The Skiers' Guide to Hemsedal

Nice village, slopes and lift and very convenient parking at the resort. They also offer other fun family friendly activities such as tobogganing

My trip started before the resort was open to the public. I was part of a group of about 150 people conducting trading for ski racing. The first two weeks I was teaching new skiers. This was my third trip to Hemsedal for this event.
The resort is one of the top in Norway. It’s about 3 1/2 hours from Oslo and this year there was enough snow on the main slopes that we use for training. They have green, blue, red and black runs from the top of the main lifts. They have a new 6 person lift with a canopy which is useful when it is cold. This year the temperature was relatively high, between -7 to +3. We had quite a lot of snowfall over the three weeks I was there but we had some thawing of some of that.
By the official opening most of the runs were open with a combination of natural and canon snow. They have a large snow park and were building some large jumps. I didn’t experience any off-piste as I was there for racing but lots of people used the ‘closed’ runs under the lift when the snow was deep enough.
We stayed in high quality lodges that were built to a high spec and include a sauna. Some of our group had large apartments in the main SkiStar hotel. There is a small shop in the hotel as well as a large cafe/restaurant/bar facility and a ski shop right next to the nursery slopes and new lift. They have a large ski rental shop in the basement.
There is a nightlife but it feels expensive to us Brits!! There is a relatively new climbing wall and a range of shops in the ski centre.
The town of Hemsedal is a short drive/taxi ride or a 40 minute walk. It has some good cafes, bars and restaurants. There is a fuel station, several outdoor/ski shops and a large chemist and a medical clinic.
It is much smaller than the big resorts in the Alpes but is also a lot less busy!
It is definitely worth considering as an alternative to France, Austria, Italy if you like trying new places. The staff and locals were very friendly and spoke great English.
Give it a go!

Good views, quite close to Oslo and good for offpiste if you know where to look! Be aware of avalanche terrain! World class apres ski, and good possibilities for backcountry skiing in the area!