Lofoten-bound

All quiet on the ski front this last week as I have had my 'other' hat on, doing some work for climbing equipment and headtorch manufacturer Petzl.

This afternoon I am off to Lofoten for a return visit following last year's amazing 2 weeks. Sadly the snow doesn't look to be quite as good as last year (always the danger of going back to somewhere after a fantastic snow experience...), but from what my local sources are telling me there is still plenty of skiing to be done! If not then we may have to revert to cod-fishing and northern lights spotting (anything to keep away from the very expensive beer!).

In the bag are my Dynafit Mercurys, which I am still very impressed with (despite quite a bit of boot work to create enough forefoot space), along with the Whitedot Skis Ranger Carbonlites which are really proving themselves. During the Steep Vanoise week we did quite a bit of skinning on firm snow without ski crampons (some of the clients had forgotten theirs so I also didn't use them so as to judge how feasible the skinning was) - the torsional stiffness of the Rangers makes for very comfortable skinning on steep firm snow, as you really get a feel of good edge grip and a solid platform under the foot. On the downhill they still feel great and were performing well in heavy 'old' powder, on spring snow and on some quite rough wind-affected surfaces...

Here's hoping we find some more of this to test them out on: