FROGNERSETEREN (VG) Several lavvos have stood for several days, and many have returned for the ninth year in a row. The 50 kilometer race in Holmenkollen will probably be a public event this year as well.
– It’s a bit like a festival in the forest, says Anders Ness Nilsen about the Kollen weekend.
He and his friends are about to unfurl a large Norwegian flag between two trees when VG’s journalist and photographer walks over to say hello. Another arrives with sacks of firewood, which will hopefully last the night.
There is the smell of a fire at Frognerseteren and various percussionists can be heard from a little further into the forest. It’s getting close to 6pm and it’s just over 16 hours until the men start the traditional 50 kilometer race in Holmenkollen.
– There is something old Norwegian about it. People have always been here, my father has been here. I think it has something to do with it, says Espen Antonsen to VG about why it is so special to be in Kollen this weekend.
He, Ness Nilsen and Jon Tunby are putting the finishing touches to the carefully selected spot on the trail’s highest point. Lavvoen came up on Thursday, the guys went up on Friday. The place is the same as almost all the years since the first trip in 2012. Since then, the tradition has become a “reunion” for the friends.
– We are getting old then, it is the only way to meet, says Antonsen.
– It has become a meeting point in the winter, Ness Nilsen chimes in.
– We don’t keep doing that
Among the seasoned Kollen riders in the boys’ gang, there is also one who will make his debut this year.
– They have boasted every single year, so it hasn’t been right for me. But now I’m in papa perm, so then it was a good fit, I managed to trick myself away, says Tunby and adds that his wife wished him good luck.
When asked how the friends sold the trip, the answer is:
– Robber stories around the fire all night long, that has been the selling point. And burning fires all night, incredibly delicious.
For the boys, it is the joy of seeing each other and the trip out that is most important. Not the amount of alcohol.
– I don’t think there is anything special when the focus is on the drinking part of this. With all the mess and people not behaving, it’s nothing special. But I think it’s nice that people have a beer around the fire. But not that filling piece. That’s not what we’re doing, first-time Tunby says.
For the journalist’s not entirely untrained nose also picks up a small whiff of alcohol on the way into the forest from Frognerseteren, in addition to the campfire smoke that dominates the trail’s highest point.
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Before the pandemic, the Kollen weekend was characterized by negative reports about drunken parties. In 2018, things went wrong. People were heavily intoxicated, not prepared for the winter and there was complete chaos around the subway lines. Seven people were then injured.
The general manager of the Holmenkollen ski festival, Stefan Marx, said earlier this week that they have sold more than ten thousand tickets. An average that corresponds to the time before the corona pandemic. At the same time, they have taken measures to avoid chaos for those who show up.
The organizer says, among other things, that they are going to close the subway so that it stops at the Holmenkollen stop. They hope that it will make it safer for the public and that it will also ensure a better flow.
It continues with combined and jumps on Friday, before the traditional five-mile starts on Saturday at 10.30am. Thus, they continue with the same move as in 2019, where they started four and a half hours earlier than in 2018.
– It helps so that not everyone goes home at the same time. People may not be able to drink as much before the race as they do in the afternoon. There are also new arrangements with public transport that ensure a much better flow of the public, Marx said.
Out in the forest, a number of people from the Red Cross were in place, as well as guards. These stay through the night. In addition, a warming tent has been set up at Frognerseteren Sportshall. And up at Frognerseteren it’s not packed, at least not quite yet.
– That’s what we don’t know!
A small stone’s throw from the boys’ “reunion”, a group of people from Trondheim have gathered. It’s getting close to dinner, hunter stew on the menu Friday night. One “notch” further in we find the culprits for the music. While Vidar Villa sings about “Your mother”, Morten Dromnes, Hedda Fallet and Kjetil Andresen show off the home-made bar “BarBar”.
On the way down from Frognerseteren, we also find colleagues Håvard Kvivesen and Simen Ulseth, as well as friends Elisabeth Øistad and Hanne Branes a little further away.
– We hope for a quadruple, which Norway is good for, Kvivesen answers questions about the sporting expectations.
It is the colleagues’ first overnight trip on the outskirts of the national facility. They made the trip up on Friday, the neighbor was already there on Wednesday.
– It is still a bit uncertain, but I think it will be a bit fresher tomorrow. We’ll make some coffee and get started again, Ulseth.
He provides stroganoff, storm kitchen, eggs and bacon. And a legacy worthy of a Kollen spectator. He says that his grandfather was Arve Ulseth, he won the five thousand in Kollen in 1947.
It is also the first time for Øistad and Branes in Kollen, but they have accumulated experience with both skiing and cheering from repeated trips to the Birkebeinerrennet.
– We are good at cheering, says Øistad.
The friends are waiting for one more and say that although it is fun to have a beer and enjoy yourself, that is not the focus of this trip.
– Good atmosphere, and then we will recharge for tomorrow as well. We’ll try to get a few hours in, and we’ll save a bit of voice so we’ll get a lot of cheering tomorrow, Branes answers when asked what the expectations for the evening are.
When asked by a somewhat forgetful journalist about what it’s really like here on a Kollen Saturday, the friends say in unison:
– That’s what we don’t know! That is what we are going to experience.
