Cross-country skiing and husky sledding in Norway

Cross-country skiing and husky sledding in Norway


Norway’s natural highs: Cross-state skiing and husky sledding are tricky get the job done – but the benefits are certainly exhilarating

  • Cross-country skiing is something Norwegians do with consummate ease  
  • But it’s tough do the job, as John Kampfner identified on a vacation to central Norway 
  • He also went husky sledding and on a torchlit, horsedrawn sleigh journey

Sunday mornings really don’t typically get started like this. At 9am sharp we march across the crisp snow to be greeted by a dozen canine, yapping and leaping.

These are Alaskan huskies, particularly bred to charge across the icy wastes, sleds in tow.

We are on the last day of our extensive weekend in central Norway in the course of which we have skied cross region, past lakes and forests, trekked up and down slopes in snow shoes and loved a torchlit, horsedrawn sleigh ride.

Wild journey: Huskies pulling a sled and charging by way of the snow in the Norwegian forests

When it arrives to the canine, my spouse, Lucy, insists on taking the reins while I lie within the sledge, wrapped in furs. No quicker do we turn the to start with corner than we get a flyer and Lucy tumbles into the snow. I burst out laughing as I stop up on the floor.

Now that it truly is my transform to take the reins, the dogs guideline effortlessly alongside the track. At minimum that’s my variation.

From the second we step onto the practice in Oslo, hugging the banking companies of the country’s most significant lake, Mjosa, and earlier the Olympic town of Lillehammer, we are nearer to mother nature than on any of the downhill snowboarding activities we have completed.

Our journey finishes in Venabu, near to the nationwide park at Rondane. Just outside the house are a several huts to hire and a couple of ski resorts. Ours, Spidsbergseter, is run by the third generation of the same household.

Cross-country skiing is something Norwegians do with consummate ease

Cross-place snowboarding is a little something Norwegians do with consummate ease 

Cross-region skiing is something Norwegians do with consummate relieve. They commence at main school and are continue to at it six or 7 many years later on. A two or three-hour hike on skis is regarded as a regular Sunday outing. On our first early morning, Julia, our guideline from the resort, reacquaints us with the fundamentals. I had crosscountry skied before, but I may well as very well have been a starter.

The skis experience like matchsticks, with no grip. We are instructed to thrust forward, still left leg with appropriate arm and vice versa, lifting the heel for momentum.

The moment I get the cling of it, I search up and admire the birch trees as the enormous silken skies engulf me. Even even though it is a holiday weekend, we go for prolonged durations without the need of viewing a soul.

The Norwegian mountains are a spectacular setting for cross-country skiing

The Norwegian mountains are a impressive placing for cross-state snowboarding

On our next morning, we are on our very own – and choose on a 12-mile route. A couple of several hours later on, we are bathed in sweat, worn out and still significantly from household.

We are before long overtaken by an energetic family members of 4, who notify us they appear each yr from Aberdeen. They share their chocolate bars with us and present us a shortcut – up a steep hill.

By the time we make it again, I am staying overtaken a succession of Norwegian pensioners, presenting a clipped ‘good morning’ as they breeze earlier.

Regardless of this humiliation, the world of cross-nation snowboarding seems so acceptable our progressively eco-conscious environment. Immediately after all, who desires ski lifts and chic resorts, when all which is is a pair of matchsticks on your ft and sturdy lungs?

Travel FACTS 

John Kampfner travelled with Stop by Norway (visitnorway.com) and the Spidsbergseter Hotel (spidsbergseter.no), with double rooms from £112 for each night time. Ryanair (ryanair.com) flies London to Oslo from £30 return. 

 



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