The following piece was submitted by Nikolai Schirmer. We'd love to hear from more of you about your skiing adventures, so we encourage you to submit an experience via e-mail. Better yet, create an account of your own, and post it straight into the newsfeed yourself. After all, this is the era of user generated content. Thanks Nikolai for taking the time to submit your story!
Stockfish, Waffles and Pow
Words: Nikolai Schirmer Photos: Nikolai Schirmer and Vegard Rye
”Dude, this place stinks!” Vegard exclaimed as we rolled into Henningsvær. Luckily for us he wasn’t referring to the pristine mountain ranges stretching into the Northern Atlantic which make up the Lofoten and Vesterålen Islands, just off the coast of the Nordland county in Northern – Norway. Vegard was talking about the thousands of fish hung out to dry, in the process of becoming stockfish.
The author enjoying the aroma of fresh stockfish.
While stockfish has been the economic backbone of Lofoten the last couple of centuries the islands are now experiencing a new boom with skiers, snowboarders and surfers discovering what they have to offer.
Arriving mid April the scene was set for an epic trip as Lofoten had record amounts of snow. However, In the spirit of every film trip the temperatures rose just as we stepped off the boat, and with freezing temperatures the following night we were left with a perfect base topped off by a thick layer of ice. To no ones despair though, as glassy waves were rolling onto the point at Unstad Beach, arguably the most consistent break in Scandinavia.
Nixon Pro showing us skiers how it's done.
After a week of surfing with the guys doing the Nixon Pro Challenge and Seth Hobby at Northern Alpine Guides showing us around the icy mountains, the snow and the rest of the crew arrived simultaneously.
The author doing the Lofoten variation of the stalefish: the stockfish.
Hiking and skiing (there are a total of two short t-bar lifts in Lofoten and helis are heavily restricted) with the legendary Bruno Compagnet, Ruth Leisibach, Giuliano Bordoni, Tine Huber and a crew of charging Norwegians we discovered all that Lofoten had to offer in terms of tree skiing, steep couloirs and, when the weather permitted it, big mountain. All of it in plain view of the ocean and with local fishermen’s wives inviting us in for waffles, coffee and their homemade sheep sausage at the end of the day.
Spot the skier.
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