Ski Touring in Arctic Norway - Part 1

The first time I visited Arctic Norway was when I had just turned 18, on a 6 week expedition to Oksfjordokelen with BSES Expeditions. Some would say that was a long time ago.

Big sack, Bad hair... 18 years old in the Arctic

It was a turning point for me and I hold that trip mostly to blame for my slightly "speshawl" life choice, and the cumulative 49 months I've spent in the Polar regions since. Phew. A lot has happened in the last 17 years, but don't worry, this isn't going to be a history lesson.

Dougal looking out to the skiers dream playground from Tromsdaltinden

I would have looked out of the plane window with novice eyes knowing nothing about what I saw. I could ski only a little bit and the highest thing I had climbed at the time was Snowdon...

Last year, two good friends of mine, Dougal and Susie, flew to Tromso on their way to Spitsbergen but when they looked out of the window at the Lyngen Alps with the eyes of ski mountaineers they started hatching a cunning plan. So we booked flights (mine courtesy of the airmiles paid for by the US tax payer - God Bless America!) and started planning. Another friend, Alison Culshaw, a ski and mountain instructor from Chamonix, was to join us to make a dream team of 4.

OK, now you have two options...

Option 1: - arrive in Norway from London on time and change your watch to reflect the different time zone and drink free coffee on the plane
or
Option 2: - arrive in Norway to think you have an extra hour of play time to spend your well earned money on a nice expensive coffee and hot dog.

The correct answer is Option 1. Schoolboy error is Option 2. Doh. Dougal and Susie learnt this the hard way, needless to say the expensive coffee wasn't as much as the new flight....

100 years this December - Amundsen beat Captain Scott to the Pole

The delay gave me a chance to wander the streets of Tromso though - strange but cool city - mixture of polar history, coffee shops and graffiti it seems...

Sitting at the bus stop

Look carefully at the light above the stairs...

Rather conveniently, some expedition buddies who run The Polar People, a little travel agency specialising in Polar Regions, had recently bought a little red house 45 minutes NE of tromso, which they are starting to rent out. The perfect place to base from for a few days before venturing further afield.

Our "Little Red House" (and littler white boat shed...)
looking across to the Lyngen Alps Peninsula

So we gathered a day late (after a night in the car for me as they had the keys to the cabin) and went to the little red house. Wow, what a spot. On the beach, looking out across the fjord to the Lyngen Peninsula in the evening sun. Beatiful. A simple place in some ways, but wood burner, electric stove and hot water means it's better than camping! No shower yet, just sink and bucket, but they're fitting one later this year.

Anyway, on to the skiing. As always, it takes a couple of days to work out conditions so we tried to pick peaks with a variety of aspects to start with.

Ski Day 1 - Stortuva, 1109m
We had a day before Alison was to fly in so headed up the peak behind the house, skiing to and from the cabin. Stortuva - a grey start to the day so didn't take the big camera and realised as it cleared to blue skies that I'd left my compact on the table. Oops. Anyway, it was pouring the next day so we collected Alison and planned the trip whilst drinking tea in the cabin by the log burner. Hard life.

Ski Day 2 - Gabrielfjellet, 1213m
Bushwhacking - def: "Cut or push one's way in a specified direction through dense vegetation"

I believe bushwhacking is norweigan for "ski touring warm up." The trees are far enough apart to get through going up, too close to get through coming down without tree hugging. It was only the start of each day though, they didn't last long.

Alison "Bushwhacking" through below Gabriellfjellet and then higher up on the N facing open ridge heading for the summit with the Lyngen Peninsula behind.

Something we hadn't really thought about much was how the 24hr sunshine would affect snow conditions compared to that of the alps, which we were all used to. This meant touchy feely skiing on the first couple of days to get to know what was going on. So, after ascending the northern slopes of Gab in bombproof conditions (didn't leave the ski crampons behind again...) we weren't particularly excited about skiing back down again, however we'd spotted a West facing gulley and decided to hunt it out, only to find perfect spring snow. One of the best descents of the trip, realising that west is best until the weather changes. of the 24hr sunshine, West seems to freeze better than other aspects.

