Photo: Olstind mountain peak reflects in fjord, Sakrisøy, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. June 14, 2017. 02:11

My fried Olaf dropped my tour group off at Sakrisøy after a midnight trip up Helvetestind – my second time to the summit in two weeks.

A sea fog had been covering all the land to the north but back on the south side, the world was calm. Tired after a long day, we decided one more shot was needed.

I’ve photographed Olstind hundreds of times by now for almost every possible angle. But it is still a peak which I never grow tired of. And so I pulled out my camera and tripod for yet another photo of this iconic mountain.

I like the softness of the light here. It was ‘sunrise’ but it doesn’t really appear so. If the fjord was not perfectly calm, perhaps I wouldn’t have taken the image. But it was so quiet out, just us standing at the edge of the sea – and a few birds making some noise in the distance.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
24mm
ISO 200
f 10
1/80 second
WB Daylight

Photo: Kirkefjord clouds, Rostad, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. July 16, 2017. 19:39

The rain was pounding my windshield as I headed west towards Reine. We had made plans to borrow a friend’s boat and to do a bit of exploring in the fjord, but I wasn’t very optimistic.

The rain was still falling as I pulled the boat to shore and figured out how to work everything. Good I brought my rain clothes! From Reine we headed towards Rostad, a small village on the east side of the fjord. Despite all my time on Lofoten, I had never been there before.

We moored the boat at the only empty spot on a small pier. But as we walked towards the village, we met someone on the balcony of a house who informed us that we shouldn’t park there, as another boat was coming. Luckily, our fiend in Reine had told us to say hello to a friend in Rostad, the man we were speaking to. Suddenly it became okay for us to leave the boat, and he could move it if necessary. Good to know the right people!

There are several mountains out of Rostad that have been on my ‘to do’ list for some time. However, as waves of rain still passed us, we decided just for a bit of easy exploring.

Eventually we made out way up to the lake below Segltind, seeing if there might be a possible route of from this side. The hours grow long and it was time to return to Reine. Back in Rostad, The clouds were blowing over the peaks above Kirkefjord. I walked out on some rocks and took a final image for the day.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 24-70mm f/4
62mm
ISO 50
f 16
30 seconds
WB Daylight
10 stop B+W ND filter

Photo: Summer light over Bunes beach from Storskiva, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. July 22, 2017. 22:40

In October last year I made my first attempt to camp on the summit of Storskiva. It didn’t go so well and high winds forced me down from the summit. But I do not give up so easily. And even with dozens of other mountains to hike on Lofoten, a night on Storskiva remained a priority coming into summer 2017.

In late July, a good weekend forecast (for my friends to come along) finally led to the the realisation of a night on the summit.

The original plan had been to go up on Friday night, but a delayed ferry to Vindstad due to the summer crowds, and some other planning issues meant we saved the mountain for Saturday. The forecast wasn’t as reliable, but as things turned out, it was near perfect – for camping that is, the light itself might have been a bit on the boring side.

With no trees or shade in sight, I was cooking under the near 20˚ temperatures and powerful sun. Only carrying 2.5 liters of water, I was on the low side for the temperatures. And I had to setup my tent to have a bit of shade to hide behind throughout the afternoon, which I mostly lazed about and took a bit of a nap.

Finally, in the late evening the sun was approaching the horizon to the north. The light was a bit on the hazy side, but there was a warm glow across the granite peaks of west Lofoten, fading endlessly into the distance.

Bunes itself was quite crowded down below, but up here, there was only 3 of us, with the entire mountain for ourselves. Finally, a bit after midnight and after plenty of wine and whisky, it was time for bed. Maybe in previous years I would have stayed up through the night shooting. But I think I have become a bit spoiled, or perhaps just lazy. I enjoy the moments I have, and when it has been enough, I am content.

Camera Info:
Nikon D800
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
20mm
ISO 100
f 10
1/20 second
WB Daylight

Photo: Pile of human faces and toilet paper under a rock on the summit of Ryten, Moskenesøy, Lofoten Islands, Norway. July 5, 2017. 22:44

This weeks photo is literally shit, in more ways than one. First, it is a photo from my phone, so apologies for the quality. Second, it is a pile of poop and toilet paper, left in the open save for a small stone placed on top. How nice!

