Rondane in Winter and the Peer Gynt Ski Route: A Norway Guide

Two sides of one valley

Gudbrandsdalen is the long valley that runs north from Lillehammer toward Dovrefjell, carrying the main railroad and highway with it. On its eastern side the land climbs into Rondane National Park, the first national park Norway created, in 1962. On its western side it climbs into a broad, gentler upland around Espedalen, Fefor and Gålå, the country Henrik Ibsen used for the opening of his 1867 verse drama Peer Gynt. Ibsen did not invent the character from nothing; Peer was a figure from the folklore of this valley before he was a play.

So the name turns up on both sides. The ski route that carries it runs west of the valley. But in Rondane itself there is a Peer Gynt hytta, an old cabin just off the winter route between Putten Seter and Smuksjøseter, and the long-distance Trolløypa passes it on the way south. If a search for "Rondane Peer Gynt" has left you unsure which place you are looking at, that is why.

The two sides share a train line. For Rondane you get off at Otta. For the Peer Gynt route you get off at Vinstra, a few stops further south. Both are in the same broad landscape of seter farms, birch, and open plateau above the treeline, and on a clear day you can see one side from the other. What changes is the character of the week: small family-run fjellstuer on the Rondane side, larger mountain hotels on the Peer Gynt side.

What Rondane looks like in February

Rondane is named for its shape. The summits are rounded, worn-down domes rather than the spires of Jotunheimen to the west, and in winter they read as heavy white shapes above a wide, dry plateau. It is an older, quieter landscape. You see a long way, the snow is often wind-packed on the open ground, and on a still day the silence is close to total.

The way in for a winter visitor is Høvringen, a cluster of lodges at about 3,280 feet (1,000 m) on the western edge of the park. The last half hour of the drive up from Otta is where the change happens: farmland, then birch, then open fell. Around Høvringen there are about 93 miles (150 km) of prepared track through both forest and open terrain, which is far more than one week can use.

One thing surprises people. Inside the national park proper there is no grooming at all. The prepared tracks stop at the boundary, and beyond it you follow poled winter routes and navigate with map and compass. For a visitor that splits Rondane into two very different places: the groomed network around the lodges, which anyone with basic skills can use, and the park interior, which asks for winter mountain judgment.

The gentle way in: a lodge-to-lodge week on skis or snowshoes

The Rondane ski and snowshoe week is seven days and six nights in three lodges: Høvringen Fjellstue, Putten Seter and Smuksjøseter, two nights at each. Only three of the days involve moving between them. The first transfer is 3.7 miles (6 km) on the short line and 6.2 miles (10 km) on the longer one, and it starts with a fair amount of climbing. The second is 5.6 miles (9 km), with an optional detour up Formokampen at 4,672 feet (1,424 m), where the track is set all the way to the summit. The last is 3.7 miles (6 km), mostly one long downhill back to Høvringen.

The detail that makes this week different is that you can make every transfer on snowshoes if you would rather not ski. Nobody in the party needs to have skied before. A couple where one person grew up on skis and the other has never worn them can follow the same route and sit down to the same three-course dinner. Your luggage travels between the lodges by vehicle, and you carry a day pack with lunch, water and a spare layer.

The three lodges are not interchangeable. Putten Seter sits just below the treeline in light birch woodland, which makes it the sheltered one on a windy day. Smuksjøseter is the highest of the three and effectively on the park boundary, and the free day there is the one where the plateau opens all the way out. The week runs February through April on dates you choose, with the train from Oslo Airport to Otta and the transfer up the hill included.

The Peer Gynt ski route: hotels and longer days on the west side

The Peer Gynt cross-country ski week is eight days and seven nights between four mountain hotels: Dalseter in Espedalen, then Fefor, Gålå and finally Skeikampen, with a transfer down to Lillehammer at the end. There are three moving days of 11.2, 8.1 and 17.4 miles (18, 13 and 28 km), about 37 miles (60 km) in all, with a free day at each base in between.

