Slippery slopes

All photos: fotogjengen.samfundet.no

Norwegians have a wide range of national traditions other people might find strange (brown cheese, anyone?), but the one which might be the most difficult to explain, is the concept of "tur", or, more specifically, "søndagstur". And despite the almost endless possibilities of the English language, there is no equivalent that does it justice - on Sundays, we like to go outside and wander around with no exact purpose or goal except the walk itself. And during winter, when there's snow, we prefer doing it with skis on. So if we are to give our participants a taste of the "real" Norway, we simply have no choice but to take them skiing. 

The Ski Day at Granåsen has become an ISFiT staple and is always a favourite among the participants, despite the fact that many of them experience snow for the very first time in their lives during the festival.

But hey, listen. If some Norwegian giggled when you fell over, remember this: we've all been there. You know how they say that Norwegians are born with skis on their feet? Not true. We've all fallen on our asses too many times to count. Because skiing is hard. There's a lot of hand-foot coordination going on, it's slippery, and all of a sudden you're on your way down a small hill you didn't even know was there and it all becomes a little too much for your brain to handle at once. It's okay. Falling over is half the fun, anyway!

The Ski Day is not all about skiing, so the name is sort of misleading. It's also about bonfires and sleigh rides and having fun in the snow.

This year, the Ski Day was also about breaking records - literally. We had a goal - to break the Guinness World Record for the highest number of people from different countries holding hands. It was pretty spectacular to have nearly 200 people from more than 60 nationalities holding hands.

The result still needs to be verified, but rumour has it that we made it! The perfect end to a perfect day.