My first snowboarding trip 🏂

It was my friend Sille who invited me to the trip back in autumn. It was with one Danish company, that goes to Trysil, Norway every year. The trip is for employees and their family and friends. She had been there last year and liked it. Somehow Kevin also approved my trip even though I was away for 5 days. I took kids to Estonia between Xmas and New Year alone for 5 days, so I guess it was a good trade-off.😁 Besides of me not being so good at snowboarding, I really enjoyed it. Maybe it was also the freedom of being without kids and husband, and just think about your self. 

Above the clouds 

I have always been more like that person who rather travels to warm countries during winter, so I did not really crave for any ski trips to mountines. Now living in Copenhagen, I actually have started also miss a snow and the real winter feeling. Hence it was great to take a break from grey Danish weather and into the white winterwonderland in Norway. The weather actually was not that cold tduring second half of January. Most days were are around zero and then at night it was -7. Last days it was also quite sunny. Somehow I actually did not feel cold at all, sometimes it is eve colder in Denmark.

View to sunrise from the cabin 

TRAVEL

We drove from Copenhagen to Trysil by busses. The trip started Wednesday evening around 7 and we were in Trysil in the morning before eight, so we could go straight to the mountin. It was well organized, so people took care of transporting the bags to the cabins and we were there in the evening to recieve them, so we did not need to carry any bags around. I was quite afraid of sleeping in the bus at night, since I am usually not so good at it. Somehow, it was not that bad, the eye bads and airpods did help. we also had a stop at mcdonalds 1 am at night.😁 On the way back we had dinner close to Oslo and then we were back in Copenhagen 5 in the morning. I got home a bit before 6, slept until 9 and then started working.😊 So in terms of not spending vacation days for travelling, it was very optimal to drive at night. 

Kitchen and living room 

FOOD

The food in Norway is quite expencive. I think I paid like 10 euros for fries in one of the eating places at the ski resort. So it was good that most of the food we had packed with us from Denmark. There was a specific meal plan for every day and different people were responsible setting the table and cooking the food. Breakfast was as usual, youghurt, cerial, sandwiches. For lunch we could prepare some sandwitches and take with us. For dinner we had lasagnge one evening, then meat dish and I cannot remember what was the last one. Me and Sille had to also make food but we are both not really into cooking, so luckily we got some help. 😊 However, for the dessert, we prepared banana split that everybody were happy about. 

Ride up to the slopes

If food prices are comparable to Copenhagen, then alcohol was insanely expencive. I had bought a bottle of Vana Tallinn with me from Estonia, that we also shared with our cabin friends. This now reminds me that I still have some left at home. 😁 I planned to also drink a bit at the mountine, but then I realized that I am not that skillful even as souber so better to avoid. But in the evening after the day at the mountain it was quite nice. I also got a bottle of wine from the ferry that we catched between Denmark and Sweden.

Picture poses while snowboarding 

We stayed in the cabin in total 9 people. There were 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, sauna, livingroom, fireplace and kitchen. We could directly ski to the cabin from the mountain. I still walked since the root was quite flat so not so nice for snowboarding. Every evening we also got a bit lost, since all cabins look a like and there are many of those. The cabin was on the second floor and we had a bunk bed in our bedroom. I was actually quite surprised about how warm the cabin was, I expected that I will feel cold. There was also machine to dry up the skiboots. One evening we also made the electric sauna and jumped to the snow at the balcony. There was quite nice view from the cabin window since it was located on the side of the hill. 

Map of Trysil slopes

TRYSIL

It was a nice compact center for beginners. I rented the snowboard and boots from the spot and they had big selection. The helmet was also included. I actually took my own helmet with me that I am usually using for cycling in the winter in Copenhagen. There were different tracks for diffrent levels. I mainly went on the blue tracks. There were also plenty of cafe´s to eat. It seemed also a nice place for a kids to start learning since there were also special kids area. 

Storage, pick what you want 🤭

SNOWBOARDING

To be honest, I remembered myself as more skillful in snowboarding. last time I snowboarded must have been more than 10 years ago. I did get down to the hill, but also fell quite a bit. I had knee protections on, and it helped to get less bruises. It actually took me about 1 month for my knees and wrists to recover from snowboarding. At one point I really considered switching to skiis, but I do not think that I would have been better at it. I was also a bit surprised that most people were skiing, I would say only 15% of people at the mountine were snowboarding.

Arrival morning and our bus 🚌 

I also participated the snowboarding school. I actually hoped that they would teach more technic there, but I think it is more like test and lear and cannot really make someone good at it by just talking. But I think I did improve by the end of the trip. I also dared to get more speed, but I was also quite afraid of falling. The annoying this with snowboarding is that if you are slow in some parts of the mountine then you might just stop in the middle of the hill since you do not have more speed. Sometimes some skiiers pulled me forward so in that sense it was good way to make friends. 😁

Cacao break 

Also snowboarding is not convenient at the green hills and it is better to hit some blue/black once, since they are more steep and you can get more speed. So I think in order to experience also some nice green routs it is good either to still switch to skiis or have some skiier with you. I tried some green once but regretted them in the end. 

Overall it was a great trip even though I felt it in my bones for a month. 🙈