Nordic Curator
Plan a journey
Ski touring in Senja with views over the Arctic peaks - Polar Panorama Lodge.
Photo: Polar Panorama Lodge / Polar Panorama Lodge ·
Cross-country skiing

Quiet weeks on skis.

From a gentle Rondane week to the long Trolløypa, self-guided on prepared track, with luggage moved between the lodges on most days.

From Cairngorms to the Lyngen Alps

Norway is one of the great ski-touring countries in Europe.

British ski-tourers tend to come up through Scotland, in particular the Cairngorms and the Glencoe-to-Aviemore corridor, where the weather is real and the days are short. Norway gives you the same instinct for self-reliance and the same honesty about the weather, scaled up and with a much longer season. The Lyngen Alps in the Arctic hold ski-touring conditions from February into May. The Sunnmøre Alps - the range south-east of Ålesund - are touring country with local guides, where most guests stay in fjord hotels and mountain lodges and a couple of operators also run a sail-and-ski week from a boat.

Inland, the classic week is on prepared track between mountain lodges and hotels in Rondane, Peer Gynt country, the Sjodalen valley below Jotunheimen or along the Trolløypa to Lillehammer. Moving days run from 6 kilometres in Rondane to 35 on the Trolløypa, on a marked løype, with luggage moved between the lodges on all but a few days. The pace is slower and the avalanche exposure essentially nil; it is the most British-friendly entry to Norwegian winter walking, and the closest contemporary parallel to a Lake District walking week translated into February.

The serious end - Lyngen, Senja, the Sunnmøre summits - is steep and cold, glaciated in Lyngen, and belongs to a NORTIND or IFMGA mountain guide when the avalanche bulletin and your experience line up. We do not sell guided weeks there. The weeks we sell are the five self-guided cross-country weeks below, all from one Norwegian operator partner; if a guided week is what you want, tell us and we will tell you plainly whether an operator can do it.

Cross-country ski weeks

The cross-country weeks we recommend most often.

A cross-country skier on a prepared track in the southern Trolløypa network of central Norway
Cross-country skiing
9 days · Rondane to Lillehammer via Gudbrandsdalen

Trolløypa ski traverse

Challenging · February - MarchNOK 22 900
The long Sjodalen valley running south from Jotunheimen, lake reflections under summer sky
Cross-country skiing
8 days · Sjodalen & Jotunheimen, central Norway

Jotunheimenløypa

Moderate · February - MarchNOK 21 300
A cross-country skier on the prepared Peer Gynt track between Espedalen and Gålå
Cross-country skiing
8 days · Western Gudbrandsdalen, central Norway

Peer Gynt ski route

Moderate · February - MarchNOK 24 400
Four cross-country skiers climbing a snow slope in Rondane, with a wide white valley and low rounded fells behind them
Cross-country skiing
7 days · Rondane, central Norway

Rondane winter week

Easy · February - AprilNOK 16 100
A solitary spruce tree heavy with fresh snow on the slopes of Hafjell in southern Trolløypa
Cross-country skiing
7 days · Venabygdsfjellet to Lillehammer, central Norway

Southern Trolløypa

Moderate · February - MarchNOK 18 900(indicative)
What to expect

A short brief for the British ski-tourer.

The gear
For the weeks we sell you need cross-country skis, which can be hired for most of them, and warm clothing; on the Trolløypa the operator recommends sturdy fjellski or touring skis for the stretches that are groomed only when needed. Steep touring in Lyngen or Sunnmøre is a different kit list: touring skis with AT bindings, climbing skins, ski crampons and an avalanche transceiver with probe and shovel.
The season
The weeks we sell run in February and March, with the first Peer Gynt departure at the end of January and the Rondane week running on into April. Three of them have fixed departures; Rondane and the southern Trolløypa run on dates you choose. Further north, the Lyngen season runs from February to May, with April and May the classic spring weeks.
The guide
The weeks we sell are self-guided: you ski on your own with a written route description, plus maps or an app on most routes, and the hosts at the lodges know the trails and can advise on the conditions. For anything steeper, go with a Norwegian mountain guide who holds the NORTIND tindevegleder qualification, the Norwegian IFMGA/UIAGM standard, and check the avalanche bulletin at varsom.no.
The fitness
The Rondane week is rated easy, Peer Gynt, Jotunheimen and the southern Trolløypa moderate, and the full Trolløypa challenging, with moving days of up to 35 kilometres. For the easy and moderate weeks, the standard is closer to a UK long-distance footpath: anyone with reasonable hill fitness and some time on cross-country skis can do them; the Trolløypa asks for stamina and a feel for mountain weather in winter.