A cold and crisp winter day Feb 6 2018

Day 4 of the winter journey 2018

This morning was cold, clear and crisp with temperatures round -25 °C. The snow glittered and the sun slowly started to illuminate the snow covered trees. Today Annika would travel back to Umeå and our main plan for that day was to not have any plans at all.

Dirk, the owner of Solberget asked me however if I could have a short photo session to make pictures of his reindeer sledges in action – one of the attraction of the wilderness retreat. And I gladly accepted. Here’s a first selection of the photos i made.

When I later took Annika to the nearest train station Nattavaara the temperature dropped to temperatures round -30 °C. Good to know, that the small station in Nattavaara has a small heated waiting room where you can wait for the train.

Her train was several hours late (I’ll come back to that topic later …) but thanks to internet and mobile app we already were informed about that delay and hadn’t wait too long until the train arrived in Nattavaara.

Annika will be away for two weeks until we’ll meet again and start our main winter journey. Meanwhile I’ll do a ski tour with Jonas, a good friend from Germany who should already have arrived the day before. Which he didn’t. Well, the train delays – I promised you to come back to that topic.

Due to a snowstorm in Gävleborgs län all trains to Northern Sweden had been cancelled. Jonas had been stuck in Stockholm. He couldn’t take the train the next day neither since it was fully booked. Therefore he was forced to wait another day and then take the night train with a scheduled arrival on Monday, 7:38. This train however was stuck in Vännäs for many hours due to technical problems. Instead of arriving on Saturday, 12:40 as originally planned he arrived on Monday, 17:00. That’s more than 52 hours delay!

But finally he arrived and tomorrow we can plan our ski tour which we’ll probably start on the day after tomorrow, 7 February.

A short tour onto the hill Solberget Feb 4 2018

Day 3 of the winter journey 2018

Just two images from a wonderful ski tour up the hill Solberget.

Impressions of the Jokkmokk Winter Market Feb 3 2018

Day 1 and 2 of the winter journey 2018

The first time I’ve been on the Jokkmokksmarknad – the Jokkmokk Winter Market – was 2005. As many other tourists I strolled over the market looking at the many products, everything between fox furs, Sami handicraft and plastic tools for the everyday life.

Since then I’ve been on the market several times, last time in 2015. And I still enjoy the market. Some random impressions:

But my focus has started to change. More and more I want to talk to all the people on the market. With the old guy from Finland trading with fur products, with the American artist building objects from weaving looms, with the Sami women selling grammar books about “lulesamiska”, with the people selling double-walled sauna tents. So many interesting people, all with their own story.

Another way of storytelling I witnessed at 4 o’clock. Sofia Jannok, a famous Sami singer and songwriter presented her current program, which is very political from a Sami perspective. As a musician however I had a strong focus on the music, which I enjoyed very much even though it wasn’t the music I use to listen to. I asked Sofia after the concert if I may publish a photo and I may:

I could tell more but the laptop battery is almost empty and dinner is served in 15 minutes. Two strong arguments for closing the article. We’ll hear soon …

That arctic feeling Jan 30 2018

Have a look at the following photo:

It could have been taken at some spot at the Arctic Sea, couldn’t it? But it wasn’t. I made that photo just today, only 2 km away from home!

Today I wanted to test whether the camera backpack worked well together with the waist harness of my pulka. Therefore I made a small ski tour. First I crossed the ice between mainland and the island Storgrundet. The water between mainland and island is well protected and always calm. Therefore the ice is about 40 cm thick and more than safe to cross. I crossed the forested island, which is partly less than 200 meters wide and soon stood on one of the snow drifts at the outer shore. Beside of some smaller other islands and an old boat shed all I could see was clouds, snow, and ice.

There were many thick ice floes along the shore, but the ice between them was hardly a centimetre thick. No surprise, since large parts of the sea had been free of ice last week. I pierced the new ice with a stick and measured 60 cm water beneath. Not life-threatening, but I definitely didn’t want to get soaked and therefore sticked to the shoreline of Storgrundet. That’s where I took the photo above.

The other photo? Yes, that’s me with my Norrøna jacket (light and windproof), my Lowepro camera backpack and my Fjellpulken pulka. The test succeeded: pulka and backpack do work well together! Good to know for the ski tour in the Swedish mountains that I’ll start next week …

Question: Do you see the mistake I’m making on the 2nd photo? Please comment.

Varning! Isvak! Jan 22 2018

The river Skellefteälven between Skellefteå and the coast of the Baltic Sea. That particular place is called Stackgrönnan. On warm summer weekends the café is quite crowded. In winter it’s closed.

