Lofoten 2014 - part 2

Day 4
A mixed forecast which turned into a belter of a day with 3 great runs on the East, South then North sides of Rundfjellet with untouched powder on all sides!

Skinning to the ridge after a great run on the East face:

An untouched South face in perfect powder? Thank you very much!

And back onto the East face for what I believe 'the kidz' would call 'cold smoke':

And some twilight powder on the North side back down to the cars:

Did I mention I quite like these islands?


Day 5 and we headed back round to the 'Big G', with Kristin joining us once again. This time we ticked the summit (nice to see the views this time after some poorly-timed mist last year!) and had a good run down the Krokelva valley followed by some 'interesting' combat skiing through the trees!

Morning view from our flat in Henningsvaer:

Geitgaljern is a stunning peak:

A couple of other teams out today:

Geitgaljern summit is a real classic 'Aiguille':

South gully looking good again:

Obligatory team shot on the summit:

It's a fair way down!:

Good powder in the top of the Krokelva:

And good spring snow lower down:

Norwegian Indians?:

A rest for weary legs on the skin back out:

Once again another high quality day in the context of one of the worst winters for snow in recent history in Lofoten!

More to follow - including another stunning result in the Wild West...

Lofoten 2014 - part 1

By cod its good...!

Last year I spent an amazing 2 weeks in the Lofoten Islands in Arctic Norway. Round 2 was swiftly arranged (for even longer!), but then doubts set in. In 2013 Lofoten had experienced the snowiest March in 25 years, 2014 was shaping up to be the least snowy winter in 25 years - had I made the mistake of going back to a place we had skied in exceptional conditions?

Of course not:

Photo ©Nick Mason/Summit Photographs

Despite some areas having almost no snow, we managed to ski from and to the car every day for the first 9 days - not bad considering the lack of snow this winter. For comparison purposes check out the photos looking up Presten couloir this year and skiing to the waters edge in the same spot last year...:

So with this in mind I am now even more impressed with Lofoten - a poor (really poor) snow year and we still managed to have amazing skiing!

A selection of photos:

Day 1 - Half of the team were held up by a cancelled flight out of Heathrow, so Ian, Jim and I had a short morning leg stretcher, finding some heavy powder to lay down some tracks in:

In the afternoon, with the team now complete and settled into our accommodation we all headed into Trolldalen for a cheeky little couloir:

Day 2 and with a good forecast we made tracks over to Geitgaljern. A wind-loaded bowl stopped us heading right to the top, but we had a good run down the West face, followed by an incredible powder run in the South gully!

Joining the team today was Kristin Folsland Olsen, a local journalist/photographer/explorer who we had helped rescue almost exactly a year ago to the day only a few kilometres from Geitgaljern when we came across her lying with a broken pelvis on a stormy day... (for more details see here...) It was great to see Kristin back up and ripping again!:

Day 3, and the forecast was decidedly Lofoten-esque so we stayed on one of the local bad weather spots, with a couple of laps for the keen team:

Variable visibility, but nice soft powder in the gullies, and great views over Svolvaer in the clear spells.

The evening saw Nick once again celebrating his birthday in style above the Arctic circle with a fine cake courtesy of Matteo at the Climbing Café:

More to follow...

Lofoten - Ristinden South gully

A slightly early return from Lofoten due to 4 days of foul weather forecast for the end of my trip means I can now start to post some updates from the last 3 weeks. In slightly illogical fashion I am going to start with the last day first...

Last year I had spotted some lines on Ristinden, an 850m high peak near Leknes, but ran out of time to go exploring. This year skiing something on this peak was high on my list of priorities as there is basically no information about prior descents, so although the obvious lines have undoubtedly been skied before, there is a real sense of adventure heading off in to 'uncharted' territory.

Ristinden is a stunning peak, with no 'easy way up':

There appear to be 4 good independent steep lines on this peak, the one I was most drawn to this year was the South gully, a direct line from below the summit, with a small ramp leading in from the West shoulder - more obvious from the Leknes area (left-slanting gully line directly below summit...):

Although we had to start the day on foot, soon we were straight into crampons and axe territory to figure out a passage through the lower rock bands guarding the bottom of the face. Guy & Jon on bootpack duties:

A bit of slightly blind weaving took us onto more open slopes, then up into the entrance to the gully:

Once in the gully we started to come under fire from above - a combination of wind and sun sending a lot of debris down from the iced-up rocks that cap the gully. With several larger sluffs also coming down a quick re-think was forced - we found some shelter under an overhanging rock at about 770m and after some debating decided that it was probably a good idea to head down rather than continue on into the bombardment with no obvious shelter ahead and an uncertain exit along (what we hoped was) the ramp below the summit.

A shame not to top out the gully, but we still had a great ski - Guy in action:

Oli:

Out of the gully, still steep, and exposed above small bluffs , but a bit more relaxed out of the firing line!:

With a bit of ingenuity, and some unleashing of the snow radar we managed to ski back to 150m above sea level, leaving a pleasant 20 min wander back down to the car...

All in all a great day out, hindsight says we should have continued on, but better to have the option to go back another time to finish it off...

Lofoten update part 2

Due to technical issues posting to blogger is proving slightly problematic.

If you want to keep up to date with the current adventures in Lofoten then have a look at the offpisteskiing facebook page: www.facebook.com/offpisteskiing

Needless to say, Lofoten has not disappointed!

Lofoten update

A few pictures from the first 2 days of this year's Lofoten adventures: