A wet walk west from Ersmark Apr 9 2016

At this time of the year it can be quite interesting to go for a walk through the woods. A lot of snow melted in the warmth of the last week and every river, stream or brook is in flood. The heavy rain some days before provided an additional amount of water.

Annika and I started our walk west from Ersmark, seven kilometres north from Umeå. The whole area is a shooting range for the military, but a sign clearly shows, when shooting exercises take place and when it’s safe to hike. Today we were lucky – no military exercises this weekend.

We went along the gravel road. The road was clear of snow, but due to the night frost all mud puddles were covered with a thin layer of ice. We went ahead until we came to a minor path. This path was completely covered with snow. We continued this snowy path until we approached the brook Tavelån. This part of the path was covered with a splintered crust of ice that clearly showed, that this part of the path was flooded a short time ago. More and more water flooded our path and we had to wade to reach the wooden bridge, that crosses the water. The brook was so flooded that the water partly flowed over the planks of the bridge.

After the bridge there was much more water on the way. Parts of the flooded brook flowed over our hiking path, too. I tested the depth, but soon had to give up. The water was too deep for us to continue, although we both wore high rubber boots.

We turned and took the same way back, until we reached the car. Annika, who took care of navigation today, realised, that we could take the car to another starting point to experience the other side of the brook.

A short time later I parked the car on a muddy ground near a small nature reserve with the witty name “Natur 2000” – still the same military shooting range. Larger parts of our new hiking path were covered with ice, but at least the way wasn’t muddy. After a while we headed north trying to cross the Tavelån again, this time at another place. When we came to that place were we expected the bridge, all I could see was some kind of old concrete base – the bridge was gone. I laughed out aloud – another blind end again!?

But we were lucky: Ten metres away some railway sleepers lay across the Tavelån. After some wading again we could safely cross the flooded brook. Anyway, the continuation of the path was a bit challenging again. The snowy path was partly flooded and we had to wade several times, carefully balancing on the wet ground ice. But we succeeded: None of us slipped and we continued our tour – dry and warm, since the spring sun had a lot of power and warmed us gently.

The path ascended and soon we walked on a dry gravel way. The rest of our hiking tour was a bit boring: Broad and straight gravel roads through forest and heather. After a while we reached the car.

We tried to take the minor gravel roads to head back to Umeå but when we almost reached the big road, the last part of our way was prohibited for cars and we had to return.

When we arrived home at Annika’s flat, the thermometer of the car showed +10 °C. Another day in spring with remains of winter.

Between Norsjö and Umeå – between winter and spring Apr 1 2016

Hunting the cold – day #2 Jan 8 2016

This article is part of the series “2016-01: Hunting the cold”.

Yesterday I travelled to Pajala to search the cold. With a minimum of -39.6 °C i missed the -40 °C.

Day #2 I stood up quite early, took a short breakfast and drove again to Käymäjärvi, where I measured the coldest temperature yesterday. It seemed to be colder than last night and directly after I turned left into the small road to Käymäjärvi, the thermometer showed -40.3 °C. First time below -40 °C – yay! At 08:37, nine minutes later it showed -40.7 °C , which turned out to be the coldest temperature I measured this day.

I continued the road to the end. Here a couple of lonely wooden building stand beside the road, obviously uninhabited, at least in the winter.

But now it was time to pack the pulka – a transportation sledge – and mount the skis. I wanted to make a ski tour, at least a short one. I parked the car at the place where I saw the aurora the day before.

I filled the pulka with warm clothes, hot tea, a bit of food, the camera equipment and such. Then I dressed for skiing. Here it was -37 °C and I dressed carefully to stay warm and avoid frostbite.

One of the telescope tracking poles was not possible to fix. I tried a workaround with the result, that it broke after 5 meters. I’ll have to buy new ones.

First skiing was easy, even with only one ski pole. The snow on the frozen swamp was hard and it was easy to pull the pulka behind.

But then I entered the forest. Of course pulkas are not made for woodland and this forest was like a thicket of birches which sometimes bend down and build low hanging arcs.

I tried to turn left to find more open land (I was quite unprepared and hadn’t any map with me) and had to cross several small brooks. One of them was a bit larger, a bit deeper and I could here water floating under the ice. I had to unmount me skis and was quite nervous crossing the brook that I probably would jump over easily in summer but all went well.

