Just a short walk to the seaside of Storgrundet Mar 21 2019

I had been inside most of the day. Finally I just had to go out to enjoy the nice blue sky, at least for a short time. I parked my car at Storgrundet, crossed the ice to the island of the same name and went to the seaside of the island. There I spotted moose tracks on the sea ice that went criss-cross and led to another island.

I was walking without snowshoes and it had been exhausting to cross the narrow island. The snow had been more than knee deep, easy to sink in, still pretty firm and hard to get out. It was much easier to go on the snow covered ice on the Baltic Sea although the snow was very wet sometimes. Rubber boots are a good choice in this season.

The Baltic Sea behind the island however looked like winter would be eternal. Just a snowy layer as far as the eye could see.

March snow at the coast Mar 19 2019

Today I finally had to work with my it job again.

But before that I just had to take my camera and drive to different places by the sea. I was curious how it would look like after the snowfalls of the last days. This morning between 75 cm and 80 cm of snow in my backyard and we are talking about the average, not the snow drifts.

1. Peninsula Näsgrundet

Normally the coastal line is quite visible here. Either you see stones sticking out of the rocky coast or you can spot the raised ice edge. Today you mainly saw a white plain. Only some of the largest rock and some brown tufts of grass were sticking out of the snow. I really had to look for motives to avoid images with a plain-white bottom half.

I would not dare to enter the ice because you cannot see its thickness. Probably there are weak spots that wouldn’t bear my weight.

2. Boat harbour Kurjoviken

On the roofs protecting the two wooden boats there was hardly any snow. Probably it had been too windy. Parts of the outside furniture of the restaurant Sjökrog were buried deepely in the snow. There was also a completely buried table, but that would have given a very boring photo.

3. Nameless boat bridge, Rönnskär

The boat bridge normally shows nice contrasts between the wooden construction and the water, whether covered with ice or not. Even here the snow made it all the same today: snow everywhere reduced the contrasts radically.

Now I was satisfied enough to start working, but first I had to shovel snow. I had already cleared the garage driveway last Sunday, not I had to dig a bay into the snow so that the postman could approach the mailbox by car. Phew, that was work, round about 1.5 m³ of frozen snow had to be moved and thrown in my front yard.

Snow makes everything beautiful, it’s only a matter of the amount.

Sjona, Helgelandkysten Mar 7 2019

Some photos from today’s small road trip with Annika from Mo i Rana to the fjord Sjona, Norway.

Why we are in Mo I Rana? Because Annika and I just finished a four days ski tour in the Vindelfjäll mountains. We had left our car in Hemavan and from Hemavan it’s only 100 km to Mo I Rana, where we’re visiting D. and C., friends of Annika.

Old ice, new ice Mar 1 2019

Just one cold night with calm weather and temperatures round -11 °C was enough to freeze the coastal Baltic Sea after yesterday’s stormy weather. Between the thin and dark new ice are thick old ice floes, most of them grounded on rocks, because most free floating ice floes were blown away yesterday.

If you were there and looked really closely you would see the new ice floes moving up and down a bit. There are still not frozen together.

Last day of February – farewell sea ice Feb 28 2019

Yesterday I stood on the ice edge of Kågnäshällan. It was warm and felt like the end of April. And so it looked like, too, because large parts of the Bothnian Bay were free of ice. Only protected bays and shallow waters round the islands were still frozen.

It became colder and stormy in the night. It even snowed a millimetre.

When I got up this morning it was -4 °C and still quite gusty and stormy. At 8 o’clock I took the car to have a look at the ice conditions.

I passed the nearest bay Kallholmsfjärden, just 400 metres from my house. Some ice fishers were sitting on the ice, but only some hundred meters from open water. I however wanted to drive to Näsgrundet, one of my favourite places. Yesterday afternoon the sea east of this peninsula had been completely covered with a new ice shield that had been created one week ago. Today it was … well, different …

Gale-force wind gusts tugged at my hood. Waves splashed sea spray and tossed pieces of ice onto the ice walls in front of the coast. Ice floes floated to and fro, cracking, shaking, turning, breaking. Sometimes I could feel the vibration of another wave hitting the ice wall I was standing on. Some of the ice already had been squelched to slush. I cannot remember such an impressive view of the forces of the Baltic Sea in winter time. Farther away a ship was leaving the port, accompanied by a tug boat and the small icebreaker Baus.

I tried to make pictures of the say spray of the waves. Not easy …

Behind the curtains of spray waves came rolling and small and large ice floes pivoted and danced while going up and down.

After 45 minutes the Baus came back heading for the port.

Partly I was taking pictures, partly I was just enjoying the energy of the elements and listened to the different sounds. I tried to make some videos, but all you can hear is the swooshing wind at full volume.

After one and a half hours of photographing I left this scene and drove to the small boat harbour Tjuvkistan nearby. Here the ice uses to be safe to cross to the islands Norrskär and Bredskär until the end of March or even mid-April.

Well, not this year. Even here the ice layer was being destroyed by the waves. The northern wind blew the ice floes away, so they will not freeze together again, or perhaps in Finland.

