HIKING RYTENIne & Jimmy
Ine and Jimmy live in Lofoten, and to get married they hiked up Ryten, the mountain with the best view they know.
Ryten sits above Kvalvika, a beach you cannot drive to, and the reward for the climb is one of the great views in Norway: a curve of pale sand and turquoise water between black mountains, a long way down. Ine and Jimmy have hiked it plenty of times. Getting married up there, just the two of them and the dog, was always the plan. If you want a Lofoten elopement you have to earn on foot, I would love to come up the mountain with you.
Ryten
Ryten is a proper hike, a few hours up through mud and boulders, and then the ground drops away and Kvalvika is under your feet.
It is a hard climb. By the time you are up there and out of breath, the beach is a long way below and there is nothing to do but look at it. Ine and Jimmy went straight to the edge. Being from here, they knew exactly where to stand, and how close to the drop was too close, which is a good quality in a photographer’s clients.
Sunset on the summit
They stayed up on the summit into the evening, when the light goes long and gold across the peaks.
This is the part you cannot plan, so you wait for it. The sun dropped toward the sea and lit the whole ridge orange, and for a while Ine and Jimmy had the top of the mountain to themselves. Then a rainbow came up over the far peaks while it was still dry where they stood. There is no arranging weather like that. You just have to be standing there when it happens.
Down to the water
Getting down took as long as getting up, and the day finished at the bottom, by the sea.
The way down is easier on the lungs and harder on the knees. Ine and Jimmy took it slow, with the dog out front, and stopped at the water on the way, on the flat rocks and the old rails and finally the sand.
A full day on their feet to get married, which is exactly what they wanted, and exactly the couple I want to be photographing. There is more of the islands in Sirena and Eric’s Lofoten day. If a Lofoten hiking elopement is your idea of a wedding day, come and find me, and bring good boots.
