Considering a ski touring trip to Lofoten next spring. I’ve wanted to ski there for some time, and it’s a big birthday for my partner so maybe the year to go for it.

It’s clearly not a cheap undertaking, especially if we opt for being boat based for accommodation. Once you factor flights, even just From Stockholm (where we live), we’d likely get to Hokkaido for not much more.

Curious if anyone here has done it and is it as amazing as I think it will be? What did you opt for in terms of accommodation (boat/hotel?) and how did you get there?

No, but I have been to the Lyngen Alps a few times, so sort of similar. You’re looking at flights to Tromso, hire car, airbnb, food and drink. Can be pretty cheap if you ignore the thousands you’ve spent on kit! And I’ve had quite a few “best days ever” there.

Are you self guiding or looking at guiding operations?

Kit is all bought and paid for and cost absolutely ignored 🙂

I’m able to self guide (have done quite a bit of touring in Swiss Alps) but considering guiding to get the best out of a few days there. Also considering trip from the likes of
Norwegian Adventure Company where you’re boat based and cruise around to a few different tours complete with guiding…

Following!!

I’m really intrigued and would love to go. @neddrapier – what do you mean by “best days ever”? Best overall experience or best snow etc?

My gut feeling is that this it’s all about the location / touring / experience rather than riding endless amounts of bottomless powder? You don’t see many face shot videos for example. Whereas Hokkaido is all about the snow – small hills, big snowfall and light powder – would go back again tomorrow 😉

planning a week on sommaroy for February.
went cycle touring this summer, it is heaven.

we wont be skiing but will be having a go at dog sledding and skidoo riding.

Got a mate who goes every year. I recko it’s worth asking over on Snowheads

Just checking out that site linked above and got very excited.

Price 4 days NOK: Kr 32.900,-

that’s about £3,900

sleeps 12 so that’s only 325 each for 4 days…

hang on

Price 4 days NOK: Kr 32.900,-
pp in double cabins

Ah.

Yep – been to Lyngen once and Lofoten twice – absolutely love it there.

Totally agree with nedrapier regarding #BestDaysEver

Moisture content of the snow in Lofoten is relatively high since it’s so close to the sea/gulf stream so you don’t get champagne/blower powder – but the snowpack is fairly stable. Peaks are around the 1000m mark, so altitude isn’t a problem when touring

(Was hoping to get back there next year as well, but heading to Greenland instead)

Both times I’ve been have been with McNab Snowboarding and stayed at Lofoten Ski Lodge – great setup there – you can abook direct and they can provide the guide!! Based just outside Svolvaer.

Flew to Oslo then onwards to Narvik/Harstad. Svolvaer is about 3 hours drive

If you fly SAS Plus, you get 2 x hold baggage which covers your ski/snowboard. SAS fly to Oslo from a few UK airports (although I guess that’s irrelevant since you live in Stockholm! – you could fly to Kiruna and then drive across the border!). I did an overnight in Oslo on the way out. Worth doing and only about £50 a night in a CityBox

Price wise – Norway isn’t cheap but if you go somewhere like Lofoten Ski Lodge then you only need money for beer/wine/coffee etc as your meals are all included.

Never done the boat touring – I know this is very popular in the Lyngen region as there is less accomodation available.

Quite like the idea of a boat, but weather can be super changeable in Lofoten, so I’m not sure I’d want to spend 7 days with wet gear in a cramped boat! (it rained a bit whilst I was there earlier this year so we went surfing at Unstad on the last day).

Whereas Hokkaido is all about the snow

True – but it rains quite a bit there as well!! In fact anywhere is a risk with Wintersports these days! Hokkaido gets the ‘fernlike dendrites’ snowflakes when the cold dry Siberian wind comes over the sea of Japan and collects the moisture, but if the Siberian Wind isnt cold and dry then it rains!

considering guiding to get the best out of a few days there

Yep – guiding is definitely recommended to make the most out of your time there. For sure you could self guide some of the easy access stuff, but many of the tours require local knowledge or a fair bit of reconnaissance which would dramtically eat into your time – classic Lototen tours are between 4 & 7 hours often with 2 or 3 skins involved to make the most of it!

