Dundret
It rained a lot in Gällivare when Annika and I were there some days ago. On Wednesday however the weather forecast said there’d be a bit of sun in the afternoon, so we planned to hike on the Dundret. Dundret is just around the corner and a solitary mountain, a so-called inselberg. I skied up there in Winter 2012. In summer you can take your car and drive up almost all the way.
Indeed it had stopped raining and we had some sun and blue sky when we started our hike.
As in many Scandinavian hiking areas there are summer and winter trails. The winter trails are marked with red crosses that lead over the “kalfjäll”.
Kalfjäll is the Swedish word for the alpine tundra above the tree line. The dwarf birch growing here is technically a tree, but you wouldn’t think so at first glance. It has no visible trunk, and its branches sprawl low across the ground.
We splotted some flowers in bloom such as the mountain-Heath, the alpine azalea or the lapland lousewort.
It got cloudy on our hike, but at least it didn’t rain.
After some hours of hiking (and some mosquito contacts) we arrived at the car and drove down again. On some of the slopes there was still a bit of snow.
For me Dundret is a mountain for hiking and back-country skiing, but it is also a ski resort.
Near the station at the bottom we were sitting for a while enjoying our waffle with jam and cream before we drove back to the Gällivare camping ground. When we arrived there it started to rain heavily. Good timing I would say.
And here two winter photos from Dundret when I was there in February 2012. Seems like ages ago.
