The journey to the cabin, beneath the moon, was icy yet picturesque. A high-pressure system lingered throughout our stay, so we slept well, knowing the snow would be softened by the sun in the morning. Photo Robin O’Neill

Adventure

Mountaineer’s High in the Lofoten Islands

“I wish I had two ice axes,” Robin Van Gyn says as she looks down toward me. I laugh and turn my head behind us to the stunning blue water of the fjord, framed by snow-clad peaks on all sides. We are climbing between two massive, craggy rock walls, front pointing our crampons up a steep hardpack slope, snowboards strapped to our packs. The Arctic sun hovers high in the sky as roller balls of ice detach themselves from the heating rocks above and tumble down beside us. We are in a long, mountainous archipelago in northern Norway: the Lofoten Islands.

We named the couloir we now climb “the Banana” for its prominent, long-curved line poignantly carved amongst an array of white, snowy streaks that contrast the dark rocks jutting up from the Arctic Ocean. Our ascent continues as the couloir narrows and steepens. At the top, our guide, Petter Westgaard, has drawn a line and written “Do Not Cross” in the snow with the tip of his pole, indicating a large cornice. “I’ve never skied this line,” he says, crouched against the rock wall, waiting patiently. He grew up in the Lofotens and now works for a local guide company, Norrøna Adventures. For him, this is just another obscure line in a place of never-ending lines.

The ride down is incredible, long and smooth. Dropping from 2,300 feet all the way to sea level, Robin and I conclude it was probably the longest couloir that either of us had ever ridden. After a short bushwhack to the beach between alders and over green mossy streams, we reconvene with the rest of the Full Moon crew for this trip: producer and freerider Leanne Pelosi, filmer Jeff Keenan, photographer Robin O’Neill and Swedish drone filmer Ola Krondahl. Our fourth rider, Marion Haerty, is resting at the apartment after celebrating her Natural Selection Tour victory.


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