Never skied in Lofoten but have toured a lot in British Columbia and spent 10 days mountain biking / hiking in Lofoten earlier in September.  So given that (i.e no personal experience but some close analogies).

Scenery was as incredible as I’d hoped it would be – just jaw dropping.  I think touring there is more about alpine touring in a fantastic location and less laps of powder but that’s just an impression.  Certainly the biking was that way.

Weather was as changable as being in the Arctic could be.  One day incredible and then the next day sideways rain.

There’s a lot of driving to get places as the roads wind around the islands.

Personally I think that without a guide it’d be a challenge (we had a guide in summer half the time).  The local knowledge to know what’d be good given the conditions (weather and snow) would probably make the time much better.   Also just knowing where to park and how to gain access.  It’s Norway so you can hike / ski anywhere but that also means there aren’t really defined trail heads etc.

I have friends who’ve been to Hokkaido and got rained on.  They said the snow wasn’t any better than in BC so for them going to Hokkaido was as much about experiencing a different culture with some skiing as opposed to just skiing (again this is coming from BC).

I’ll preface all I have to say with I haven’t been, but have considered it for a long time. I have been to some nearby areas (mostly in the dim and distant past) which I would consider very good alternatives. That said, if conditions were perfect, there’s not many comparable areas that would beat it for me as a dream trip.

From speaking to friends and looking into it myself, my main things to plan around are that the the climate is much more maritime, and conditions generally more fickle than other nearby areas (ex. Vesterålen, Harstad, Narvik, Senja…). The reliable season is generally shorter as well. Best conditions seem to be March or April, but planning too far in advance is always a gamble. The other thing that struck me would be that despite appearances on the map, the terrain means there aren’t as many straightforward options on the ground as you might expect and the popularity/limited good conditions might make some routes see heavy traffic (again this is compared to nearby areas). I have a copy of Fri Flyt’s “Toppturer I Norge” which from memory has about a dozen routes listed, whereas the likes of Lyngen can fill volumes on their own.

Seeing as you are Stockholm based, you probably can get a copy of relevant guides from Norway relatively easily – I like Fri Flyt’s books, but I don’t think they have much on Lofoten from a ski touring perspective. The Norwegian magazines are always worth keeping an eye on too, I have seen some good articles in the past flicking through them in Pressbyrån that might be useful. If I was travelling from Stockholm I’d probably take the night train to and from Narvik. It’s about 19 hours IIRC and you can bus in from there or hire a car. Obviously there’s loads of amazing terrain around Narvik itself that you can access if conditions aren’t perfect further afield, and you can access Senja, Troms etc, similar distance to the Lofoten islands but travelling in the other direction to hedge your bets on conditions and weather. IME anywhere from Bodø up to Finnmarkalperna is absolutely epic, with plenty of options for coastal and inland mountains to cover most bases. Given that travelling round is an arse ache anyway then Narvik isn’t a bad starting point.

Seeing pictures of folk out getting the first turns of the winter in Troms last week and writing all that I’m getting myself in the mood for another trip up north so keep us posted with any developments to whet the appetite.

Also Norway curious, group trip?

Bookmarked – this is bucket list stuff particularly combined with the boat transport.

You’re looking at flights to Tromso,

Kiruna surely?

Not getting in a boat with a person calling himself Scuttler! Hazzard to shipping surely!

Thanks for all the comprehensive input, some great tips and lots to think about.

Kiruna surely?

Kiruna is closer, but flights are a lot more expensive than Tromso from the initial search I’ve done.

I will keep the thread up to date as we decide what to do.

I will keep the thread up to date as we decide what to do.

Please do!

Until then, we Probably need some photos don’t we? 😀 These are all Lyngen, but I’m sure someone will be along with some Lofoten!?

