Nordic Nirvana: Skiing Narvik, Norway with J.P. Østbye

J.P. in the land of the Arctic

The newest hot spot for skiing is Norway.  This episode takes us to Narvik Norway (Narvikfjellet), 1500KM north of Oslo just north of the Arctic Circle. Located on the Rombaken fjord. It is stunning. The skiing is solid enough to be chosen for the Alpine World Championships in 2029. Its 6 lifts and just over 1000' of vertical make it one of the most solid ski resorts in Norway from December - May.

My guest is Norway’s Jean-Peter Østbye.  An alumna of the Utah ski team, the Norwegian national team, and the Pro ski circuits. J.P. spent years traveling, racing, coaching and more recently teaching.  Now he enjoys outdoor life in Norway.

My Favs:

Hotel - Basecamp Narvik a small hotel in town close to the lifts

Run - Linkenloypa from the top is a fun, fast and steep groomer

Episode Transcript

 I'm John Morgan and welcome to Where to Ski. Today we're going way up north to the hottest location in skiing, Norway. Grab your skis, let's go ski Norway's Narvik.

Narvik is about 1,500 kilometers north of Oslo, just north of the Arctic Circle. Yeah, it's cold. Sometimes.

The town lies in a peninsula located between the Rombakenfjord and Bæsfjorden. Stunning visually, a bit out of the way, and with skiing that's unbelievable and quite unique. Solid enough to be chosen for the World Alpine Ski Championships in 2029.

My guest today is Norway's Jean-Pieter Oatsby, an alumni of the Utah Ski Team, the Norwegian national team, and the pro ski circuits. JP spent years traveling, racing, coaching, and more recently, teaching. Now he enjoys outdoor life in Norway, living near Oslo.

Jean-Pieter, welcome to Where to Ski. Thank you for joining us today. That's awesome.

My pleasure, John. So tell me what it's like in Oslo this time of year. Well, Oslo is turning to winter.

We have minus degrees and all the local ski areas, all the eight local ski areas within 45 minutes drive from downtown Oslo is making snow like crazy and we hope to be ready in about 14 days to open. Nice, nice. You know, you grew up skiing all around Norway and over there, skiing is like more than a sport, it's a lifestyle.

Maybe you can talk a little bit about the Norwegian lifestyle around skiing and how it's all connected to just being outdoors. Well, the outdoors is really so close to where everybody lives that cross-country is really the main thing. And on a Saturday or Sunday, the subways are packed with people with their cross-country skis, 20 minute ride from downtown Oslo and you can put your skis on and go for miles and miles and miles and visit the small cabins that are open for serving coffee and hot chocolate and muffins and stuff like that.

So you really have the whole family out enjoying nice winter days in Oslo. That sounds awesome. It's a lot easier than it is in some of the especially the bigger cities here in the US.

What about Alpine skiing? You can get pretty quickly to Alpine skiing from Oslo. There's a number of ski areas there, right? Yeah. Around Oslo, there are mostly a little bit smaller hills, but there are eight ski areas within 45 minute drive from downtown Oslo and the closest one is 20 minutes with the subway.

And that's a rather large area with seven lifts and a number of runs and great skiing and challenging runs for those who desire that. That blows me away that you can get on a subway with your skis and go up to and jump on a ski hill. Yeah, that's pretty cool.

The other day when we talked, you talked about going into the fjords on boats and doing you know, more randone or backcountry type skiing. That sounded really cool. Maybe you could go, but we can revisit that conversation a bit.

Yeah. Like what you call backcountry skiing, we call random air and it's it's it's hiking with the skins up to the top and ski down smaller hills or large mountains. And it's really a sport that's been popular amongst tens of thousands of Norwegian skiers the last few years.

And we really have some great terrain for that, especially if you travel a little bit to the west coast or if you travel up north in Norway. That's pretty cool. And you were talking about being able to take boats into the fjords in Norway and doing that right off the boat.

Yeah. Can you can you imagine, let's say you arrive in in a town called Narvik or in a town called Tromsø, which is way north in Norway, you can you can hire a fishing boat and the fishing boat actually it's a guided tours on the fishing boats and you sleep on board and you have your backcountry skis with you and they will dock you someplace where you can traverse to the top of the mountain and then ski down and come back to the boat and have a nice meal and find your bunk and go to sleep. That's pretty cool.

That's you can't do that here. I'll tell you that. That's that's pretty unique to Norway.

