Mountain Bikes at Hafjell

16/08/2025

Refreshed by the outdoors, we were ready for another longish drive. It was going to be over 500km up past Oslo and the famous Olympic town of Lillehammer to the mountain resort of Hafjell.

Driving Norwegian Motorways

Number one hurdle was working out whether our toll tag was working. We’d put it at the bottom of our windscreen as we don’t have a rear view mirror, so we wanted to know that it was being registered correctly. Also, I’d been reading some nightmare stories about ØresundPay – our toll tag provider – and was fretting that we would be charged incorrectly, or double, or one of the other myriad of problems I’d given myself nightmares with.

I should have realised that internet reviews mainly serve up bad news, people don’t go on trustpilot to talk about the boring subject of things doing what they are intended to do. It was a couple of hours before we saw anything register on our account but it all looked ok and in line with our expectations as I’d been making a note each time we’d been under a gantry. You can read more about how we set everything up here.

Google Maps had told us to expect a 7 hour drive and it was about right. We were pleasantly surprised that the speed limit was mostly a reasonable 110kph, allowing us to make good time along most of the way. A few roadworks slowed us down a little. We had plenty of advance warning with the lurid day-glow signs that are used to warn of upcoming works. Even if we couldn’t understand the detail on the signs their intention was clear; “slow down and prepare yourself”.

Parking at Hafjell

Our main reason for being at Hafjell was the downhill mountain biking, but at this time of year the lifts are only open on a weekend and we’d arrived on Thursday evening.  If we’d arrived at the weekend we may have just hit the downhill trails and moved on, but a weekday arrival gave us the opportunity to explore further afield and that was an unexpected bonus.

We took a private toll road up to a large parking area on the open moorland above the ski resort. The toll was a mere 30 NOK and had to be paid on exit. We used the Autopay app for this although there was also a machine to collect tolls. On the way up we saw the many holiday chalets that cluster on the slopes. Most of them were wooden with living roofs. They actually looked rather cute and not the eye sore we had expected when we’d seen them on the map.

It was easy enough to find a flattish parking spot with lovely views over the fells and Reinsvatnet lake. Over the two nights we stayed here people came and went frequently. Mostly walkers and cyclists and one person roller-skiing along the road. A sheep and a pair of large lambs seemed to have taken responsibility for patrolling the car park, often coming to have a scratch against the van or take shelter from the wind.

A walk up Nevelfjell

The weather was fine and warm when we arrived and yet again we decided to get out and stretch our legs with an evening walk. Right in front of us was the small summit of Nevelfjell, a perfect stroll get the blood flowing and raise an appetite for dinner.

Meadow pipits scattered as we walked past their perches in the low scrubby willows. We picked bilberries as we walked. We didn’t eat the small red bear berries because we didn’t know what they were at the time. Subsequent research has uncovered that they are edible and have health benefits. No one talks about the flavour. We may continue to give them a miss.

Trail bike to Hafjelltoppen

We haven’t been out on our bikes for ages, things at home have just got in the way, so we planned a gentle introduction back to the saddle.

As we had to get through Friday before the lifts opened, we found a trail route on the Hafjell website. It was just a little one. The route description promised barely 10km over an hour and a half. The height gain wasn’t anything worrying and the grading of moderate was about right for us.

Because the ride would usually start at the bike park we had to join it part way round. This meant doing the steepest uphill and downhill first, then it would be a steady undulating uphill. On paper it was fine but on the ground it proved to be pretty stony and tricky riding. The uphill was very hard work as we tried to persuade our muscles to push the bike up over rock steps.

However it was a lovely route in all. The terrain varied from the open moorland of the hilltops to closely folded little valleys with streams running through and stunted trees, to pine forest with large mushrooms on the ground. We really liked the area and planned a walk for the afternoon once our legs had recovered.

That afternoon though, the wind picked up and made it pretty unpleasant to be outside. We abandoned our plans to walk and hung out in the van doing chores, reading and watching the surrounding countryside with our binoculars.

Hafjell Downhill Bike Park

On Saturday we left our park up and drove back down to the gondola station. We’d woken up to external temperatures of 5°C and a strong wind still blowing. Our duvet had been needed rather than just a sheet.

Parking at the gondola station was paid through Apcoa Flow (yet another payment mechanism – we’ll put a list together at some point). The conditions were significantly different down here 700m lower. The sun was shining and there was a warm breeze rather than an icy gale. We double checked in the info centre that the lifts were definitely running, and when we’d been assured that they would be running all day we bought our lift passes.

Downhill biking here cost us 499 NOK each plus a non refundable cost of 75 NOK each for the card. That gives us two more ski area cards to add to our collection. Maybe we’ll come back and ski sometime. The car park got busier as we took the bikes off the bike rack and got changed. The area was buzzing all day with mostly families and groups of friends. Small children congregated in around the pump track at the top of the gondola. Riders with protective gear from head to toe sped down the black runs. Somewhere in between, we spent the next five hours on the green and blue trails.

We always like to start with a green trail to give us a gauge of the difficulty level. Green was good but not easy; some nice singletrack, mostly flowy with a few rocks. The blue trails pushed us (well me) a little harder. Paul zoomed down them while I spent a lot more time on my brakes. Steeper trails, bigger berms and some natural obstacles as well as small jumps and table tops. They were great for building my confidence back up.

By the mid afternoon both of us were feeling punished by the endless rattling and shaking even on our full suspension bikes (confession time, half way through the day I realised my front suspension was locked. I don’t know how I didn’t notice, but once sorted my bingo wings didnt feel as though they were flapping quite so much). Downhill biking doesn’t provide much in the way of cardio exercise but it certainly tested our strength and resilience.

With adrenaline still racing through our veins we decided to call it a day before we made any stupid mistakes. We’d really enjoyed our time here at Hafjell and would like to come back someday to see more of the area.