Telemark town soaks up the winter sun for the first time: http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...-norway-rjukan
The Norwegian town of Rjukan set deep in a mountain valley has built three large mirrors to reflect the sun from a nearby mountaintop to their market square. Normally, townsfolk inhabiting this far northern city of 3500 remain in the shadow of the mountains for nearly six months each winter.
BTW, there is an indirect ski connection. The Norwegian resistance movement sabotaged Nazi Germany efforts to generate heavy water at the hydroelectric power station next to Rjukan during WWII. They had big concerns the Nazi heavy water project would aid nuclear weapons development. Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris starred in a 1965 movie about this successful operation called The Heroes of Telemark. The film contains a lot of fun telemark skiing scenes with good guys and bad guys chasing each other around the Norwegian countryside: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heroes_of_Telemark

And, it's where Sondre Norheim invented the telemark turn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telemark_skiing

"The Telemark turn came to the attention of the Norwegian public in 1868, when Sondre Norheim took part in a ski jumping competition. Norheim's technique of fluid turns soon dominated skiing, and in Norway it continued to do well into the next century.[2] Starting in the 1910s, newer techniques based on the stem gradually replaced Telemark in the Alpine countries. Newer techniques were easier to master and enabled shorter turns better suited for steeper alpine terrain and skiing downhill. The Telemark turn became the technique of ski touring in rolling terrain."  Telemark turns had all but disappeared from skiing when I learned to ski in the 1950s.  

Then.

The modern revival,

"The revival in the Telemark technique, after its decline from popularity in the mid-1940s, started in United States in the 1970s. Telemark skiing was a back-to-basics reaction to the high-tech equipment developments of alpine skiing, and the increasing reliance on crowded groomed pistes served by ever larger and faster mechanical ski lifts. The use of traditional clothing is associated with the Telemark skiing revival.
The Telemark revival started almost simultaneously in Crested Butte, Colorado and the northern part of the Green Mountains in Vermont. The Vermont revival was led by Telemark enthusiast Dickie Hall.[3] At the same time, in southern Vermont, Filippo Pagano (aka Telemarkfil) was leading the revival with the opening of the first Telemark Ski School in the Eastern USA at Bromley Mountain. The Telemark racing series was also started. It came to the attention of a larger public with a demonstration by a team from the Professional Ski Instructors of America at Interski, Italy in 1983. It grew to prominence during the 1990s; however, although organizations such as NATO (North American Telemark Organization) and NET (New England Telemark) sponsor telemark festivals and Instruction as the sport continues to grow, it is still considered a minority sport."

Chip Chase and Dickie Hall are friends and colleagues and were both key figures in the Vermont revival.  Dickie visits Whitegrass and holds clinics every year.