A Week in Arctic Norway

Late April. A week of guided ski mountaineering out of Alta, in the country east of Lyngen.

The trip opens on a bluebird day. We skin from the fjord up through the birch line and onto the snowfield above. The light is the kind of arctic April light that does not return until the next polar morning, and by afternoon we are skiing back down to the water.

Then the wind comes in. Fifty knots, then sixty, for three days. The camera stays in the bag. We track the forecast and wait at the lodge with the guides.

The window opens on the last morning. The fresh snow shows untouched where the wind has not reached it and wind-scoured everywhere else. The light is even and bright, with no shadows to anchor the scale.

Most of the pictures that came home were made before noon.

The full series lives here. Mount Shasta and the Cascades next.