I continued and wanted to make another photo, but not the camera. It didn’t work any longer. The D-800 just showed an ERR on the display, that was all. Now I was a bit of fed up: Only one ski pole in the midst of a thicket of birch trees and the camera not working. I turned and went back. This probably was one of the shortest ski tours ever.

That’s what I looked like. The first photo is taken 10 minutes after beginning, the second right after the end of the tour. That was not easy: The Nikon D-800 was out of order, the iPhone is not made for cold temperatures and the batteries of my auxiliary camera were left in the car and didn’t work neither. But at last I found a battery that worked for the moment.

You see the fur cap? Some equipment that I have is really expensive, for example by Canada Goose down parka (not on the photos above). The fur cap however is from H&M and costed only 10 Euros. You can hardly call this professional equipment but it worked extremely well.

When you exhale in this cold the air flickers as it does over open fire. No surprise, the temperature difference is round 75 °C. When you inhale you should wear a buff or a scarf to protect your lungs. Remember the temperature difference?

I was so glad that the car copes with the cold. It was -36.9 °C outside and -35.1 °C inside when I started the car after the tour. It took only two seconds and the motor was running. Only changing gears is heavy as long the system is so cold.

On the way back temperatures dropped again below -40 °C. Time to many another selfie – a ridiculous one: The camera inside, holden by a long arm, me outside in front of the car. To my big relief the Nikon camera worked again. The motive: The temperature at the left, me outside with my parka at the right. It didn’t work as excepted. Where’s my face?!

Back in Pajala I admired the fragile birch trees covered with frost beside of the river Torneälven. In the background the clear sky with colours from pink to azure. It seemed to be even colder on the bridge that led over the river back into the city. I could feel the wind through my gloves and mittens and even the nose started to freeze together with the camera when taking photos! I closed my hood completely which looks a bit ridiculous, but I stayed warm.

I took my anemometer (A birthday present to myself) and measured the wind: 20 km/h. The temperature: -36 °C. That makes a wind chill of -51 °C! That’s what I call coldness!

I took a lunch and headed home since weather in this region should worsen, while the forecast for Skelleftehamn looked quite good. It was hardly warmer than -25 °C on the whole journey back home.

At 7 o’clock I arrived home. -28 °C outside – time for a hot bath!

Christmas flood Dec 25 2015

Yesterdays Christmas was still a bit white and snowy but then – déjà vu – it got warmer and started to rain. At the same time the sea level was extremely high again: More than 100 cm above normal. I did the beach walk with chest waders and spikes and took the picture of one of the small pine trees with my underwater camera:

The locals that have their summer cottages on the near island Storgrundet came with their cars to check the sea level. They were a bit nervous because just now they cannot reach the island; neither by boat nor by foot. The ice itself is still thick but not at the borders where the warm weather melted it away.

Same day, another place: Skellefteälven – even more water than some weeks ago. The waterside promenade along the river had a layer of ice on the bottom and was flooded with up to 30 cm water.

Interesting weather, but I miss the snow.

Did anyone of you had a white Christmas?

The first winter day in Skelleftehamn Dec 12 2015

After a period of weather with mild temperatures and rain it started to get colder yesterday and the last two centimetres of snow in Skelleftehamn didn’t melt away. Temperatures sank below zero yesterday afternoon and this morning the thermometer showed -7 °C. The morning was starry and above the western horizon the sky was already blue, even if sunrise was still two hours away.

A good day to make some winter photos.

The first one is shot at the kanotudden – the canoe bay which is a large bay of the Skellefteå river in Ursviken, 5km away. Parts of the bay are quite shallow and calm and so the whole bay is ice covered:

This photos shows the Skellefteå river near Stackgrönnan, 8km away. Even here the river is completely covered with ice. Sky gets brighter and some feathery clouds changed into light pink:

The next two photos are shot from almost the same place – Bergsbydammen (11 km away) – the only possibility to cross the river between Skelleftehamn and Skellefteå. The current round the dam is stronger and parts of the river are open. The first photo points west or upstream, the second photo points east or downstream.

Some hours later …

The next photo is made before sunset, which is hardly four hours after sunrise at this time of the year. This photo is made from the peninsula Rönnskär in Skelleftehamn. Probably my favourite photo of today.

Early sunset above a wooden boat bridge in Skelleftehamn

That was my first winter day in Skelleftehamn. Now I’m longing for a long, cold winter with much snow and time for making more photos.