Well, yeah, it's it's unique because we have the mountains and then we have the fjords and that's especially on the west coast of Norway. Beautiful fall mountains and just as well as in northern Norway, where you have whole mountains and the fjords and you're looking straight on the fjord when you're on top of the mountain. Yeah, and that sounds a lot like Narvik, which we're going to talk about in some depth.

You know, the pictures I've never skied there. The pictures I've seen are just amazing. And the videos you you ski off the top and it looks like you're skiing down into the fjord and you might hit town on the way through.

Well, it sure looks like it, John, that you're you're going to end up right, right in the center of the city if you make a wrong turn. But it's really amazing. And I hope you find some really cool shots from Narvik to put on your screen.

Narvik, of course, has been elected for the 2029 World Championships Alpine and they're really going to build some spectacular new slopes and the city is going to grow quite a bit by by 2029. As of today, it's roughly 15,000 inhabitants in Narvik, but they have some great runs and super skiing. And it's definitely worthwhile a trip to the northern part of Norway to explore some different type of skiing.

Now, it's pretty far north. It's above the Arctic Circle and it's a ways from Oslo. It's like, what, 1500 kilometers north of where you are.

That's right. Narvik. And then you go even farther north.

You get up to Tromsø, Tromsø is called the Scandinavian Paris. And it's a great town. And there as well, you have some fantastic, particularly backcountry skiing.

And also you have alpine skiing. But of course, most of those most of the people that visit from abroad and there are people from all over the world traveling to Narvik and Tromsø, particularly to go backcountry skiing. So you've skied Narvik a fair amount.

What's it like there? Tell us about skiing Narvik. I imagine that like in November, December, it's pretty dark. Very dark.

You're skiing under lights or the northern lights probably there. Yeah, actually all ski areas in Norway are lighted areas because even down here in Oslo, it gets dark at about two thirty in the afternoon. And of course, the farther north you get, you don't see the sun at all in the month of December, November, December and January.

So lights at the ski areas, Nordic tracks or alpine areas is definitely a must. But by the time you get to February, you get some really good, you get some good light and you can ski, I guess, up until March or April, May, probably. Yeah, you can ski at least until April, May.

And across the border from Narvik, across the border to Sweden from Narvik, there is a ski area called Riksgrensen, which is right at the border between Norway and Sweden. They have an area which is open all summer. And I've been there and twice a week they have what they call night skiing.

And the lift will open at 10 p.m. and run until two a.m. And you have to make sure you have your shades on because the sun is bright and shining right in your face. That would throw me way off, way off skiing at two a.m. with my sunglasses. That would do it.

So tell us about skiing Narvik. There's some pretty intense skiing there. They're hosting a world championship in twenty nine, as you said.

And yeah, they've got to have some ski hills there. Yeah, it's a big it's a it's quite a big mountain. It's not a lot of lifts and a lot of different runs as of today.

Of course, more than more than enough to find a challenging slope. But by twenty nine, the mountain will expand quite a bit, of course. But even today, they have international standards on some of the runs.

So it's a good ski area, even if you can't compare it to the larger ones in Central Europe. Well, what's it like there? Is it is it above treeline or does the treeline hit halfway up the mountain or what's it like? Well, the treeline in in Norway is actually eight hundred meters or twenty four hundred feet. So above that, you have only small bushes.

So you don't have any trees at that level, even if it's at sea level. And they get good runs and it's a ten minute drive from from downtown Narvik. And Narvik has anything or everything that the skiing customer would want to have.

They have hotels and they have camping and they have motels and they have clubs and bars and restaurants. So I think people that visit Narvik or Tromsø will find everything they need to accommodate themselves. It sounds pretty cool.

I like the idea of skiing into a big town, too. There's some places in Europe and a couple in the US, a couple in Canada where you can ski into a big town. And it's really kind of cool.

Yeah. Now, have you what's it like for different levels of skier? Is it is it challenging enough for an expert skier? Absolutely. Absolutely.

They have challenging runs and they also have the typical family runs where you can bring your toddlers and your small kids or your beginner skiers and you have a little bit of a little bit for everybody. That sounds pretty awesome. Do they do the backcountry skiing up there? Like, could you take the lift and then head out on your own? Yeah, well, actually, not from that ski area.

You have to go to other to other mountains along along the highway or interstate or find another fjord to explore. There are mountains everywhere. You know, it's the tall mountains and there are steep mountains.

