Photo: Last workshop aurora of 2024 winter season, Gimsøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. March, 24, 2024. 22:44

After 7 back to back workshops starting on January 31st, my winter guiding season has finally come to an end as I dropped off my last guests at Evenes airport of Tuesday, narrowly missing a multi-hour road closure on my drive home due to a truck stuck on the road in heavy snow around the Lødingen area. Now I can sleep!

As usual, this winter gave us all the varieties of weather. The most significant of which was the storm ‘Ingunn’ on the 1st of February, the most powerful storm to hit Lofoten in decades. My group was supposed to drive from Tromsø to Senja on this day, but we delayed the drive day, as it would simply not be safe to be on the roads in a full blizzard.

The rest of the winter was also filled with the occasional delayed or canceled flights from the ‘normal’ winter conditions, some closed roads here and there, snow, rain, more snow, and more rain and a seemingly endless amount of clouds. There is no predicting the winter weather and some groups got lucky with a full week of ideal winter weather, while other groups were stuck with wind, sideways rain, and a flat grey sky.

The northern lights were also somewhat shy this year – though this is largely related to cloudiness of this winter. While I managed to get every group a glimpse of the aurora, with one group it was down to the final hours before departure. Other weeks were more lucky, particularly my Senja group in early March, which had some amazing dancing auroras on several nights. Again, no predicting, just luck…

Despite a not-great weather forecast, my last group was on the lucky side, with aurora on 4 nights out of 8. Though only one of these nights was fully clear. On this last night, we headed out to GImsøy to hopefully find some clear sky as it had clouded over in Kabelvåg where we had started the night. Luckily a nice hole in the clouds opened up just as the aurora began to rain a curtain of light down on us. Shortly after the aurora faded and the clouds closed in.

Camera Info:
Nikon z8
Sigma 14mm f/1.8
14mm
ISO 1600
f 2
2 Seconds
WB Daylight

Photo: Summit of Persatind, Gimsøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. November 18, 2016. 13:47

There is barely four hours of daylight on Lofoten as the middle of November arrives and passes. Each day feels darker and darker, even with clear skies. Under heavy clouds, in feels as if the world will soon turn to night – which it will.

After a week of heavy winds and rain from multiple passing storms out of the south, the weather finally settled a bit on this day. Though the forecast called for rain my mid afternoon, I took the risk to head east to Gimsøy to hike up a new mountain for me, Persatind.

Starting the hike at noon, I already felt as if we should turn around; that night will soon arrive. But the heavy clouds were responsible for this as we still have a few hours of decent light.  Fresh snow had fallen overnight and as we ascended higher up the mountain a cold wind began to blow.  Following a maze of sheep trails up a steep and snowy ridge, the route finally arrives at the broad plateau of Høgheia – Maybe a good spot for some winter camping later in the season.

Clouds of the approaching snow and rain were slowly drifting in from the south, layers of distant mountains fading into a blueish grey. To the north, a twilight glow warmed the horizon over the distant islands of Vesterålen and the open sea.

After a few minutes on top it was time to descend while we still had some light. In a couple short weeks, once the polar night arrives, I will be thinking of the brightness of this day – light which wont return until the middle of January…

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
28mm
ISO 100
f 10
1/8 seconds
WB Daylight
5 image pano