Tea and lunch on the summit - not a particularly alpine start...

West is Best ! :-)

Ski Day 3
Smalaktinden, 1244m
Alison had some work to get done so we dropped her off in town and headed off to the SW side of the Troms region to Smalaktinden, a stunning peak with a big and beautiful West face. Just what the Doctor ordered. A Bushwhacking warm up, stunning ascent on the N side to the ridge.

Good firm conditions on the climb up...

...and the view's not bad either!

The standard route takes the N bowl and cuts onto the summit ridge from there. However this year has seen a lot of snow (unlike the alps) and wind so cornices were over developed - our route was blocked so we climbed up onto ridge above the west face instead. Conditions too poor to climb the ridge, we descended the west face a little and then bootpacked up as far as we could get, waiting for the snow to turn. It did, and perfect turns followed!

Bootpacking up as the sun moves onto the west face

Perfect spring conditions on the upper face - with an amazing backdrop behind

Not bad lower down either...

Ski Day 4
Tromsdaltinden, 1238m

A track to avoid bushwhacking this time, this is Tromso's local mountain, and still pretty impressive. You gently climb a few km up the valley and then start on the West slopes to gain the ridge. Amazing views in all directions before reaching the summit ready for the descent.

A nice path through the valley bushwhack zone

Starting out on the lower slopes

Reaching the ridge

We waited on the summit for a while, to eat lunch, take in the amazing views and to let the sun move round onto the slopes below to soften the surface layers up. The we set off to seek out different lines on the slopes above the bowl.

There are lots of brilliantly looking couloirs below the summit itself but there are lots of entrances and not many exits so we took the safer option, which was still pretty steep and lovely!

Dougal on the steep slopes with the SW ridge behind

Now we had a feel for conditions we thought it was time to escape our little red house and head over to the Lyngen Peninsula, so after Tromsdaltinden we headed off, caught the ferry to Svensby and searched out a campsite. We found the most amazing spot on the northern end of the road on the peninsula, where we watched the midnight sun and got ready for the days ahead.

Travelling light as always...

On the ferry to Svensby

Relaxing at camp - not a bad spot...

And so we had arrived on the Lyngen Peninsula - ready to ski another bunch of mountains with some paragliding thrown in.


Run out of time! Part 2 coming next week...

The Lakes...

For some reason the Lake District has mostly escaped me in my "mountain career" - the only time I've spent more than a long weekend there was when I was 13yrs old, which was a traumatically bad weather experience on a school walking trip. So it was about time to explore the famous mountainous region in the NW of England.

After talking with friends who had lived there at some point, I planned a walking route taking in lots of the mountains and ridges that I'd heard about over the years, famous in certain cirlces at least! Scafell, Helvellyn, Langdale Pikes, Great Gable, Pillar, Haystacks...

Panorama from Great Gable to Wasdale, Kirkfell and Pillar

110km and 7800 metres of ascent - it was a holiday though, so we mixed wild camps with quaint B&B's and had a night at the wild and wonderful Black Sail youth hostel thrown in for good measure.

Remembering the old saying "April Showers" and the knowledge that the Lakes are one of the wettest places in the UK, we packed a full mountain tent, waterproofs and warm clothing, carrying it all for 8 days whilst only camping on 3 of those nights.

It only rained once. For an hour. When we were tucked up in the tent.

April Showers?

Amazing. We had the most glorious 8 days of weather in the UK hills that I have known in a long time. Gorgeous, lovely, sunny, warm, dry blue sky days. Brilliant.

We drove to arrive at the clean and comfortable Elm Tree Lodge, a cosy little B&B in the centre of Keswick run by ultra friendly British Mountain Instructor and Himalayan guide Tim Mosedale (who recently became the 10th Brit to climb Everest from both sides - well done Tim!!!)

Along the ridge to Helvellyn

After a short taxi ride to the Hill Top Farm above Threlkeld we headed off on our sunshine adventure! Up onto Clough head and along the ridge all the way to Helvellyn dropping down Swirral ridge for a quick dip (for me anyway) and to our first camp at Red Tarn. Calm beautiful sunny evening with all the stars out to play.

