 Poster: A snowHead
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Dreaming of happier times...
one thing on my bucket list is to see the Northern lights, and I also enjoy the occasional ski tour.
Does anyone know of companies that do both, or could I DIY something?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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There you go. No skiing unfortunately, but taken last night outside my daughter's house in the Outer Hebrides. 30 sec exposure.
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@kitenski, very good chance of seeing the aurora in Troms region (Northern Norway)....and also really excellent ski touring there too. Various UK guides offer trips, off piste performance being one such. Usually mid March until mid/late May is the season for UK-based folk making trips up there, although the locals ski all through the winter from Nov or whenever the snow arrives. But if you want to see the aurora then you’d need to go before end of March as it starts to get too light in the evenings.
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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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@Inboard,that sounds good, cheers. What locations do I need to look for in order to try and see the aurora?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Tigski, that's terrific!
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@kitenski, we have had some good displays on our trips to Lofoten. We go mid April which is a bit late for ideal northern lights viewing because it doesn’t get properly dark until quite late as Inboard says
The big variables are
- whether the northern lights are active or not - always a bit of a crapshoot but there are various forecasting apps which will at least help you make sure you don’t have an early night on the one evening they are showing
- weather - if it’s cloudy you don’t see the lights. For this reason I wouldn’t pick Lofoten if the main reason for going is to see the norther lights. You can easily get a week which is overcast most of the time. That said, the pointy mountains rising out of the sea with the northern lights as a background are pretty spectacular!
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@Arno, is that with @offpisteskiing??
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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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Fly to Bergen. Five day boat trip to Tromsø with Hurtigruten. Ski tour in the Lyngen Alps. Hurtigruten. I would love to do that trip.
Hurtigruten also have boat trips with a “northern lights promise” (free trip if the lights don’t make an appearance) but they seem to be round trips. But maybe they can do a one way itinerary if you ask.
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@kitenski, we have been lucky enough to see the northern lights whilst ski touring in the lyngen alps Norway in may 2018 and 2019 , went with Snoworks both times
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Ism (International School Mountaineering) usually run a trip up Lyngseidet. Lyngen peninsular.
Narvik, slightly further south provides some lovely touring. My first trip was first week in May, great conditions for touring but too much daylight for viewing aurora borealis.
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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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We stayed our last night in a hostel in Tromso. Got chatting to the woman who ran NL trips each evening from there. She used the windy weather app to check for cloud cover, would regularly drive up to c3.5-4 hours to get over the finnish border (inland, SE of Lyngen) as clear skies pretty much guaranteed there. Closer to the well-known touring areas there’s a greater risk of cloud as it’s more coastal... my sense is that the Aurora happens most nights up there - her tour guaranteed a sighting or your money back.
However as Arno says, if you’re around Lofoten, or Senja or Lyngen then the views are stunning with mountains, fjords, and aurora... we stayed in Erafjordbotn on Kvaloya (tons of great touring on that island, just out of tromso) which would be a great viewpoint if you got clear skies.
Here’s my best aurora photo (not fancy camera), taken E of Lyngen peninsula:
It was taken at the bottom of this hill, at the end of the same day...which was an amazing day 
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