Norway is always worth a trip! Or in my case, several.

I'm just returning from my fifteenth! trip to Norway this year and writing these lines on the ferry. I have to admit, the ferry crossing from Oslo to Kiel is always something very special for me. After a mostly stressful and intense time, this is like my mini vacation. Almost 20 hours of limited cell phone reception - you are forced to switch off, in the truest sense. But now back to the last few days, which I would like to tell you briefly about.

The trip started in Oslo, where we made a detailed inspection and maintenance of the cooling system and the inrun track. When the legendary Holmenkollen ski festival takes place there in two weeks and the elite in women's and men's ski jumping and nordic combined meet, then everything should run smoothly.

We then did the same 500 kilometers north in Trondheim. Even if the system has just been built, everything meets the latest standards and is literally only of the “finest”, the technology needs to be well maintained and inspected.

Our further journey then took us back to Vikersund to the largest ski jumping hill in the world. An inrun length of 136 meters and jumps of over 250 meters characterize this man-build monster west of Oslo. We spent two days there installing the ice, where we used new technologies and work steps. The process is significantly optimized and is much faster. And before you know it, two weeks in Norway have already passed.

In general, I have to say that I have rarely seen Norway with so much snow. There were stable snow conditions everywhere and when the World Cup entourage heads to Scandinavia in two weeks, athletes and working staff can look forward to a real winter wonderland!

With that in mind, have a great time! I now enjoy the shacking of the ferry and the view of the open sea for another 18 hours :-)

Yours sincerely,

Peter Riedel