About Ryten
Ryten is a 543-metre peak in Lofotodden National Park, near the village of Fredvang in western Lofoten. From the summit, you look out over the mountains of Moskenesøya and Flakstadøya, and directly down to the extraordinary white-sand arc of Kvalvika Beach below.
It’s one of those views that travel photographers spend years chasing. On a clear winter day, with snow on the peaks and the low Arctic sun cutting across the landscape, it’s genuinely difficult to describe to someone who hasn’t seen it.
Some guests have been moved to tears at the top. Though to be fair, it might have been the wind. We like to take credit anyway.
Ryten is also considered one of the more accessible serious mountains in Lofoten: no exposed ridges, no technical scrambling, no sections that require climbing experience. The route involves a proper sustained uphill climb through snow and winter terrain, but it’s achievable for anyone who is reasonably fit and genuinely motivated to get to the top.
Why hike with Guide to Lofoten specifically?
Ivar has summited Ryten more times than he can count.
Summer, winter, sunshine, storms, on foot, skis, and snowshoes. He knows this mountain in every mood it has. He’s also a trained nurse, a certified climbing instructor, and a licensed taxi driver, which means you’re in very good hands in every conceivable situation. (He also, for a Norwegian, has quite a sense of humour. So don’t worry, you won’t be bored.)
We read the conditions, not a fixed schedule.
We spend an unhealthy amount of time watching weather, snowpack, wind direction, and visibility forecasts across western Lofoten. Because on a mountain hike in Arctic Norway, that actually matters. We adjust pickup times based on daylight and forecast. We know when to push for the summit and when turning around is the correct mountain decision. Safety always comes first. But so does giving you the best possible day out.
Our guides actually live here.
Ivar doesn’t guide every Ryten trip himself anymore. Guide to Lofoten has grown from “two slightly chaotic people living in a van” into an actual small company, which meant adding a few guides to the team. Jakub, who spends the rest of the year as a surf instructor at Lofoten Beach Camp, joins us for winter hikes. Jitka, who runs the kayaking company Lofoten Wild in summer, helps out in winter too.
The common denominator: everyone guiding our tours genuinely loves being outdoors in Lofoten and spends an unreasonable amount of time exploring these islands year-round. This is not a job they do between other jobs.
Is this hike right for you?
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Great fit if you…
- want to experience a proper winter mountain in Lofoten, not just a roadside viewpoint
- are reasonably fit and comfortable walking uphill for several hours
- don't have winter hiking experience but want something genuinely adventurous
- prefer small groups over large bus-style tours
- don't mind coming home pleasantly exhausted
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Probably not ideal if you…
- dislike physical activity or are looking for a relaxed, easy walk
- want guaranteed summit views regardless of weather
- prefer a sightseeing experience without significant elevation
- simply don't feel like climbing 500 vertical metres in snow during your holiday
If you’re looking for a gentler introduction to winter hiking in Lofoten, have a look at our Easy Winter Snowshoe Hike. It’s shorter, lower elevation, and designed specifically for people who want the winter mountain experience without the full physical commitment of Ryten.
What does a typical day on this hike look like?
Our guide will pick you up at your accommodation anywhere between Å and Ramberg, or you can meet us directly at the trailhead parking at Innersand if you’re arriving by car. Pickup time varies by time of year so we can make the most of available daylight, and we may adjust it based on the weather forecast.
Before we set off, your guide will show you how to fit and use the snowshoes and adjust the hiking poles. Most people get used to snowshoes surprisingly quickly. The biggest challenge is usually remembering that your feet are suddenly much wider than normal, and not stepping on your own snowshoes every third step.
You’ll also get a quick briefing on layering: how to manage your clothing to avoid getting sweaty and then cold, which is one of the most important things to get right on a long winter hike.
On the mountain, we take it easy. Short breaks for photos, catching your breath, eating something, and simply looking around. In a small group, we always adjust to the pace of the slowest participant. Nobody gets left behind, and nobody gets rushed. If you’re the kind of person who can run up mountains and finds a slower pace frustrating, we’d genuinely recommend booking a private hike instead.
