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Lyngen Ski Mountaineering Trip
As a result of a cancellation, my wife and I were invited on a ski mountaineering trip to northern Norway. Despite their location, the Lyngen Alps don't normally experience very low temperatures due to the moderating effect of the sea; the coldest we encountered was around -12C at 1400m. And with the sun still very low in early March snow conditions are not adversely affected by the sun until well into April.
Having made our way to Tromso we boarded our accommodation for the week, the Isbjorn, a 24m boat used for ski trips from February to May. With a French crew on board the food was always going to be excellent and it was really nice to return for a late lunch when skiing finished for the day (around mid-afternoon).
Skiing usually started around 8am or 9am once the Isbjorn had either dropped us off at a tiny harbour or, more often, anchored in a fjord and the zodiac dropped us off at a beach. With 0.5m snow right at the shoreline skis and skins were put on immediately after the high water mark. A typical ascent lasted 3-4hrs, initially climbing through birch trees up to about 350m, before reaching open slopes above that height. We managed 500- 600m ascent per hour most of the time. The tours were on islands for roughly half the week and on mainland Norway, including the Lyngen peninsula, the rest of the time. In each case we skinned up to 1300m on average with navigation on cloudy days being complemented by the guides’ GPS's combined with plots from the boat’s navigation computer. Once we had planned our descent the guides radioed the co-ordinates of our new pickup point to the boat. This way we didn’t have to retrace our ascent route during any of the six days’ skiing.
As we had a whole week of powder snow descents were both interesting and challenging. It was my first time on AT equipment, as opposed to telemark touring skis, but I was soon able to descend just behind the French (although with much less style), but at least I generally remained upright! Several of us found skiing through the birch trees to be the most challenging part of the descent, fortunately they were quite supple. Then it was skiing all the way to the high water mark on the beach, before the final one or two kilometres along the road back to meet the zodiac.
On the last day we undertook our most ambitious route up to a peak of around 1400m. This day was also the finest and the views in the sunshine over the huge archipelago of islands and mountains to the Arctic Ocean were absolutely superb. There was one steep, 20m section over a small cornice, which proved to be the only place we had to carry our skis all week.
In summary, this is ski touring with a difference; the scenery is fantastic and it’s a unique experience skiing right down to the sea. Access to a boat is, however, essential as accommodation is sparse and, in any event, several of the tours were on islands. Our week was more expensive than a comparable week in the Alps, but on the positive side there are really no extras to pay for and the area is totally devoid of crowds.
Equipment. Alpine touring skis were used by everyone except two of the French members who used telemark skis. Although harscheisen and crampons were taken, excellent conditions meant they simply weren’t needed.
Logistics. We flew SAS Aberdeen - Tromso, but there are lots of ways to Oslo from London, Manchester and Newcastle, notwithstanding Ryan Air who flies to Torpp. The transfer is short, the Isbjorn’s berth being just 5kms from the airport. Tromso has ample shops for maps and provisions, although the boat provided more or less all the food we needed.
Chris Barton
