When? 9.3 – 11.3
Where? Holmenkollen (371 MASL, north-west from Oslo)
Our fifth self-organised ski trip took place in Norway’s capital city, Oslo. The main aim of this trip was to experience the Norwegian ski culture and its importance to the Norwegians by visiting the annual FIS World Cup Nordic competitions.
Day 1: After arriving in Oslo, we spent the midday in the Fram Museum, which is situated on the peninsula in the Oslofjord, Bygdøy. The museum, which was opened in 1936, exhibits the history of the Norwegian polar research travels. Above all, those of Roald Amundsen (1872-1928), Fridjof Nansen (1861-1930) and Otto Sverdrup (1854-1930). Highlight of this museum are the original research boats, the Fram (North & South Pole expeditions) and the Gjøa (first boat to transit the Northwest Passage), which can be inspected by visitors. Also, there is lot of information about the Antarctica and Arctic Zone and its flora and fauna, as well as the way of life of the Inuit, who inhabiting areas of Alaska, Canada and Greenland. I was really impressed by the achievements and the huge effort which the explorers achieved. Also, it was interesting to get to know how they developed their equipment and behavior (how to build sledges, learn how to adapt to the tough conditions by watching and living with the Inuit) as well as how they improved their exploration tactics (pulling gear on dog sledges, feeding dogs to other dogs, letting ships freeze and overwintering in the ice and pulling little boats on sledges). I realized that all those researches made a crucial contribution to our today’s geographical world view and that many men lost their lives in the race for the South or the North Pole or other embattled points. Those who achieved success are now renowned as national heroes.
After this enriching stay at the Fram museum, we drove up to the Holmenkollen area north-west of Oslo. There, we set up our tents near Korketrekkeren, a 25minutes walk from the Holmenkollen ski-jumping hill. We had to flatten an area in the woods for 4 tents, which took us a long time, because the snow was really deep. After we had set up our tents, we built a fire and cooked our food on the storm kitchens. Before cuddling in our sleeping bags, we walked around the campsite, stunned at the nice fireplaces and sitting areas the Norwegians had built and danced in front of a little stage in the snow.
Day 2: After breakfast, we walked down to the ski-jumping area and had to pay 250Nok in order to be able to enter the area. The view from the steep ski jump (36 degrees), which is the world’s most modern ski jump, was really impressive. I was surprised that ski jumping competitions and cross-country races have been held already from 1892 on at the Holmenkollen.
Cheering in front of the ski jump.
We spent the day by watching the 50km cross-country skiing (men) and the team ski jumping (men) and cheering from the ski arena as all the other spectators did.
Zsófi and me on the ski-chair.
It was stunning to see how easily the athletes could ski up the hills in this high speed and maintain this speed for 50km.
The campsite in the forest.
When we arrived at the campsite again and saw how many people had gathered around next to the cross-country tracks, I started to realize that I totally underestimated the importance of the winter sport to the Norwegians. Every time a athlete was passing by, the crowd was roaring.
The Norwegian way of celebrating in the snow.
The Norwegians were celebrating wildly and we also joined in. This party resulted in lots of destroyed tents, lost skis, shovels etc.
Day 3: After packing up our camp, some of us drove into Oslo and did a little tour around the city.