Day 2 – Powder, sable fighting and Waffle heaven at Kabelvaag Hotel

After a good night sleep onboard Hurtigruten we arrived in Harstad. First a quick stop to get the urban coffee drinkers satisfied we were on the E-10 road for Lofoten. E-10 is a driving skiers nightmare. Luckily we survived after watching ski lines all the way to Svolvær Lofoten. After some discussions we decided to head for Blåtinden. The trail started in someone’s backyard just above Svolvær town. At first it seemed a bit strange to be walking among houses since there is plenty of options away from people.

Blåtind proved to be a great choice, both ski wise and scenery. The scenery is amazing above Svolvær. Looking over the open sea and peaks exploding out of the ocean.

After 30-40 minutes we felt like being totally away

At the first peak we skied down the north/east side to find perfect powder, the only price we had to pay was the return back from were we came.

On the way up we had already pointed out the way down. A beautiful untouched flank just waiting for the Whiteblue crew to shred it.. Oh yes!!

A lot of jiiiihhhaaas and 360 smiles we found us at the final run to Svolvær. This last part was the reason for choosing Blåtind. The sunset into the sea and skiers is a wet dream for all.

Never before did we have an argument on whom to ski first. Not this day. The sables were drawn and the fight was on….

Look out for more…. Tomorrow waits Glomfjord…

PS!! Kabelvaag hotel and Maren gave us the best welcome – warm waffles in a big stack waiting for hungery skiers! We love you Maren and Kabelvaag Hotel!!

Day 1. - True Blue White Powder in Kvaløya Tromsø

Woke up to a sunny clear day in Tromø! The first day of our tour couldn’t get a better start, the group exited around the breakfast table – just after 0700 – all ready to go for a day of untracked fresh snow. Kvaløya is it! 20 minutes later we stopped the car. Here we go – snow - a lot of new white snow. Soon on track – Skittentind – up there – our `top´ today. 3 hours later we gaze out to the horizon – blue ocean and beautiful scenes. Down – incredible – incredible skiing.

Tro meg – ganske så deilig! (Norwegian)

The desert is now being served – waiting for the Hurtigruten to make land in Tromsø. We will soon board and head for Harstad and tomorrows adventure. Hopefully the sun will stay with us – the fresh snow is there (so we heard…). Can’t wait to see Lofoten - once more. Talk soon.

Still waiting Ole M.?

Killer whales, sauna and couloir gazing

Imaging sailing around in the Arctic sea, gazing at steep couloirs from inside a rebuilt whaling ship turned into a mix of Finnish sauna and a Japanese zen lounge. Yes it’s surreal and very unique. Vulkana makes you wind down and relax, and we want to use this special ship as your floating base camp for ski touring exploration in the Arctic sea outside Tromsø Norway.

Vulkana is new to Whiteblue and we needed to make a test run to make sure the concept holds what you can expect.

And it does!

We believe Vulkana is the perfect base for a ski touring Adventure unlike everything else you can find in the world. Unfortunately we didn’t find time to ski this time but the opportunities around Tromsø gave us a lot of ideas for first descents. And that’s a theme for the whole Vulkana experience. This ship is one of a kind a truly unique ship.

Have a look at the pictures and make your decision for you next ski touring exploration adventure with Whiteblue.

PS! Tomorrow we are heading out to Kvaløya to find untracked snow summit to sea… This will be the first day of the 4 days Hurtigruten cruise ahead. Spirits are high and the group are eager to get out thereJ

Ski touring and bluebird in Hemsedal Norway

After some struggel getting back from Munich and ISPO it was really good to be back on the skiies.

I needed 3 days to get home despite the flight is only 2 1/2 hour. Never have I experienced difficulties due to snowfall as in Munich. We had to accept two cancellations before we finally made it back home on friday. Just in time to get to Hemsedal for the weekend.

Ski touring is getting many fans in Norway. That was very obvious heading for Skurvefjell (1741m.). We were not alone, but what can you expect as Skurvefjell was bading in sun and the temprature were about -10 celsius and no wind. All in all a perfect day to be out.

