Last month I made my first trip to the Lofoten Islands in Norway for a pair of sold out photo tours. What a gorgeous place: towering mountains, rugged seashores, windswept beaches, frozen lakes, quaint villages, and more.

Lofoten is the farthest north I’ve ever been, being above the Arctic Circle. That was cool enough by itself. But the scenery, the weather (as blustery and wet as it was at times) the light, and the people really made this a special trip.

Our guide, Christian Hoiberg, who lives in Lofoten, was the best. He knows the locations, he’s a great photographer, and he has a wonderful sense of humor.

Weather wise, it was, ironically, colder and snowier back home than it was in Norway. But we did have some cold weather, often below freezing. But that’s what you need for winter landscape photography. We just needed to dress appropriately, which meant plenty of soft and warm Merino Wool.

And everybody seemed to do fine. Gloves with handwarmer pockets were helpful. I mainly wore a pair of liner gloves by The Heat Company with a handwarmer in the handwarmer pocket. My fingers did get a bit cold while operating the camera, but they warmed up quickly when I put my hands in a pocket.

Over the two weeks that I was there, the weather gave us a range of, shall we say, opportunities? From gorgeous blue skies with puffy clouds, to strong wind gusts, to windy downpours of rain, to a magical sunrise snowfall on our very last day.

I even got to give my ICEtrekkers a good workout. These pull-on traction devices fit over both my hiking boots and my NEOS overshoes. It took a bit of practice to stretch them from toe to heal as they require a bit of strength. But once on, I had little to no problems on icy roads, rocks, or lakes.

I originally bought mine years and years ago and never had the opportunity to try them out. I was glad I had them as I didn’t have the practice of moving over icy surfaces that our guide Christian did. He seemed to move like he was born on ice.

I really want to go back to Lofoten in the Winter. If you have any interest in joining a photo tour, let me know. If I get enough early interest in a 2026 trip, I’ll start putting the wheels in motion.

For now though, here’s a selection of a few images from my two weeks in the Lofoten Islands.