Ski conditions in Nord Troms - Arnøya and Kågen

Mountain Conditions Report

<p>I skied in the last days on the islands of Arnøya and Kågen in Skjervøy (near Lyngen), Northern Norway. We had an atypical season, with basically no snow January – Mid March, followed by strong, intense snowfalls over Easter. That has produced a widespread persistent weak layer (PWL) of facets under a crust, that scared skiers from from Nordland to Nord Troms for the majority of the season. The persistent weak layer showed to be less developed on Arnøya and Kågen, due to a generally thicker and solid snowpack. April was on average abnormally warm, with high freezing levels in the night, and no real melt-freeze cycles that we usually see in April.<br /> 29 April we headed up the NE glacier (to 980m) of Arnøyhøgda, finding 30-40cm of dense new snow, sitting on the previous moist-wet snow. Skiing quality was good, the HS (height of snow) exceeded the 320cm of my probe. Test pits produced no notable results. As in prior excursions, I could not detect the persistent weak layer that could be observed further south in Lyngen or Kåfjord.<br /> 30 April we ascended Arnøyhødga (1165m). Due to overnight freeze and radiation cooling, the snow stability was good all along the SW route, despite warm daytime temperatures. I shoveled a deep track into the narrow summit ridge, thus ascending the summit proper should be possible for sure-footed folks now. On the descend down the NE route we found excellent conditions, dry to moist new snow on a hard base. On 1 May, after a good overnight freeze, we skied corn snow in the Urtinden south bowl. Rotten snow was limited to 0-200m elevation. I recorded an HS of 225cm at 500m. The sun was intense, and several loose-wet could be observed throughout the day on the steep SE and S slopes. Redotinden (820m,Kågen) south face provided good skiing at noon on 2 May, with corn/slush that supported wide skis. People with narrow skis definitely felt the lack of support and softness of the snowpack.<br /> On 3 May we did the NE-W traverse of Store Kågtinden (1228m). The NE route was completely tracked out. The west shoulder provided good skiing until about 450m, then it got notably soft. Traversing around the SW-S aspect of Store Kågtinden in the afternoon is not recommended at the moment – you punch through an isothermal snowpack with large slopes above. Instead, ascending the NW slopes of Redotinden and skiing out through Trolldalen is recommended. Steep south slopes were producing size 1-2 wet loose slides throughout the afternoon. Breikågen (683m) provided good spring skiing on 4 May down to sea level. The surface was compacted by wind throughout the winter, and got less affected by the warmth. </p> <p>Overall, more and more warmth is getting trapped in the snowpack. N-NE facing aspects with thicker snowpacks and less direct radiation are taking the warm temperatures better. There is still a lot of uncertainty about the weak layer. With more and more warmth getting into the snow and the snowpack getting thinner, I do wonder if will see occasional activity on the weak layer in the next days. In addition, probing showed occasionally a crust and facet development between the older wet snow and the more recent snow. No results in pit test yet, but worth noting. </p> <p>Quality skiing can still be found - particularly N-NE aspects - with the right aspect choices and timing. I expect this to be the case for another few weeks.</p>