A trip to the Islands of the Midnight Sun

I've just got back from a fantastic trip to the Lofoten Islands, far North of the Arctic Circle off the coast of Norway.  It is a fantastic region from a scenic and climbing point of view with huge potential for new routes.  It is also amazingly accessible.   You can fly from the UK with a few changes to Svolvaer on the main island, close to some of the best climbing.  It's possible to rent a car from there and there are plenty of places to stay.  We stayed at Kalle, which has comfortable bunk house accommodation and you can either self cater or be very well fed at a reasonable price.

There is an excellent new Rockfax guide book by Chris Craggs and ThorbjørnEnevold.

1. View from air

2. The Priest - all thousand feet of it, arguably the best road side crag in the World

3. Henningsvaer, an island village with a climbing school, a fantastic climbers' pub in easy reach of some of the best climbing in the area.

4. Linked by bridge and dominated by mountains

5. Drying Cod - fishing and whaling were the original staples of the economy and are still very important.

6. Vaghakallen (916m) - a magnificent peak that has some great climbs on it ands a fantastic clasic traverse

7. Walking up to Svolaergeita - the Goat - if you are feeling brave you jump from one horn to the other.  It has several routes ranging from 4+ to 7


8. Our base, Kalle & Glamtinden (419m) in background.  It has only one route on it which we climbed during the week in the rain

9. Litlmolla from Kalle

10. Sport Crag at Eggum - Ildvann - 7-  We went there on a cold wet and windy day;  the overhangs helped but it was still damp and slippery particularly at the easier less steep end

11. Hans Peter on crux, Alkotest - 7+