Flood along the Skellefteälven Dec 6 2015

The river Skellefteälven had much water today. Water level was 87 cm above normal according to a hiker I met at the river today. The hiker had to turn because parts of the way were still under water just as the ground besides.

It was funny walking on this “way” – the ground was frozen, 15 cm water above, slightly frozen over, too. I even saw a fish fleeing my rubber boots under the thin ice cover. And I was so glad about my crampon-like spikes, that I had with me, since the ground was almost frictionless.

After a grey morning the weather was nice with blue sky and sun, but still much too warm for the season. I really wonder how the river succeeds in freezing over when it’s hardly frosty. I also wonder why the river ice can rise almost 90 centimetres without getting any visible cracks. Probably it’s quite soft.

Ten, fifteen centimeters above water level you could see ice round the branches and twigs of the smaller trees and bushes, marking the high water peak of last night. I had to crouch and lie down to make the next picture.

It was easier to make pictures of the beautiful frost patterns that covered the ground. By the way: These are colour photographs.

Areas of water Dec 3 2015

There’s a lot of water round Skelleftehamn. North and east lies the Baltic Sea, in the west and south runs the river Skellefteälven and in the forests around there are some lakes such as the one kilometre long Snesviken.

As several times before, winter came when I left the country for a visit in Germany. That figures! But it didn’t last long. In my absence Skelleftehamn got 20 – 30 cm snow and one cold day with a minimum of -12.9 °C. Then it got warmer again and rain melted away most of the snow. Since I came back on sunday it snowed a bit with temperatures round 0 °C.

Today I was curious, how much ice would lay on the waters. First I checked the Baltic Sea round the peninsula Näsgrundet. The water still was completely open. The same at the small boat harbour Tjuvkistan.

Next stop: Sundgrundsbron, a bridge crossing the Skellefteälven which is round 700 meters wide at that place. The eastern part – the mouth of the river – was almost completely open too, with some thin ice at the riversides, while larger areas of the river itself in the west were covered with ice.

Next stop: Rudtjärnen, a smaller lake in the forest nearby. It might look like waves, but the lake is completely iced, as well as the larger Snesviken.

Rudtjärnen – completely covered with ice

Next stop: Storgrundet, which is both an elongated island and a small sandy beach. The Baltic Sea between island and main land is sheltered from wind and freezes over quite early. Round three-quarters of the water were iced too.

I would love to paddle at least one more time before the ice becomes too thick, but I’m afraid that I have to look for another starting point as my favourite Storgrundet.

And then I’m longing for cold weather that freezes over the Baltic Sea so that it’s possible to go or to ski to the islands.

Winter journey in a nutshell Nov 19 2015

It snowed in Skelleftehamn tonight. It’s hardly a secret, that I love winter, snow and coldness. In Skelleftehamn however it would be too warm, because the Baltic Sea is near.

Therefore I decided yesterday to take a day off today, take camera and car and travel towards winter. In the inland the climate is colder and hopefully there would be more snow. I started at 6:45 in darkness. The first part was no fun to drive. Road salt is used on the big road to Skellefteå and the road further west. With temperatures slightly below zero you always have a film of muddy saltwater on your windscreen while the wipers still are partly frozen and will not work properly. That in combination with approaching cars with bright lights makes it hard to see and much concentration is needed.

That instantly got better when I left the big road 95 (that would bring me to Bodø in Norway) right after Jörn. The smaller roads are covered with ice and hard snow – much easier to drive and the windscreen stays clear. And it looks much more like winter than a wet road. And while in Skelleftehamn even the duck pond is open, here the lakes and some small streams are ice and snow covered.

I continued the road and drove to Storklinten, a small ski hill. Well, it wasn’t so interesting yet with only round about 10 cm snow, but the lake nearby – Lill-Klintträsket – was really nice. It started snowing and the tree covered hills farther away seemed to vanish into a white nothing.

The way to Storklinten is a dead-end road and I had to return. I continued the larger road to Myrheden looking for motives. And I found one. The small river Ålsån:

I was glad I had my chest waders with me, so I could come quite near to the motive. And there were a lot of motives this day. For example reindeers. The first small flock was extremely shy and cautious. It didn’t dare to pass my car and left the road starring at me suspiciously from behind the small trees. You can see that they digged for food in the snow, the noses are snow covered and one of the reindeers even had a twig hanging in its antlers.

