first three days.  The fourth day it snowed, but there still wasn't anybody there, so still great.

On day one run one I fell as we transitioned out of some trees and broke the hamate bone in my left hand.  I knew it was broken but we skiied all day before going to the Dr.  Once the lifts closed we headed down to the little town and tracked down the little clinic.  Luckily I called first because they were closing.  They told me they would wait until I got there to close.  The break wasn't visible yet so the Doc put a plaster 3/4 cast on to protect it so that I could ski the next few days. "You ski more, ja?"

Trolls everywhere

When I got back to Okinawa I went in and got a new x-ray and the break was visible.  They gave me a new fiberglass cast and three more weeks.  Cast + humid conditions = misery.

Z dropping into a bowl

The resort wasn't as big as Zermatt but there was so much off piste terrain that it didn't matter.  We switched back and forth between huge powder filled bowls and powder trees all day long.  Lunch in the lodge was frites and waffles.

Mike!

Food in Norway was over the top expensive so we made good use of our apartments kitchen.  Fresh baguettes with jam and loads of hot chocolate helped us get out the door in the -18C temps each day.  Once we got going it wasn't bad, but the initial blast of cold was a little rough.

2015 (February) Hemsedal, Norway Snowboarding from Fiona Rollins on Vimeo.