Winter by the sea in a nutshell Nov 12 2016

Ingredients:

Long underwear (with hood), socks, winter boots, gloves, ski pants, a warm down parka.
A good digital camera, a wide angle lens, a tripod
Some rocks, pancake ice and an ice covered rock with icicles. Spice it with a bit of weak ice to make it more interesting.
A moon (almost full), some purple clouds (altostratus is best) and a pinch of polar lights.

Recipe:

Put on the items of the first row.
Take the items of the second row with you.
Look for the items of the third row.
Wait for the items of the fourth row and cool the scenery down to -14 °C for 45 minutes.

Voilà, bon appétit!

(Finding the items of the third row was really easy. It’s almost the same I paddled along through the ice half a day ago.)

Kayak – is it a boat or a sledge? Nov 12 2016

Today I was out and did some canoeing. There was a special reason for that: Johan from Sweet Earth wanted to make a short film about kayaking in wintry conditions for Skellefteå kommun, the municipality of Skellefteå. He asked me whether I wanted to be the canoeist and I accepted gladly. Since the weather forecast looked good for today we planned to make the film today.

And the weather was good – it was fantastic! When I woke up at 6 o’clock, the sky was still dark but starry and completely free of clouds. The thermometer showed -13.8 °C – the coldest temperature in Skelleftehamn this season. I was curious about Storgrundet, where it happened to be open water the day before. How would it look like today?

Some minutes later I stood on Storgrundet’s boat bridge and lit my strong flashlight. As almost excepted the water has completely frozen over last night and the rim of the new ice was about 3 cm thick. Too thick to break through with my kayak. Anyway, it could be less thick a bit farther away, I considered.

At 7 o’clock Johan arrived and we discussed the possibilities:

Plan A: starting at the Lotsstation farther away, where there’s open water and probably no ice at all, but perhaps less motives.
Plan B: trying to start at Storgrundet, where it might be impossible to kayak, but it would look nicer. And there would even be a Plan B2.

We decided for Plan A. I fetched the kayak from the garage and pulled it through the deep snow to the street where I put it onto the trolley. I pulled the kayak to the beach while Johan followed by car filming. Soon I arrived at Storgrundet’s parking place, but not Johan. Some minutes later my phone rang: Johan’s car got bogged down in the snow and he had to shovel it free. I returned to give him a push. Luckily his car was free soon again and we arrived at Storgrundet for sunrise.

I took off my winter anorak and slipped into my waterproof immersion suit – ugly but vital. I removed the kayak from the trolley and pulled it to the end of the boat bridge. Near the shore and round that boat bridge the ice was white, it was older and thicker. Some metres away it was transparent and you could see the sea bottom. That ice was less than 12 hours old. I positioned the kayak at the rim of the white ice that bore my weight and entered slowly the fresh ice. It took just some steps and – Splat! – the ice broke and I stood in chest deep water. Well, that came not unexpected. That’s why I had the waterproof suit on and my isdubbar round my neck.

“Isdubbar” or ice claws are sharp spikes with handles. These are attached to a cord to be worn round your neck. If you fall through the ice you can use the spikes of the ice claws to pull yourself out of the ice hole back to safety. A must have when going onto the ice in early winter or unknown terrain!

I managed to crawl onto the ice even without the ice claws, because the immersion suit has so much buoyancy. I put the kayak onto the little ice hole and climbed in. Unfortunately the kayak wasn’t heavy enough to break the ice. I tried and pushed, wiggled and jiggled until I managed to forge ahead perhaps ten meters. Anyway I only succeeded into bending down the fresh and soft ice, instead of breaking it. Since the paddle had zero grip on the wet ice I couldn’t steer at all and turning was completely impossible. Finally I gave up and pushed myself backwards with the glove protected hands.

When I came to the older and slightly higher ice I was kind of trapped. I couldn’t push myself backwards hard and fast enough to come up onto the safe ice surface. I tried several times and at last I just left the kayak – Splat! – went through the ice again, crawled onto the safe ice and dragged the kayak back to the boat bridge.

The result: Paddling on ice: round 25 m. Paddling in water: 0 m. Baths taken: 2. Photos taken: zero. I hope, that Johan filmed my abortive efforts. It will make me laugh watching it.

