On Our Way: sustainable exploration to the Arctic Circle

Chapter 1 – Lofoten Islands, Norway

We’ve spent the past years trying to describe the transformation the mountains are undergoing due to climate change, by showing pristine places and wonderful landscapes that highlight how unique our planet is and how lucky we are to live on it. Today more than ever the question we ask ourselves is what each of us can do to fight climate change. The largest amount of Co2 emissions certainly comes from systems bigger than us, however individual actions are important to achieve even small results. That’s why we decided to take on different behaviours in our everyday lives and during our exploration trips.

We started from Munich with a full electric car, before leaving we had already planned several stops to charge the car, still being aware of the surprises that such a long itinerary might have presented. Actually, the travel was easier than we thought: the charging station network is very developed in northern Europe. Driving on bridges which are real architectural gems, using hybrid ferries to cross marvelous fjords, passing by breathtaking landscapes, in just two days we arrived at the Lofoten Islands. In Ballstad, at the Hattvika Lodge, our friend Kristian Bøe was waiting for us. The day after our arrival we checked the different areas where we could ski but unfortunately conditions were not great. Luckily, 48 hours later, a storm from the North brought 30cm of fresh snow, giving the Lofoten Islands their unique magical look. 

One of the highlights of our skiing experience in Lofoten was our day at Rundfjellet. The weather forecast looked promising. As we reached Svolvaer the sun was rising, giving a wonderful pink color slowly turning into gold to the East face of the Islands. We reached the parking lot, prepped the ski touring gear and began the long walk until the start of the ascent. We enjoyed our ski tour with calm, admiring the beauty of this fairytale place. After reaching the summit and soaking up the incredible views, we decided to ski down on the North face where the conditions looked good. The turns in the fresh powder were pure pleasure, it felt like skiing in a painting where we were the moving subjects. Mountains covered with snow until the sea, hundreds of fjords, magical light: this is Lofoten. As we silently drove back we witnessed a marvelous sunset. It was time to continue our journey, we thanked Kristian for letting us experience these islands not as tourists but as part of the local community. We said goodbye and left direction North, to the next destination of our journey across Norway.

Chapter 2 – Arctic Islands, Norway

We drove to Tromsø under a heavy snowfall. We left the car charging, while we tasted some delicious Norwegian waffles with brown cheese in the nearby café. After a few hours we reached the harbor in Hansnes, to catch the ferry for the island of Vannøy. We were super excited: we had planned to visit our friend Marco Rossi on “his” island in the far north for two years but had to postpone our trip due to Covid. Marco is a sailor and explorer so we decided to visit him and to explore the islands in the Arctic with his sailing boat “Cadeau”, skiing, sailing, and listening to his experience in the far north. While enjoying a traditional Norwegian dinner we noticed the northern lights appearing in the sky. We had seen them before, but never with such intensity and we were really blown away by that spectacle of nature. 

As we woke up the next morning, Marco informed us that the wind was favorable and that we could get ready to set sail. We drove to the small nearby harbor, loaded the boat with food and gear and set sail direction Kågen. The next day we woke up early to enjoy the whole day: it was sunny and looking very promising. It’s amazing to be able to leave the boat with all our ski gear and directly reach our ski touring spot. We stared skinnig up the east face and enjoyed the beautiful view over the fjord. Once we reached the pass the weather changed and when were only 300m from the summit but we decided not to continue because of the very bad visibility and a relevant accumulation of snow just above us. We decided to wait until sunset hoping, as it had happened previously, that the sun would appear below the clouds gifting us with beautiful light to ski down. We waited several hours on the mountain, admiring the view and fully embracing the elements. But our long wait was rewarded: at sunset the snow on the whole west face of Kågen turned pink and gold, we skied down to the pass with this incredible light, then skinned up again on the opposite face and skied down almost to the water. That was truly one of the most spectacular skiing moments ever: drawing lines on a remote island in the Arctic, with that magical light and reflections on the ocean.

The next day we docked in Arnøy and started the ski tour directly from the little harbor. In a couple of hours, we reached the summit, the view over the fjord was incredible and the descent down to the ocean so much fun. We set sail again to get back to Vannøy. Sailing at sunset while admiring the islands of Uløya, Lyngen Alps, Kågen Fugløya was breathtaking. Without the use of the motor, we fully enjoyed the sound of the water and the wind, and suddenly we noticed something moving in the ocean: dolphins, swimming next to our boat as if they came to say goodbye to us.

Chapter 3 – Senja, Norway

We left the islands of the far north with a big smile on our faces, thinking back of such memorable experiences. We drove to the village of Torsken in Senja, the second biggest island of Norway, where our friend Jørgen Wang was waiting for us at the lodge Senja By Heart. We had never been there and were very curious to explore this island. As we woke up the next day, we realized the snowfalls of the past days covered this area too and the conditions looked good. We decided to summit Husfjellet, as we skinned up above the tree line, we could see the fjord and a very different scenery from the other places we had visited during our trip: the mountains are much rockier and pointier here and the water so turquoise. We enjoyed a fun descent skiing down and went back to Torsken.

On our last day, Jørgen proposed to show us one of his favorite ski tours, so we drove to the other side of the island to summit Kvaenen. The wind was strong and the conditions quite challenging, with icy and hard snow and low visibility. Despite the difficulty, we reached the summit and admired an incredible scenery at 360 degrees: the rocky mountains rising from the sea and the storm approaching in the background. Few minutes to remove the skins and we skied down again, the wind was too strong to stay longer on the summit. We skied down passing through a wonderful scenery. We looked at the long and narrow fjord one more time, maybe one of the most beautiful fjords we saw during our trip, and headed back to Torsken to pack our luggage, say goodbye to our friend Jørgen. The drive back was as beautiful as the way there, as we witnessed impressive mountains, fjords, bridges and colors of nature. Thinking back of all the beautiful moments and the toughest ones we felt extremely grateful for everything we were bringing back home with us. A different lifestyle is possible: a green, sustainable, futuristic lifestyle. What is important is that we truly can contribute to preserving the health of our planet through our individual actions as in the end it’s our life and that of future generations that we will contribute saving.