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Lyngen Alps 4/20- 5/8 Big Ole TR Tons of Photos Part 2
Part one an be found here!
https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...-Photos-Part-1
4/27
Woke up at the Vollan Gjestestue, a pretty nice hotel in the truck stop town of Nordkjosbotn. Got a bad ass breakfast, stuffed our pockets for lunch, and we were headed North towards Lakselvbukt by 8. Didn’t really have any kind of plan, just wanted to get a look around and see what this area had to offer. Kept driving, figuring we’d take it all in, then work our way back. Stopped at the base of Fugldalsfjellet, which happens to hold some of the longest continual vert in the area.
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West face and Southwest coolie of Fugldalsfjellet from the car.
Headed up towards the West face. The skinning was like a dream down low, smooth and firm. Matt used his splitty crampons and went straight up, I just set one wide ass switchback (like a quarter mile), and we were at the bottom of the cold, hard West face. The skinning up from here was a little more challenging. The track had been set a day or two before when it was warm, it was refrozen and slightly sketchy until the last 500ft.
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The views did not disappoint!
Made the top and decided to ski the SW chute, it should be warming up nicely.
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Looking down into the sw coolie, 3000ft to the flats.
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Matt sliding left to find some preserved pooder.
We hung left, staying out of the middle rime runnel, finding slightly better snow. At the bottom, decided to take one more up the West face, it should be warming up by now. Sure enough, the skin track was grippy, and the snow was ripening into perfect corn in the middle of the face. Made it back to the top and hollered at Matt, “should we send’er deep all the way to the car?” “Hell Yea!” Got some left side sparkle pow for a few hundred feet, then cut right off the face onto a slight shoulder that would be free of chicken heads. We got to non stop shred at least 4500ft of fall line before we had to cut right through some wide spaced trees to a creek that led directly to the car.
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Cheers to a dope ass day!
4/28
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Sheila skinning up Ellendalen on the way to the big ole gash.
It truly is a small world. At breakfast the first day, I bumped into a buddy from New Zealand that I had skied with at Bridger 10 years ago. We made loose plans to shred in few days when we were both in the South part of the peninsula. Joel and his friends Hans and Sheila joined us for yet another perfect day in the mountains. The 5 of us went up Ellendalen, just South of Laksvelbukt to have a look at “The Big Chasm” on Guhkesgaisa. The Chasm is a little over 2000ft and gets progressively steeper as you get up. The top is easy 55°, and just a little off camber.
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At the top, it was pretty much nipples to the snow steep. One of those moments where you’re in the zone booting, cant go any further, look up, then are like “Sweet, I’m up here, now how do I put my shit on?” Hacked out some ledges, got stoked to shred slightly wind packed snow the whole way.
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Hans working the angles.
The upper third was a total sluff race, but being slightly off angle, you never had to worry about crossing into it. It was awesome to be in that type of steep terrain. Good pow the rest of the way, winded, but not breakable. It never caught you off guard. At the bottom, we rallied to get some bonus skiing across the valley.
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Being in the shade all day, I was pretty stoked to go across the valley and shred this smaller face I’d been eyeing over my shoulder all day.
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Joel and Hans with a great view of the Chasm.
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Got a sweet view of some big S facers in the next valley North, they totally go.
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On the way out, Matt found some ice!
A steep, shady coolie, and sunny buff skiing, what more can you ask for in a day? Beers at the car and a burger in Nordkjosbotn really capped the day off nicely.
4/29
It was going to be the last day of high pressure, so we headed up to Piggtinden. The Pigg was one of the first peaks that really caught my eye when I got the guide book, a beautiful mountain alone in a big valley, all rimed up and frosty.
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The Pigg! West face, we skied the South gullies.
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Sheila looking up at the South face.
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Ended up being a Goddamn party up there. Guess everyone else figured it would be the last really nice day for a while. A few guys skinned the whole thing in steep firm snow, pretty impressive. We ended up following some French steps up the shit. I don’t know how I feel about zig zagging with my crampons on, but I guess when in Gnarway….. The true summit is another 40ft of rime climbing but none of us really wanted/ needed to fiddle around with that.
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Anybody? Someone told me it’s the German technique….
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Super corn for the way down! Timed it perfectly.
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Watered up and went for an exploratory rip up the valley North of Pigg.
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We were headed for that skyline knuckle on the left. Made it up to the bench, but everything was heating up and real isothermal up to there. It was like 430 or something, decided to bail. Fuck it.
4/30
Weather was supposed to come in at some point, so we decided to head into a small zone we had seen from the road just north of Fugldalfjellet, Rissmalskaret. There are tons of different chutes to choose from. If it happened to be shitty, at least we would have a good, long descent back to the car.
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Norwegian Fingers Zone! Rad North facers.
Started snowing pretty hard as soon as we started booting the looker’s left chute, left of the sun.
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Yea, I’ll just hack through this here cornice, NBD….
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It snowed 5 inches in a little less than 2 hours. Sluff was showering off the rocks, it was awesome! It does storm in Lyngen!
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No wind, just dumping! Had a blast shredding this spot. Got back to Nordkjosbotn at like 4 and everything was closed. International Worker’s Day. They didn’t give a fuck. Want dinner? Hope you have some in yer pockets. Beer? Nah, nah, nah. Pretty epic fail on our part not getting groceries the night before…
5/1
Stormy shit! Blowing and snowing pretty hard all day. Matt wanted to mozy on to a new spot, so we headed back towards the North. Joel had to take Hans to the airport in Tromso. We skied some mellow road side birch trees on the way back up. 1200ft shots, about 10” new at the top, 4” of wet snow at the bottom. It was nuking at the top of the birch zone, you couldn’t see anything, so we just flat pow shredded. Kept getting to the bottom soaked, then drying out by the time I got to the top. I can be easily entertained noodling the flat shit too.
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Norwegian ghost forest.
Soaked, we went to the bar in Lyngseidet, where we were introduced to Fisherstorm. Say it with me, “Feeeeescchair Schtorm”
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I see a polar bear in my Mack beer.
5/2
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We went back up to Nord Lenangen and got an Air BnB. It was socked in, but not snowing or blowing anymore. Went up to ski the mellow West face of Storgalten. I knew that there would be a track to follow, but was surprised to see how many guided groups were up there. I guess the 2 sailboats and 4 vans near the trailhead should’ve been an indicator.
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Combat skinning?
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Sailboat Butt Sniffers on the skin track. These guys took a boat to ski what we drove our car to….?
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Skied 2000ft of Styrofoam pow in wicked flat light. Group shredded it with Joel offering to go first for some reason. Couldn’t see shit but Joel’s pants, but it was smooth and consistent at least.
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Not my boat, bro.
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Great last 1200ft down to the road. Sticky snow, but at least there was vis. Joel smoked a rock under the new pow and we got to watch his DPS (Dick Pussy Special) ski launch like 30ft straight up in the air! I don’t know how those physics worked, but it was fucking awesome! Must be the carbon core…
