 Poster: A snowHead
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Sort of a TR, sort of a selection of pics from the trip. Not a huge amount of skiing action so sorry about that but hopefully you'll agree that the scenics make up for it.
Participants: Offpisteskiing (organiser), Mike H (believe he may have 1 post on here somewhere), Nick M, Flouncymark, Arno
Location: Lofoten Islands, Norway. We stayed in Henningsvaer with the Nord Norske Klatreskole http://www.nordnorskklatreskole.no which was fine if a little random. half board accommodation seems a bit hard to come by at a reasonable price. seemed to be plenty of choice of self catering accommodation available
Here are some pics in no particular order:
Sea eagle. There was one particular fjord which was crawling with these - amazing seeing them flying along level with your car or chasing eachother around in the air
The islands are linked by bridges and tunnels. The bridges look pretty cool
Henningsvaer is a traditional fishing village where they catch mainly cod. A lot of it is hung out to dry on these racks around the town. The smell is quite pungent (almost enough to cover my touring boots)
Flouncymark has a hidden expertise - FISH! According to him these were pollocks (I think that's what he said anyway  )
Day 2 gave us the first visibility of the trip:
This is what it's about...
Not us skiing
Different day, evidence of skiing to the beach
Nick M had a big birthday on this day - this is him celebrating it
Some of the weather was distinctly "Scottish". This was the first good break in the weather, although by the afternoon we were back to freezing our pollocks off waiting on a col (you can see it on the right horizon in the photo) for some visibility
We did a fair bit of driving around to visit different peaks. Not too much of a hardship with views like these
Our first full bluebird day and the objective was Stornappstinden. You can't see our route up and down but I reckon the L shaped couloir would go with a short abseil 
Views were outstanding
We had our eyes on a couloir behind Offpisteskiing in this pic but weren't convinced on stability so we just skied the way we ascended
... which wasn't really a hardship
you can just about make out offpisteskiing ripping the lower section of the face. my tracks looker's left. 30+ degrees, 6 inches of powder. lovely
the team signals its approval
Ikea church we checked out on the way home
Final day, more stonking views. We started out trying Kangarutinden (or something like that) but again didn't fancy the snow conditions. We diverted to Justadtinden and had another beautiful climb and fun ski down. I rated this day 9.8/10 versus 9.9/10 for the day before. Others may disagree
View from the summit. Henningsvaer is on one of the little islands right of centre
That's all, I'm afraid. Hopefully flouncymark will post some pics up, as will Nick M, which is an actual proper photographer and took lots of skiing action shots. I also have some POV video footage...
All in all its a magical place and worth a visit at any time of year, I would say.
One final thing to mention is that on our first ski day, we went out in true low to zero vis conditions and were involved in rescuing an injured skier we found on the way down. She had fractured her pelvis in a fall and is due to be operated on tomorrow so let's think some positive thoughts for her 
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Wed 10-04-13 22:07; edited 2 times 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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Looks absolutely stunning, love the pics! On average, how much vertical did you do each day?
Bad news about that woman's injury. How did she break her pelvis in those conditions?
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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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Zero-G, it was pretty laid back - probably 650-1000m on the reasonable days. the mountains were quite steep so you gained height quite quickly and it was quite physical for the height gain. nice thing about it is you could have an easy day and do one 650m-ish route, or extend it or even do two of those if you were feeling really energetic
the conditions were that visibility was very poor and there was a large, seemingly featureless area where she got in trouble. the one feature which was there was a riverbed which has a sharp approx 15 foot drop down a vertical snow wall. it was one of those things where even when you knew it was there, it was really hard to see what it really looked like. she fell off that and was unlucky enough to land on a rock. a metre or so either side and she probably would have landed in soft snow and been fine. she was certainly no gumby - actually an experienced polar traveller! shows that these things can happen to the best of us
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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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Really nice looking Pics.
Another in the bucket list.
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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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Beautiful!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Amazing scenery!
Nice write up.
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Fabulous.
Sea & ski can't bee beat.
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Arno, looks utterly lovely
its the whole waiting out the weather thing that on a weeks trip like this would frustrate me, probably worth going on the trip for the views alone...and any good skiing a bonus.
Is Simon still out there? seems so from his facebook status?
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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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norris, yes - he's shredding the gnar gnar (as the kids say I believe) with some friends
on our trip, we had 2 bad weather days where we got to ski but not too much (one was the rescue day so that took up all afternoon), 2 mixed days which were great when the weather was clear but did involve a bit of standing around waiting for a break in the cloud and 2 days which are probably in the top 5 day trips I have done, so not too bad a hit rate. the fact that there was interesting other stuff (views, cod etc) was pretty cool. I would love to spend a month (or even a whole winter) there so I could go for it on the good days and chill on the less good days. and there are so many incredible looking lines there
I realise that there are a couple of days where I am sure I took some half decent photos which haven't made it on here, so will update tonight
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Wed 10-04-13 11:36; edited 1 time in total
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Absolutely stunning pictures. Thank you for the report!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Arno, sounds like a 2 week trip would be perfect!!
its on th hit list. I do like the ski and sail idea, but maybe drying stuff etc would be annoying.
lyngen lodge looks nice but rather pricey....
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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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Looks brilliant! What's snow quality like (Alps style inconsistant?) Rough prices?
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clarky999, small vertical helps consistency but plenty of wind and surprisingly strong sun effect don't! it was pretty decent if you picked your spots though
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You know it makes sense.
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So different and beautiful to ski next to the sea.
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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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Frosty the Snowman, we managed to ski all the way to the waterfront one day, which was pretty cool
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Poster: A snowHead
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Looks fantastic, will get there myself one season.
Did the accomodation and getting about work okay?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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couloirjack, there was a bit of driving around, no doubt about that, but mostly along a decent enough road. it was snow covered some of the time but rental cars come with snow tyres with metal studs which did a fine job. lots of daylight and it didn't warm up too much during the day so no particular time pressure
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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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Arno, Less 'shredding the gnar gnar' and more 'watching snow blowing at 60 mph across the fishing boats coming into harbour' today...
Still, yesterday wasn't too shabby!
Will post some action pics when I get back to my laptop.
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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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offpisteskiing, extreme tea drinking!
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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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| Arno wrote: |
| Frosty the Snowman, we managed to ski all the way to the waterfront one day, which was pretty cool |
Inbredwebfootymark would have been in his element
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Frosty the Snowman, I'm currently deciding which of the stories and how many of the 125 photos I should post up. Watch this space. Fish and snow: what more could a ski-obsessed islander ask for?
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offpisteskiing, well with the remnants of the Arctic Beer and a supply of Kwikk Lunges you could probably survive for weeks. Would be interested to see any photos of Presten!
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bump for new pics
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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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Wow. Superb place and great photos. Another world.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Arno, Awesome, great pics, another trip to add to the list once I learn to ski properly!
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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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| Quote: |
| Participants: Offpisteskiing (organiser), Mike H (believe he may have 1 post on here somewhere), Nick M, Flouncymark, Arno |
I now have two posts on here somewhere.
Top trip, top place. If Offpisteskiing is organising a return next year then I will be the first to sign up.
Edit; actually 4 posts now. I should get out more 
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