This sunday however the small snow covered way is crowded, even though it’s mid-January. Many cars are parking, many people are standing around, warmly dressed for winter. Some of them have bags or rucksacks with them.

The Skellefteälven is completely frozen and covered with snow. Snowmobile tracks lead to the opposite riverside. On the river ice there are signs round a cordon.

They say “Varning! Isvak!” – “Warning! ice hole!”. And there is an ice hole indeed, four square meters big. Some people stand around with spearlike tools and remove the last thick ice blocks from the hole.

So that ice hole seems to have a purpose and it has: It’s an ice hole maintained by the association Mörkrets och Kylans Glada Vänner, or in english Happy Friends of Cold and Darkness.

I’ve been member of this association almost from the beginning and had the pleasure, honour (, and work) of being part of the organisation team for the very first Swedish Winter Swim Championship in Skellefteå in 2012. It was the coldest day of the winter with temperatures below -30 °C, but that’s another story …

Back to the plot: All people have come to take a winter bath or at least to cheer to those who do. Annika and I have winter-bathed before but not yet this winter. We aren’t the only one’s who want to take a bath, there are at least 30 others and the changing rooms are stuffed with people, some wearing winter parkas and warm boots, others just their swimwear and a cap. The same outside: Woollen mittens and down jackets on the one side, wet semi-nude bathers with towels on the other side.

And what is in the ice hole? One winter bather after the other. First looking tensed or even shocked, since the water temperature is round 0 °C (and yes, that’s cold!), then relaxed and happy because the body releases endorphins. But have a look by yourself:

After the last bather – most people and cars already have gone – wintry silence starts to set in again. The snow covered tables and benches are still untouched and the fairy lights round the big flag pole are on. Temperature is -11 °C. If you ask me, a perfect winter day.

Appendix one

On 17 February 2018, the Open Scandinavian Championship which is a part of the World Cup will be held in Skellefteå for the seventh time. And you can apply!

Appendix two

Evidence photos of me in the ice hole? Thanks to Annika, who took photos with her mobile they exist. Var så god:

The blog author bathing in the ice hole I

The blog author bathing in the ice hole II

Hampstärnsstugan Jan 14 2018

There’s a hiking trail from Umeå to the lake Tavelsjö, the so-called Tavelsjöleden. The first stop after 5 km is the mountain hut Hampstärnsstugan. Today it opened for the first time this season and served waffles and some other snacks.

While Annika and I had used our new cross-country skis the last days (lightweight, slim and fast) we decided to use our sturdy back-country skis today since we didn’t know anything about the trail conditions.

The trail however was almost perfect, we just had to follow the railway-like ski tracks. We would have been much faster with the other skis, but we just enjoyed being outside and of course the warm chocolate and waffles in the stuga.

While we skied round 10 km, most of the families probably came by car. It was fun to watch the small children on their sledges and toboggans dashing down the slopes, even though we had to jump away several times to avoid collision.

I love being outdoors far, far away from civilisation, but it’s great as well to be able to make such short holiday trips just out of town.

Kayakvideo – my thing – winter kayaking in Skellefteå Nov 12 2017

Last summer I was asked by filmmaker Johan Granstrand if I would be interested in making a small film about my winter paddling. I felt honoured to be asked and gladly accepted.

Despite to this year we got a lot of snow already in the beginning of November last year. Since weather was nice (and cold) we decided to make the film on November 12, exactly one year ago.

I already blogged about this day in my post “Kayak – is it a boat or a sledge?”. Some weeks ago I got the permission to share the link to the video and that’s what I do today.

“Min Grej – Kayaking i Skellefteå på vintern” on Vimeo.

(I really like this film but I don’t like listening to me talking. My Swedish sounds awfully!)

30 August: Kungsleden day 11 – Abiskojaure—Abisko (15 km) Sep 13 2017

This article is part of the series “2017-08: Kungsleden hike”.

The night in Abiskojaure was anything but restful. Too many people in the room, some of them quite reckless and the air was too warm and stuffy. Very early we got up. I took a short stroll to the beach of the lake Ábeskojávri. Then we had breakfast and at already 8:10 we left Abiskojaure to begin our last hiking day. There was another good reason to start early: eating lunch in the restaurant of the Abisko Fjällstation, the Abisko Mountain Station!

Paw prints of a moose at the beach of Ábeskojávri

This part of Kungsleden is easy to walk and planked footpaths led over the wet parts. With every kilometre of walking we came nearer to civilisation. More hikers with large backpacks, more day trippers, the first private stuga (cottage) and more and more other ways and paths. A signpost to a camp, fifty pupils resting – some of them preparing noodles with their Trangria camping stoves, the sound of a train running through Abisko. Civilisation (and lunch!) definitely came nearer and nearer.

