Stay at home

[litljortindan]

In late May / early June 2001 I spent ten days on the Lofoten Islands, the second of four visits I've made there. Towards the end of that trip I made my way onto the north ridge of a mountain called Litljortindan. I'd got a bus to the Selfjord road end and was headed for the hut at the end of path west from there. I didn't have any particular plan hill wise other than to explore what I could in the couple of days I had left. As it happened, Litljortindan was the first walkable target that presented itself so I set off for the most obvious route up, a gully leading to the ridge low point a bit north of the path I was on.
The way up was a bit rough and quite steep but I got onto the ridge fairly quickly and was taken by surprise by the near vertical drop on the other side and the standing room only nature of the crest. Views north and south were dizzying and I only ventured a short distance in either direction before encountering fear due to the precariousness of the ridge.

looking south east across Selfjord

slab

on the ridge, looking north west

Lofoten wall to the south west

looking across to Kirkefjord mountains

looking east along the main ridge

[ChrisW]

Nice to see the place where your forum name originates, I'm glad you made the trip to the crest for those beautiful photos and didn't risk too much on the ridge Your shot of Kirkefjord mountains is stunning

[Border Reiver]

I like the photos very much. I've always wanted to visit the Lofoten Islands, they look spectacular. We saw them in the distance from a ship this year & really want to see more.


We're going to do the Hurtigruten round trip in Feb/March next year, so we'll get a chance to see the islands close up and hopefully snow covered.

[litljortindan]

Nice to see the place where your forum name originates, I'm glad you made the trip to the crest for those beautiful photos and didn't risk too much on the ridge Your shot of Kirkefjord mountains is stunning

Cheers Chris. Yes, great place to visit, very dramatic though not quite as grand a scale as your neck of the woods. Definitely needed more concentration walking there as the proportion of steep ground is a lot greater than in Scotland. So my recollection of the walking was not much of relaxation but certainly in awe quite a lot of the time.

[litljortindan]

I like the photos very much. I've always wanted to visit the Lofoten Islands, they look spectacular. We saw them in the distance from a ship this year & really want to see more.


We're going to do the Hurtigruten round trip in Feb/March next year, so we'll get a chance to see the islands close up and hopefully snow covered.

Glad you like the pics. In your picture the peak that appears highest is the one immediately west of Litljortindan i.e. the one I have a picture of labelled "Lofoten wall to the west". I have plenty more to report on from Lofoten, particularly the southernmost main island Moskenesoya. The Kirkefjord mountains are particularly impressive. I have posted a report on one of them before -Hermansdalstinden. The one that really took my breath away though was Munkan. The view from there is incredible.

[colgregg]

Stunning place, stunning pics. If only.................... one day perhaps.

[litljortindan]

A few more pics:

another from 2001

view from Munkan taken in August 2002 -Litljortindan is the farthest away looking hazy blob on the horizon

from Munkan looking north east to Reine and Norwegian Sea

from Munkan looking west to the Arctic Atlantic

Kirkefjord mountains from pinnacle above Reine

[Border Reiver]

Thanks for posting the extra pics - absolutely stunning scenery. I love seeing the boilerplate slabs and walls.

[litljortindan]

Stunning place, stunning pics. If only.................... one day perhaps.

You can fly to Bodo from Scotland same day and you can get a ferry from Bodo to the Lofotens and do plenty walking from there -no need to hire a car and plenty of reasonably priced places to stay. Possibly out of date info but in 2001 mountain huts Munkebu and the one at Selfjord were open in the winter (up to May 31st), operating off an honesty box. In summer you need a key. In 2001 a key for Munkebu was available from the petrol station in Reine.