Geilo: Schneevorhersage

Just spent early February mostly skiing at Slaata; about 5 days and across the road at Geilolia for a day. I work as a ski instructor in NZ in our winter and having only skied in Australia it was good to try out cold dry snow. We were skiing Canada, at Whistler, after this trip for more dry powder. The cold at this latitude keeps the snow set and having no real heat in the sun stops any melting, causing ice. If you got on the lifts early you could almost ski the whole mountain without cutting any skiers tracks and sometimes some runs weren't used for half the day. if you wanted mogul runs then head for the black runs as some weren't groomed often so left you with a lot of lumps to play with. The snow was so consistent that my wife, who is an intermediate skier, managed to improve her skiing to a greater level through having these wide open runs to use. She managed to do a lot of the red runs as well. I was also able to perfect my skiing as I like to turn as tight as I can and was using a lot of the soft snow left on the edges to play in, perfect! There was enough new snow, while we were there, that there was a lot of people doing off trail. Did see one guy on a board sink to his waist while I was on the chair, and he was wondering how to get out!! The self timers are a neat idea and help with the confidence to try some racing and to see if your skills are improving over the day and when a group of you do it makes it a great challenge. They had also just got a new Adaptive ski which I got a chance to sit in and try down the slopes, also to give the instructor a workout (I can see why the adaptive guys love their skis). There seemed to be a lot for the kids to do, with well set up jumps and a good rail park as well. The café food was great as well as the staff. Loved the Norwegian breads. Expensive for food and drink but that is Norway (Europe) as a whole. Deer skins and blankets were great to sit on outside, nice Norwegian touch and top notch with the fire going. Loved the scenery and very friendly people in the ski centre.