When we had started that morning we had walked first by the lake Ábeskojávri and since then we followed the river Ábeskoeatnu. Near Abisko the river flows through an impressive canyon.

Another train transporting iron ore, this time we could see it. We walked barely another twenty minutes before we came to the northern end of the Kungsleden (most people use that as a starting point and hike southwards) in Abisko. A wooden portal invited us to a “we made it” selfie.

We crossed the railway line, then the road – European route E10 connecting Å i Lofoten i Norway and Luleå in Sweden – went another 200 metres and entered the large main building of the Abisko Mountain Station. We booked a four bed room and then we headed for lunch that we enjoyed very much, especially the fresh salad buffet.

The rest of the day we enjoyed the other luxuries of civilisation as electric light, WiFi or hot showers. It was so nice to have such things again. Anyhow we looked at the stamps we got on hour hiking trip – one from each hut:

Teusajaure – Kaitumjaure – Singi (two nights) – Sälka – Nallo (two nights) – Vistas – Alesjaure – Abiskojaure

What a fantastic tour we had made together! Thank you Katrin, Thank you Annika, thank you Andi! Perhaps we’ll manage to do such again.

Here you can read all articles of our wonderful tour on a single page. It will take some time for even if I didn’t mention all of the experiences we had on this trip, it was much to tell anyway:

Kungsleden hike 2017-08

29 August: Kungsleden day 10 – Alesjaure—Abiskojaure (7+15 km) Sep 12 2017

This article is part of the series “2017-08: Kungsleden hike”.

From Alesjaure to Abiskojaure it’s round about 22 km to go. That’s the longest day’s march on that part of the Kungsleden. The first 7 km go along the lake Alisjávri which is good for a special reason: In summer there’s a boat shuttle service that allows hikers to skip this part. We all decided to take the boat, both to shorten the distance and to enjoy the boat trip itself.

Since the first regular boat starts at 10 o’clock we had a very relaxed breakfast with a lot of time. The quite large shop had fresh eggs so we had the pleasure of boiled eggs for breakfast. And very special egg cups …

The sun came out and illuminated the Alisvággi, the valley that leads to Tjäktja.

We went to the shipping pear already at 9:30, to go sure that we would find places on the boat. Andi ran up the yellow flag – the signal for the boatsman. The sun came out and I decided to take a bath. Not so easy, since the water was only knee-deep (and as icecold as expected).

Soon the boat arrived with stugvärd J. onboard. He was out fishing and succeeded: eight big arctic chars he caught.

At ten o’clock we departed. I could have stayed on the boat for hours, not only because I love to go by ship or boat, but even more because the sami boatsman had so much to tell.

He was living in Alesjávri for the summer “together with his dog and three common gulls” to run this transport business that he considers as a holiday. In September he would continue herding his reindeers. There are 17 families left in his sameby that do reindeer husbandry full time. (A sameby is kind of juridic and economical collective for reindeer husbandry.) He told us much more (all in Swedish) but after barely half an hour we arrived at the other shipping pear and went ashore.

When we started to walk it started to rain – bad timing. It was more a series of rain showers and I put on my hood and put it off again many times. Almost all mountains lay in the clouds, only the Ádnji seemed to have sun the whole time.

While we went on something chirped. Beep – Beep – (silence) – Beep … . We had heard that sound before on our hiking tour, but it was the first time that we could spot the matching bird. It was a golden plover as we figured out later. The bird was a bit nervous while I crawled nearer and nearer to get a photo, but it didn’t flee. Unfortunately my travel tele lens is not the best but I got a photo anyway.

We crossed the long reindeer fence that separates the sameby Laevas in the south and the sameby Gabna in the north. We just had to climb some stairs, where the Kungsleden crossed the border.

I knew that I had to say farewell to the treeless kalfjäll soon. In a short while we would enter the valley Gárddenvággi that would lead us deeper and deeper into more forested terrain. I was a bit sad, when i said farewell to that wonderful landscape.

The next kilometres were rainy, stony and muddy and we all just wanted to arrive in Abiskojaure, well knowing that it still would take some hours until we would arrive. I just trotted along and didn’t use my camera until we arrived in Abiskojaure. Here we finally made the photo of our four backpacks that we had talked about for days, but I was much too lazy to arrange it nicely.

