A ski tour in the Kvikkjokk mountains – day 4 Feb 18 2018

This article is part of the series “2018-02: Ski tour near Kvikkjokk”.

Day 10 of my winter journey 2018

After two days in the Njunjesstugan Jonas and I continued our tour in the mountains west from Kvikkjokk, The weather continued to be grey and dull with temperatures round -11 °C and last night’s snowfall brought five to six centimetres of downy snow.

The winter trail led through forests and hills – one of them so steep, that we hardly managed to ascent it by foot. I guess, that some of the people marking the way prefer the snowmobile before the skis and adapt the trail to that …

Even in winter time parts of the rivers are open

Soon we reached the lake Darrávrre which we followed to the mountain hut Tarrekaisestugan. We made a rest, not to stay there but to simplify the continuation of our ski tour. The next tour would lead uphills and we wanted to reduce weight. Therefore we left food, paraffin oil and some spare clothes in the wood shed and took only food for two days with us. After two days in the higher mountains we would return to the hut.

We carried on. By crossing the lake Darrávrre to the west we left the hiking trail Padjelantaleden. On the other side of the lake the trail climbed up the hill. It was not as steep as feared and even if the ascent was quite exhausting for me we managed to get up to the tree line.

We reached an altitude of approx. 680 meter. Here we left the trail and erected the tent in the twilight between some birch trees. This time the snow was stable after tramping it down with the skis and we hadn’t to dig down as three nights before. It had become even warmer: -7 °C and it snowed. Both of us were longing for clear, crips and sunny winter days but it didn’t look like we would get better weather. At least it wasn’t as stormy as forecasted.

A ski tour in the Kvikkjokk mountains – day 2 and 3 Feb 18 2018

This article is part of the series “2018-02: Ski tour near Kvikkjokk”.

Day 8 and 9 of my winter journey 2018

After the first night in the tent (it was a cold one!) we were eager to continue the tour. The tent was packed and so were the pulkas. We started by skiing through powder snow – a slow movement. I guess I hardly reached 2 km/h in average and I definitely was much slower when I had to go uphills. We looked for a good place to access the river again since it was much easier to follow the stable snow on the snowmobile tracks. After a while we found a good place to enter the river bed. Mostly the winter trail followed the river, only twice it continued on land where the river is narrow and had open water.

After some kilometres the river bent southwards and our trail left the river to continue more westwards. We continued the snowmobile tracks that led through forests and over smaller bogs.

We started to think about reaching the mountain hut Njunjes but weren’t at all sure if we would reach it before darkness. Anyhow, we didn’t had any pressure, since we had anything with us which we need for tenting:

a tent (of course)
down filled camping mats
very warm sleeping bags and vapour barrier lines
warm clothes from head to foot
a lot of food
a paraffin oil driven cooker
… and much more …

The way was easy but the pulkas were heavy loaded and after hours of walking I started to get tired and exhausted. That’s one of the reasons why I hardly made any photos. Another reason was that both my cameras refused to work in the morning with temperatures round -30 °C. It became warmer, but it was still round -25 °C, although it had become cloudy and overcast that day quite early.

Beside of a longer and a shorter rest we continued skiing, now with the defined goal to reach the hut. It started to get dark but we knew that we only had to go another hour or a bit more to make it.

Me skiing along the Darrhaädno – photo: Jonas Balbasus

After a while it went so dark that we skied with headlights. The buildings of Njunjes had come into view but they were on the other side of the river. When we were on a level with Njunjes we realised that the river became a quite deep ravine, probably with open water and quite impossible to cross …

… but we were really lucky: there was a metal chain bridge that led over that very ravine. It was quite a fight to climb up the slope after crossing the bridge, but with a lot of pulling (and without our skis) we managed it.

Soon Jonas found the open winter room with was made for people like us who like to travel off-season. A stove, wood, a bunk bed for two people, hooks for drying clothes, a table and two stools – anything to stay here for a night or two.

Day three was a day off. It was warmer than the day before and mostly dim and cloudy. I took pictures of the chain bridge, the mountain hut and the landscape (as far as it was visible)

Njunjes – the entrance of the winter room

After breakfast we attached new climbing skins to my skis and took a ski tour. First cross the river again and right to the sun. Then up some minor hills through sparse birch forests and eastwards to meet the branch to the hut that we had missed the day before. The skins worked well but it was almost a pity to have them attached to my skis since they slowed me down when skiing downhills through the loose powder snow. The sun was hardly visible through the clouds and the landscape almost looked sepia – like an old black and white photo.

