• A happy Lofoten Islands team!

  • Laetitia on the "Top 50" route, Lys og Skygge

  • Richard on the abseil from our first "Top 50" venue; Pianokrakken

  • Richard, keen to get some climbing in on our arrival day!

  • Cod drying racks

  • Henningsvaer

  • Svolvaer airport

  • Catching the small plane from Bodoe to Svolvaer

  • At £5 a bottle - this had to be nice beer!

Lofoten Islands

We’ve arrived in the Lofoten Islands! Or perhaps their other name is more fitting, the Magic Islands. What an amazing place – awesome granite islands seemingly straight out of the sea in the middle of nowhere… 😛

We flew to Oslo initially and stayed a night in a cheap hotel. The hotel was cheap, but the beer was not! 🙁 At £5 a bottle we made sure we savoured it!

Catching the bus in Oslo
Catching the bus in Oslo
At £5 a bottle - this had to be nice beer!
At £5 a bottle - this had to be nice beer!

The really exciting bit started when we caught the 25 minute flight from Bodo to Svolvaer. No sooner than we had taken off and the Lofoten Islands appeared on the horizon as amazing jagged peaks straight out of the ocean!

Catching the small plane from Bodo to Svolvaer
Catching the small plane from Bodo to Svolvaer

12-flight

Svolvaer airport is tiny. And to help us get used to the size, the hire car company gave us a ridiculously small car for four people and luggage!

Svolvaer airport
Svolvaer airport

We are staying in Henningsvaer, a short drive south from Svolvaer and an incredibly pretty fishing village. I managed to catch the obligatory picture of cat. 😉 Terry and Anna should be pleased with that! I wonder if the cat lives off any of the thousands of cod that are hung up to dry? The main fishing season is in the winter – wow – it must cold here then!

Henningsvaer
Henningsvaer

6-cat

Cod drying racks
Cod drying racks
Richard, keen to get some climbing in on our arrival day!
Richard, keen to get some climbing in on our arrival day!

Our first day of climbing took us to Pianokrakken, a venue with two of RockFax’s “Top 50” routes. Both modestly graded at 5+ (Norwegian) to allow us to get used to the Lofoten granite; super rough stuff! Also despite the reasonable sunny weather, there’s an arctic northerly wind! But then again, we are north of the Arctic Circle!!!

Laetitia on the "Top 50" route, Lys og Skygge
Laetitia on the 'Top 50' route, Lys og Skygge
Richard on the abseil from our first "Top 50" venue; Pianokrakken
A happy Lofoten Islands team!
A happy Lofoten Islands team!

Series - Lofoten

  1. Lofoten Islands
  2. Bare Blabaer
  3. An enforced day off…!
  4. A Day on Gandalf…!
  5. Lofoten – and to finish, Vestpillaren
  6. Lofoten – The Facts and Logistics

7 thoughts on “Lofoten Islands”

  1. Wow! the rock looks amazing, although the crag Richard is on looks a bit small 😆 😆
    I hope the black cat isn’t unlucky 😈 😈 , although it looks like its already got a lot of work on its plate with all the cod sacks!

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