Dominik Bührer

For many, April is a time to reflect on the season and reminisce about the epic powder days and humming corduroy as the ski resorts begin to close down for the summer. Living very far north on the planet gives you more options. Scandinavia is known for Vikings and IKEA, but not so much for one of the best benefits, late season snow. In April we took splitboards and skis to Tromsø, ready to get lost in some of the many labyrinths of long fjords along the western coastline of Norway. When I first started to plan this trip, I sat in the library of Göteborg, Sweden reading in Jimmy Petterson book "Skiing around the world". He states that, "Norway is an appropriate place to begin a ski tour of northern Europe, for this is where it all started thousands of years ago. While skiing was primarily a form of transportation for many centuries, the Norwegians are given credit for starting and developing it as a sport as well." Looking back at our trip, a great feeling fills me. We met so many warm-hearted people during our adventure. We skied in breath-taking nature and could eat all possible variations of cod for dinner!

The program of the second Splitboard Festival in Lenggries was impressive. In addition to numerous splitboarders, the who's who of splitboard manufacturers were represented with test material: Burton, Jones, K2, Arbor, Karakoram, Dupraz, Amplid, Spark, Rome, Goodboards. From the manufacturers of emergency equipment, Ortovox and BCA presented themselves on the large test area. All 80 splitboarders who had traveled to the event got their hands on a splitboard or two from the over 100-strong splitboard test range.