What’s included
- Pickup and drop-off at your accommodation between Å and Ramberg
- Guided services throughout the hike
- Snowshoes, microspikes, and hiking poles
- Backpacks and extra gear — hats, neckwarmers, gloves, gaiters, goggles, thermos cups
- Headlamps
- Tea, Kvikk Lunsj (Norway's national chocolate bar), and a hot mountain meal (Real Turmat freeze-dried — genuinely good)
What’s not included
- Personal clothing and footwear — see the packing section below
- Personal medications
Will we definitely reach the summit?
Not necessarily. Weather, snow conditions, visibility, group pace, and safety all play a role on any given day. Sometimes turning around partway up is simply the correct mountain decision. Good mountain guides know when not to continue uphill. We’d rather bring everyone home safely having had a great day on the mountain than push for a summit in conditions that don’t justify it.
On most days, conditions are fine and we reach the top. But we won’t promise what the Arctic weather won’t.
Not sure if Ryten is within your comfort zone?
This works particularly well for people who have never tried snowshoeing before, are unsure about their fitness level, or simply don’t know yet how they’ll feel in winter mountain conditions. That said, it depends on weather, logistics, and guide capacity on the day. So contact us in advance if this is something you’d like to plan for.
What to wear
Clothing matters more on this hike than on almost any other Lofoten activity. Get it wrong and you’ll be uncomfortable for hours. Get it right and you’ll barely notice the cold. The basics: three layers.
Base layer: moisture-wicking merino wool or synthetic. Absolutely not cotton. Cotton holds moisture and will leave you cold and miserable within an hour.
Mid layer: a warm insulating layer such as a fleece or down jacket. This is the layer you’ll take off on the uphill and put back on every time you stop.
Outer layer: waterproof and windproof. A Gore-Tex jacket and waterproof trousers. This is your shield against snow, wind, and whatever the Arctic decides to throw at you.
Feet: sturdy waterproof hiking boots with ankle support. Wool or synthetic socks. Not trail runners, not casual boots.
Hands and head: warm gloves or mittens, a hat that covers your ears, a neck gaiter.
Eyes: sunglasses or goggles. Not just for sun on snow, but because wind-driven snow straight into your face is its own particular experience.
We carry spare hats, gloves, gaiters, and goggles and can lend gear in a pinch. But it’s always better to come prepared. If you’re unsure about your kit, get in touch before booking and we’ll tell you honestly whether what you have is suitable.
What happens if the weather is bad?
People have very different definitions of “bad weather” in Lofoten. Sometimes there’s a proper Arctic storm heading toward the islands and hardcore locals are basically like: “Ah yes, gentle breeze. Perfect hiking weather.” Meanwhile, some visitors start worrying three days in advance because the forecast shows… clouds.
We’re somewhere in the middle, leaning a little toward the local approach. We operate in cold, wind, snow, and overcast conditions. Some of the most beautiful days on Ryten happen when the weather is doing something dramatic: low cloud clearing off the summit, sunlight cutting through at unexpected angles, fresh snow that nobody else has walked on.
We cancel or adjust when conditions become genuinely unsafe or unreasonable: very strong gusts (around 15 m/s), heavy continuous snowfall that affects visibility or avalanche risk, or conditions where the experience would stop being an adventure and start being something nobody would enjoy.
If we need to cancel, we’ll offer to reschedule to another date, suggest an alternative route, or issue a full refund.
Our Team
Radka
Co-founder, Guide & Content Lead
📍 Reine · 🇬🇧 🇳🇴 🇨🇿 | Radka is usually behind a camera, behind a laptop, or catching her breath halfway up a mountain while Ivar waits at the summit. She runs sightseeing tours and joins the hikes now and then, mainly to prove that slow hikers get there too.