But as I said, there was Plan B2:

500 meters to the northwest the Baltic Sea is not in the lee of the island Storgrundet anymore. Here at the bay Flunderviken it usually takes much longer for the water to freeze over. While Johan had to take the save way on land I could go straight ahead by crossing the ice with my kayak in tow. First I had to plunge through soft ice and water again but then the ice was of the older and stronger kind and it was easy to get ahead. I knew, that Johan would be slower and I would had time to make some pictures.

Anyway even Plan B2 was in danger: Flunderviken was iced, too. At least I could see open water 100 or 150 meters ahead. Perhaps the ice would be weaker and I could go through the ice howsoever and reach open water. But first I had to wait for Johan who had to stomp through more than knee-deep snow to arrive. Time for another photo, time for going through the ice again, this time only knee-deep. Even here the ice was 3 cm thick – too thick to paddle.

Ice sculpture round a stone in shallow water

Soon Johan arrived and I made my reservations. I didn’t believe in “ice-paddling” that far. Johan got an idea: Wouldn’t it possible to use the ice claws to push oneself forward? Well, I could try. The idea appeared to be brilliant. It was quite easy to push oneself forward, even it was hard work for my non-existing arm muscles. It went great until the ice got weaker and the kayak started to break it. Here it was hard to reach ice solid enough to pull oneself forward with the spikes. It took a long time and I had to take breath several times until I reached the last meters of the ice cover where ice was so thin that I could use the paddle again and finally I was free. Hip, hip, hooray!

Now I was able to paddle freely as on a warm summer day. Beside of the floating ice needles. Beside of wearing my heavy immersion suit. Beside of the snow that covered all shores. Beside of the ice crust on my kayak …

And beside of my exhaustion because of the struggles traversing the ice. Anyway I wasn’t here for a long tour but for being filmed. I didn’t want to get too far away from Johan who was landbound. Therefore I took just a short round and made some more photos before I started back.

Selfie with immersion suit and dripping nose

I followed my old route where the ice already was cut and it was much easier to get ahead. Soon I reached the thicker ice – first still cracking under the weight of me and my kayak, then thick enough to bear us without any complaints – and then the shore where I had to plunge in into knee-deep water for the last time before I went ashore.

Conclusion

It was great fun testing out the limits of winter paddling in Skelleftehamn today. It won’t be the last time that I do such. However this is only possible with proper equipment. Without immersion suit or dry suit, isdubbar and such this tour wouldn’t have been possible at all.

So, folks: Be crazy and be safe!

And – as promised – the link to the video.

A bit of cold Nov 11 2016

Tomorrow I want to canoe. So I checked the potential starting points today. Where could I set in my kayak?

Näsgrundet

That’s where Skelleftehamn’s pilot station is. As expected the Baltic Sea is completely open. Here it would be possible to start the tour, but I had to go 2.5 km.

Killingörviken

The nearest place, only 600 metres away, but this small bay has been already ice-covered for some days.

Storgrundet

We’ll, this should rather be frozen over, too, but to my surprise there was a broad band of open water left. I guess that the water level, that changed several times the last days prevented parts of the water surface to freeze over. The distance to Storgrundet is 1.6 km and I think I’ll try out this place tomorrow.

Anyway I’m not completely sure, if there will be open water tomorrow in the morning, too. Today has been the first day, where the temperature dropped below -10 °C and maybe there will be ice on today’s open water tomorrow. Either a bit that cracks when you traverse it by kayak or a bit more making it impossible to squeeze through.

-10.4 °C at 15:53 – the coldest temperature of the season in Skelleftehamn

Seasons are a bit in between. The open sea is completely free of ice beside of some sheltered bays having a thin, but solid ice cover. When such an ice cover breaks in the waves, pancake ice is formed. Pancake ice are ice floes that move, twist and turn, scrubbing each other until they are round, like pancakes. I found some of them when I drove to the peninsula Rönnskär to have a look at the sundown. They floated in the sheltered boat harbour near the shore.

#snowember16 – part VI Nov 8 2016

This article is part of the series “2016-11: #snowember16”.

