Dates - 23 Feb 2014 - 02 March 2014
Who went - Intermediate family (Ma, Pa, 2 girls aged 10 and 13)
Where we stayed - Molla Cabins, Hemsedal Skicentre
Who we went with - Crystal Ski
Plus points
Family-friendly resort with varied skiing suited to beginners, intermediates and park rats.
Few lift queues
Based around one area (plus point if your daughter has no sense of direction)
Ski school emphasis on young people having fun (take note, ESF)
Short transfer
Good vertical (for Norway)
Snow was mega!
Wasn't that cold (not normal, apparently)
Minus points
On the week we went, weather and viz were a bit pants
Based around one area (minus point if you like to experience "travel" when skiing)
Expensive food and alcohol
The cast (at the start of the week)
Mrs Dobby - can ski pretty much anything. Slowly. Has been known to overtake a glacier. Once.
Dobby - blue run skier with fear of speed. Apart from when on ski cross course. When he should have fear of speed. Has been known to overtake Mrs. Dobby. Cycles a lot so has the leg strength of an ox. Shame he has the same sense of balance.
No. 1 daughter - skis anything put in her path. Without actually moving her body very much. Black belt in karate so suspected of using some secretive inner chi force when skiing. Either that or her skis are mounted on rails.
No. 2 daughter - Good little skier who needs a bit of confidence. She can do it, but doesn't know it yet.
Flights and transfers
Flew with Thomson from LGW to a tiny airport called Fagernes. It's in the middle of Norway, surrounded by loads of lakes. Fantastic views on the way in. Airport is so small that on the return flight the same lady did baggage check-in and duty free. Honesty box for coffees and chocolate bars (in Norway, not at Gatwick). Transfers to and from resort took about 90 minutes by bus, instead of about 4 hours from Oslo (had we flown into Oslo). No alarms and no surprises, which is about all you want from a transfer. Bus even had a loo on it, which makes a nice change for a transfer bus.
Molla Cabins
We stayed at one of the Molla Cabins in the Skicentre area, about 5-10mins walk from the Alpin Lodge and the lifts. Generally great. Spacious. Kitchen with oven, hob, microwave, dishwasher, fridge-freezer, coffee maker yadda yadda. Dining area with big table and seating for about 6. Living room area. 2 downstairs bedrooms sleeping 2 and 3 respectively. Bathroom and sauna complete the downstairs rooms. Upstairs bedroom accessible via ridiculously steep stairs. Stupidly steep. With an extremely narrow top step. Like the sort of staircase where a nassssty accident could be arranged, know what I mean, guv? Did not have a ski locker in the cabin, but had some sort of lockable outside shed where you could put your skis (but not your boots). The Molla Cabins seemed to be inhabited by families.
Resort
The resort area is centred around the Alpin Lodge (restaurant, hotel, apartments, ski shop, supermarket, ski hire, lockers) which is at the bottom of the slopes. Many of the flats in the Alpin Lodge do not have decent cooking facilities. We were located 5-10 mins. walk from the Alpin Lodge. More apartments are located in the Skarsnuten development which is located some 1.5-2km from the Alpin Lodge, several hundred metres up a hill. Sounds nice, but difficult to get to once the cronky two man chair and ski bus stop running. Ski run down to the Alpin Lodge is OK, but not one for beginners. Sadly, we did not visit the town of Hemsedal which is some 30mins walk from the Alpin Lodge.
We managed to rent a locker in the Alpin Lodge for £20 for the week in a nicely warmed locker room. Boots always dry in the morning.
Ski hire
Booked independently through Skistar. This was far cheaper than using Crystal, had we booked skis when booking the holiday. However, if you booked ski hire on the coach via the Crystal rep, it was the same price as through Skistar. Very quick service because all of our vital statistics (weight, height, ability) had been provided when booking. The kids' kit looked a bit manky on the face of it, but ski edges were very sharp. Helmets provided free of charge for all. Kit price - about £100 for adult boots and skis for 6-8 days. About £60 for kid boots and skis. Could have got it cheaper if booked earlier.
Ski passes
Booked independently through Skistar. Again, far cheaper than using Crystal, had we booked passes when booking the holiday. Once again, we could have got the passes from the Crystal rep on the coach for the same price as we did through Skistar. Got 8 days for about £170 for an adult and about £150 for a kid - again, if we had booked earlier, we could have got a discount.
The skiing
This is not a resort for those who like things steep or long. 40km of piste total. Longest run is a 6km green. This is a resort for intermediates, families and those who like their snow parks. There are loads of parks. Any resort that has a snow park in the kids' beginners area with jumps, a rail and a box has to be great. There seems to be an emphasis on fun, perish the thought. Bah humbug. Note to self - don't try ski cross again at full speed. Helmet is not an effective brake. There was lots and lots of off-piste, not that we bothered with that.
