You can tell its going to be a bit of a special experience when a pod of about 30 porpoise breal the silky black surface of the deep fjord beside you and you're still on the bus en-route to your destination, your adventure hasn't even begun and the mystique of the magical landscape surrounding you has already started to present itself.
Snow capped summits frame and surround the deep dark waters, sheer cliffs rise steeply from the inly blacknesss and Age old Glaciers hang precariously from the jagged peaks that stretch endlessly into the distance.
It’s late in the evening but the hazy skies are lit by the faded 24 hour sunlight as the sun circles over head, never quite dipping below the horizon reminding me of the Robin Williams/Al pacino movie ‘Insomnia’. 24 hour sunlight I can handle but the 24 hour darkness of the winter months up here must be something else.
We’re far to the North of Norway, deep inside the Arctic circle, visiting the mystical region of the Lyngen Alps. The deep Lyngen Fjord splits the Alpine like mountains and Islands offering both boat and land accessed dream like Freeriding terrain. It is my first visit to the area and my first impressions are already getting me very excited about the week ahead.
The Lyngen Lodge, our base for the trip sits on the east side of the Lyngen Fjord, a beautiful oasis of Scandanavian style, luxury and calm surrounded by one of Europes most isolated and wildest landscapes.
The view from the Lodge is fantastic, the peaks opposite and behind look amazing and within minutes of us arriving I’m already planning lines and looking at the endless possibilities on offer. Right behind the lodge there are peaks that can be hiked and ridden door to door and up and down the Fjord the peaks stretch endlessly in every dirrection. We unload our kit and settle in to the lodge, an excited buzz fills the air as we all imagine the week to come.
It seems strange to go to bed in full daylight, sunlight filters through the tiny gaps surrounding the heavy blackout curtain and sleep is not easy coming when confronted by the excitement at the prospects of what is to come.
Along with Graham, the master mind behind the whole operation, I have spent much of the evening studying the local maps and planning out possible routes. Tomorrow I have planned a boat accessed assault on a steep peak on a small island to the North. The full Lyngen experience, boat access, steep climb up and a very good looking ride back down to finish for a pick up on the beach!
The next day dawns bright and clear, well the sun has been up all night but its definitely brighter in the day time so at least there is some distinction between night and day. After an amazing breakfast at the lodge we head down to the small harbour on the sea front and bord the Lyngen Lodge boat, ‘the spirit of Lyngen’ which has been specially adapted for the transport of skiers and Snowboarders in cold conditions up and down the fjord and inbetween the Islands. Once abord our journey begins and we head up the fjord n search of mountains to hike and ride.
The views are exceptional as we power up the coastline surrounded by white peaks that rise majestically out of the inky black depths. Puffins cannon ball past, their fat round bodies and tiny wings make flight seem unprobable. We motor around a headland and there in front if us lies our target, a beautiful snowy peak that rises dramaticaly out of the water. There are two obvious lines for ascent and descent, up one side and down the other and it looks great.
A small jetty in a quiet fishing village allows us an easy initial desembarkment. It seems strange to be donning snowshoes and carrying snowboards to hike through this village (a couple of houses) whilst the fishermen go about preparing their day, but soon we’re working our way up a narrow trail through dense woodland in dirrection of the open slopes above.
It feels different hiking at sea level after being in the high mountains all season and our pace reflects the extra oxygen that the air carries and soon we’re movig out of the tree line and zig zagging our way up a steep open snowface punctuated with rocky outcrops here and there. The views were incredible in every direction as we drove onwards and upwards towards the peak above, excited in anticipation of the ride to come.
We’d hiked some 800m vertical from the village and now stood on a sharp crested ridge that rolled over the summit and allowed us a 360 degree view of the island and the deep mountain capped fjords surrounding us. The terrain dropped away steeply on all sides, a large cornice overhung the Eastern slopes and straight below us lay an 800m vertical, steep, perfectly shaped Snowboarders playground.
I call on the radio to the boat to announce our descent to the pre arranged pick up and from our vantage point we can watch it power out of the small harbour, its white wake a sharp contrast to the dark waters as it heads towards the mooring off the beach below us.
Our line is very simple, the slopes are wide and open, the snow pack seems very stable, the terrain shape supportive of the snowpack and it is pretty much a straight line to the beach. On top of all that there is some fresh snow, from a storm previous to our arrival, on the upper slopes. All is good and we cruise big carves towards the steep slopes below and play our way towards the woodland tht lines the coastline above the beach.