Further on the road: Town signs with funny looking names (there was even a village called Hej, which is Swedish for hello), more snow covered roads and trees and two extremely well educated reindeers going beside the road in single file.

I’m looking for motive especially, where there are crash barriers beside of the road – there the street will probably cross a river or a creek. Some of them are open, many broader ones with less current are already covered with ice. And on one of them – far away – I could see a reddish animal and some dark spots. A fox? Birds? I looked for the next parking opportunity – sometimes a real challenge – and walked back.

I was right: There was a fox. And some kind of skeleton, perhaps a roe deer or a reindeer. And some crows. And an eagle! It doesn’t happen often, that I see eagles nearby where I live. I made some photos with my tele lens. Zooming in I could even see some magpies hopping around hoping for a snack. The scene was much too far away to get good pictures, but anyway, I want to show you this one:

After a while I started to get hungry. My car too; the red R-lamp has been glowing for a while. Anyway, the town Arvidsjaur, todays destination, was not so far away anymore. As people in former days first fed their horses before eating themselves I first tanked my car with E95, then myself with beef, mashed potato, mushroom sauce and salad. Then I looked around in the city which I think is really nice. Especially in winter with snow – round 20 cm today.

Even if the “real winter” is not here yet the days are already quite short: Sunset in Arvidsjaur was a quarter past two! At three o’clock I started to use the car’s full beam, half an hour later it was quite dark. Time to head home. I couldn’t see any motives any longer and I navigated to the main road. Now driving became exhausting again for a while since it started to snow quite heavily. And if you use full beam while snowing you just see a tunnel of snow flakes swooshing towards you. It’s a big like old televisions science fiction series, when the spaceships activated their warp-drives. And as in space there is no up or down. The second photo may give you a faint idea.

Luckily the snow shower ended soon and the rest of the trip was just about coming home.

400 km and 500 meters – 11 hours 30 minutes – a straining but great one day trip winterwards.

Back again in Skelleftehamn: Snow is gone, it’s pitch black and it’s raining cats and dogs.

Some kind of autumn Sep 27 2015

Yesterday I dreamed of the first frost. The window panes of my winter garden where covered with frost patterns and even the floor was covered with frost. The door handle looked like bluish solid ice and I wanted to make a photo. Then I woke up.

No, winter is long away and even autumn hasn’t come fully yet. It’s still quite warm and autumn colouring has only started. Many birch trees are still green – weeks later than normal.

This is one of the reasons – beside of being very busy in the last weeks – why I hardly made any photos in the last time. But I made at least one picture that I want to share with you. That’s perhaps as much autumn as I could get this weekend round Skellefteå.

Autumn trees on the waterfront of the river Skellefteälven

From Nallo to Vistas, Alesjaure, Abiskojaure and back to civilization Sep 11 2015

This article is part of the series “2015-08: Kungsleden hike”.

August 30 – September 2: Day eight to eleven of the summer hike through the mountains of Swedish Lapland

Nallo – Vistas

After two days in Nallo Annika and I were eager and keen to move on. After our breakfast we said goodbye to stugvärd Janne and started to ford the stream behind of the hut. Fortunately the water level dropped to normal again and quite easily we could cross the stream.

Then we went along the Nallú, a fantastic mountain that changed its appearance every other second because of the moving clouds and the changing light situations. We never tired of looking at this big mountain that seemed to accompany us a long way.

After a while another stream that we had to cross, came down from the lake Nállujávrrit. While I managed to splash through with my high rubber boots, Annika decided to take of her shoes and wade through it in her sandals – brr, the water was really ice cold!

We continued the hike through the fast-changing scenery. Quite soon we saw the first trees and realised that the big mountain ahead was the Vássačorru, that lies behind the valley Visttasvággi, where our next destination, the Vistasstuga is located.

Soon we crossed the Visttasjohka on the chain bridge and arrived at the cabin to meet the stugvärd – the warden.

Oh look: Coke and beer are priced down! That’s because the season only lasts three other weeks. After that the huts are closed down until their reopening for the skiers in February or March. But because none of the cans would survive the frost, all liquids has to be drunk in the next three weeks or poured away. We decided to save some cokes from this cruel destiny.

We were placed in the outhouse – the main building was in the act of being renovated. There we sat on the front stairs, ate, drank and looked on the river Visttasjohka. And we took a bath in this cold river. Chilling but refreshing! Finally the sun came out. I crossed the bridge to make a photo of our cabin.

