Winter Camping Under the Northern Lights in Lofoten, Norway

I’ve been wanting to go winter camping under the northern lights for quite some time now, and finally I was lucky enough to have clear skies and lots of northern lights. I hike out to a secluded beach in Lofoten and set up my old and trusty Hilleberg Staika tent.
This camping spot is just about perfect, even for winter camping, as there is great views and running water nearby. When I arrived at the beach I could see some faint northern lights on the horizon, which is quite common, but later when I was done setting up the tent the sky lit up with bright arcs and rays of northern lights. This continued for a few hours and gradually disappeared before I went to bed.
The next morning I woke up to a beautiful pink sunrise with the moonrise easily visible from the tent opening. I made some lunch (bacon-wrapped dates, sweet potato and chorizo sausage) and steeped coffee.
Location: Lofoten, Norway
Time of year: Winter - January 26-27th 2021
Website and blog: www.kristianpl...
Camera gear used in this video (affiliate links):
Camera: amzn.to/2EqniwL
Lens: amzn.to/2Ylekbj
Lens: amzn.to/2IqEi8M
Variable ND-filter: amzn.to/3gczoH7
Tripod: amzn.to/2LDPmx1
Microphone: amzn.to/2ZgHEkA
Attachment: amzn.to/30z310v
Editing software: amzn.to/36nP3QR
Other gear used in this video (affiliate links):
Shell jacket: www.klattermus...
Lightweight down jacket: amzn.to/2MYkiw3
Pants: www.klattermus...
Foam pad: amzn.to/2ZjCog6
Winter Sleeping bag: amzn.to/2Acon9l
Kettle: amzn.to/2yerlJW
Backpack: amzn.to/2WNSbCp
Headlamp: amzn.to/2XEbXPW
Collapsible water bottle: amzn.to/2AmhbrQ
Watch: amzn.to/3eIaDmb
Lightweight Air mattress: amzn.to/3j1SvWq
Spoon: amzn.to/3l1AfOw
Packing cubes: www.tombihn.co...
Navigation and safety: amzn.to/3eeB9UV
Pocket knife: amzn.to/34O7KOp
Wool hat: amzn.to/37XsQM8
Hilleberg Staika tent: hilleberg.com/...

[@뿔도1]

What is the green of the sky?

[@KristianPletten]

The green light is the northern lights (also called polar lights, aurora polaris or aurora borealis here in the north). It's basically charged particles, mostly electrons and protons, which are released from the sun and then it creates this green light when the particles crash with gasses (mostly oxygen) in the Earths atmosphere. Due to the Earths magnetic field the charged particles are attracted to areas either near the north or the south pole.

[@뿔도1]

@@KristianPletten huk~aurora^^~ good 👍

[@stevec-b6214]

love it

[@KristianPletten]

Thank you, Steve! 😊🙏🏻

[@BushcraftHakankarahan]

great video i liked it😎👍👍

[@KristianPletten]

Thank you Hakan! 😊🙏🏻

[@chlorophyll365]

Just amazing with the northern lights. This is one epic video Kristian, truly impressed with the cinematic touch and relaxing atmosphere! 👍

[@KristianPletten]

Thank you Niclas! I appreciate your kind words. 😊🙏🏻

[@kristaps2010]

I was lucky to come across views like this, in this video...

[@KristianPletten]

Haha, good one. Thank you. 😄

[@TheError202]

Tussen Takk for opplasting

[@KristianPletten]

Mange takk! 🙏🏻

[@Camping_route]

very nice images the shots are amazing good jolly camps😊👍🙏

[@KristianPletten]

Thank you!

[@RILFYx]

wow so nice

[@KristianPletten]

Thank you! 🙏🏻

[@NatureBoy711]

ahh..... the northern lights ! the mystery of it all.... beauty, marvel, extreme, wanting, solace.... and solitude.. ~~~ kristian... .. you are so fortunate. if i may say so,.... of all things that i have done and experienced , seeing norhern light is top of my bucket lists. ........... if you allow me ...for i shall ramble again.....~~~~~ despite the harsh outcome, i 've decided to move forward i do not know where i am heading.... for my bearing is totally out of "bound" my destination lies..... only in my heart.... my mind says no but my heart says otherwise.... my heart beats ...ever so strongly....against the cruel winds of opposing "determination"... yet,.... here i am ! here i am ! i traverse through the "careless and inhumane" minefield of death.... but ..... i continue this journey.... this journey of unknown... this journey of repercussion .....but i continue.... till sun sets and if darkness begins to encompass, ......... my heart beats...... ever so strongly........ ~~~~

[@KristianPletten]

Thank you! 😊🙏🏻 Yes, seeing the northern lights is a wonderful experience, so I you haven't seen it yet I sure hope you get to experience it one day!

