01 · The Lyngen Alps · Arctic Norway
The Lyngen Traverse
Nine days across the spine of the Lyngen peninsula on skis, sleeping in four huts and one boat, with the Arctic Ocean on both sides of you for most of a week.
- Duration
- 9 days
- Party
- 4 to 6
- Season
- Late February to early May
- From, per person
- €6,400
The route
- Tromsø
- Lyngseidet
- Jægervatnet
- Koppangen
- Store Kjostinden
- Lyngseidet
Lyngen is sixty kilometres of alpine peninsula with the sea on both sides, which means you can start a climb at zero metres and be at 1,400 by lunch with no road, no lift and no village in between. It is the reason this outfit exists, and it is the route Sindre has run the most — forty-one departures since 2011.
Why nine days and not five
Because five days in Lyngen is a weather lottery, and we would rather not sell you a ticket. In nine days, the peninsula has historically given us four skiable days out of nine, which is enough to make a traverse. In five, the mean drops to two. We have run the short version. Parties did not enjoy it and neither did we.
The two rest days are not padding. They are how the crossing to Koppangen happens at all — we wait for the window, and the window comes when it comes.
What the traverse actually is
You cross the range west to east, then come back down the eastern shore by boat. Nothing is a loop from a car park. On days five and six you carry everything, including your share of the group kit, which is about eight kilograms on top of your own. Parties who have not carried that weight uphill before find out on day five that they have not, and there is nowhere convenient to find it out.
Who this suits
People who are already comfortable on skis in bad snow and who want the days to be long. It does not suit anyone learning to ski tour — that is what the Ullstinden week is for, and we will send you there instead without much diplomacy.
It also does not suit anyone who needs the summit. About a third of departures do not get Store Kjostinden. Every one of them gets the traverse.
What we will not do
We will not put you on a helicopter to the top of anything, in Lyngen or anywhere else. Operators here will do it and they do it well; it is simply not the same activity, and we would rather you booked it from someone who believes in it.
We also will not extend the week to “make sure” of the summit. The weather does not work that way, and an extra day on a bad forecast is the most dangerous thing we could sell you.
Day by day
The shape of it
Day 1
Tromsø, the yard
Kit out on the floor at Sjøgata by nine. Beacon, probe, shovel, skins, everything. We will lend you what is wrong and we will not let you leave with new boots.
Day 2
Lyngseidet
Ferry across, a short valley day to 900 metres and back. This is the day Sindre decides what the week looks like, and it is not a formality.
Days 3–4
Jægervatnet
Two nights at the lake hut. Jægervasstindan on the good day, the north bowl on the other one. Both days end with the stove and wet socks.
Days 5–6
Koppangen
The long crossing east, 1,400 metres of climbing with everything on your back. The boat meets us at the pier. If the wind is over 15 metres a second, it does not, and we go back the way we came.
Day 7
Store Kjostinden
The summit day, if there is one. 1,488 metres from sea level, which in Lyngen means from actual sea level. Turnaround is 13:00 and it is not negotiable.
Day 8
Lyngseidet
A short ski, a long sauna, and the debrief where we write down what the party got wrong so the next one does not.
Day 9
Tromsø
Ferry and road back, at the airport by midday. Nobody flies out the same evening we come off the hill. We have learned that one.
Before you book, and what to bring
Before you book
What this route asks of you
- One previous multi-day ski tour with overnight kit, or our Ullstinden Ice Week in a prior season
- A current avalanche course — Norwegian Skredkurs, AIARE 1, or European equivalent
- Able to skin 1,200 metres in a day and ski down it unroped in variable snow
- Rescue insurance naming helicopter evacuation in Troms county
On the yard floor
Kit you supply, and we check
- Transceiver, probe and shovel you have practised with this season
- Touring boots with at least twenty days on them — not new ones
- Skis 85–100mm underfoot, with skins that actually fit them
- A real sleeping bag rated to −10°C comfort, not a summer bag with a liner
- Two pairs of gloves, and a third you have never worn
What the price covers
Included
What €6,400 buys
- Eight nights — four huts, three lodges and one night on the boat
- Sindre Aune for all nine days, plus a second guide from day three
- The Koppangen boat, chartered for the week whether it sails or not
- All meals from day two, cooked by Ada or by us
- Group safety kit: rope, screws, two satellite messengers, a group shelter
- The kit check, and anything of ours you end up borrowing
Not included
And, pointedly, what it does not
- Flights to Tromsø — we tell you which ones, you book them
- Rescue insurance, which is required and which we read before you come
- Your own transceiver, probe and shovel, which you must own
- A helicopter to a summit. It is available here. We will not book it.
- Alcohol, other than the beer on the last night, which is on us