April 22, 2014

Day 16 - 19: Mellow days

Day 16: Hanging around in Narvik

Day 15 ended yet another time with a great party. So day 16 was a rest day. I have to say, when we first drove through Narvik we thought it´s a dead place. But sure it is fun once you find the right place! Anyways, the weather really sucked so we added another night in Narvik and didn´t really leave the bed apart for breakfast.

Day 17: Narvikfjellet

We woke up to beautiful sunshine so we decided to go up Narvikfjellet for another run. Unfortunately the upper lift wasn´t running when we arrived and we were to lazy to hike the extra bit. Instead we went in the park with our pow skis. Haha, that worked only so-so... In the afternoon we met some guys who had actually skinned up all the way and said it was absolutely not worth it due to ice, so we just stayed on the slopes.

Slush in the morning


Trying some new grabs in sexy ski-touring gear

At least a spectacular background :)


MJ is back



Day 18: Abisko

The weather wasn´t that great again, so we did only one run close to Abisko. It must have had rained really high up, so it felt more like surfing than skiing.

Day 19: Kiruna

Today we had to give the car back so we drove back to Kiruna and now we´re hanging around in a pretty sweet hostel and enjoy the sight of snow before we get back to springtime Germany.

"Beautiful" Kiruna

Some sightseeing to kill time

April 18, 2014

Day 11 - 15: Powder and great views

Day 11: Narvik

Not much to say, just a late evening tour after planning the next days in Narvik. Waiting for snow up in Riksgränsen. At least we met a nice guy on the parking lot and that turned out to be a great contact three days later.

Clouds rolling in

Day 12: Riksgränsen

No visibility. Great snow. That´s it I guess. Oh no, wait: Great fun to sleep in the car when it´s fucking cold. Not!




Day 13: Urdalen

Same procedure this day. Great snow, cold sleep in the car. Haha but worth it! After the skiing we drove to Narvik, rented a cabin and went out partying. Damn it was funny, but you´ll have to ask us in person for the details!

Lukas dropping a cliff

Day 14: Narvikfjellet

Boy did we wake up with a bad hangover. We managed to check out at three in the afternoon though and somehow got our shit together and turned up at Narvikfjellet at 4.30 pm. We had planned to skin up a little from the top of the ski area for a good run but visibility was not good. Luckily we met Torje there, the guy we had met on the parking lot some days ago, who showed us around. Big thank you as it was definitely the best run of the trip! After that we enjoyed yet another great sunset at the fjords.

Lukas with a pretty awesome view

Max dropping in. Thanks Torje for showing us how it´s done ;)

Max with probably the best backdrop of the trip

This is the original photo, no photoshop or whatever. Not kidding!


Day 15: Ruvssotcohkka

Well, you can´t always have sunshine. Another proof of the quick weather changes here. While it looked good for a tour in the morning it wasn´t even worth taking a photo anymore three hours later on top of the mountain. And yet another big thank you goes out to Torje who gave us a great deal at a hotel in Narvik where we are currently staying.

Checking the weather in the morning

At least the drive back to Narvik was fun

Who´s more creepy?
Now let´s see what the next days will bring. At least a big breakfast tomorrow morning!

April 14, 2014

Day 8 - 10: Rain and sun

Day 8: Ballstad

Not much to say. Pouring rain all day long. And dried fish. Tons of dried fish. Check out the photos and you can imagine the smell. The hostel was awesome, though.

The view from our window



Our cabin with the grass on top

Ballstad. And a lot of fish!


Day 9: Back to the mainland

Unfortunately it rained pretty hard and the snow started only higher up. As we weren´t keen on hiking the first 200m in normal shoes we decided to head back to the mainland.

Rain...

...and snow.


Day 10: Spanstinden

The forecast said the sun wouldn´t be out for long so we turned up early. Spantstinden was the goal of the day. As we had climbed up the 1000m to the top already at 12 and the sun was still shining we decided to ski down a little and climb Sølvfjellet as well. What a great day but boy were we dead when we came back to the car.


Lukas = happy

Not much left to hike up


Lukas, far away

What a view!

Ready to drop in? Better not straight ahead...

Lukas getting down Spanstinden

Sølvfjellet 

Lukas jumping...

...and turning.

Max dropping as well

Lukas looking forward to a swim

Deep enough
Now it´s bad weather again and it looks like it´s here to stay. We´ll see what we can do...

April 11, 2014

Day 3 - 7 Sun and fjords

Day 3: Lappland powder

Skitouring in Lappland is great. Our plan was to climb the Låkthajåkka. But when we got up from the valley we saw that the face that we wanted to ski was badly windblown and on our right side was a great field of powder. So we went for that one. Good choice as you can see. After that we drove down to Narvik and had a nice sleep in the car ;)


Lukas touring up

Sun and powder

Yet again

Narvik

Sunset

Day 4: Fiskefjorden

From Narvik we drove to Hinnøya. It took us forever to get a map for the area as they somehow were sold out everywhere. So don´t believe the internet when they say "you get a map for touring at every supermarket". Anyways, that gave us a really late start. We had planned to hike up to a hut on a mountain plateau but the higher we came up the more wet snow avalanches showed up so we turned around and went back to the car. It was a bit annoying as we had planned on staying up there for two days and we had a ton of stuff on our back. It was the first time skiing above a fjord though, so it was good fun anyways. After that it was time for a sleep in the car again.


Sleeping in the car. Awesome!


Our goal for the next day. Didn´t work out, maybe next time...

Above Fiskefjorden

And another great sunset



Day 5: Haukebøtinden

This time we were up early. And what a great day it was. Sun, sun, sun and a really nice peak. Very windblown on top, but the view was epic. We weren´t really keen on sleeping in the car again so this time we went for one of the DNT-huts in the area. That meant that we had finally a proper roof, a bed and a heating. It felt like a hotel compared to the car ;)



Pretty windy

On top of the world




Day 6: Above Harstad

As we had to go shopping in Harstad anyways we decided we could just climb a peak next to Harstad. Same procedure as everyday: Sun, great view and ok snow. We stayed again in the DNT-hut where Lukas managed to heat up the fireplace up so hot that it felt like a sauna :D


Not photoshopped!

Above Harstad


Powder on top of the city


Planning the next day


Day 7: Hemmestadfjellet

That day we planned on going further down the Lofoten so we wanted to do a short skitour. Haha, it ended up being pretty long but when the sun is out you don´t want to miss anything here. I don´t know what we did to get 6 days of sunshine in a row but it´s great. Unfortunately the drive down to Svolvaer took quite long and we didn´t find a hostel there. After a lot more driving and pouring rain/snow we ended up in Ballstad very late in the evening where we found a great hostel. 



Chilling in the sun


Fisherman´s friend

As we finally have some internet and it´s heavy rain with strong winds we took a break today and try to plan the next couple of days. More about that later!