Firm conditions lower down made for efficient skinning and the bootpack up the main couloir was straight forward. We topped out 1:50 after leaving the car. A short bootpack from the top of the couloir brought us to the summit of Lappviktind, an airy little perch with a 300 metre cliff on one side and views of the fjord on the other. Its a pretty good vantage point for checking out the other choice lines of the area.
The line itself is a classic open book style couloir characteristic of Skjomen: Gagnesaksla, Middagsfjellet etc. All the mountains in the area seem to have couloirs of a particular flavour, with a gigantic cliff looming above you on the skiers left, whilst the right side is more mellow. The pitch a sustained 35 degrees is just the right angle to be super enjoyable but not so steep that it requires white-knuckle concentration or any pause between turns. It is just plain fun.
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| This impressive face holds three unlikely ski lines- none of them visible from the road. |
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| Gagnesaksla looks like it'll be in for a couple more weeks- though the mid-section is probably a down climb. |
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| Micke slaying some nice dry snow on the sheltered side of the couloir |
Once I got home at 8:45 I quickly realised that the keys to my apartment had been left on the ground where the car was parked. So I got to enjoy the scenic 130km drive to Sør Skjomen twice.
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