UKH

Hay Everyone,

Im looking into planing a ski Touring trip to Norway in April/May with some friends and would love some information on where to go, prices, where to fly to. If there are any sites that are good or books that people would recommend that would be amazing.

As three of us are mountain guides in Europe but not adventured this far north before we would love some information, we would prefer not to have a guide or use planned routes.

I been looking in to the Narvik area but was hoping to find some where remote and I feel this area would be to busy. Im very into my photography and would like to find somewhere very beautiful with not much around.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

James

In reply to JamesWilkins:

Lyngen is a great area for ski touring. There is a fairly recent guide book, and plenty of accommodation:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Troms-Ski-touring-arctic-summits/dp/8293090154

When I was up there (not skiing) in April 2013 I stayed at these places, both good:

http://www.svensbytursenter.no/ - good value cabins (if you can fill them)

http://www.sorheim-brygge.no/ - dead nice but expensive

And a few of my pics:

http://www.spectral3d.co.uk/Personal/pics/2013/lyngen/

In reply to JamesWilkins:

Have a search on these forums, as similar questions have been answered.

I've skied in Lyngen, Lofoten, Sunnmore, Jotunheimen and Romsdal, all are amazing if the weather is right. There's peaks everywhere. I've skied lines from the guidebooks, and I've tried my own by looking at maps and by just picking something that looked nice on the day. The popular peaks can be quite busy on a nice day during the holidays (I've seen around 30-40 people skinning up tomasrenne in Lyngen, and about 100 on kirketaket on a sunny saturday) but usually there's no-one else. If you're in to couloirs there's lines everywhere. I know a couple with a vertical of >500m that I don't think have been skied before, but I'll keep them for myself
Of course you could always try Svalbard, but it's probably best to do that with a guided trip as the logistics are complicated and expensive, not to mention the polar bear factor.

It might be worth posting on the friflyt forums as I suspect there's people on there with way more knowledge than here.
Friflyt does all the topptur books, there's the general norway one, and local ones.

You'll need a car, which is about 1000nok per day, and accommodation can be hard to come by. For airports pick the cheapest one within about 2-3hr radius of your destination. Note that sometimes it's worth connecting by boat. E.g. fly to Bodo, then get the boat to svolvaer and rent a car there.

In reply to davidbeynon:
The Friflyt books are here: http://www.ffshop.no/boeker-c-14.html

Can't imagine the Narvik area is really busy: ski touring is quite popular with the locals, but there's so much to go at, and it's all stunningly beautiful!

In reply to Mark Bull:

When I have been up there I have generally seen other people around, but I agree it's hardly busy.

In reply to JamesWilkins:

I've skied in Lyngen numerous times and on Senja once. Search here in the UKC photos using the word "Lyngen" and you'll see some great shots to get your attention and there is so much info on the web these days. Lyngen was virtually empty a decade ago but busier now. I've not ski mountaineered in the Alps but my impression is that even a busy day in Lyngen is a quiet day in the Alps though. There is the guide book now which is great, but you can still get a map and just pick a peak to try from that, that's how we used to do it. The areas all around the Lyngen Peninsular also have great skiing terrain but there is so much to do on Lyngen I've only scratched the surface of its neighbouring districts. My last trip up there: http://lightfromthenorth.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/lyngen-in-may-ski-mountaine... http://lightfromthenorth.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/lyngen-in-may-ski-mountaine... It might give you some ideas

The mountains west of Narvik are incredibly spectacular and I'm sure people do tour there but less seems to be known about it than Lyngen and around Tromso. I've been in summer http://lightfromthenorth.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/rock-climbing-in-arctic-nor... and ice climbing in that area in winter, so can't say how good the skiing is.

One thing - you really need a car. That may well be the biggest expense of a trip (either driving your own from wherever you live) or hiring. Rent-a-wreck is a popular option in Tromso and flying to and then hiring in Northern Sweden (Kiruna) has been suggested by others to keep costs down.

In reply to TobyA:

I've ski toured in Narvik area three times and it's been far from busy. Nice hut network (DNT master key required) and plenty to go at. Swedish side of the border is much busier. Personally I love the area.

You don't need a car really for this area. The Narvik to Kiruna train gives a number of access points - notably Katterat & Riksgransen. So you can fly into Narvik or Harstad in Norway (Bus to Narvik railway) - or to Kiruna in Sweden and take the train.

You can expect to ski directly off the station platforms - at least in April.

In reply to Jonathan Lagoe - UKC:

Good point about using the train if you can then be self contained. How much cross country style skiing did you have to do to access the bigger peaks Jonathan? Driving the Narvik to Kiruna road is beautiful but it feels like there is a lot of space - big wide valleys between the hills, at least on the Swedish side. I guess the other thing is that on the Swedish side in particular you need to be prepared for really low temperatutes, perhaps less so in April, although when we went to Sarek for Mayday, it still got quite cold at night and the lakes were all still drivable at that time.

In reply to TobyA:

Katterat station to Hundalen hut is just few hours - can't remember exactly. Then plenty of good peaks on the doorstep.

In reply to JamesWilkins:

Thank you all very much for you help... made planing the tirp a lot easier!!

James

In reply to Jonathan Lagoe - UKC:

Did this trip a few years ago - great area with plenty of day tours from the hundalen hut. We only managed 3 days in the area and didn't manage any of the planned tours due to the weather....lovely place though. Spent another week in bjorkliden area chillin out and doing some cairngorms stlye tours. Hope to return one day!. Tourist office were very helpful.
https://narvik.turistforeningen.no/

In reply to JamesWilkins:

Narvik (and also the Swedish side), Troms (mainly Kavloya), Lyngen (and Indre Troms) and Senja are all good bets.

As would stuff around Sunnmore, Stryn, Jotunheim and Hurrungane.

Pretty much all, except Lofoten... unless it is really cold & snowy year.

And there's a bunch of other locales not mentioned.

There are basically two "guides", the Troms guide, covering Troms, Lyngen and Indre Troms (eg. Tamok).

The other is the generic touring guide for whole Norway. Both are from FriFlyt.

Also for Narvik, there's the Topptur guides. Or Mo i Råna -region.
http://topptur.nu/default.asp?language=2

I've skied a bunch on Lyngen, Tamok, Troms, Narvik, Riksgränsen and around Stryn.

For me, the best skiing has been around Riksgränsen/Narvik as generally the bushwackin' portion has been minimized that way. Lyngen can have horrendous bushwacks as do certain places around Narvik as well.

In reply to JamesWilkins:

Oh, and even though I was dissin' the bushwackin'... it can offer some nice skiing:
vimeo.com/38732842

But from time to time, it will also be rather horrific.