Ski Weekend

The second part of the mid-year weekend was a Ski Retreat weekend at Skei, Norway, which is about a half-hour northwest of Lillehammer. As we drove by Hamar and Lillehammer, we were able to see several of the venues that were a part of the 1994 Winter Olympics. That was a fun connection to see as we’ve been watching the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. The heart of Skei is Skeikampen, which is a ski resort area. Given that we are in Norway, the cross country skiing is as much of the winter experience as downhill skiing. The good news is that I was able to spend time cross country skiing and downhill skiing.

The hotel where we stayed at in Skei and the ski rental shop.

I chose cross country skiing for the first day. We had a few groups that went their different ways with cross country skiing. There was a tremendous range of ski experience from newbies to excellent cross country skiers. Each group had representatives across the spectrum of experience with the newbies learning from the veterans. There was a phase of my life where I frequently went cross country skiing. That was so long ago that I can’t even remember the last time that I had been cross country skiing. I was curious how I’d do and the results were just fine. I will say that I have developed some bad habits of being conditioned to having edges on my skis from all of the downhill skiing that I’ve done in Colorado. There were a few downhill sections of the trails that did not end well for me. In the end, it was all great and it was also an opportunity for getting some amazing photos. It was so beautiful on the trail and we were there around sunset. I wouldn’t be surprised if these will be some of the best photos that I’ll take during my time in Norway.

The second day was more to my recent experience with a day of downhill skiing. The ski resort, Skeikampen, is not at all like what I have become accustomed to in Colorado. There was one 8-person chairlift that served the heart of the mountain. There was a quad-chair over another section of the mountain. Beyond those two chair lifts, it was all T-bar lifts. In our group, we also had a range of downhill ski levels from newbies, to previous skiers who hadn’t skied in 10+ years, to experienced skiers. I spent the late morning skiing with some of the lesser experienced. It was fun to see them progress and including some getting to the top of the 8-person lift. The top of that lift provided amazing views of the region. Then after lunch I went around some of the more distant trails of the mountain with two others.

The biggest advantage of the Ski Retreat was not in the skiing but in getting all of the Fulbright Norway participants together with large amounts of idle time available for talking and sharing experiences from the past six months. For those that know me, it is well established that I am always happy getting the opportunity to connect with others in informal conversations and hanging out. All of the effort that I made in getting to know names and tracking some of the background information on everybody from the seminar was super helpful during all of the hangout time. I think, or at least I hope, that I was able to have one-on-one to one-on-few conversations with most everybody, if not everybody, over the course of the weekend. There were so many fun conversations. We also had a group of us in the back of the bus that kept the conversations happening during the bus rides. The skiing was great, the sights and views in interior Norway were amazing, and the time hanging out was special. It was a great weekend with the Winter Seminar and the Ski Retreat weekend.

I have posted additional photos from the ski weekend on my Instagram account. If interested, you can find them at: https://www.instagram.com/megawx/