Descending Swirral Edge down to Red Tarn

A quick dip...

Starting up Striding Edge

Day 2 took us up the Lakes Classic of Striding Edge, south and west over Fairfield and Hart Crag and down into Patterdale for a well deserved ice cream before heading to the brilliant Braesteads Farm - a working farm that rents a couple of rooms out in season. Amazing spot and Nic is a really friendly host.

The final section back up to Helvellyn

Looking ahead across the mountains of the next two days

Descending the ridge from Hart Crag down into Patterdale

Spring Lambs grazing on the green green grass at Braesteads Farm

Moody skies on the climb up to Angle Tarn

From there it's out East up past Angle Tarn and onto High Street. Our only properly cloudy day (and the one that eventually produced some rain at camp poopoo) meant some brilliant moody skies. From the top of High Street we headed East down to Haweswater on the stunning Rough Crag ridge.

The last section of Rough Crag Ridge leading down to Haweswater

"If you go down to the woods today, you're in for a big surprise...."

A short climb back up the next valley brought us to our second wild camp of the trip - at the aptly named (but perfectly formed) Small Water. Another quick dip and then the cloud came in so we set up camp and were sitting inside the tent enjoying dessert when the brief rain of the week arrived. The next morning was clear and beautiful with perfect reflections on the Tarn before departing over the tops to Ambleside.

Emilie drinking her morning tea admiring the camp and breathtaking reflections

From there we got the open topped bus to Grasmere and stayed two nights and had a day off. Retrospectively, we should have stayed at Ambleside - stayed at a Fawlty Towers-esque B&B with a slightly eccentric owner followed by a pub dinner with the worst service I've had in years - so bad it was actually funny - needless to say I won't be eating at the Swan Hotel again!

Anyway, ready for the biggest day of the trip, on day 6 we set off to tick a few local landmarks of the area - up over Castle How and across the famous Langdale Pikes, over past the other Angle Tarn and up on to Scafell Pike, at 977 m (!!) the highest mountain in England.

On the top of Langdale and my little princess cap that I found blowing around in the wind

On the Pike of Stickle

This was topped off with a descent through the corridor route to Styhead Tarn for another night of wild camping.

The corridor route with Great Gable in the background

Styhead tarn was reasonably popular with a handful of tents spread out in the area, mostly sensible colours unlinke my yellow peril.


The morning was perfectly clear - a dingle day - and we packed up ready for a swift 460m ascent as a warm up for the day to the top of Great Gable and then over Kirk Fell and up to the summit of Pillar.

Coming down off Kirk Fell with Wasdale in the background

From there we descended to the unique and remote Black Sail youth hostel that I'd heard so much about.

Black Sail YH from the Pillar Ridge

What an amazing spot, six miles from the nearest road so very unlike other YHA's, much more like a catered scottish bothy, with an eclectic mix of random ramblers too. Phew. Brilliant spot and, once again, amazing weather with a gorgeous sunset and stunning morning.

Normally this would be drying the boots out from the rain and mud, but there was none of either and we kept fry feet throughout!

And so it was to our last day - a 19km return along the tops to the car in Keswick. Up onto Haystacks, across to Honister pass, up to the top of Dale Head and down Cat Bells ridge into town.

Pillar in the reflection of one of many small tarns on Haystacks

Emilie admiring the view down to Buttermere

From the top of Dale Head we looked around to reaslise that we had climbed every peak bar 3 in a 180 degree arc from the NE to the SW. And what a spectacular day to finish on - blue skies with a few fluffies around for scale. Cat Bells ridge went on and on, up and down, and then we cruised along back into town for tea and medals.

The final descent from Cat Bells Ridge towards Keswick

A panorama from Cat Bells ridge

And so it was - an absolute stonker of a week in gorgeous weather ticking off lots of places I'd heard about but never been to. Backpacking in a luxurious manner I suppose, with only 3 nights wild camps out of 7 - but I'm not getting any younger you know...


So many thanks to my ever patient girlfriend Emilie for letting me loose with the maps to plan this one! Next holiday (this has been a difficult month) is ski mountaineering in Arctic Norway - watch this space for the next post soon :-)