This is a skiing week, not a snowshoe week. The route is prepared cross-country track in gently rolling terrain at roughly 2,950 to 3,600 feet (900 to 1,100 m), and it assumes you are comfortable on skis and have done some touring before. The Espedalen network alone runs to about 137 miles (220 km) of track, so the free days have plenty of room. Stronger skiers can take a longer high line over Ruten at 4,977 feet (1,517 m) on the first moving day, 13.7 miles (22 km) instead of 11.2 (18). On a clear day the views run east to Rondane, west to Jotunheimen and north to Dovrefjell.

The evenings are different too. Four substantial hotels instead of three small lodges means larger dining rooms, more guests and more facilities, and less of the family-kitchen feel of a fjellstue. Some travelers want exactly that after a day outside in February. The route runs on set departure dates from late January through March, and when we checked in September, several of the 2027 weeks were already sold out.

Which side suits you

The choice usually comes down to three questions: can everyone in your party ski, how long a day do you want, and do you prefer a small lodge or a hotel in the evening.

If you are still deciding whether a Norwegian ski week is for you at all, our broader guide to hut-to-hut cross-country skiing in Norway compares five winter routes by daily distance and by who carries the luggage.

• Nobody in your group has skied cross-country before, or one person has and one has not: Rondane, on snowshoes for whoever needs them.

• You ski at a nordic center at home and want to stretch that into a week of moving between places: Peer Gynt, with its longer days on prepared track.

• You want to travel in April, or near Easter when Easter falls late: Rondane, the only one of the two still running then.

• You want the smallest, quietest places to sleep: Rondane. You want hotel comfort and more people around at dinner: Peer Gynt.

• You are an experienced ski tourer who wants to cross the whole region on skis: neither of these, but the Trolløypa traverse from Rondane to Lillehammer, which starts at Høvringen and passes the Peer Gynt hytta.

Light, snow and the right month

Central Norway in February is cold and reliably snowy, and the days are short: around Høvringen there are about eight hours of daylight at the start of the month. By mid-March that has grown to close to twelve. For a first winter trip the extra light is worth a lot. It means a relaxed start, a long lunch stop out of the wind, and still arriving at the next lodge in daylight.

March is therefore the month to ask about early on both sides of the valley, and on the Peer Gynt route it is the month that sells out first. February is quieter and colder, with a particular blue light in the short afternoons. April is only an option on the Rondane week, and it brings softer spring snow and the longest days of the season, which suits snowshoes well.

Easter is its own case. Much of Norway heads to the mountains for the holiday, lodges fill early, and the Peer Gynt hytta in Rondane is one of the places that only serves food during the winter school break and at Easter. For how the rest of the season unfolds month by month, see our Norway winter planner for Americans.

Getting there from the US

Both weeks begin at Oslo Airport, and both include the train from the airport up Gudbrandsdalen. For the Peer Gynt route it is about three hours to Vinstra, then a road transfer up to Espedalen. For Rondane it is the train to Otta and the road up to Høvringen. In practice that means an overnight flight from the East Coast lands in the morning and you are at your first lodge for dinner the same evening, without renting a car or driving on winter mountain roads.

Two pieces of planning are worth doing on the American side. Give yourself a buffer night in Oslo or at the lodge at one end of the trip, because winter weather can delay flights and a week with no slack in it is fragile. And bring your own ski boots if you have a pair that fits well: skis are easy to rent, but a pair of boots you trust is the difference between a good fourth day and a sore one. On the Rondane week, skis and snowshoes are rented locally at Høvringen rather than through the booking.

Rondane in summer, and why winter is different

Most people who know Rondane know it in summer. Our Rondane hut-to-hut walking trip uses the same three lodges, Høvringen, Putten Seter and Smuksjøseter, over four days from July to September, with marked trails across the open plateau. It is one of the gentlest introductions to Norwegian mountain walking we know, and our hut-to-hut hiking guide for Americans explains how the summer system works.

Winter turns the same ground into a different place. The marked summer paths disappear under snow, the plateau becomes a single white surface, and the prepared tracks around the lodges become the roads. The lodges themselves feel different too: wood stoves, drying rooms full of wool, and a dining room that empties early because everyone wants to be out by nine the next morning. People who have walked Rondane in August are often the ones who enjoy it most in March, because they know what is under the snow.