First it only snowed a bit but when we finished our tour and arrived at “our” mountain hut snowfall increased. While Jonas was busy sawing and chopping wood I took a small nap.

In the evening we planned to continue to Tarrekaisestugan the next day – the next mountain hut in the west – and probably to continue and tent again in the wintry forests.

Photo #2 in this blog article is made by Jonas Balbasus.

A ski tour in the Kvikkjokk mountains – day 1 Feb 16 2018

This article is part of the series “2018-02: Ski tour near Kvikkjokk”.

Day 7 of the winter journey 2018

I’m really glad, that my friend Jonas and I managed to realise a ski tour this year. It’s our 3rd ski tour together, but the last one was five years ago. A long time. Actually we had planned for eleven days, but due to severe snow falls between Gävle and Sundsvall two weeks ago the whole train traffic was cancelled and Jonas arrived more than two days later than planned.

On Wednesday, 7 February we left Solberget and took my car to Jokkmokk, where we bought food for nine days. Anything from muesli (with powdered milk), tea and chocolate to pasta with pesto, salami, potato mash and much more. Have a look:

Buying food for nine days – photo: Jonas Balbasus

After taking a lunch we continued to Kvikkjokk. The weather was sunny and the temperatures sank below -20 °C. In Kvikkjokk we packed our pulkas, transport sledges you carry behind, locked the car, put on the skies and started our tour. First along a road, then on a snow mobile track. We didn’t come long when we met a local with a snow shovel who asked for our plans. He looked at our heavy loaded pulkas and mentioned that we would have a hard time in pathless terrain. He said, that it was 100 cm of snow in Kvikkjokk and 150 in the mountains.

I reparked my car – another tip of the local – and we started our tour again. With his permission we used his private snowmobile track that led us to the river where it joined a larger snowmobile track. It already had been starting to get dark and our plan was to find a place for our tent quite soon. We weren’t alone on the river – two moose (mother and calf) stood on the river some hundred metres away. We waited until they left and continued. The river slopes were quite steep and after we had decided to leave the river we had to put off our skis and drag the heavy pulkas up through hip deep snow. Exhausting! At least we found a nice little clearing in the forest for our first night in the tent.

As usual we started to tramp down the snow with our skis to make it stable enough to bear the weight of tent and ourselves after some time. This snow however was so loose that it seemed impossible to us to erect the tent on top of it. Therefore we digged down half a meter (making round 6 cubic meters of snow to dig) and erected the tent in the hole. The temperature had continued to fall, now down to -25 °C. Finally the tent was “ready for occupation” and we were eager to eat something warm.

After Chinese noodles with some asian ready-made sauce we left the tent and watched the amazing clear starry night. The milky way gleamed over half the sky and Sirius had just started to rise on the eastern horizon. What a wonderful first night!

… and a cold one. When we started to sleep the temperature had fallen to -30 °C. Jonas and I have huge down sleeping bags and we had it warm and cozy anyway. I just had problems to sleep because I don’t like sleeping on my back and always have trouble to fall into sleep the first two, three nights when tenting.

Next morning: Clear blue sky, some feathery clouds that just started to colour purple. Jonas’ thermometer at the pulka showed -34 °C. It was completely calm and we decided to cook outside. Cooking in the morning mainly means boiling water for tea and for making milk for the muesli. I was glad about my warm mukluk boots, down pants and my puffy down parka. And finally the sun rose over horizon and trees.

Cold morning and sun rise – photo: Jonas Balbasus

Today we would continue westward to the mountain lodge Njunjes and probably sleep there.

Photo #1 and #6 in this blog article are made by Jonas Balbasus.

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.

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.

Cross-country skiing day 2 Dec 17 2017

Still in the phase of remembering “how did it work” and therefore only 7.1 km, but it’s a start. And both the last snowfall and the great ski trail preparation made the trail much better to ski than the previous time some days ago.

Opening the skiing season 2017/18 Dec 13 2017

Today I had another day off and since the weather was sunny and nice but too windy to kayak, I opened the skiing season today. It was just 4.3 km but a good start to try out my brand new skis. Oh my, they are quite fast and it will take some time till I’ll get used to them. The snow wasn’t perfect neither but it was fun anyway.

My new skis (I didn’t even removed the price tag)

Thanks to Y. in Umeå for her purchase advice and for her professional waxing!

Thanks to Friluftsfrämjandet Skelleftehamn for preparing the ski track in Skelleftehamn!

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!)