Norwegian Mountains, Oppland
Myssmørhelje & Prestkjerringa on skis, Mar 31 2010
To the main Myssmørhelje page (maps, route descriptions, other trip reports, etc.)
On Prestkjerringa. The weather is not superb.
(Click for larger image)
An Easter trip to eastern Norway gave us (Anne Rudsengen and me) the opportunity to visit my good friend Petter Bjørstad and his family at their cabin west of Lillehammer. As we crossed Strynefjellet, we traded most excellent weather (ref. Veirahaldet) with not so excellent weather (ref. the above picture), but the weather most definitely not prevent us from skiing. I looked forward to visit Petter's local mountains - Myssmørhelje (1070m) and Prestkjerringa (1060m).
It was snowing as we arrived at Vismundvatnet on Tuesday afternoon, and it was more a feeling of Christmas than Easter. Petter met us at the parking, and we skied the short distance up to their cabin - which was quite something! I know that a lot of labour has been put into it, and it was fun to see the results. After a heavenly meal (prepared by Heidi - Petter's wife), we studied the maps and discussed the next day's trip to the local tops.
9:30am the next morning, Pål Jørgen (Petter's son), Petter, Anne and me headed out from the cabin. It was still snowing, but it felt so good to be outdoors, and everyone was in a good mood.
On the way to Myssmørhelje
(Click for larger image)
The 5,7km ski-trip up to Myssmørhelje took 1h:37m, and the weather (and visibility) got signifcantly rougher as we rose above 900m. There was no reason to linger on the top, and we soon continued towards Prestkjerringa (picture on top of the page). To our big surprise (overstatement), we were practically alone on this mountain...
As we left Prestkjerringa, I was in serious need of some fun, and strongly encouraged creative skiing down the forest. The "contest" was (bar none) won by Pål Jørgen through his impersonation of Santa Claus...
PJ impersonating Santa Claus
(Click for larger image)
We actually met one skier upon our descent from Prestkjerringa, and we just missed running into Heidi, who started out a little later. We returned to the cabin (3h:10m after heading out) in an even better mood, thanked Petter and his family for a very nice stay and continued south to Randsfjorden where we stayed the next two days. We got a bit concerned when we returned to the car, and 20cm of fresh snow on the road. But 1 minute later, the plough came along...
Next report: Sjåheimen (soon)
