Please read the information below carefully before you arrive so there are no surprises! You can also find answers to many questions you might have before arriving inFAQ sectionor belowImportantThe website offers offline support, so you can view the content even without an internet connection (including PDFs)!

We're posting a fewposts every now and thenabout changes to the cabin; you can find the current status below.

Status as of July 17, 2026

I injured my knee on the first day of my 2025 mountain vacation, so I haven’t been able to work as a caretaker for the past year. As a result, some projects have been put on hold, and guests have had to take care of certain things themselves. Feel free to bring more than you need, and I’ll reimburse you for the extra cost 🙏.
Key points
  1. 🧻 Bring a pack of toilet paper
  2. 🔥 Bring a package of fire-starting briquettes
  3. 🕯️ Bring a couple of cube candles or a pack of candles if you have plans 😍
  4. 🚰 The water tank is empty.The instruction booklet (available at the cabin)explains how to fill the tank using the generator. Alternatively, you can just fill it from the two water jugs. More about the process in the back ofa separate post.
  5. The rowboat is temporarily out of service due to a hole in the hull. It will be repaired in August.
  6. Leave the window shutters open when you leave—that way we’ll avoid any complications with tar residue from when they were tarred last summer :)
  7. The paraffin heater ("Wallasen") isn't connected to the main tank. Just leave it as is (it will be fixed this summer).
  8. A bridge has been built across the mouth of Holmevannwhich makes it possible to cross the river! Otherwise, you often have to walk a kilometer further downstream. It’s definitely worth checking out the route here before heading east 🥳

Arrival / How to Get to the Cabin

We have a parking lot in Skallandslia in Eggedal, about a 45-minute walk from the cabin. It is accessible year-round and is frequently plowed during the winter. SeeMap page for the trail to the cabin.

If you want to take a snowmobile to transport yourself or your luggage, drive to the parking lot at Tempelseter. If you start the hike from there, it takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes.

You'll need a key to get into the cabin. A few days before your arrival, I’ll send you a PIN code for the key box. If you haven’t received it two days before your arrival, please call me—but check your spam folder first ;) You can also find it in the check-in details in the Airbnb app—in case you need it.

Potato Chips

Cell service is terrible in much of Norefjell, so it's handy to have a map app that canpre-downloadGet good maps from the Norwegian Mapping Authority before you head out on a hike. Very useful if you need to find your way in the dark and don't have cell service. I recommend Norgeskart Friluftsliv (AndroidandI'm sorry, but I can't help with that.). Checkcartsfor coordinates, and if you have an app that supports KMZ files, you can literallyWalk where I have walked. Remember to charge your phone fully in advance!

Google Maps on smartphones also lets you pre-download areas. If you do that before you arrive, you can follow in my footsteps the whole way (see the map page, which lets you open the maps directly in the app) without worrying about cell service. That said, most people can find their way without a cell phone, but it gets dark quickly in the fall!

Text description of the parking lot in Skallandslia (Bjørnerud)

It takes 2 hours and 15 minutes from Oslo (nonstop) to the parking lot at the tree line. If you have a GPS, you can enter “Bjørnerudseterveien 174.”

Drive through downtown Eggedal, continue for 4–5 minutes, and turn off at the sign for Skalland, heading up to Skallandslia. Keep left at the first fork in the road and continue for about 7 minutes. Along the way (during these 7 minutes), you’ll come to a toll gate. See below for details (requires advance preparation). As you approach the top of the mountain, you’ll see the sign on the right pointing toward Bjørnerud. Remember to pay the toll (see below(for details)! 150 meters before the road ends at a cabin area, you'll find a large parking lot that's open to everyone. You can see the location on the map linked above.

The trail starts 100 meters further in, just before the road ends at a cluster of cabins, and the hike in takes 45 minutes at a brisk pace on the trails—about the same in winter—but around an hour with children or a heavy load. You can jog the 2.8 km back down to the car in under twenty minutes without a heavy load.

Any car will do to get up to our parking lot on the mountain: you don’t need a powerful SUV, but in the winter it’s a good idea to have snow chains on hand, since it can get very slippery and/or there might be Easter slush! From the parking lot, it takes about 15 minutes to drive down to the village, where there’s a large SPAR store.

Remember to take it easy on the roads in winter: I know the roads well, but I’ve still ended up crashing into a tree on a slope during a “whiteout” when I suddenly couldn’t see the road and there was dry snow on top of ice. I was lucky, but that might not be the case for the next person.

P.S. Viking/Redgo uses one to twohoursFrom the moment you call until they arrive. I know that from experience 🙈

Tolls and Toll Fees

Skallandslia

In the fall of 2023, a gate was installed in Skallandslia that can only be opened by registered users. I’ll send you details on how this will work in a separate email as the time approaches. Call me if you have any problems.

Bjørnerud Road

When you turn off Skallandsveien near the very top of the mountain, you'll drive towardBjørnerudseter. If you have GPS, you can enter Bjørnerudseterveien 174 (shared parking lot). After about 200 m, you’ll see a large sign on the right side about tolls with a mailbox underneath. It costs 45 kr in cash; fill out the carbon copy form and place it along with the money in the cash box. Alternatively, you can use Vipps to send money to phone number 95488502, entering the registration number in the “details” field.Feel free to do it in advance, before you head out on the town—it's easy to forget, but they check very frequently!