1. A tiny ski tour

As yesterday I took the car to the hill Bureberget, this time with skis and snowshoes. I had thought that the biggest challenge would be to park the car – not easy if there are only snow walls on the left and the right off the road, but I was lucky, a side road was cleared and I could park the car there in front of an old, wooden house buried in the snow.

I decided for the skis, changed shoes, put on gaiters, strapped the backpack on and put on my skis. After following the main road to Burvik a bit I bent left into the road to the top of Bureberget. The snow has settled a bit and was less high than yesterday. Soon I found a nice way downhills – my first “ski-run” this season, perhaps 20 seconds long. Of course I had to climb up again. That was partly not so easy between trees, rocks and quite soft snow where I sank down to my knees quite often even with the skis on. I found a steep but nice passage up that led me to some kind of bridge or ladder crossing a small ravine. This part I took without my skis …

After I had succeeded the “winter climbing challenge” I stood on a huge rock, almost up on the level of the top again. I took a detour to the forest and was soon back again.

This ski tour was quite short. One of the reasons was, that I didn’t find nice motive for photos today. It was very windy and all treetops were bare of snow. Many pine needles and pieces of bark lay on the snow which made the snow looking old and dirty, even if it was just one day old.

But anyway, it’s always great to be out and so it was today! And even better, when the sun comes out.

2. The coast of Storgrundet

When I was back in Skelleftehamn I didn’t drive home directly but to the coast of Storgrundet. I was curious how much ice would cover the part of the Baltic Sea between island and mainland. There’re still patches of open water, but most of the water is covered with ice. I guess that I have to look for other starting points, when I want to paddle kayak in the weekend.

It was only some degrees below zero but the strong winds made me shiver and I was very glad to had a warm down jacket with me and put the hood on tight. Brrr, autumn is definitely over.

Taking advantage of the sun Oct 30 2016

Yesterday I took the car and drove to Umeå. The sky was blue and the sun was shining. Sounds nice, right? Well, it was nice but hard to drive. The sun melted the frost on the asphalt and the wet street reflected the low hanging sunlight. Sometimes it was really hard to see anything other than just a glaring white nothing.

Today the sky was blue and the sun was shining again. Sounds nice, right? Today it was nice since Annika and I took a longer stroll through the forests near Strömback south from Umeå.

The temperatures were above zero, but parts of the ground were still frost covered. We followed a path between Tjuvvarpet – a lake – and Matsund – part of the Baltic Sea. Anyway you could see neither lake or sea from the path since the forest was too dense and hid the waters which were just 100 meters away.

On the way back we made a short rest at a place on the lake near the hill Tjuvvarpberget. Most of the lake was still free of ice but near the rocky shore you could see the first covering of ice. It almost looked a bit wintry.

Apropos winter: If the weather forecast is right we will get at least 30 cm of snow in Skelleftehamn within the next eight days. Nevertheless I’m quite sceptical. Just two centigrade warmer and it will all pour down as rain.

The first ice blanket Oct 14 2016

Seen today on the Ytterviksfjärden round about five kilometres from where I live.

Kayaking in the sunrise Oct 5 2016

“BING-BINGA-BINGA-BING-BING-BING-A-BINGA …!”

… yells the alarm on my mobile. I open my eyes, still partly caught in my dreams. Then I realise: It’s 5 o’clock in the morning and I’ve planned a paddle trip today. Out there it’s still pitch black and reluctantly I get up and get some breakfast. I’ve already packed the day before: dry suit – neoprene boots, gloves and hood – camera in a waterproof bag – water and chocolate. The compass and the live vest are already in the kayak. I leave, pulling my kayak behind on its trolley and the temperature is -4.5 °C – the coldest day since April. Round half an hour later I’m ready to start the tour. The sun hasn’t risen yet and some pink clouds hang in the blue sky.

At the sandy beach I drag the kayak into the water, lay the paddle on both the boat and the shallow ground to avoid tipping and climb in. I do some strokes, unfold the rudder that helps my steering the kayak and turn right. It’s low water and much more stones and rocks are visible as usual. I turn right again to paddle between the island Brambärsgrundet and the mainland. After that I turn left again and see the horizon and an archipelago of stones. I have to make my way through and more than once I hear the typical clicking sound, when the sea is so shallow, that the rudder at the rear touches ground and is lifted up.