This was a few meters from the summit of Ryten, where I was with a client a couple weeks back. I was looking for a nice steady rock to put my tripod on and then I came across this lovely sight. There were also other areas as well, unfortunately.

This is completely unacceptable mountain behaviour and is not something that should be seen on Lofoten!

I guess this has to be another one of my annual ‘tourists behaving badly’ articles. Unfortunately this year seems even worse than the last.

I am bringing attention to this this week, as in the last days there has been a series of articles about poor behavior from tourists in the local news. See:
NRK article 1
NRK article 2
NRK article 3
NRK article 4

 

With the final one titled: We must turn our marketing away from Lofoten. This is coming from one of Norway’s biggest tourism agencies. A sad state of affairs. But now that the people are here, something needs to be done.

As I now hike the mountains here on a weekly basis, I can see the damage being done. For some trails that I might not have visited for a while, I am shocked at the amount of new erosion and spreading of what might have been a single trail into multiple ways, all attempting to avoid the erosion of the last path. And I myself, and this website, are also part of the problem.

The chief example of this on Lofoten is Reinebringen. The trail has now officially been closed by Moskenes Kommune. But the wording of the signs are unclear, and without proper direction; making it seem more like a suggestion that they hope you listen to. And so hundreds of people still hike this dangerous route daily; just this week there is an article that 7000 people have gone up the supposedly closed mountain in the last month alone. The highest amount of traffic ever.

A friend of mine recently contacted the mayor of Moskenes, suggesting stronger wording might be needed, she was told that the sign was good enough. Well, obviously not!

More funding has been raised to continue work on the trail, but realistically, I would be surprised so see if finished by summer 2020.

Which leads me to the typical situation on Lofoten: There are complaints about too many tourists and not enough facilities, but it always seems up to someone else to find a solution. This is due to a myriad of reasons from funding (the Norwegian government wont allow implementation of any sort of ‘tourist tax’), to who actually has the authority/responsibility to do something.

From the outside world, Lofoten is one place. Lofoten. For Lofoten however, there is Moskenes, Flakstad, Vestvågøy, Austvågøy, Leknes and Svolvær, Statens Vegvessen and private land owners, plus numerous organizations. Often, it seems they try and shift the responsibility of providing any necessary infrastructure onto someone/something else. And so nothing will be done this year, next year, or the decade to come. The nature will be polluted further, tourists will be blamed, and next summer the same articles will appear in the local newspapers and I will type another one of these articles, reminding you to behave properly.

There was supposed to have been an expansion of the parking area at Kvalvika made after lasts years chaos. It wasn’t. They are now attempting to direct visitors the parking area at the school in Fredvang, which is good! However, this is 3.5km down the road from the traditional parking area at Torsfjord, more than doubling the distance of the hike. And so what happens? People still illegally park along the road, same as last summer where I wrote about it in Friday Photo #187.

I saw a comment on Facebook today that someone counted over 60 tents at Kvalvika one night this week. 60 tents is probably around 100 people, just on a single night. All without a toilet! And that is not even counting all the day hikers. No wonder there are piles of shit to be found next to almost every rock and tree. How long can this rate of usage continue on before Kvalvika, and many other locations, become toxic dumps of faces and toilet paper?

I have been attempting to talk with some people and bring a bit of my perspective as an American, and what we have done to help protect some of our more fragile mountain areas. But I am also aware that I’m an outsider in an old and well established community, and my input, though possibly useful, might not always be welcome. However, I chose to make these Islands my home because I love them more than any place else in the world. And their future is also mine now. So I hope things can be improved for the benefit of all.

Nature is fragile here in the north. And so it is up to all of us to help keep in clean and minimize our impact.

For more information about how to behave in the outdoors on Lofoten: Download the Lofoten Code of Conduct

For a list of local toilets and waste disposal locations, see: Clean Up Lofoten Map

Camera Info:
Iphone