From sandy beaches to alpine peakes - Ski touring Norway

Final harbour - hunt for powder at mountain X in Glomfjord

Leaving Lofoten is never easy, but waking up to sunny Glomfjord quickly removed the focus to our next adventure. Straight from the quai we cheked in at the hotel for breakfast. After 3 days of climbing, exit at 10:00 was well received in the group.

Getting the latest weather update from the locals we started to believe this day had soem great skiing to offer. And as many times before Glomfjord delivered:-)

 Group shot - fish and skis. Guess how long it hangs for dry? Until it's dry of course! 

Smiling faces under way up

Heaven!

Top of heaven..

Eirik scouting for new lines

Skiers ready!

Sverre starting the ball

Dag following

Martin cruising

Benedicte embrassing the view

Eirik diving into the fjord

Tonje and Benedicte enjoying life..

The guide Sverre.

Going moose style

Tonje shredding the sun set

Bjørn Kåre - a Kodak moment..

Sign of good times

Sverre and his group

Oyeah!!! this is real summit to sea!

Or what!!

After ski!! Thanks for a great day!!

Next harbour, new mountains in magical Lofoten.

Wednesday night at 23:45 we borded Hurtigruten bound for Harstad. Next morning we were waking up to sunny Harstad. What will the day bring?

Todays ski adventure we looked to find in Svolvær Lofoten. On the road from Harstad to Svolvær Lofoten there is skiing to make all around, but Sverre had a plan in mind. With todays weather Småtindan was the best chance of good skiing and magical views.

We are ready!

Martin, Dag, Benedicte and Eirik climbing the ridge towards Ørnefjellet.

Sverre leading the way.

Trygve finding peace in his "office"

Closer to the top and steeper...

On the top ridge, getting blasted by the winds.. Soon down time:-)

Tonje and Bjørn Kåre ready to go!

What a place!

Sverre entertaining the crowd..

Martin on cruise control.

Trygve charging..

Well deserved dinner and beer...

Dag and Tonje relaxing..

Say cheese!!!

There is no such ting as bad weather... High spirit at Kvaløya Tromsø

Direct from the airport to the sandy beaches of Kvaløya we went. Today we were welcomed with high winds, but the group diden't let that effect the eagerness to climb Middagsfjellet.

For the last weeks strong winds have ponded the North of Norway. In search of good snow we decided to look into the northern aspects, as the wind was coming in strong from the south. Close to Grøtfjord and Tromvik we stopped at Middagsfjellet. The peak is probably not very often summited by skiers, but today this was the best choice. Great views and a perfect place to do some avalanche training.

Today we learned about: "tuppekos", avalanche trancivers, bad probes and we learned to know each other.

Great start of a Hvitserk adventure!

  

Happy wind blowed group at the top.

Tuppekos

A ski trip start at the beach. But of course!

"High mountain Eirik" climbing above the beach. 

Perfect formation

Soon down time! 

Trygve "the boss" going full trotle.

Cruise control

Dag, Benedicte, Eirik, Tonje and Bjørn Kåre finign the way down.

Boarding Hurtigruten in Tromsø.

Sverre (mountain guide) a happy camper. Qoute: "If it's not meaningless, it's not really outdoors life. 

Whiteblue – we went through the storm to visit Koppangen Brygge in Lyngen.

Should we stay or should we go? 

Big weather systems were heading towards Northern Norway. With an outlook of heavy wind and big snowfall, this could mean closed roads and extreme avalanche danger.

Anyway making a long story short, we went for it!

Boarding the flight from Oslo we expected to land in Tromsø at 11:00. The plan was straight from the airport to Kvaløya, and then to Lyngen. That didn’t happen. It was snowing extremely heavily at Tromsø airport. We had to turn and stop in Bodø airport to refuel and wait for the weather to clear.  Three hours later we finally landed in Tromsø with no chance to get to Lyngen, as the roads were closed.

We decided to stay the night in Tromsø. Our good friend and “Tromsøværing” Trine Marhaug took us to the local ski hill Kroken. Here we found the best skiing so fare this year. With 50-70 cm powder and very few people to sign their name, this was the best way to celebrate the birthday of Per Christian (Whiteblue co-owner).

Day 2 we headed towards Lyngen through heavy snowfall, reaching Koppangen Brygge just in front of lunch.

What a great place. Perfect located at the end of the road, with a mountain wall protecting the bay from the open sea. And just above fantastic ski terrain.  To bad we couldn't enjoy this to the full, as the avalanche risk is at grade 4 :-(

Here are some shots just outside the “rorbu”.

All photos by Ole Marius Jørgensen.