The colours start to change: From light pink to something you could call apricot to warm orange. And then the sun starts to rise. It’s not that I’ve never seen sunrises before, but still I love to watch.

The low water reveals many rocks and stones

The sun rises a bit higher and starts to illuminate the colourful trees on the island Storgrundet which I’m approaching. Before I reach that island I turn right again and head to the open water. All I see in front of me is water, waves, the sky, clouds and midmost: the horizon. It looks like I just could paddle straight ahead to the horizon for ages. Probably it would take ages: it’s round 150 kilometres to the Finnish mainland.

So I turn left again and paddle along Storgrundets outer shoreline, go round the western peak and to the same beach were I started my tour one and a half hours before. A quite short, but pleasant kayak trip.

I go ashore and drag the kayak to the beach. It’s still below zero. The spray water on the kayak is frozen and there’s hoar frost on leaves and wood, especially in the shadowy places.

Now I exchange the dry suit for pants and jacket and the neoprene hood for a woollen cap. Dry suit and such is great for protection in case of falling into the cold water, but the “normal” clothes feel much more comfortable. I make a last photo of the beach and the island Storgrundet in the back, then I return home dragging the kayak behind.

At 9 o’clock I start my normal work.

“New Year’s resolution”: Be more outdoors in my everyday life, even if it’s short.

Jämtland hike part III: back to Sweden and finishing the tour Sep 28 2016

This article is part of the series “2016-09: Jämtland and Norway”.

After two days in Norway we headed back to the Swedish mountains.

Thursday, 15. September

We started our day with a breakfast.

The Norwegian lodge Nedalshytta is really beautiful, but doesn’t have a kitchen and sells only some snacks, when it comes to food. Luckily we had both own things to eat and a mug with us, so would could enjoy our own breakfast: oat flakes with frothy milk! How to get frothy milk on a mountain tour? Mix milk powder and water in an empty coke bottle, shake it vigorously and voilà: schiuma di latte à la Annika.

After packing our backpacks we started our hike to the Sylarna Fjällstation. It was the first cloudy day since we started our tour three days before and anything was moist and wet. Sometimes we had to take a break to pluck some blueberries, that still tasted fresh and sweet.

We went along the Templet, which is Swedens highest peak of the Sylarna mountain range (1728 m). (Storsylen with its 1762 meter altitude is higher, but on the Norwegian side, just 100 meters from the Swedish border.) Due to the weather we first couldn’t see that much but after a while it started to clear up and the clouds released the view on the huge and barren slopes of the Templet massif. We were so lucky, that we hadn’t to go this part of the trail in fog and clouds.

Clearing up – The Templet in the background

Soon we arrived at a place called Ekorrdörren – the squirrel door.

We started our tour at 780 m above sea level. Now we were on 1100 meter and would have to go up another 260 meters to reach the Ekorrpasset – the squirrel pass – which is 1360 m above sea level and so the highest point of our tour so long. We started climbing up the slope but had to look back over and over again. The undulating valley of the river Åeruvedurrienjohke with it’s many hills and ponds looked like from another planet.

Looking back into the valley of the river Åeruvedurrienjohke

Our trail got more and more rocky. After a while there was hardly any way left, we just went over angular rocks with gorgeous views of the Templet, including a small glacier and the Slottet, another peak of the Sylarna.

I really love the changes of the landscape you can have within just some hours: From autumnal birch forest with blueberries over to grass covered plateaus and finally up to an asteroid-like landscape that looks like a pile of stones.

Especially the squirrel pass looks both harsh and impressive. Anyway, when you go up a pass you’ll probably go it down as well and even 200 meters altitude make a difference. The Sylarna Fjällstation lies near the river Sylälven that flows through a wide grass covered U-shaped valley and when we came nearer we could see three reindeers standing in front of the cabins. Back to civilisation.

