Snow-Covered Small Cabin

Behind drooping snow-covered boughs of large conifers, an old-fashioned Norwegian cabin waits for visitors to arrive and warm things up. It’s located in Hamarsæterhøgda, Ringsaker, Norway. Built in 1964, the cabin has electricity but no in-house water, and it’s used primarily as a winter cabin, since the area has excellent cross-country skiing conditions (a lot of snow and flat terrain!).

Cabin culture is popular in Norway, and some families even have two cabins: one in the mountains for winter, and one by the shore for summer. According to the photographer, Vegard Røine Stenerud, cabins are often visited during Easter, because for Norwegians Easter means many days off, days are longer, it’s not too cold, and skiing conditions are still good. It’s a great time for gathering the family at the cabin.

Vegard also mentions that it is common that cabins there have a name. The name of this cabin is “Tjerngløtt,” which translated means, “It is possible to (barely) see some small lakes from the cabin,” says Vegard.

The properties for the cabins near Tjerngløtt are not owned by each family, but rather in a kind of joint union between the local farmers (“almenning” in Norwegian). This cabin was built as a joint effort by locals from materials gathered over time.

“In Norwegian we have a separate name for this called ‘dugnad,’ which basically means that people are helping out for free when needed – the people helping out will, of course, also get a similar kind of assistance when they need that. However, it was my friend’s grandfather that was in charge of getting this cabin built.”

Photo by Vegard Røine Stenerud/Getty Images