[@DedicationPhotography]

That meat looked delicious! and nice to see the aurora in the sky!

[@KristianPletten]

Thanks Arjan! Yeah, it was nice to finally capture it on film. 😊

[@alexonthemountain8343]

Awesome video again buddy... The Auroras looked amazing. If you don’t mind me asking, what where your settings for your timelapse of the Northern lights? ATB👍

[@KristianPletten]

Thank you Alex! 🙏🏻 So the camera settings for the timelapses were ISO 3200, f/1.8 and 0.5 sec shutter. I don't like to have the shutter open for too long because then the northern lights look washed out like a cloud when in reality it's often more jagged and pointy. But I did something quite different to the timelapses in the editing to make it seem more realistic and in flow with the rest of the video. Usually when making a timelapse I just add the images together and each image then represents one frame, so 25 images per second since I shoot my video in 25 fps. When doing this to a timelapse of the northern lights it makes it seem very frantic, because then maybe around 10 minutes of actual timelapse recording gets smushed down to just a few seconds of timelapse footage on the timeline. Usually people tend to record the northern lights using timelapses because shooting it in real time puts a lot of noise in the image, and while a timelapse does show the northern lights in better quality than a real time video recording I feel like the mood of the slow and gradually change of the northern lights, the way it is felt when you are there watching it, is lost for those watching it back via a timelapse. So what I did instead was that I added the individual images to the timeline and added a full crossfade between them, and making the length of each shot equal to the shutter length (+ the time the camera uses to take each shot) to represent the actual speed of the northern lights. I've never seen it being done before, and it probably only works with something like northern lights with a static foreground. Anyways, I hope that made sense! Thanks for watching. 😊🙏🏻

[@alexonthemountain8343]

@@KristianPletten makes sense! I like how it came out because typically timelapses of Auroras are done in a way that they move very fast and yours was a lot more natural looking. Again, great job👍 Cheers

[@KristianPletten]

@@alexonthemountain8343 Thank you! 🙏🏻

[@MrKranman]

Hilleberg Staika ftw

[@KristianPletten]

Agreed! It's a great tent which has served me well over the years. 😊

[@kristaps2010]

Wow, it’s a million dollar view and I’m not talking about green lights. I found 6:50 mountains just stunning. Thanks for sharing.

[@KristianPletten]

Thanks Kris! Yeah, we're spoiled with the views around here. Have to appreciate it everyday. Thanks for watching! 🙏🏻

[@walkingwithouttalking]

This is 18‘ of holiday feeling for me... The ocean and the lights, are the only things I wish I had on top of the goodness I have here in Switzerland. When I saw the lights first I was blown away. It was in Tromsø. Since then I‘m hooked and try to return to Norway as often as I can. Beautiful.

[@KristianPletten]

Thank you! 😊 Yeah, it's quite something to see the northern lights in person. Somewhat unreal. Tromsø is also perfectly located for the northern lights, so I'm sure you got a real show.

[@davemitchell8756]

Sublime Kristian! - your videos are excellent 👍👍👍

[@KristianPletten]

Thank you Dave! Thanks for watching. 🙏🏻

[@solitudeinthewild82]

Great video, my friend! Great winter camp! Enjoyed watching, your and bushcraft skills are terrific! And the surrounding nature is amazing. Cheers from Russia, Kristian, and welcome to my channel about special Russian bushcraft tips and hacks! Cheers, Yuriy!

[@KristianPletten]

Спасибо, Yuriy! I was in Russia a few years ago. Great place and friendly people! 👌🏻

[@nord-zauber9081]

Hello Kristian A beautiful video. You simply have to see the northern lights! So far I have only photographed the northern lights. What settings did you use to film? Med vennlig hilsen Bernhard

[@KristianPletten]

Thank you, Bernhard! So for the first clips of the aurora with me in front I shot them on f/1.8 on a Canon 35mm RF-lens on the R5. Shutter speed was 1/50th, and the ISO was probably quite high. For the clips of the aurora without me in front I actually shot them as photographs (f/1.8, a longer shutter speed and lower ISO), in a timelapse, and used a cross fade transition between the images in DaVinci Resolve to recreate how they look in real life. I'm not a big fan of the fast timelapse sequences of the northern lights, because that's not how you perceive them when you are there.

[@nord-zauber9081]

@@KristianPlettenHello Kristian Thanks for the information. Aperture 1.8 is of course great. I only have 2.8, and that makes it more difficult to take beautiful Northern Lights photos.

[@stevec-b6214]

still watching!