And unfortunately, some of the people that come to Narvik or Tromsø to do the backcountry skiing, they do it by themselves and not bring a guide, a local guide. And the mountains in the northern Norway are really quite different with regards to avalanche than what you're used to in Central Europe or even in the US. The temperatures are a lot of humidity in the air.

And the snow moves really quickly and quite differently than normally you will find at avalanche areas. And that's a that's a good point. And whenever you whenever you travel to go ski somewhere, it's really good to go with a guide who knows what the mountains like.

Yeah. Keep you away from the danger, but also show you where you're going to get the best skiing. Absolutely.

And the local guides will find the absolute best places to ski. And of course, with all the security measurements that you have to have when you go to a mountain and doing backcountry skiing. So what would be your favorite time of year? What would be the best month for you to go up to like Narvik? Well, absolutely.

On definitely in the springtime, February cold, maybe, but March is beautiful. And then you have the light of the longer days. So March and April is the absolute best.

OK, OK. Does it get very crowded up there? It's pretty remote. It's way up there.

Are they starting to see crowds just because they're gaining? Not not the real, not the real big crowds. Absolutely not. But of course, on a nice, sunny, beautiful spring day, you might have some crowds and maybe a little bit of lines, but nothing to really set you back or to be worried about.

What about other things besides alpine skiing up there? Not everyone skis and they might take a family and somebody in the family may not want to go or they may have a friend who doesn't want to go ski. Well, then maybe maybe you can take a boat and go out fishing and you can catch the big cods and the big sea fishes. I hadn't even thought of that.

You're right. You are right there. That's pretty, you know, it's just amazing up there.

Yeah. And we'll probably guarantee you that you come back with plenty of cods and other sea fishes. So go catch go catch dinner for everyone while they ski.

Yeah. Yeah. So Narvik's a pretty, pretty sophisticated town, from what I've heard.

They've got good restaurants. They've got good nightlife. Yes, I think they have something for everybody.

A few big and very beautiful hotels and everything else that you would want to have. A beer in the bar or a nice meal at the restaurant. So you can find it in Narvik.

What what would be your favorite thing to go to have in a restaurant up there? I know there's some different food in Norway than what we'd see in Central Europe or in the US. Well, I think that the northern Norway people, they love their fish. So a good a good fish meal, salmon or cod or something like that will be preferable and they know how to they know how to make it.

There's your protein for you. That'll do it. What about yourself? You know, you've spent your whole life skiing.

You skied all over the world. And you just love it. I know you do.

I've I've seen that in your eyes. I've seen it talking to you. I've heard it.

How do you talk about skiing to people you meet along the way and what it means to you? And how do you transmit that love for skiing to others? Well, I think basically it's just to get outdoors, to be outdoors, breathe the fresh air, feel the temperature or the cold snow on your face. Things like that. And you always meet people wherever you meet people when you're out skiing.

You can always say hi. You can always stop and have a chat. So it's really a good social arena as well.

Yeah. And I found that, you know, some of the best days I've had have been skiing with really good friends or family because, you know, I never got to do that for a lot of years. It was always skiing with our with our racing family.

And yeah, now I get to ski with friends and family. And it just makes it that much better. Yeah.

And I think that's maybe why backcountry skiing or randonné has become so popular because it's a step away from the alpine areas. It's a step away from the groomed and beautiful cross-country trails. But there you're more on your own or you're with a small group exploring something totally new, different, exciting and a bit dangerous.

But under safe guidance with a good guide, then that's a really, really cool experience. So I was going to ask you what your what your favorite day of skiing is now. What would you do? And I think you may have just told me some of that.

Yeah, yeah. My favorite day could just as well be with a couple of friends starting early in the morning or not too early in the morning, but early in the morning. Winter day, a few minus degrees, groomed tracks, and then go for a really long, good cross-country tour with the backpack filled with good food and something, some water on the bottle and some good food and just have a great day out in the nature.

John-Peter, I want to take some time and thank you for joining us here today. You might see John-Peter skiing outside Norway or cross-country skiing. You know, after he gets off the subway, after he gets off the train.

I live in Oslo, but I'm 10 minutes away from the ski area. So, you know, it's what you call easy access. Easy access and you make it part of your life, which is perfect.

If you like our podcast, please share them. Listen to perspectives on other areas. We've got a bunch of them that are up there.

They're on all the favorite channels and on YouTube. Thank you, Grits, for the music. And thank you, John-Peter.

Thank you.