She’s also the voice behind most of Guide to Lofoten’s content, including the sarcastic remarks about weather, ferries, and Norwegian bureaucracy. The route here was long and full of detours, by way of oil and gas technology and then environmental chemistry. It started in 2015 with an angry article in Czech about tourists misusing Norway’s DNT mountain cabins. That somehow ended with her running a guiding company in Lofoten.
Ivar
Co-founder & Guide
📍 Reine · 🇳🇴 🇬🇧 | Ivar is the engine behind everything. He does logistics, guiding, accounting, and most of the things that keep the company running and Radka from losing her mind. His favourite tours are the winter hikes to Ryten, which makes sense: he’s usually already sitting at the summit while everyone else is still on the way up. Time off has got rarer since keeping this ship afloat turned into a 24/7 job, and what’s left of it goes into hiking, climbing, skiing, or freediving around the islands.
Trained nurse. Certified climbing instructor. Licensed taxi driver. A combination that covers almost every situation Lofoten can produce.
Ondra
Sightseeing Guide
📍 Svolvær · Leknes · 🇬🇧 🇨🇿 | Nothing is ever a problem for Ondra. He describes himself as a jack of all trades and means it as a compliment: he can drive more or less anything with wheels and keep it running through the trickiest conditions Arctic Lofoten produces.
He’s also a proud member of the Svolvær Red Cross volunteer group, so if you get lost or injured in the mountains around Svolvær, you might run into him outside our tours too. He shares our weakness for board games, which would be more useful if he lived at our end of Lofoten.
Tomas
Guide
📍 Svolvær · Leknes · 🇬🇧 🇸🇰 | Tomáš keeps about five forecast apps on his phone and checks all of them constantly. That obsession makes him very good at reshaping a tour around the conditions and getting guests ahead of the rain and the cloud.
Off duty he’s either skiing in the mountains or out on a boat. He’s also an insanely good cook and knows roughly a million ways to prepare stockfish.
Marek
Sightseeing Guide
📍 Reine · Leknes · 🇬🇧 🇵🇱 | Marek has a genuine “we can manage anything” attitude, which is exactly what you want when the forecast looks terrible and the plan has changed for the third time.
He enjoys the sightseeing trips, but he’s really at home in a kayak. We’ve never met anyone more passionate about paddling, or less interested in Lofoten’s mountains. He’d paddle every day if he could, and we still haven’t talked him into a hike up Ryten.
Jitka
Sightseeing & Hiking Guide
📍 Reine · 🇬🇧 🇨🇿 | You’ll hear Jitka’s laugh before you see her, and she keeps it up all day. She has no patience for routine, so she’s lived and worked in more corners of Lofoten than we can count. Which works out well for us: she knows the tiny villages most visitors drive straight past.
She’s also an excellent photographer, shooting our guests as well as professional sessions for elopements and weddings. And she runs her own kayaking company out of Reine and Ramberg. Busy bee.
Jakub
Sightseeing & Hiking Guide
📍 Reine · 🇬🇧 🇨🇿 | Jakub is quiet, funny, occasionally sarcastic, and in the winter mountains he absolutely has your back. He looks tough, but he’s enough of a sweetheart to hold your hand on the way down from a summit if that’s what it takes. Please don’t misuse this information.
He loves skiing and prefers to take the winter trips in harder conditions, mainly so he can keep the good powder days for himself. That suits us fine. Ivar prefers to guide in nice weather and spend the difficult days at home finding excuses not to do the accounting.
Maria
Sightseeing Guide & Photographer
📍 Svolvær · 🇬🇧 🇸🇰 | Long, exhausting days where the weather refuses to cooperate don’t seem to touch Maria. She gets through them smiling, and that calm puts guests at ease straight away. She’s also an exceptional photographer, and her photos regularly end up as guests’ favourite souvenir from Lofoten.
Unfortunately for us, she’s also deeply in love with Finnish Lapland and its far more reliable winters, so we live in constant fear that she’ll move back there one day.
