Day 2 in Lyngen and the weather as brilliant as ever. We skinned up the gully towards the summit ridge to Nordmannviktinden, a steeper and more interesting line than the day before and superbly atmospheric in the mist.
Our first day out in Lyngen and we eased ourselves in with a trip up the 1142m Storhaugen. The weather was absolutely ridiculous and we could never have dreamed that the conditions would be this good. Low avalanche risk, blue skies and good snow.
After our week of poor weather the clouds cleared for an incredible descent of untouched powder beneath blue skies. A great end to our first week of ski touring.
We had two nights at the Wiesbadenerhütte and another forecast of heavy cloud, snow and no visibility. To make the most of the day we skinned up the hill for an hour and spent the next three digging a large snow cave into the slope. It was a pretty incredible palace.
We began our traverse with a very challenging descent from the top of the Ischgl resort in a thick whiteout. Foolishly following two French guides for a short while, we eventually abandoned them and made our own way down to the hut (they later turned around and followed us!).
Day two was a pleasant skin up and over to the Jamtalhütte, stopping only to cut Steve's rental skins to size so that they fitted his skis correctly. Technical problems sorted, our third day took us up to the Ochsenscharte and down the descent to the Wiesbadenerhütte.
To prepare for our Silvretta Traverse we hired a guide for a day's avalanche training in Galtur. We spent the morning probing for buried markers in the snow before heading off-piste to dig pits and assess the snow pack.
