Sledding;

Trolltech has internal mailing list dedicated to certain interests that the employees can interact together in. On the sports list a message was left for an outing to a near by sled renting lodge. The idea was to take the new employees out to experience a Norwegian winter “sport”.

It took about thirty minutes to travel by subway to the mountain sledding resort. We obtained our sleds at the rental office and preceded to carry/pull them to the start or the run. The sleds consisted of two wooden rails with a metal strip on the bottom. The rails were attached to wooden framed square that housed a nylon fabric square attached with rope laces. The result of the construction was a heavy, sturdy sled that cushioned the rider from the bumps of the run.

It took about ten minutes to reach the bottom of the sled run. In that time you tried in vain to control the path the sled would take. Even though in some places the edge of the run had a curved wooden wall to herd sleders on the path, at times there was nothing to keep you on the track. I found myself approaching turns with nothing to keep me from going over the side of the cliffs. Other times the lack of sled control produced my appearance beneath the bushes of the forest surrounding the route. It felt like a ski run that had been “let go”. It was several miles long of mostly un-maintained hills where you could get up to twenty miles an hour. Portions of the trail curved around the side of the hill where there was vistas views of Oslo to your left.

When we arrived at the bottom of the “hill”, there was a platform to wait for the city tram to stop and pick us up. It took the tram about twenty minutes to return the sledders to the lodge next to the run at the top. Two members of our group were Girish and his wife Tahara. They are originally from India, but came to Oslo from Texas. It is hardly surprising that this is the first year that they have seen snow. They have been making the effort to try winter activities such as ice skating. Tahara was a little nervous about the sledding, but quickly got the hang of it. I could hear Girishs’ excited yelps the entire way down the run.

After sledding down the hill twice, we were all wet and cold. Most of us could no longer feel out toes, and fingers. We went to the lodge for coco and snacks. We all sat by the fire talked and ate. We took a few group photos before we headed back to the subway station. When we got home, we quickly changed in to our warmest pajamas, and sat together drinking one last cup of coco before heading to bed.