Snow in Skelleftehamn

After a snowy car ride from Umeå I arrived in Skelleftehamn. Partly the E4, the main road was completely white and the visibility was quite poor, especially when a huge truck passed by. In this case a lot of snörök – snow smoke – whirled to the air and reduced the sight almost to zero for some seconds. Driving through snow and darkness is exhausting and I’m glad I’m home.

At home there are no huge amounts of fresh snow, “only” 15 – 20 cm. This is however the largest amount of fresh snow I experienced this winter. Nice and a good start! And since I was to lazy to shovel snow at 21:00 I just drove my car onto the driveway. I guess, tomorrow I’ll get some outdoor exercising.

Arriving in Skelleftehamn – step oneArriving in Skelleftehamn – step two

Cross-country skiing – part II

5 cm of new snow, -5 °C air temperature and Olles Spår – a ski track on the edge of Umeå – freshly prepared. Good conditions for cross-country skiing.

Ski track “Olles Spår”

Annika and I skied only 5 kilometres. Not because of the number 5, but because it was still snowing and this snow made the track very, very slow.

Even though the distance was short, it was delightful to slide through the winter forest and the gently falling snow.

Cross-country skiing premiere

Today I had my skiing premiere this winter.

Together with Annika who already skied this winter we took the car to the lake Tavelsjö northwest from Umeå. Tavelsjö has grown very popular for its round course for ice skaters, but it was round 40 years ago, that I stood on skates the last time. I prefer skiing.

Therefore we took our cross-country skies although it was mentioned that the ski track was partly icy. And it was icy indeed sometimes!

Icy ski track on the lake Tavelsjö

Anyhow it was great to finally ski again.

Some hours later it finally started to snow. It’s hardly 5 cm that had fallen in Umeå so far, but that makes a great difference. It’s brighter, quieter and more beautiful outside.

Hopefully there will be enough snow in Skelleftehamn that the locals finally can prepare a ski track in good quality. Then I will change my spiked running shoes by my cross country skies at home, too.

Where is the snow? – part II

While parts of Bavaria and Austria have been buried in snow masses – partly there’s more than 250 cm of snow in the valleys and 350 cm in the mountains – we got plus degrees and storm squalls yesterday evening.

Yesterday the bay Kallholmsfjärden was still covered with a solid layer of ice. Today the wind and high water broke this sheet of ice and blew it away. At lunchtime the bay was covered with drifting ice floes. Some hours later the ice was gone, probably drifting to Finland …

Ice floes drifting away

I want this (left image) but I got that (right image):

Deep, deep snow in Lapland – February 2010Snow depth in my backyard today

I have to admit that I’m frustrated. I moved to Northern Sweden for real winter experiences, not for this kind of roller coaster weather, that makes the snow dirty and the streets slippery. The photo motives are ugly, I cannot ski, I cannot even walk onto the ice anymore. I just want to snip my fingers and be in Filzmoos or Reit im Winkl or somewhere else where it’s really snowy.

There’s only one realistic way to solve this: I need a teleporter. Or a time machine. For this I need a crazy scientist, that will build one for me. To pay him/her and all that crazy scientist equipment I need money.  There is a way to get a lot of money without work: a Trisslott, the most famous scratchcard in Sweden. The same amount three times and you win it. OK, let’s see …

Trisslott: no lottery win

Well, that didn’t work. Four amounts only twice. As usual. I guess, I have to deal without a teleport.

Where is the snow?

Where is the snow? That’s of course a rhetorical question. It’s in Bavaria, in Austria (masses of snow in the Northern Alps). It’s in Italy and in Romania. It is in Greece, in Russia, in Portugal and in Poland. It’s in Turkey and even in Libya.

But not in Skelleftehamn. It is still white from last year’s snow, but when it snows a centimetre it gets warm and it melts again. And no precipitation is sight.

Due to the stormy wind some days ago the Baltic Sea is still open and a lot of ice floes – up to 20 cm thick – lie at the shore. Despite of yesterdays rain there is still a bit of snowy powder left on some of the stranded ice blocks. Yes, I am longing for snow, but that’s beautiful, too.

Stranded ice floes in Skelleftehamn

 

Steam locomotive in Kusfors

Today: a short trip to Kusfors and Jörn with Annika and my best friends from Munich. After last night’s storm we got calm and sunny weather with temperatures between -10 °C and -20 °C today. In Kusfors we had a look at the old steam locomotive and visited friends of mine. In Jörn we had a picnic in the in the heated waiting room of the train station.

Steam locomotive in Kusfors

I live nearby Skellefteå, Sweden’s largest town without an active train station. Jörn, however has rail connections to Luleå, Umeå, Stockholm and Göteborg, although Jörn only has 800 inhabitants. I have to admit, that I’m a bit jealous sometimes.

New Year walk

A new year has started – this time with warm, grey and stormy weather. I didn’t take many pictures because of the dull light but this one I think is a bit funny. A fisherman completely dressed in red stands on the riverbank of the Skellefteälven, giving the scenery it’s only bright colour.

Red fisherman, Skellefteälven

I wish you all a happy New Year 2019!

Snowshoe tour on the Vyöhtjage

The situation is like three years ago: it’s the days after Christmas and there is not much snow in Skelleftehamn. As in 2015 Annika and I decide to make a tour to Arvidsjaur.

On the road 95 to Arvidsjaur

Arvidsjaur lies northwest of Skelleftehamn, two hours drive away in the inland. It is located in Norrbotten, Sweden most northern county, is part of the historical province Lappland and part of Sapmí, the region of the Sámi people. Arvidsjaur is well known by German Sweden fans since there are direct flights in wintertime from several German cities.

Arvidsjaur has a nice mountain called Vyöhtjage (Sámi) or Vittjåkk (Swedish). The Vyöhtjage is too steep for us to use skis so we used snow shoes to go up to the mountain top (650 m).

Here some photos of yesterdays tour:

Hoarfrost ISunriseFenceSnow packed trees IISnow packed trees ISnow packed trees IIISun peeking throughSnowy hutView from the VyöhtjageFollowing the snowmobile tracksHoarfrost IIAnimal tracks

It’s funny that we did almost the same tour (with another route) to the Vyöhtjage as exactly three years ago with the same weather (sunny and not too cold) and snow conditions (half a meter of snow). This nice place however is worth to be visited several times, especially because it is quite near to Skelleftehamn.

We had an overnight stay in Arvidsjaur. Today we will drive back but take a stopover in the village Kusfors to visit friends.