Writer Arati Menon heads to Kitchen on the Edge of the World, a four-day event where top chefs harness the Arctic elements and local ingredients to create extraordinary culinary experiences.

“Now you know what it’s like to be in the eye of a storm,” said our hiking guide, Audun Rasmussen, with a grin.

I tried to nod, but the wind whipped it into a wobble. We were nearly 2,000 feet up a steep, multi-edged mountain face, and simultaneously getting pelted by rain. If views over picturesque towns and freshwater lakes below are what is typically promised in this part of Northern Norway, today there’d be none. Instead, fog clung to every nook and crevice of the glacial hulks surrounding us.

A room at Holmen Lofoten framing the wild ocean and craggy shoreline

@danmariner

There was a sense of achievement, certainly. Rain had turned much of our trails into sinking mud, and rock faces to gripless stone. We had used our hands to push past birch and skidded on moss.…