We really enjoyed the day in a "Whiteblue" manner altough we didn´t find fresh powder. Last weekend the story was different with fresh powder from top to bottom. Nevertheless we could work the tan and enjoy the time with good friends.

Me and Fredrik working the tan

Do you see the hidden code?

If not you probably see the east coloir of Kyrkjebønosi in the back

If you want to know how the day ended you need to come with us next time:-)

The next day we had a alpine start at 13:00. Waking up to mixed cloudy weather we decided to head to west. That turned out to be a good move... See the following pics.

The Battle is on! - ski touring the major development 2011

First day at ISPO 2010, and what looks clear. The battle is on to make the best alpine touring boot combining climbing and downhill performance.

I must say the most impressive new development is by Blackdiamond, both for boots and skies. They have developed a totaly new range of skis and boots to enter the market in 2011. Without any further study I was impressed by their focus on lightweight gear. For the next season they will have a totaly new range of possible bestsellers in the lightweight segement.

Here's a sneak previw..

120 flex Quadrant

110 flex Prime

The brand new ski from Blackdiamond is called Drift. It has the meassure of 138-100-123. The 100 underfoot and extrem light weight will make this ski a possible leader in this catagory.

I have not tested the skies my self, but from the feel of it this seems to be a good ski for powder days. As I prefere the lighter skies this seems to be a very interesting new development. They weigh around 3,0kg and are quit soft doing the "bending test". Specially the noes seems to be from the softer end of the spectrum.

Nevertheless I look forward for the first test run:-)

Blue Monday!

The weather forecast made me stay an extra day in Hemsedal. Waking up to blue skies I didn't regret my decision. Today’s planned trip was Svarthetta, about 700-800m climb from the parking.

During the night the temperature had dropped to -4 C giving perfect conditions. Heading up from the lower part in the shadow to the sun higher up it turned gradually warmer. Ski touring in November isn't like mid winter. The sun is still warm and without wind I could enjoy the winter landscape. Since I probably was the first doing Svarthetta this year, I had to break trail all the way.

Approaching the high mountain through the trees I followed the tracks form a fox who probably walked just minutes before me. The day turned out to give me close accouter to both grouse and a reindeer. The reindeer I first detected heading up. From a distance I couldn’t tell if it was a stone or animal. It was standing still without making the smallest movement. When skiing down I had to checkout the place. To my surprise I almost skied over the animal lying half buried in the snow. I think it was as surprised as me...

The skiing down were partly great, despite the latest snow had just briefly covered the rock base. Into the woods I could relax and cruise between the trees.

To conclude the day had all what you can expect from a day out, great snow, wildlife and blue skies. I must say I love my new office:-)

An afternoon stroll in a meter of pow!

I got reports of heavy snow last week, but not in my wildest dreams did I expect this much snow on my first trip this season!

My friend Jan Andre and I headed out for a short trip to check out the snow. Actually Jan who lives in Hemsedal already had his first turns 4 weeks ago. No one could miss that as he was bombing us with MMS and Facebook pics. That was extraordinary early and long forgotten as mild weather had turned most of the first snow back to water.

Today we had decided to go to one of the safe spots in Hemsedal, Nibbi. Arriving we quickly concluded that Nibbi wasn’t ready for us yet. A bit disappointed we headed up to the road pass towards the West of Norway (Lærdal). On the way we discussed were we could expect snow. Since Jan had spent the last week in bed with the o so famous “honk honk flu” he had not paid much attention to the direction of the weather. But with some local knowledge after skiing this mountains for the last 28 years we quickly started analyzing the North-West flanks. And right so, YES! Look there it is!

In between the open Burch woods the snow seemed to be good enough for a test run. After some fumbling with the skins we were again heading upwards.

Last year Håkon and I had our debut Nov 8^th, and today it’s just Nov 6^th. The difference was that last year opening where on frozen summer snow in Norway’s high mountain area Jotunheimen. Today we are in fresh powder far from the “summer”. One meter above actually!!

We made the trip short as the day where turning into night, but what a debut! Going down we made girly sounds, a lot of yeeeeeeeiiiiiiihhhhhhhhaaaaas and our smiles probably will stay on until morning!

Let the games begin!

Jan Andre and JP