Winter wonderland

Day 21 – Deep, deep snow

Today I left Kurrovaara. The narrow street back to the main road is quite steep and covered with new snow. My friend and a teammate took the ATV to plough the snow away for me. After that I started the road up. First it went well but then came a steep passage with a bent. And there I stood and didn’t come any further. My friend had to help me. He, who is both much more experienced with car driving and knows the way by heart drove my car up to the main road. I was so grateful, without him I guess I would have been forced to wait until summer to climb this road. Yes – another argument for having a car with a four wheel drive …

The rest of the journey was quite relaxing: Kiruna – Gällivare – then not the Nattavaaravägen as usual, but via Purnu. I was curious how deep the snow was and stopped beside plain terrain – I guess a meadow or a field. I took some steps through real deep snow and stopped. I just moved my legs a bit and down I went. I was standing shoulder deep in snow until I hit firm ground. Unbelievable! I tried some other places to make sure that I didn’t hit a hole in the ground, but more or less it was all the same: Breast to shoulder deep and that means 140 cm snow in average!

So it wasn’t only the coast, that got a lot of snow (Luleå got 113 cm and broke the old snow record from 1966), but the inland as well, Many places in Northern Sweden have more than one metre snow now.

I continued the journey and made a short stop in the Wilderness Lodge Solberget, where I’ll stay a whole week later this month. Since last Thursday they have got huge amounts of snow  – a neighbour talked about 60 cm on a single day – and the wind created snowdrifts up to three metres height. So they had a lot of work to dig out doors, windows, cars and much more. Just some impressions from today (much snow is shovelled away already):

After having a fika (the Swedish coffee break) and making these photos I continued to the village Murjek where I’ll stay for some days, mostly for visiting the famous winter market in Jokkmokk but perhaps a ski tour as well if it works with so much snow.

 

 

5 comments to “Winter wonderland”

  1. Nenia 2015-02-05 12:47

    Boahhhh soviel Schnee hätte ich auch gerne.

  2. Ricarda 2015-02-05 21:06

    Traumhaft !!! Davon hätten wir auch gern was ab…….

  3. Martin 2015-02-06 10:21

    Gib und doch mal bitte ein bisschen von dem Schnee ab! Mit 5 cm wäre ich ganz zufrieden, dann frierts mich beim Fotografieren nicht nur an den Fingern, sondern man siehts den Fotos wenigstens auch an, dass es kalt war.

    Ist Dir bei dem Tiefschneetauchen wenigstens ein bisschen Schnee wohin gerutscht, wo er eigentlich nicht hingehört und hat einen kleinen Wermutstropfen in das pure Vergnügen gekippt?

    Bis die Häuser hier aussehen wie auf Deinen letzten beiden Fotos dauert es sowieso zu lange. Die beiden Bilder der Häuser strahlen das Versprechen von Geborgenheit und wildem, verlockendem Winter gleichzeitig aus.

  4. Ma HB 2015-02-06 19:07

    Olaf, now you are satisfied certainly about snow, snow and snow. Your picture – I see only your head and your arms – great!! Is this snow so soft, that your are sinking in it? A big adventure . Moreover many experiences and a good time.
    Yours Ma

  5. way-up-north 2015-02-07 20:54

    Inzwischen ist der Schnee zusammengesackt, aber hüft- bis bauchtief ist er noch fast überall hier, Nenia, Ricarda und Martin.

    Martin: Ich muss Dich enttäuschen. Diese Jacke kann man sehr gut gegen hochrutschen sichern, egal ob im Orkan oder im Tiefschnee.

    Ma HB: I love to have so much snow. First you stand in the snow up to your hip. If you do just some steps on place you sink deeper into the snow. Funny for photos, exhausting for ski tours …

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