When I returned home I passed the Kallholmsfjärden a second time. The ice fishers were gone – there was just no ice left to sit on and fish from.

So, the sea-ice-season is over, four to six weeks earlier than usual.

Last day of February – polar light Feb 28 2019

Just one hour ago: finally a polar light above Skelleftehamn that was more than a pale green arc. It was just a short intermezzo and when I had found a good place for photographing it already weakened. That’s normal. Many of the beautiful auroras do not last long. I got some shots anyway.

You see the open water on the last image? Well, that’s another story to tell.

Kågnäshällan – between land, ice and sea Feb 27 2019

Kågnäshällan is a small island in the Baltic Sea with a lighthouse. The linear distance is only 7 km, but it’s 18 km by car. Since I cannot fly (and neither skies or kayak would do neither) I took the car this morning to Kågnäsudden, the cape nearby to take some photos on Kågnäshällan.

The sea is almost free of ice, only at the coast and between the islands there’s a thick layer of ice left. That makes the area quite amphibian. I took snowshoes and pulka for walking along the coast and for crossing the wet but safe ice between mainland and Kågnäshällan. Then I wanted to get near the ice edge and chose waterproof equipment. The waterproof Nikon AW-1 for taking photos and my red immersion suit to keep my warm and dry in the ice cold water. I felt like a bright red seal hunting for photos, not for fish.

Farewell winter Feb 22 2019

Yesterday afternoon: a snapshot of the coast. That’s how I like winter. Either a lot of snow or cold, crisp and sunny days at the coast.

This morning at 7 o’clock the weather was still fine. An almost cloudless blue sky at -19 °C. Would it be another beautiful winter day? Well …

Since days the weather services SMHI, Klart and yr had been predicting much warmer weather from today. Unfortunately they were right. At 8:00 the temperature already had risen to -9 °C, at 9:30 to -4 °C. In the afternoon some snowfall was predicted by SMHI. Instead of snow we got freezing rain for hours and soon black ice covered the roads and made them incredibly slippery. Even the snow-covered surface became extremely icy. The rain created an ice shield everywhere, for example on the southern windows of my winter garden.

Freezing rain on a window of my winter garden

Both SMHI, Klart and yr predict warm weather with plus degrees up to 8 °C for the rest of the month. Much too warm for February!

The rubber boots and the matching spikes are already at the door and probably will become standard equipment for days.

Farewell winter. I hope you come back with snow and coldness in March.

No kayaking today Feb 21 2019

Yesterday the Baltic Sea was open. Some ice floes drifted in the waves, the rest between mainland and the island Gåsören was open water. Just the photo from yesterday afternoon one more time:

20 February: the Baltic Sea round Gåsören is open

When I saw the open see yesterday I thought about kayaking today. Temperatures below -15 °C were expected. What to wear beside of a dry suit? How many layers?

I started to dig out the door and gate of my garage to be able to get my kayak. That was hard work. The upper layer of the frozen snow that had slid from the roof was as hard as concrete. Even the avalanche shovel with the metal blade could be hug into the snow centimetre by centimetre. But finally I made it, my kayak was free.

Today at 7 o’clock the outdoor thermometer showed -18 °C. Again – what to wear on a kayak winter tour? Two layers of underwear? The winter anorak? The earflap cap made of thick polyester fur? Well, first let’s check the situation by the sea.

Oops …

21 February The Baltic Sea is frozen again

The sea had been frozen overnight. A stripe of at least several hundred metres was covered with soft and thin ice, exactly that type of ice hardest to handle when sitting in a kayak.

Kayaking plans cancelled! Time for another photo.

Meanwhile in Skelleftehamn – snow and sea ice Feb 20 2019

I expected the worst in Skelleftehamn. The worst regarding winter. I wanted to have a real one – it’s mid-February – but had heard about the warm temperatures last week. Three days with temperatures round 7 °C, at least in town. But I was lucky, it hadn’t rained these days. The snow had fallen together but was still there. All minor streets where still white with some fresh snowdrifts from today’s strong and gusty wind and in my backyard lie still round 55 cm of snow.

Of course I had to shovel away the snow before I could use my car. Its a car with all-wheel drive but no snowcat. Although the snow was hard it was easier than expected.

The special thing about a trip with the Hurtigruten ship is that the Norwegian Sea is free of ice the whole year round and most parts of the Barents Sea, too. The Bothnian Bay – the northernmost part of the Baltic Sea – however is covered with a thick solid layer of ice. That’s what I thought until I read a Facebook post today:

Öppet vatten runt Gåsören. – Open water round [the island] Gåsören.

I could hardly believe it and took the car to the coast. And yes – large parts of the sea were free of ice, even the ice floes had gone beside of some remains. I guess there won’t be a ski tour to Gåsören this winter.

Two weeks ago I had made ski tours on the Baltic Sea with Chris. Although there’s solid ice left between the other islands I doubt that we could do the same tours today.

Here’s a comparison of the ice situation today and two weeks ago:

Legend: fast ice | very close or compact ice | open ice | open water
Source: SMHI Sea Ice – Archived charts and reports