 Poster: A snowHead
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Day 6: Another trip out west and plan A was a well-known Lofoten classic; Stornappstind. However, the car park was thronging with three other cars so we rapidly changed to plan B, which turned out to be another @offpisteskiing bit of esoterica. First shot was a north ish facing slope and at this end of the islands, the land mass is quite small so the sea is omnipresent. It's difficult to get a sense of what it's like to ski here in photos: you either capture the skier without the context of the landscape or vice versa. However, I think this image and the next few get as close as you
can to what it actually feels like.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Views at the summit were predictably awesome
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Team shot
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Hewey on the descent
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Yet another disgusting blue hour when we returned to the lodge.
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Wonderful views, Great photos, thanks for sharing.
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@JK, thanks!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@mountainaddict, @offpisteskiing did guiding duties but the Lofoten Ski Lodge (where we stayed) work with Northern Alpine Guides if you want a guide. Probably the best option if you’ve not been before to at least get used to conditions. I’d say if you’re experienced in Scottish skiing, navigation, dealing with very changeable conditions then there are some excellent resources that give you routes and self guiding works well enough. @Hewey and I managed to keep ourselves alive on the last day.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Mate is doing his own trip to Lyngseidet 2nd week of May, flying to Tromso and renting car, with his two sons, they've been a few times so know what's possible, be interesting to see how they get on.
Few photos I've seen from trips near Kiruna and Lyngen showing classic Spring snow conditions.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@Weathercam, it was full on winter north of Tromsø until about a week ago and now it’s full spring
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Hurrah, back at a big screen, so can enjoy these magnificent shots properly. Thanks so much for posting.
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You know it makes sense.
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@Hurtle, thanks. It’s not exactly been a hardship to do, to be fair!
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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I think there maybe something weird going on with how they’re displayed: they look softer on my big screen than they should be.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Day 7 part 1: The final day for most of the team so @offpisteskiing planned for something a bit special. We hired a RIB to get us into the Trollfjord, which is only accessible from the sea. Another zone I've waited 9 years to ski. We aimed to ski the main couloir of Store Trolltind and possibly the summit if conditions allowed. The summit is the main peak centre frame and the couloir is to the looker's left in the cleft between the rock walls.
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Tue 26-04-22 22:26; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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We shared our RIB with Neil McNab's team of boarders. They skied a line to our east; looking good and absolutely no sitting down. Well done, lads.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Unfortunately the upper slopes to the main summit were dangerously icy and despite a valiant attempt by @offpisteskiing's tame guide mate Chippie, it simply wasn't safe.
He ended up down-climbing in crampons 15m short of the summit. However, our lunch spot on the shoulder below the summit was exceptional: best one of the week. Absolute scenes.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@offpisteskiing negotiating some transient mist on the upper slopes above the main couloir, @DavidIdes in marginally better conditions and a couple of shots of Chippie dropping into the main couloir. A beautiful 40 deg pitch at the top that lessened off to 35 deg as the couloir fanned out. Fresh tracks and fantastic cold snow (with the odd bit of avalanche debris that may have caught a couple of us out)
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Day 7 part 2: On the return trip, our RIB crew took it a little easier and gave us a tour with some extra special unicorn dust. I grabbed a seat in the bow to get some shots and fortunately it was mirror flat so shooting two-handed was on. Here we are nosing out of Trollfjord at 30 knots or so. It's a narrow fjord with 700m towers of rock either side.
Last edited by Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do. on Tue 26-04-22 22:27; edited 1 time in total
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Sharkymark, wow. Again.
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More absolute scenes once we'd left the fjord into the main channel south of the Lofoten Island of Austvågøya. He sped up to 327 knots at this point. The wind chill in the bow was savage  . This part of Lofoten is home to the highest, steepest and most impressive terrain (IMHO). This is amplified when the mountains rise straight of the sea as they do here.
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I love the west coast of Scotland because the mountains rise out of the sea. But this is something else again. 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Our skipper had one last surprise in store: we headed to a rocky outcrop just offshore and within minutes we were surrounded by a dozen or so white-tailed sea eagles. They were almost hunted to extinction before being protected in 1978 and now the population is very healthy. These things are MASSIVE. The adults have a wingspan of up to 2.4m (not a typo). We 'happened' to have some frozen pollack to hand and seeing these beasts plucking the fish out of the water next to boat with extreme precision was awesome in all senses of the word. Bit difficult to photograph though: not quite Wildlife Photographer of the Year just yet haha Epic is overused (often by me  ) but this day actually was.
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OK. Now just lost for words.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@Hurtle, this was truly peak Lofoten. Bonus day 8 wasn't quite the same
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@Sharkymark, I dunno - that followed by a day scrabbling around in zero vis and rain seems pretty proto-Lofoten to me
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| Sharkymark wrote: |
More absolute scenes once we'd left the fjord into the main channel south of the Lofoten Island of Austvågøya. He sped up to 327 knots at this point. The wind chill in the bow was savage . This part of Lofoten is home to the highest, steepest and most impressive terrain (IMHO). This is amplified when the mountains rise straight of the sea as they do here.
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Love this 
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You know it makes sense.
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@Arno, funny you should say that…
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Looks like an epic trip, and some great photography. Jealous me? Not much, honest.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Thanks re the guiding etc info Sharkymark.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@rogg, thanks! It certainly was
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@mountainaddict, no worries
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Bonus day 8: @Hewey and I managed to bag an extra day's skiing due to SAS bumping our flights. However, we awoke to heavy snow in liquid form, a howling gale and a cloud base at approximately sea level. @offpisteskiing sent us a bantastic 'how's the rain?' text from the airport but obviously, being Lofoten, wait 5 mins and everything will change, which it did. Not exactly a bluebird powder day but ended up doing our second biggest day of vert along with every other group from the lodge on a local classic, Rundjfellet. My 37th a final day of the season. Bang on
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Fantabulous
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@BobinCH, no but the itinerary looks excellent: I really want to ski Senja. Pricing is very Scandinavian.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Looks amazing
An adventure trip with skiing
I'm guessing it's 'sell a kidney' expensive
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| Mike Pow wrote: |
| .....I'm guessing it's 'sell a kidney' expensive..... |
Good phrase, and think it was around 5k for the week before flights etc
I didn't get any FOMO as it was so late in the year plus I was down in Spain for just over four weeks and that was cheaper!
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FAQ
Somewhere else to add to our ever-growing to do list on skis! 
