Volandstinden
Volandstinden is nicknamed “the Shark Fin”. We climbed Ryten earlier in the day, and when driving over the Fredvang Bridge on the way to the Volandstinden trailhead, we could appreciate the resemblance. The fourth photo on this page shows the mountain from the base of this bridge.
The trail approaches the summit from the south side of the mountain. Once we gained the ridgeline, we had views of the Sundstraumen Strait to the West, which is one of the most beautiful bodies of water in the region.
The summit was draped in fog on our ascent. The trail was not particularly steep, especially in comparison to other Lofoten hikes, except for the final short pitch to the summit. We got a few brief breaks in the fog to enjoy the classic Northwest view from Volandstinden, but most of our time at the top was foggy, wet and cold.
I had all but given up on obtaining any good photos on this hike as we made our way down the mountain. But in typical Lofoten fashion, the weather changed quickly. In a matter of minutes, the fog lifted and the sun came out over the strait. The intermixing of sun and fog over the water was a highlight, yielding the best views of the day. My wife and I spent a half hour enjoying this view before descending to meet our kids at the car.
Without question, Volandstinden is positioned to have some of the best views in all of Lofoten. This seems like it would be a great peak to watch the sun set. While we didn’t get the famous views from the summit, the ones we got on the descent were uniquely beautiful. This is a short and moderate hike and has a great effort-to-reward ratio.
