South Couloir, Stornappstind

I saw the obvious south couloir yesterday and decided a quick solo trip was in order today. It’s about 250 to 300m long and a sustained 40 degrees (maybe a bit more) for the duration. I thought bootpacking up the couloir was probably the best option as I wasn’t sure how obvious it would be to find the entrance if I went up the normal route on the west face. We certainly didn’t come across it when we went up there yesterday and I didn’t fancy the pfaff of trying to find it anyway (although looking at the above picture, it looks easy to find after all). And it’s always good to climb what you’re going to ski in my opinion if you can. By the way, the couloir entrance is lower down than the summit.

Needless to say, I got the whole palette of weather; from sun to cload and sleet to rain and then back to sun again. It’s proabably not a bad thing that the mountains are on the smaller side here, as the weather is so unstable sometimes that you don’t want to be commited on anything big.

Views towards Flakstad before bootpacking up the couloir

When the sun did decide to make an appearance, it was 12.00 and I was half-way up the couloir. South facing, hot and feeling quite exposed. There was a good amount of snow in the couloir and the snow seemed nicely cohesive but I couldn’t bannish that feeling of unease. Either way, I made it to the top and was rewarded with some lovely views.

In the couloir

More nice views from the top of the couloir towards Skottind and Napp harbour

More nice views

The couloir was in good condition despite my earlier unease. Although the bootpack up felt like a small eternity, definitely a nice descent. Tired now. This little bootpack kicked my arse. 900m bootpacks at altitude used to be all part of the fun. I find that hard to imagine this year on that evidence

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This was my first outing on the snowboard in Lofoten and what a day it was too! The weather wasn’t particularly nice. It was blowing a gale. It had rained a few days previously, so the snow wasn’t particularly great. But Angelita’s parents’ house is at the foot of this moutain, you’re surrounded by the sea (at least once you get to the summit) and you’ve got the whole mountain (and all the other mountains within view) to yourself.

I know so little about these mountains; that combined with its far-flung northerly location (above the Arctic Circle) and the feeling that lots of these faces have been deprived the tickling sensation of skis and you just want to get after it…..like a kid in a sweetshop! None of the peaks are particularly high (around 700m to 1000m for the most part). But that just means you can ski two in a day! And it doesn’t get dark until around 22.00, so you can ski one in the morning, cruise Leknes in the car with the tunes banging like a proper townie and then go and ski another line later when you get bored. Leknes definitely does not have the feeling of being a ski town, so you’re never going to be fighting for lines in this part of Lofoten.

There’s nothing particularly special about this route…apart from the fact that you are skiing in Lofoten!! A nice short ski tour and a nice pitch on the way down (parts of it in the mid to high 30 degrees). According to my watch, the trip up was 750m and we were up and down again in around 2hrs. Just in time before it started to lash it down.

West Face of Stornappstind

If you drive west from Napp for a couple of km, you come to Nappskaret car park which is where the tour starts. Once you’ve located the summit from the car park, it’s really straight forward route finding to the summit. You can either ski the South face or the West face which is what we did.

Stortinden: looking towards Flakstad

We managed to get the skis on from the car and skin most of the way. The snow was pretty hard and frozen when we got onto the West face proper and without ski crampons, we boot packed the last few hundred metres to….almost the summit. We turned round about 20m from the summit as it was turning into boiler plate ice from the ridiculously strong winds and I started to slip backwards and couldn’t kick in any steps.

Angelita book packing up...

Good ski down and all the way back to the car. Nice first tour to get a feel for conditions.

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Lofoten is at a latitude of 68 degrees. Basically way up there past the Arctic Circle (66 degrees 33′) which means it’s dark all winter and light all summer (give or take a few lumens ;)). And despite it’s latitude actually relatively mild due to the coastal currents (most notably the Gulf Stream) which means there’s no snow in the summer. Booo! But gorgeous all the same. I went up there with my girlfriend, Angelita, for our annual pilgrimage back to her home village of Napp for a few days.

Views from Angelita's childhood home in Napp

I’m yet to ski there but that didn’t mean I couldn’t scope out a few lines for some future projects! Hopefully, we’ll get back there next March/April when the days are long enough for some skiing.

Midnight Sun

The mountains are by no means the biggest in the world. Things of interest seem to start around 500m, with the tallest mountain reaching 1,161m (Higravstinden). But you ski down to sea level most of the time, so the vertical gain is respectable by most people’s standards. And they come in all shapes and sizes, nice wedge mountains, steep couloirs and lots of gentle terrain too. Now, I haven’t skied here yet, so I’m not sure what the conditions are like but there is lots of lovely, greasy, grass (prime base for avalanches) and the weather can be very unstable, with fairly big temperature swings, so you have to choose your time wisely and then still rely on luck. But there are some really cool lines to ski. I didn’t manage to get  a picture of Stor Nappstind but there is a beautiful line on the East face of this for those that venture that way. I did get some other project lines though….

Couloir Central!! Go to Eggum. I'll see you there!

The two summits in this picture are Mustaren (405m) and Middagsheia (570m). Endless ribs and couloirs. I won’t know for sure how many go until they are filled with snow but it looked very promising. Really easy access too. The car park is about 1km away and then an easy skin round and along the lake (there is a lake at the foot of these. Beware.)

Jellvollstinden (746m) or the Organ as I called it. Stacks upon stacks of rock.

The ridge tops out at this peak (Jellvollstinden). The picture doesn’t really do the lines justice. A real beauty. It reminded me of an organ, with small peaks stacked on top of each other, reaching upwards.

So no skiing but lots of walking and I managed to get a few nice shots to share…….

Taken from Mærvoll on the way to Unstad looking at Huslikollen

From Nappsskardet looking west towards Flakstad again.

Taken from Nappsskardet looking west towards Flakstad

Looking south west to Helligberget from Unstad

Nature's own infinity pool

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