[@tshansen]

Haha...where to begin 👏🏻 it's getting hard to find words Kristian, that I don't have already said when it comes to your amazing videos. Holy crap you nailed it again. The Northern Lights are just beautiful. I have been so lucky to witness it myself a couple of time. Only way to say it, your life takes a turn for the better after watching stuff like that irl. Thank you for another great adventure. Hahaha, that wind made me crawl up in the chair a couple of times. Thank you for educating us on how to visual present nature at it's best. 🔥

[@KristianPletten]

Haha, thank you Thomas! And yes, the northern lights are truly stunning to watch in real life. At first you're super excited, and then when it just goes on and on you just stand there and look up in amazement. It's really calming. As always, thank you so much for the support! Btw, I've heard you guys have lots of snow and fine weather. Enjoy it!

[@hsuchenhan7857]

Polar lights are amazing, you made me wanna visit Lofoten, what is the food you eat? the one was roll by meat, around 10:17

[@KristianPletten]

They sure are! If something can be called magical it is the polar lights. 😄 The food was bacon wrapped dates, chorizo sausage and sweet potatoes.

[@leyiz565]

Miss Norway..... miss the northern lights😭

[@KristianPletten]

I can understand why! Thanks for watching. 🙏🏻

[@TheWindyBurrow]

Absolutely breathtaking. You captured moments that make you feel good to just be alive. ~francesca

[@KristianPletten]

Thank you for the kind words Francesca! You guys are really talented with your visual storytelling btw. Fascinating to watch! 👏🏻

[@TheWindyBurrow]

@@KristianPletten thank you so much :>

[@sashwatsrivastav1064]

Brother can u please provide the exact location please I am planning with my friends to go there.

[@KristianPletten]

It's great to hear that you are traveling to Lofoten! To see the northern lights you have to be here in the fall or winter, and it's visible from pretty much anywhere. There are spots which are way nicer than this one, like Eggum.

[@sashwatsrivastav1064]

@@KristianPletten thanks brother for this, but we finally planned we are going to Canada to see Northern Lights🥰🥰

[@ssmi807]

So relaxing to watch

[@KristianPletten]

Thank you!

[@raymondlogister6828]

Beautiful video Kristian. Thank you for sharing. The Staika is a very good tent, but do you find it not to heavy for one person to hike with that tent?

[@KristianPletten]

Thank you Raymond! 🙏🏻 You are spot on. It's a bulky and heavy tent, so I rarely or almost never go for long hikes with it where I have to carry it in my backpack. So I mostly use the Staika as my winter tent when I can put it in a sled, or when I have some other form of transportation like a kayak or a car. I also use it sometimes if I know it's going to be windy and it's a short hike, which is often the case here in Lofoten where you have lots of small islands.

[@raymondlogister6828]

@@KristianPletten The Enan is the better choice with long hikes. ATB Raymond

[@KristianPletten]

It sure is. Love that tent. 👌🏻

[@morletravels]

Simply incredible! Beautiful scenes and the calming sound of the ocean fits perfectly. And I'm always amazed by the low light quality of your camera.

[@KristianPletten]

Thank you! This one was for you. 😉 The low light on the camera is quite decent, but this time I probably pushed it a bit too far. There was a full moon so I wanted to capture some of the scenery in addition to the light from the headlamp, so I maxed out on the ISO. The footage was quite noisy (I also shoot in Canon Log due to the brightness difference between the headlamp and the scenery), but with full noise reduction in camera and some noise reduction in DaVinci Resolve it turned out OK.

[@RILFYx]

What type of any make are native to the area?

[@KristianPletten]

I'm sorry, I'm not sure I understood your question. Can you elaborate?

[@RILFYx]

@@KristianPletten I'm sorry, It was very late when i typed that comment. What is was supposed to say was "What animals are native to that area?"

[@KristianPletten]

@@RILFYx No worries! So, the Lofoten Islands have quite a lot of animals and wildlife since it’s an archipelago within the Arctic circle that has an unusually high temperature relative to the high latitude (caused by warm water from the Gulf Stream). So there’s lots of fish in the sea (most notably cod), and therefore also lots of mammals and birdlife that benefit from that. As for mammals you have moose, red fox, hare, otter, mink, stoat, seals, orca whales (also know as killer whales), minke whale and pilot whale. As for birdlife the most common and interesting is perhaps the white tailed sea eagle. You also have hawks, falcons and owls, and also waders, divers, ducks and geese, gulls and puffins in addition to many smaller birds. My favorite is perhaps the common eider, which we can observe on a small island just outside our living room. Great question by the way! It’s not always easy to capture all the animals up here on camera.

[@suspower]

Fantastic video! I really like the shots and it captures the setting perfectly. No music, no talking.. just pure tranquility. I will be in Lofoten mid October and was wondering where this campsite was ? We want to camp the entire time while we're there and would love if you'd have a recommendations list.

[@KristianPletten]

Thank you! If you send me an e-mail ([e-mail]) with a bit more information (do you have a car, how many days, special interests and needs and so on) I can provide you with some tips and recommendations!