Saturday 15 April 2017

Lofoten Islands 2017 - week 2

Week 2 of this year's Lofoten trip was with a completely new team. Dave & Iain were at a slideshow I gave on the 2016 Baffin Island trip at the Fort William Mountain Festival and got in touch shortly afterwards. Rob, Lewis and Eliott joined them for the trip. With a mixed forecast for the first couple of days we concentrated on the local classics around Rundfjellet, with some heavy new snow and some transformed spring giving surprisingly good skiing!




Forget ski & sail, ski & row is where it's at these days!


On Tuesday, with a mixed forecast we again stayed in our backyard, with 3 great laps around the Blatind/Tuva area:




"Sun's out, guns out"!


Perfect spring snow!



With overnight snow and a good forecast there was only one pace to go on Wednesday for Lofoten 'first timers' - Geitgaljern.


Obviously a lot of other people had the same idea, but everyone headed straight for the main summit, leaving us with a perfect first lap down 400m vertical of untouched bowl...





Havng braved the Easter crowds on Wednesday it was time to search for some solitude by heading out West to one of Lofoten's great classic couloirs:


Thursday was so good that for our last day, with a clear but windy forecast we set course for the West again for one of my secret lines - a stunning traverse to a beautiful West-facing couloir:






A perfect way to finish the week. Thanks to Dave, Iain, Eliott, Rob and Lewis for willingly going with my madcap schemes and having faith that, despite common belief to the contrary, there is actually snow in the West!




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