Skiing "The Godmother of All Couloirs"
8th May 2015
Towards the end of our trip to Lyngen I got the opportunity to ski a line I had looked at two years before. Stopping on the road between Lyngseidet and Storsteinnes the north facing couloir of 'Forholttinden' is strikingly obvious.
With a vertical interval of 1300m and a maximum gradient of 45 degrees, this definitely falls into the category of "terrain adventure". Only receiving a First Descent in 1991 by Sten Qvarnström, Petter Eneroth and Mårten Claesson the story of their trip makes interesting reading in it's own right.
Named "The Godmother of all Couloirs", this route didn't disappoint. This isn't a location for convenience skiing, the 5km approach along the shoreline of the fjord requiring a determined approach. But sometimes earning those turns make the experience even more worthwhile. It was after this protracted approach, and the godfather of all 'boot packs' that we clipped into the skis at the top.
It was already six o'clock in the afternoon and we had climbed through light snow fall all day. As we started the descent the weather started to clear, and the sun started to break through the clouds, making the final turns even more worthwhile.
Content as we slipped into trainers and shouldered the skis for the return journey, it was clear that for some the vertical skiing just wouldn't be worth it!? The problem is you need to go to find out...