A fantastic descent and we’re soon standing with our boards on a sandy beach, a little strange but definitely something I could get used to if the riding is of this quality.
We make a quick transfer in the dingy to get back onto the boat and power off back down the Fjord to relax in the Sauna and Jaccuzi and do some whale watching back at the lodge.
The next day we opt for a land based tour and drive around the coast to a drop off on the other side of the mountains behind the lodge. The drop off is in the middle of knowhere and from here we hike up a spectacular and very isolated valley before turning up into the mountains heading towards a distant col.
From the top we descend into another isolated valley, a great ride down with some fun features to play around on, before another hike up to a 2nd col on the other side which with a little climb following Lynx tracks along the summit ridge line, brings us to the top of the peak overlooking the lodge.
From here the views are amazing and we gaze out onto the Lyngen Fjord and the peaks that stretch out as far as the eye can see. There are some big glaciated peaks to the North which look very interesting and I make a mental note to check out their location on the map for later in the week.
The descent down to the lodge is fantastic, open snow fields lead down to sparse woodland where we see lots of very recent evidence of Elk with massive hoof prints and fresh droppings everywhere. Considering the size of Elk and the sparseness of the trees it seems quite strange that we don’t actually see any. We eventually drop onto a track that leads us all the way back to the Lodge for some well earned hot tub activity. Its been a big day of trail breaking through very deep snow but the rewards have been plenty.
The next few days are spent exploring the peaks up and down the Fjord from the Lyngen lodge boat except for a day were we hiked right from the door up the peak behind but instead of returning by the descent we had ridden before, this time we crossed over into a huge snow bowl a bit further along the summit ridge.
The descent was excellent taking us all the way to a pick up further along the coastal road and showing us that even with out the use of the boat there is some epic riding to do here and much of it is still pretty much undiscovered, especially in terms of Snowboarding.
All to soon the trip was coming to its conclusion but I’d kept the best until last having checked out the location and the lay of the land in order to access and ride the huge Glaciated peak that we’d spied earlier in the week.
A good hours long boat journey took us far up the coast from where an exciting transfer got us onto the mainland at the foot of a long isolated valley. From here we toured up following the river into the mountains. After a while it became obvious that we needed to be on the other side of the wide fast flowing and cold looking river.
A short while later we were all safely on the other side, mostly with dry feet! From here we trekked up a ridge to a hidden col between two peaks which had up until now hidden the Glacier and the high snowy peaks behind. We crossed through the col to discover the amazing landscape behind and dropped down a short slope to set foot on the bottom of the Glacier.
We hiked up the Glacier for a couple of hours until it steepened towards a heavily corniced ridge above which we climbed up to and tunnelled through in order to acces the ridge which we followed up to the high peak above.
After 6 hours of climbing we were now deep in the heart of the Lyngen Alps with nothing but Amazing looking peaks, big descents and deep fjords surrounding us and completely on our own with no tracks anywhere except those from our ascent. The plan was now to descend the other side of the mountain to a pick up by boat in the narrow fjord on the other side of the peak.
I radioed the boat to say we were about to start our descent and we dropped into the huge steep slopes below following a steep narrow couloir through rocky terrain until it openned out into a huge and perfect powder bowl. From here we channelled into a series of halfpipe like gullies that led us down towards the tree line.
We could now see the boat coming around the headland and powering down the fjord below, tiny against the huge landscape surrounding us. We slashed and carved the banks of the steep gullies which led us into the trees and eventually down to the icy looking water and the boat now moored below.
We relaxed on board enjoying the views as we motored home after a fantastic day of touring and riding amongst some of the most isolated and exciting high mountain terrain to be found in civilized Europe and looked forward to enjoying the comforts of the lodge for one final night before departure home.
Upon departure I swore that one day soon I’d be back to further explore this amazing landscape which, although was very accessible on snowshoes, is perfectly suited to splitboarding and so after last years Splitboarding success which gained some fantastic touring and riding around the Mont Blanc massif and further afield, (including an amazing Splitboard touring expedition to the east coast of Greenland) I knew that the 2012 was the right time to plan a return trip back to the land of the Lyngen Alps.
My 2012 winter trip, therefore will be a Splitboard fuelled safari to the Lyngen Lodge to further explore the amazing landscape of high peaks, steep faces and deep fjords to be found there. The last trip there, although amazing, barely scratched the surface of what is possible out there. I think this time with Splitboards for access the limits really will be unlimited!
Oh and yes, I did catch the biggest fish!
I can hardly wait, bring it on!!
