I got back from Lofoten yesterday afternoon, and the trip it was simply brilliant. For those of you who dont know where lofoten is, its exactly 1987km at 31deg from my house*. Its in the arcic circle making it realy cold, but its also just within the gulf stream, bringing warm wet weather from the SW.
*I think thats what my GPS calculated it as, but i cant remember exactly.
The wind constanly changes from a North wind (polar, very cold and dry) to a SW wind (very warm and wet). Making perfect freeze thaw ice conditions. The ice formations were EVERYWHERE. On a trip to pick up some milk for breakfast in svolvaer there were ice columns 20m high in peoples back gardens. It got to the point where anything less than about 15m of vertical ice, we didnt even notice. In scotland a 10m pitch of ice would have three routes up it!
There was obviously much larger stuff in the mountains, massive ice falls all over.
Ive got to dispel some misconceptions over lofoten, and give a few pointers, you know, share the experience and all that;
1. The daylight (or lack of it) is honestly not a problem. Think of doing a scottish route in winter when you have 8 hours of daylight, 3 are used getting to the climb, 3 for doing it and 2 for descent/fannying about. Its true that you only get about 5 hours daylight up there in jan-feb, but the climbs ARE ON THE ROAD. An ice route i climbed, Ash (my buddy) was actually belaying whilst sitting on a metal road barrier. Plus, the twilight lasts for an hour. Go when theres a full moon too and youre sorted.
2.Most people there speak english, but if you go, try to learn at least a bit of norwegen as its only polite, most towns especially rely on tourism during the summer so are well equipped for us brits. The language is hard to get used to.
3.Itll cost you £800 for everything for 2 weeks, flights insurance, accomodation, food etc, now considoring youve got to go to the lakes 50 times at £50 petrol each time to get perfect conditions, end even then you wont get thick lovely blue ice, so in money terms its probably worth it. £800 is very little, as when you get out there, you realy get the idea of expedition proportions.
4.Conditions are unpredictable, we only got about 7 days of perfect climbing weather, the snow came down for the rest making it tough to get to routes leaving us to get on with 'stuff round town', you know that ice fall by the post office Ideally, if you could go last minute (there seems to be ample free seats on planes as the tourist season is in the summer) it would be best as you could go when the weathers best. If you want the northern lights and dont mind the possibility of snow (ski mountaineers?) go in Feb. If you want easy walkins and risk warmer wetter weather, go in Mar-April.
Irrespective of the weather, the conditions on the north coast are hugely different to the south. Much less snow falls on the northern coast and it generally stays in condition for much longer as the low sun in the south doesnt hit the northern mountains til may! So generally theres always going to be something in condition.
5. We never saw the northern lights ((
6. There is LOTS of unclimbed ice. LOTS and LOTS, I cant actually explain to you in words exactly how much ice there is as its simply EVERYWHERE. Its very hard to know what is and what isnt though, my buddy Ash (called 'ash' on this forum) is writing a mini guide, which should be very useful. The problem hes had was finding info, the few climbers that are in lofoten dont record their first ascents, but hes managed to round up a few, in conjunction with the climbing school and list them. The most obvious lines on the mountains close to the roads have (mostly) been done, but anything with more than an 45minutes walk in seems to be ignored. There are some realy good areas that only the locals seem to know about and i think Ash might list them too. Generally if you can be arsed to walk for an hour, youre almost guaranteed to be in unclimbed ice territory as the locals just cant be arsed to walk.
7. Beer is very expensive ou there.
8. The mountains are reasonably small (most about 800m-1300m) but rise straight from sea level so the entire height is seen giving a realy impressive, sometimes daunting view.
9. If you time the 2flights and ferry journey well you can be there in about 12 hours. If you take 3 connecting flights i recon it could be about 7 hours. From bodo the ferry costs about £50 return and the plane costs bout £60 return. (we went on the ferry cos we didnt know it was that cheap on the plane)
If you're into ice climbing its bloody great, unclimbed ice thats near civilisation. If youre into Ski mountaineering its even better, as the only thing that can make the more distant routes difficult (snow) is no longer a problem.
I want to write more but no time now. Next time
Any other lofoten visitors care to agree with/disagree with/add anything?
Had a good time, many smiles and many more in the future remembering stuff
Mat
PS if anything is not quite right here (prices dates etc) then its all from memory, dont blame me! Ashs guide should actually have all the correct info and a lot more, he'll probably advertise it officially on here when he gets it all written up and published sometime before next season, so keep your eyes open.