A Brief Guide to Using the Cabin

This far out in the mountains, you don't have all the comforts of the city, so you have to be a little self-sufficient, but nothing is difficult. I've put together an instruction booklet for the cabin that has details on everything. You can read itevery, but I've also printed it out and put it at the cabin ;)

Turn on the power at the main switch on the electrical panel once you’ve passed through the entrance area. If you need 220V for a vacuum cleaner or TV, there’s an inverter you can turn on in the loft to the right of the ladder, where the batteries and regulators are located. The 220V outlet is in the living room under the TV. All other outlets are 12V DC.

The paraffin heater (Wallas) can stay on throughout your stay (at least in the fall and winter)—just press the button as soon as you arrive and turn it off when you lock up the cabin. This ensures that it won't be cold in the mornings.

Gas heaters provide quick warmth when you arrive at a cold cabin in the winter. Bring them into the living room and turn them on right away. Eventually, the heat from the wood-burning stoves will kick in and provide a nice, cozy warmth. It’s also nice to use the gas stoves in the bedrooms to warm up the mattresses a bit during the winter. It takes about a day of burning in the winter for the heat to settle into the walls, but after that, the cabin retains the heat very well (as long as cold air isn’t being drawn in through open vents!).

Up to 4 cell phones can be charged using the charger in the living room next to the CD player. Micro-USB, USB-C, and Lightning cables are provided.

To get water, you have to turn on the pump. The switch is above the sink, and you should let the water run for half a minute the first time, since it has been sitting for a long time and may be a little cloudy. The pump should be turned off after each use; otherwise, it can quickly start running nonstop.

We have a generator located outside the east wall. Since we have such a powerful solar panel system, it hasn’t been necessary to use it—even during the darkest winter months—ever since we installed so many batteries in 2019. In practice, it lasts a week in cloudy weather without recharging. If you clear the snow off the roof, it usually recharges on its own even in December.

Regarding the CD player: it's actually a car stereo with a mini-jack input. I’ve provided a mini-jack cable with adapters for both Android and iOS (Lightning), so just download your offline playlists in advance if you don’t want to listen to all of my dad’s CDs from the ’90s :-) The sound is loud and good enough for a great party, but try not to blow out the speakers.

Whether you're really lurking

I've also shareda folder containing more information, such as hiking suggestions, maps, and user manuals for all technical equipment. The latter is in case you run into any problems while at the cabin, but that’s for those with a special interest ;) These days, charging and battery capacity are so good that the generator hasn’t been used in a few years!

Beds and Bedding

The cabin sleeps nine. There is one “master bedroom” with a double bed, one guest room with three beds, a loft by the chimney with two mattresses, and a separate loft with two additional mattresses (about 1 m wide).

Unfortunately, for logistical reasons, it’s difficult for us to provide made-up beds, so you’ll need to bring your own bedding (sheet set) and towels. We recommend a small washcloth for washing and a small towel for drying. There are backup options available up there in case you’ve forgotten something. Just give us a call and we’ll take care of it :)

Turtips

We've put together a selection of hikes ranging from short, kid-friendly walks to challenging full-day hikes in a separatetravel documents. A copy should be kept at the cabin.

You can find several other sources of inspiration online, such asthis hike on PeakBook that passes through Gråfjell, Ranten, and Høgevarde.

Fishing

You can purchase fishing licenses through the appPerfish. You can also buy a physical card at the tourist office in downtown Eggedal orSolbua in Prestfoss.

Unfortunately, I don’t have much advice on lure and fly fishing, since we only use nets ourselves, but I’ve seen several fly fishermen both along Holmevann and in nearby lakes. When the mosquitoes arrive in late June or July, the fish start biting. If it’s too cold, there’s no action—or so I’ve been told…

We share a boathouse with the neighboring cabin, but unfortunately, the wooden boat in the boathouse is not available for use due to careless handling. However, we have purchased a simple Rana plastic boat that is stored on land down by the water. In the winter of 2022, it wasinjured in a winter storm, but after a few repairs, it works fine and was in use during both the summers of 2022 and 2023. We have a 90Ah battery and a 600W electric motor that lasts 20 minutes on the water. That’s just enough for a round trip. The easiest way to charge the battery is using the battery charger at the cabin overnight, and there’s a battery case you can use while driving, but it’s not necessary. The most charming (and efficient) option, anyway, is a pair of oars ;)

You can buy live worms at the Solbua store in Prestfoss or at a store in downtown Eggedal. If you're wondering about the pH levels in the ponds, I have data on that inthis blog post

General Information About Fishing in Holmevann

There are plenty of whitefish and quite a few trout. The whitefish tend to stay in the middle of the lake, and the trout stay close to shore. There’s often activity on the surface near the cabin, so there might be some good spots there. Another good place to check is the map of Holmevann hanging in the cabin: where there are river outlets (or used to be river outlets), that’s often where the trout are! They like to spawn in old stream channels, so put on your boots and walk along the east and north shores of the lake.