Nordic Curator
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Ski touring in Senja with views over the Arctic peaks - Polar Panorama Lodge.
Photo: Polar Panorama Lodge / Polar Panorama Lodge ·
Ski Touring

Quiet weeks on skins.

From classic hut-to-hut crossings on the inland plateaus to sail-and-ski weeks in the Sunnmøre Alps. Curated with Norwegian guides we ski with.

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 reliably from February into early June. The Sunnmøre Alps - the coastal range above Ålesund - sit at the heart of the sail-and-ski tradition, where the boat is the base and you tour from a different fjord every morning.

Inland, the classic week is on prepared track between staffed mountain lodges in Rondane, Peer Gynt country or the central Jotunheim plateau. Daily distances are 8 to 18 kilometres on a marked løype, with luggage moved between lodges by snow-cat. 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, glaciated and cold. We only put British skiers into that country with a UIAGM-certified guide, and only when the avalanche bulletin and the personal experience line up. The operators we work with hold the right paperwork and the right judgement; we will not recommend a guided week into terrain we would not ski ourselves.

Ski touring weeks

The ski-touring weeks we recommend most often.

A cross-country skier on a prepared track in the southern Trolløypa network of central Norway
Ski Touring
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
Ski Touring
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
Ski Touring
8 days · Western Gudbrandsdalen, central Norway

Peer Gynt ski route

Moderate · February - MarchNOK 24 400
What to expect

A short brief for the British ski-tourer.

The gear
Touring skis with full AT-bindings, climbing skins, ski crampons, an avalanche transceiver with probe and shovel for steeper terrain. Most guided operators have a small rental pool; ask before flying. For the prepared-track weeks on the plateau you only need a pair of light backcountry skis - the Norwegian fjellski - and warm clothing.
The season
Inland, prepared-track weeks run from late January through early April. Sail-and-ski in the Sunnmøre Alps sits in late March to early May. The Lyngen and Senja season holds reliably from mid-February into early June; April and May are the classical weeks, when the days are long and the snowpack has settled. Galdhøpiggen-on-skis closes around the same time the summer walking starts.
The guide
For anything beyond the prepared-track weeks, you go with a Norwegian mountain guide who holds either the local Tindevegledere qualification or UIAGM/IFMGA. The avalanche bulletin (varsom.no) is read aloud at breakfast. Groups are small - typically four to six skiers per guide - and the day is adjusted to the weakest skier and the worst layer in the snowpack.
The fitness
A week of touring averages 1,000 to 1,500 metres of ascent per day. If you ski touring weekends in Scotland or have done a Haute Route, you are well prepared. For the gentle prepared-track weeks, the standard is closer to a UK long-distance footpath: anyone with a reasonable hill fitness can do them.