First Turns in Norway

Amie Engerbretson had heard it again and again: Norway is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. But she had never been here – and since the day she arrived, the mountains had been hidden in cloud.

On her first day of skiing in Norway, the group left the lodge by boat in light rain. Thirty minutes later, as they came into the area they were going to ski, the clouds started to lift – and Amie saw Stetind for the first time. The sheer 1,392-metre granite peak was voted Norway's national mountain in 2002.

Getting to the snow meant stepping off the raft straight into the seaweed in ski boots. On the way up, the weather kept improving, and as Amie crested the top, the sun came out: the ocean below, and the mountains of Lofoten on the horizon.

The ski down was pure spring: smooth, buttery corn turns in the sunshine, through the birch forest and all the way to the sea, where the boat was waiting. "This is just maybe one of the most beautiful places I've ever skied," says Amie.