Four backpacks: Andi’s, mine, Annika’s, Katrin’s

The rain had stopped and the sun came out again so I took some last photos of the day, eager to eat something and to relax in the sauna.

Since Abiskojaure is the last hut before Abisko we found a lot of leftover food as dried vegetables, noodles or tuna sauce. That gave us a formidable afternoon meal. While we prepared for the sauna we heard, that there were moose on the other side of the lake. Indeed two female moose stood there in the wateraquatic plants. There were far away but we saw them dipping there heads into the water (they could hold their breeze really long) and eating aquatic plants. We saw them wading, swimming and shaking out the water. They had spotted us but knew that we were far away and no danger for them.

Katrin, Annika and Andi headed for the sauna, I watched a bit longer. When I went back to the hut I saw some others photoing something. It was a huge male moose, that stood amidst the huts and seemed to be not at all shy. I never saw a male moose so close! The moose went away, but stopped again, when he found rallarros flowers between the old toilet building and the wood shed. While watching us all the time he continued picking flowers with his huge mouth and eating them. At least twenty people stood there, watching, photographing and filming. Since all were quite sensible – no one was too hasty, too loud or came too near – we all could watch this big animal for some minutes. Then it took some step into the forest and almost instantly vanished in the shadows. What an experience!

28 August: Kungsleden day 9 – Vistas—Alesjaure (18 km) Sep 11 2017

This article is part of the series “2017-08: Kungsleden hike”.

Today Katrin, Annika, Andi and I would continue to Alesjaure, the longest distance to walk so far.

The morning was frosty with -2 °C and the petals of the flowers called rallarros (rosebay willowherb or fireweed) were covered with ice.

The sky was blue, the sun was shining, we had picture-book weather. As a photographer I would have preferred to hike two weeks later when leaf coloration would be in progress, but you can’t have everything. Anyway, the photo of the bridge over the Visttasjohka right at the Vistasstugan looks like a postcard motif:

This spot looked quite Canadian or Alaskan to me. I almost expected to spot some huge grizzly bears catching salmon in the river. But we’re still in Sweden where bears are brown bears and (luckily) very shy.

The first kilometres of the trail to Alesjaure lead through dense birch forest. Then gradually the forest got less and less dense and the snow covered mountains that frame the valley Visttasvággi were revealed.

The first kilometres were said to be muddy and they were, but not more than many other passages that we walked the days before. Unfortunately the trail continued to be both rocky and muddy and therefore wasn’t easy to walk.

After we left the birch forest the landscape became more rocky again. We found the resting place I remembered from two years ago. Someone had used a plank and some stones to build a bench in front of a huge block of stone. Still the sun was shining but gradually the sky become cloudy. Will we manage to arrive before the rain comes? We still hadn’t walked half of the distance.

We continued our tour until we reached the bridge over the stream Moarhmmájohka. Andi and I went down to refill out water bottles, then we took only a short rest since we were eager to arrive not too late.

After having crossed the bridge we had to go uphills quite steeply and we all slowed down more or less. Then we arrived at the plateau and looked back a last time into the beautiful valley Visttasvággi.

The clouds became denser, the wind increased but still it was dry. We passed the lakes Vuolip Čazajávri and Bajip Čazajávri. We went on and the sami village Alisjávri, located by the lake of the same name came into view. Now it was only 1.5 km left to the Alesjaurestugorna, our destination. As the day before we spotted the sauna first.

At 4 o’clock we arrived at Alesjaure and we stayed dry. Alesjaure is the largest mountain hut that we would stay at. It has as much as 86 regular beds (and more place if needed.)

I already found out, that stugvärd J. would be here, he whom Annika and I met in Nallo two years before and I again on my winter tour in Singi for some days. And really, he indeed was there and I was very glad to meet him again.

To meet J. means also to meet Simba, his kingsize dog. Simba dosed in the outside, stoically ignoring the mosquitoes in her eyes and on her nose. I said hello and started to pet her, which she apparently liked: she sighed and slumped onto her side. The photos I made before and afterwards:

I didn’t know, that Simba the dog is a helicopter

Alesjaure has several houses, which appear more like a youth hostel than a mountain hut. That may look less cozy but we all enjoyed our big beds in our own four-bed-room. Katrin and Annika went to the sauna and after that we cooked one kilo (!) of pasta with goulash soup as a sauce. No, we didn’t manage to eat it all, the rest would follow us to Abiskojaure the next day.

Alesjaure would the last place in the kalfjäll above the treeline on this tour. Tomorrow we would continue to Abiskojaure, which is round 22 km away. This could be the longest day’s march, but we took a shortcut …