We had hiked four days in a row and were quite eager to take a day off. Sylarna fjällstation would be an ideal place, since it lies beautifully and you can leave that place in six different directions. Alas, there weren’t only reindeers, but people, too. Many people. The place was crowded! There were many hikers and mountain joggers. In the big dining room sat a large group of bankers that got their three-course dinner including candlelight and fresh salad, brought by helicopter. We were unsure, if this should be a good place to rest for a day.

The information we got in the evening shocked us a bit: There were already 100 – 125 booked sleeping-places for that night (in addition to all people that would come without booking). That means, that this place would be even more crowded. Even Helags, which is more in the South had just some single sleeping-places left.

That was the moment, where we decided to escape.

We would stay overnight of course, but the next day we would abandon the tour and hike back to Storulvån, were I parked my car.

Friday, 16. September

I was awake quite early, took my camera and tripod and walked out to wait for the sunrise. The valley Endalen was covered with fog. I looked at the glacier Storsylglaciären,that covers the eastern slope of the Storsylen and a lavvu – a traditional sami dwelling. The sun however showed up quite late, there were too many clouds.

I looked at the less beautiful parts of that place too: An excavator on a flat building site, a welcome sign surrounded by building material and waste.

We started the tour being content to leave Sylarna behind but a bit melancholy, too, because we didn’t plan to leave the mountains already after five days. Annika started to count the approaching hikers, there were quite many …

After half the way we approached something quite funny:

It’s neither a sculpture nor a church, it’s a WiFi-station including a recharging unit for smartphones! It is even marked in the hiking map: “WiFi och laddstn.”. There were many hikers and even some mountain bikers resting, but no one started the WiFi. The cellular network is quite good in that part of the mountains and I guess there’s hardly a young Swede without a mobile internet flat rate.

We continued our tour and slowly hiked down the valley Endalen. After a while we were below the tree line and the landscape got even more colourful.

And just shortly before we reached our starting point, were we had left four and a half days before I spotted a lonely birch tree – almost leafless. A symbol, that winter will come even this year. Fifteen minutes later we reached Storulvåns fjällstation, then the parking place, then my car. Annika has counted almost 150 people hiking, jogging and cycling to Sylarna, just from one direction! That confirmed our decision to leave Sylarna behind.

It has been a fantastic and varying tour with many different experiences in a short time. Tack för turen – Annika!

The End.

“Wait, wait …”
– “… wait, what?”

“How can it be the end? You had two weeks holidays, not only five days!”
– “well, ok, we did continue our journey.”

After changing cloth, using the bath room and drinking a coke we got in the car and I drove the way back to Enafors, that lies at the E14 which connects Trondheim in Norway with Sundsvall in Sweden. We considered some options but didn’t decide yet what to do next. Shortly before we approached the E14 I asked Annika: “Back to Umeå or Norway?” The answer was: “Norway”. So we travelled to Norway …

Stay tuned for the next article telling more about our trip in Norway …

A weekend in Söråsele – rich in variety May 9 2016

Both Annika and I had some days off round last weekend and so we could visit friends of her, who live in Söråsele. That’s in Åsele municipality, 260 kilometres west-southwest from Skelleftehamn. We started our three-day trip on Friday. While all lakes in Skelleftehamn are completely free of ice, many of the lakes in the inland are still covered with soft ice, as for example the southern part of the lake Bjurselet between Bastuträsk and Norsjö. You can still see the numerous snowmobile tracks.

The ground, where I parked my car was quite soft. I left up to 10 cm deep tracks in the muddy ground. But luckily we didn’t get stuck and could continue out tour to Lycksele, where we had a dagens lunch – the lunch of the day. With some other detours and rests – here we met the first mosquitoes of the year, but they didn’t bite us – we proceeded and headed to Åsele. From this town it’s just five other minutes to Söråsele, where M. and F. – Annika’s friends – live.

After saying hello to M. and F. and their dog we said hello to the sheep: six cute adults and three even cuter lambs. I never experienced sheep, that were so cuddly as those little flock – they all came to us, not for begging for food but for being petted and tickled. One of the males bumped the head against my leg every time, when I dared to stop stroking and cuddling him.