Maciej
Sightseeing Guide
📍 Svolvær · Leknes · 🇬🇧 🇵🇱 | Maciej is relaxed, knowledgeable, and the most organised person in the company by a considerable margin, which the rest of us appreciate more than we probably admit. He’s also the only guide here with (almost grown-up) children, so he can tell you plenty about the school system in Lofoten and what there is for kids to do here.
Outside guiding he surfs, splitboards, and bakes the best sourdough bread in Lofoten. We’re still hoping for the recipe.
Frequently asked questions about this winter snowshoe hike
How difficult is the hike to Ryten, honestly?
Quite difficult for many people. Ryten is not a technical climb: no scrambling, no exposed ridges, no equipment beyond what we provide. But it is a proper mountain hike in Arctic Norway: 500 metres of elevation gain, 5–6 hours of hiking, and the full range of winter conditions that Lofoten can produce. You should expect to come back tired. Pleasantly so, hopefully. But tired. Compared to sitting in a café eating cinnamon buns, it’s definitely challenging. That said, you absolutely do not need previous snowshoeing or winter hiking experience. A lot of our guests arrive having never used snowshoes before. What you do need is reasonable fitness, genuine motivation, and honest expectations about what a day in the Arctic mountains involves.
Do I need prior snowshoeing experience?
No. Your guide will show you how to fit and use the snowshoes before you set off. Most people adapt within the first fifteen minutes. The equipment does the technical work. You just have to keep moving uphill.
Is the hike suitable for children?
It can be, for older children who are physically fit and used to outdoor activities. We don’t set a strict age limit because fitness varies enormously. The youngest person to reach the Ryten summit with us was seven years old. We trust your judgment in knowing what your child is capable of. We do have snowshoes available in smaller sizes. If you’re considering bringing a child, just contact us in advance and we’ll talk through whether the hike is realistic for them.
Can I join if I'm afraid of heights?
Usually yes. One of the reasons Ryten is considered accessible by Lofoten standards is that the route avoids exposed ridges and technical sections. There’s no scrambling, no knife-edge traverses, and no sections that would feel dangerous to someone with a mild fear of heights. That said, you are still hiking a mountain in winter, and the environment can feel dramatic, particularly near the summit on a windy day. If you have serious acrophobia, it’s worth telling us before you book so we can give you an honest assessment.
Is there an easier alternative if Ryten turns out to be too much?
Yes. Our Easy Winter Snowshoe Hike is a much gentler option, designed as a proper introduction to winter hiking in Lofoten without the full commitment of a 500-metre summit. On some days when both hikes run simultaneously from the same area, it’s also possible to decide partway up which route to take. Contact us if you’d like to discuss this option.
What should I bring?
What if I need to cancel my booking?
You can cancel up to 48 hours before departure and receive a full refund minus a 5% transaction fee, which covers payment and booking costs we can’t recover. Under 48 hours or no-show: no refund. If the weather makes the hike unsafe, we’ll offer to reschedule, suggest an alternative, or issue a full refund.
What our guests say
Rated 5.0 on Google and TripAdvisor across 160+ reviews.
Ready to see Lofoten from the top?
- Max 6 guests per guide
- 7–8 hours
- October - April
- 2300 NOK per person
We’ve guided more people up Ryten than we can count. We still love every single hike. If you have questions before booking, about the difficulty, the conditions, whether this hike is right for your trip, just get in touch. We actually reply.
5.0 (160+ reviews)
Cancellation & refunds
We’re a small local company operating tours in Arctic Norway, where conditions can sometimes affect whether a tour can safely run.
Thank you for supporting a small local business ❤️
Weather & operational cancellations
If weather, road conditions, or safety issues make the tour unsafe or unrealistic to run, we may adjust the route, reschedule, or issue a full refund.
Travel disruptions & insurance
If you cannot join due to flight cancellations, illness, road closures, ferry disruptions, or similar travel issues — we’re happy to provide documentation for your travel insurance. These situations fall outside our cancellation policy and should be handled through your insurer.
Guest cancellations
- Cancel 48+ hours before departure → full refund minus a 5% transaction fee
- Cancel under 48 hours before / no-show → no refund