Stunning photos. Maybe I scrap Lofoten plans and make a beeline to Lyngen 🙂

Bring on the touring season.

Some other thoughts on whether to have a guide or not.

At the Lofoten Ski Lodge, all of the guides meet every morning and discuss local conditions, who went where on the previous day and share route ideas etc (typical guides meeting), so that there may well be groups in the same area/itinerary for support.

This last point is worth emphasising since the terrain is often so remote that in any incident you will be wholley reliant on self rescue etc as any emergency services could take a long time to get there.

Just before I went to Lyngen in 2012 there was a bad avalanche that killed 5 Swiss & French experienced skiers. Their group was later criticised for not using a guide with local knowledge (there were two French guides leading a group of 12 from a sailboat). Rescue services took an hour to get there.

but I’m sure someone will be along with some Lofoten!?

You rang?

Maybe I scrap Lofoten plans and make a beeline to Lyngen

I like both places, if pushed to express a preference I would probably go with Lofoten:

Accomodation is limited in Lyngen – the touring is based pretty much around the same Fjord.
The mountains in Lyngen are probably slightly higher, but Lofoten’s landscape seems more jagged, brutal and wild – and the weather changes really quickly!

Because it’s an archipelago, the aspects in Lofoten vary hugely. However you do have to drive pretty much everywhere (although often not far) to get to the start of a tour, whereas in Lyngen we pretty much toured from the back of the Lodge (apart from when we used the Lodge’s boat to go across or up the Fjord)

In Lofoten however, it’s very easy to get off the beaten track/skin track and feel completely remote, whilst at the same time there is more to do on the inevitable ‘down days’.

urrgh! amazing pics. I’ll get there at some point. Just as tempted to go in summer, though!

I don’t know if there’s somewhere similar on Lofoten islands, but a good place for a little knowledge share/hoovering is Magic Mountain Lodge in Lyngseidet. Great accommodation, good food, lovely people running it, Patrick and Henrika, both keen as mustard skitourers (and mountainbikers) from Sweden and their young kiddies. Worth a follow on fb or instagram – magicmountainlodge

Accomodation is limited in Lyngen – the touring is based pretty much around the same Fjord.

Just noticed this. Not sure if it’s an issue. April books up a year early at MML, but Feb, March and May are much easier, and cancellations come up every now and then. Plenty of Airbnbs about if you want to go that way.

And the Lyngen Alps is a huge area – 20km by 60km. The photos I posted are from 2 tours, the first an an hour and 3/4 drive south, round and up from Lyngseidet to the far side of the southern part of the peninsula, the other an hour drive to the northern tip of the northern part. with a few books’ worth of touring in between!

Just noticed this. Not sure if it’s an issue

Yeah – I was just trying to point out some of the differences i.e. The Lyngen area is fjords whilst Lofoten is coastal. Both pretty unique experiences for sure, and similar in many ways, but also with greater difference than I had perhaps anticipated!

I don’t think anyone would have a bad experience whichever one they went to!

However, I’ve only been to Lyngen once and stayed at one of the few Lodges on the fjord, which was quite an ‘exclusive’ experience that seemingly attracted a certain priviliged clientele …

The Lofoten Ski Lodge however was a much more preferable (for me anyway) mixed bag of dirt bag ski bums, French couples, Spanish families, random group of mates etc …

Randomly, I bumped into one of the Spanish Guides from the Lofoten Ski Lodge a few weeks later at the Rifugio Vittorio Emanuele II in Italy en route up the Gran Paradiso! #SmallWorld

Thanks for the magicmountainlodge recommendation – I’m now following them on iG. Looks like a great setup.

The Lofoten Ski Lodge however was a much more preferable (for me anyway) mixed bag of dirt bag ski bums, French couples, Spanish families, random group of mates etc …

Sounds like MML! Good to know there’s an equivalent in Lofoten, ta!