Finally I could break free from the sheep to get the camera. I was lucky, none of the sheep licked my wide angle lens, although I came quite near as you can guess from the pictures:

The next day we moved the fence and the wooden shelter for the sheep. We – that’s four people, a smaller farm tractor and a trailer. Moving the shelter took some hours of thinking and doing, but we succeeded. Anyway, that’s another story …

After a fika – the swedish coffee break, we took the car and drove to Sörnoret to go up the the mountain Bergvattenberget (“the mountain water mountain”). At the northeastern side there’s a 120 meter high steep cliff called Offerhällan where according to old legends Sámi people where pushed down when they were too old to follow the reindeers. Hopefully just a myth.

When you want to hike in May, it’s always a good idea to wear rubber boots, since the ground is still very wet after the snow melt.

The evening we ate home made Lasagne. A lot of home made Lasagne! Especially I was quite stuffed and so we took a small evening promenade along the coast of the lake Söråselesjön which lays right behind M.’s and F.’s beautiful house. The air still was quite warm and the sunset coloured the feathery clouds.

The next day we made another trip, this time to different places. First stop: Torvsjökvarnar, a group of old water mills that form an open-air museum today.

Annika and I already saw some frogs or toads crossing the streets the day before, but here I saw the first frogs from close up. Another spring sign.

Other stops followed but – sorry folks – no photos.

At half past five Annika and I said goodbye and started the way back. We decided to choose another route and took the 92 to Fredrika. A good choice. Here’s one of the artworks of the Konstvägen Sju Älvar (“Art way seven rivers”). It’s called Poem för en imaginär älv (“poem for an imaginary river”) and is erected on a big rock in the midst of an archaic landscape build of rocks, mud flats and tiny lakes. beside of the road the area looks like ice age would have ended just some hundred years ago.

Just some kilometres later there’s a thing you wouldn’t expect in Northern Sweden: A Thai Buddhist temple called Buddharama Temple. The giant statues of the sitting and standing Buddha and the live size elephants made of stone really look a bit strange in the middle of the Lappish woods. In Thailand 95% of the people are buddhists, but in Norra Norrland …?

(Sorry for the bad photos – the sun was definitely at the wrong place when we visited this temple.)

After that we continued our trip back to Skelleftehamn. I drove the car and Annika guided me along the small roads: Baksjöliden – Vargträsk – Örträsk – Ottonträsk – Vindeln – Buberget – Botsmark – Åkullsjön – Bygdsiljum – Flarken – Ånäset and than the E4 northwards until the turnout to Skelleftehamn, where we arrived at 22:54.

Thank you, M. and F. for your kind hospitality. We’ll looking forward to come back some other time. Perhaps there are other things left to be moved ;-)

Appendix

i. Animals on the journey:

Among others: Reindeers, four moose, a fox, cute sheep, cranes, Canada geese, swans, some western curlews and a short-eared owl.

ii. Northern lights:

Yesterday the aurora was really strong with a Kp index between 5 and 6, which says it is visible even in Denmark and Scotland. Now it’s a disadvantage to live as up north as I do. The sky is just too bright even in the dead of night to watch the Northern Lights. I guess, we’ll have to wait until August.

Furuögrund May 5 2016

Today Annika and I took the road E4 to Byske to visit Byske Havsbad, one of the largest sandy beaches nearby. But I was curious about the other side of the river Byskeälven and took another departure. That’s how we came to Furuögrund, which is a small coastal village north from Skelleftehamn. 39 kilometres by car; 20 kilometres if you can fly. Outside of Furuögrund there’s a peninsula with a small boat harbour and a café (that unfortunately won’t open before next weekend). The peninsula is surrounded by two bays – one with a sandy beach (and still some old leftover ice).

On the northeastern side there’s an old dock for timber, build in 1874 together with the sawmill. The dock has or had three different names: Massahusdockan, Norrdockan or “Nööl-dockan”. As you can see on the images, there’s hardly anything left beside of a mikado-like stack of old timber.

After strolling along the shore we took the car again and turned into a small side road to Svartnäsudden. I just had to stop when I saw the smooth granit rocks with the clear water puddle. In front of the rocks there was some boggy ground, partly covered with ice, surrounded by pine trees. And behind that a beautiful view over the blue Baltic Sea – that’s Coastal Northern Sweden in spring in a pocket.