Thursday, April 8, 2010

Magic times up north pt1: Lofoten

As long as the weather is cooperating, north of the moral circle is the place to be. Then northern norway it is the most beutiful and best location in the whole world, for skiing, surfing, hygge and more. For almost thee weeks now, that has my reality.


Welcome to Lofoten!

Started off by flying into the Lofoten Islands at the end of a snowstorm as it was clearing and then stayed cold, sunny and calm for more than a week. Camp Lofoten was on, which is a Norrøna supported back country ski, surf and hygge event run by the wannabee sjøsame Freddy Gelly and backed up by the good times and good weather god of Manitu. It's accompagnied by good food and lodging at the Henningsvær Bryggehotell and a great crew of ugly stinkin mountain guides and blonde norwegian back country babes.


Sverre and Lars-Kristian on the ridge at Blåtind.

Photographer Sverre Hjørnevik hooked up azz usual as well as half local, half fisherman/half law student poser Håvard Ånesen with his snowboard and surfboard. As the mountains were stashed with pow and there was even some decent swells coming in we could not have anything but the best of times, again, in Lofoten. Add some sauna, hard core mølje eating, fernet and beers and you should be able to understand that sleeping could not be given the highest priority.


Some multisport bouldering and snowboarding action by the fjord.

We decided to steer away from the classic ski touring peaks this time, in order not to repeat ourselves every year, get to see some new terrain, mark off some new names on the map and maybe find some brand new epicness. This went both ways, as the classics are classics for a reason of course; they often have good snow and good efficient terrain for both the going up and going down. Wi did get a taste of some really cool new stuff, got some good shots and new epic views, but at the same time we rode a lot of shitty snow and fooled around a lot when we could have been cruisng more pow instead.



We topped out Blåtind, Håtind and Stornapptind, neither of which I have been to before and who are all clearly are stand-out mountains in their area. And in between we had some decent surf at Unstad. Finally, after a late night at the climbing cafe, me and Håvard scored an awesome couloir right around the corner from home base in Henningsvær. I had been looking at the think every time I'd passed on the way by and went op into the start of the neighbour coloir to check the snow, concluding that it could not be a better time to ski this narrow and steep thing. One of the nicest chute-rides I've ever gotten I think. Good snow, good view, good width, good steepness etc. = good times. Check the video:




More reports from up north coming. Stay tuned!

-T


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