Later – it started getting dark – we got a visitor: A big moose stood beside the river. I went out, where I could observe this huge animal, how it ate leaves and grass, less than 10 meters away. It looked at me but wasn’t disturbed by me at all, it even passed quite near until it vanished between some trees. This was one of the moments were I was glad and touched as a “normal person”, but a bit grumpy with myself, that I was too lazy to carry my big tele lens for better and sharper pictures. I never experienced a moose so near and so fearless.

Vistas – Alesjaure

The trip the day before was short: only 9 kilometres, this day it would be twice as much: 18 km. The first kilometres were a bit boring since they went through birch forests and quite muddy passages. But after a while the landscape opened and we could see the mountain Siehtagas with its glacier Siehtagasglaciären. In front of the mountain there were alpine meadows and small birch forests. In front of that the turquoise water of the Visttasjohka glimmered in the sunlight.

Siehtagas mountain and Visttasjohki river

We went up again until we again were over the treeline. This part of the valley Visttasvaggi is beautiful and very varying. The first rest we made in the lee side of a huge cuboid rock. We weren’t the first – someone built a bench by laying a plank over two stones. The second rest we made at the Tjatjajaurekåtan (there’s not much left of it).

After a while I saw some reindeers grassing. There were shy and quickly went away when I came nearer. We saw (probably) them again when we had a view at the sami village Alisjávri that lies at the lake with the the same name. From that it’s not far to the mountain huts of Alesjaure – the Swedish version of Alisjávri. The Alesjaurestugorna are the biggest mountain huts of the STF – the Swedish tourist association. I prefer the smaller ones as e.g. Nallo, but it’s fine to have a shop, a drying room and especially a sauna. And we used it all! It’s nice to go to sleep after being in the sauna and having a wash in the river Aliseatnu.

Alesjaure – Abiskojaure

I didn’t make many pictures of this part of our tour. I was a bit bored of this part of the trail and found nothing special in the landscape. Just some photos of human evidence: Tent poles for a lavvu and a crossing over a long reindeer fence.

It was the first time, that I was really impatient and just wanted to arrive. Some kilometres before Abiskojaure we came below the treeline. Most of the birch trees still were green but you could see, that autumn is near. No wonder, it was the 1st of September, beginning of autumn for the meteorologists.

Finally we reached another chain bridge and shortly after it arrived in Abiskojaure. The sun came out and even though it was much colder than one week ago we could sit and lie on the short-cut lawn in front of the hut. I took the last bath of the journey and strolled around making some photos. After crossing a small swamp I came to a quite huge sandy beach beside the lake Ábeskojávri. A beautiful place!

The evening it started to become chilly, hardly 3 °C. I was curious if we would get the first frost of the season next morning …

Abiskojaure – Abisko Östra

… and yes, we got frost. -2.5 °C showed the scientific thermometer of the swedish weather service, when I had my first look. On the water surface of the buckets lay a layer of ice and round the leaves of lower plants I could see the first autumnal hoarfrost.

The first frost: Ice covered water in the bucket

I was up very early that morning and I went to the beach at the lake again. First it looked quite normal but then it started to get foggy and misty while the sun rose behind the mountain Giron. What a beautiful sight! I stood there for at least an hour and only walked back to get another full battery for my camera. Later I met Annika, showed her the place and was glad that I could share this awesome experience.

I was a bit sad – this would be the last day of hiking through the wonderful mountain landscape of Swedish Lapland. But each journey has some kind of end and so had ours. We started our tour through the birth forests along the lake Ábeskojávri, than along the river Abiskojåkka.

After a while a famous landmark came into sight: Lapporten – “The Lapponian Gate”, a U-shaped valley framed of two mountains that give this valley its specific and recognizable shape. However, since this photo is taken from the backside, it hardly shows this special shape.

Since Alesjaure we followed the Kungsleden – the King’s Trail, but right after the bridge over the stream Nissonjohka we left the main trail that leads to the Abisko Mountain Station and turned right to Abisko Östra, the village, were we planned to stay for two other days. The way, however, was not much fun to go. A lot of all-terrain vehicles has turned the way into mud. Since I lost my lens cap and I was afraid that mud would splatter my lens, I packed the camera into its waterproof bag long before the worst mud patches. And that’s why this is the last photo of our hiking tour:

Thank you Annika, för trevligt sällskap – for nice company. Where should we hike next?

Any suggestions?