The skiing is located in one area, which means that you always end up back at the same place. Some people hate this, but we don't. Especially when your daughter with no sense of direction decides that the red run on the right is the correct way to go, even when you had agreed to ski the black. It's not even like she wussed out - she is a far better skier than me.
The skiing is on two "levels" - skiing from 1100m back to the resort at 500m is through trees and is relatively well protected from the weather. Skiing above 1100m is based around three mountains/hills at about 1400-1500m, and is far more exposed to wind. And fog/mist.
The skiing above 1100m is essentially blues and reds and is rather exposed - slopes are sometimes prone to icy patches because of the wind. None of the runs is of particular note. Blue 16 is a pleasant run and red 15 is a bit more interesting because it gets a little icy and is a bit (but not very) narrow. Green 44 is a pancake and a PITA.
The skiing down from 1100m is more interesting. A green goes all the way down from the top of the main lift to the bottom. This green run got v busy at times, especially at the weekends in the afternoon. Several runs of various colours branch down from the green run. Red 7 is a nice proper ski run with a road section leading to a relatively steep but wide face. Black 8 is as straightforward as a black run can be (should probably be a red). Black 9 has lots of moguls - managed to tire out the 13 year old. Ha! Serves you right, oh fit one. Black 6 is probably the only proper real black. You can tell that because none of us skied it.... Blue 10 is the steepest of the blues. Not v steep, but a fairly constant slope. And wide. Blue 20 and 21 are easier and we used those for playing ski tag. For a less busy return to resort than the green main drag, use green 32.
Green 38 is a good warm up piste and for trying new/daft stuff - steep pitch for a green, but v wide and long run off, should it go TU.
Night skiing takes place on Tues-Fri nights from 6pm to 8:30. This was great - only three main pistes are used, along with some of the beginners pistes. Early morning skiing on Wed. and Sat. mornings from 7:30 but too knackered after evening skiing.
Ski school
Me and the 13 year old did ski school. Not cheap - about £100 for four lessons of 1.5 hours each. Daughter had a whale of a time. Three people in her group and her skiing came on no end. Lots of fun with Frida from Sweden. Jumps, rails, moguls and off piste action all the way. She actually slowed down and became more controlled after a couple of lessons, before speeding up in a very controlled manner at the end of the week. She still hasn't got a clue where she's going though. Snigger.
My ski school was initially a bit disappointing. Ten in my "intermediate" group and (sadly) I was probably the best of them. Still, got lots of handy tips and hints from Jens, and the family reckon my skiing improved a lot (and, like the famous Easiski, my family tells it as it is).
Little one had a private lesson and it worked wonders for her. No-nonsense tuition from another Swede. "Why are you only skiing the greens and blues? Your technique is good and you should be skiing the reds and blacks". So that sorted her out and we spent the last day skiing reds, a black and the odd blue.
The snow
We had lots of snow. Lots and lots. On several days, there were 4-8 inches on top of each piste. Soooo nice to ski. Once it had been chopped up it kept you on your toes.
The piste prep was a little disappointing - often slightly icy when groomed, with lots of marbles about. Still, it kept you keen.
The weather
Strong winds on the first day meant that the main lift was closed, leading to 10-15min queues at the other chair lifts. Main lift was open for the rest of the time we were there. Fog/cloud was the main problem, with poor visibility for most of the week. One day was a real pea souper.
Food, drink and apres
Generally expensive, but manageable. We took out a bottle of brandy from the UK. Beer/cider is about £2-3 a can from the supermarket. Grevens Cider was OK. First time I had drunk Tuborg lager in about 25 years. Drink in bars/restaurants is expensive - £6-9 a beer, £3-4 for a soft drink, £3-4 for hot chocolate. Eating out can be expensive, but there are places that are not too pricey. The restaurant at the top of the main life (the Holvin Express - bit of a misnomer) did menus which were not too bad e.g. big burger, pile of chips, 0.4l pop for £11-12. Cake and hot chocolate for about £4-5. Moose/elk is a local speciality.
I am assured that there was some apres ski (afterski as the locals call it). I either did night skiing or went home to drink Tuborg.
The people/language
Everyone was extremely friendly and everyone spoke excellent English. English was the lingua franca on account of the locals being Norwegian and most of the resort workers being Swedish and Danish.
Crystal ski guiding
Mrs Dobby and elder daughter went with Crystal rep/guide during the day and I went on a night ski with him. He was obviously a competent skier, and was good at imparting lots of info about the resort. Did well in asking one poor bloke whose skiing was not up to scratch to leave.
Mrs also tried cross country skiing. For finding those muscles you never knew you had.
Altogether a fantastic experience and we'll definitely go back.
