Stormy farewell Nov 23 2017

Today I sold my Saab 9-5 – the first car I ever had in my life. I bought it in March 2011 when I realised that a life without car is quite limiting in Northern Sweden.

Since then I have travelled to many places as e.g.: Abisko · Alta · Arvidsjaur · Bodø · Gällivare · Hammerfest · Höga Kusten · Jokkmokk · Kirkenes · Kiruna · Kusfors · Lofoten · Loma Vietonen · Luleå · Mosvik · Narvik · Nordkapp · Pajala · Senja · Solberget · Tromsø · Umeå · Vesterålen · Äkäslompolo · Örnsköldsvik

Do you know, how many places in the list are in the south of Skellefteå? Exactly three and Höga Kusten is the southernmost place I have gone by car because normally I head northwest or north.

Today however I sold my car to H., a friend, who lives in the county of Kalmar, more than 1000 km in the south. Funnily enough it’s the very same friend who visited me in 2011 and test-drove the car before I bought it. Back then he said “Well, if you do not buy this car, I’ll take it”. Well – now you got it H., with only six and a half years delay.

Since the Saab is a great winter car – it started without any problems in -35 °C – the elements bade it a stormy farewell with heavy wind gusts and squalls plus round 20 cm of new snow.

My new car is a Subaru Outback, which I bought half a year ago. Less comfortable than my Saab and a bit shorter but equipped with All Wheel Drive. Today I could test it and can confirm that the Subaru had no problems with driving through 20 cm of snow and crossing snowdrifts twice as high. I took some photos but soon drove home again since it was so stormy that it was almost impossible to take photos in the snowstorm. In addition to that I considered the weather potentially dangerous, at least near trees or power lines.

Some winter tours are already planned: A trip to the winter market in Jokkmokk and a longer trip to Kirkenes and the Varanger Peninsula, the northeasternmost part of Norway. And there’s probably much more to come …

Some hours later. It still was snowing. 40 to 50 cm of snow cover my back yard. The snow flakes melt on the lens and create funny plankton-like reflections. In Umeå it already had started to rain and here the temperatures were raising as well. A pity!

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!)

The autumn leaves … Oct 29 2017

Most bushes and trees have realised, that summer is history and even autumn has come to an end. They all shed their leaves in the last weeks. Only the lilacs are quite stubborn and try to keep their leafage with all their might.

The cold wind gusts of the last night however did not only bring a bit of snow but also started to tear of the still green lilacs leaves. One of these leaves landed on my car hood where it slowly snowed over.

So lilacs beware, winter is on its way!

Wet snow and slush Oct 26 2017

It snowed the last days and it’s snowing right now in Skelleftehamn.

In Skelleftehamn it already snowed this morning but it was too warm and the snow didn’t settle.

In town it was slightly colder, but with temperatures still above zero the snow was very wet and soon became damp, slowly transforming into puddles of snow slush.

Anyway it’s still the end of October so it may take a while till the first real winter snow.

A first glimpse of winter Oct 23 2017

I’m sitting in the bus travelling to Skellefteå to go to work. This time I don’t travel from Skelleftehamn as usual but from Umeå where Annika and I landed yesterday evening after our one-week journey through Scotland.

While it was warm in Scotland (hardly below 10 °C, up to 17 °C) it is quite cold in Northern Sweden. Not really wintry cold, but cold enough that the lakes start to freeze over and precipitation is more snow than rain.

Time to change to dubbdäck – to studded tyres!

26 August: Kungsleden day 7 – a resting day in Nallo Sep 9 2017

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

The whole night the gusty wind howled in the chimney and heavy blows seemed to shake the whole hut again and again. Already in the evening before the temperature had dropped to 1 °C and when we woke up it looked like that:

To continue our hike under these conditions would be difficult and troublesome. What a lucky coincidence that we planned a day off in Nallo. But what should we do, if the wintry weather would continue or even intensify and we would get snowed in?

A notice pinned to the wall informed about helicopter prices. A flight to Nikkaluokta for up to four people costs 4600 SEK (approx. 480 Euros). That’s quite affordable and could be a possibility to reach civilisation if we were forced to abandon our Kungsleden tour because of the weather. Anyway, the day just had begone – just wait and see … .

G., the stugvärd asked Andi and me if we could fix the door of her stugvärd toilet. She had used the toilet in the night and a wind gust had snatched the door out of her fingers so violently, that one of the metal hinges had been torn off. Luckily the door jammed and was save for the moment. Andi and I could help her and fixed the door. (As a matter of fact it was mostly Andi who fixed it as the photo below reveals.)

Katrin and Annika were also not idle. Katrin sawed logs of wood into 30 cm long pieces, so that they would fit into the oven. Annika chopped them into pieces. All the more we valued the oven that held our rooms warm and cozy.

Andi (and I) fixing the toilet door in winter conditions (Photo: Katrin)

Annika and Katrin working in the wood shed

Annika surprised us with pancakes for lunch, she had pulverised pancake dough with her. She used half of her supply and we got 2½ pancakes each – delicious!

Meanwhile the weather changed for the better. It got a bit warmer and the snow in the valley Stuor Reaiddávággi started to melt. The wind fell off and breaks in the clouds appeared. Good news for us who wanted to continue our tour on the next day, even if we all enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere at Nallo and the beauty of the landscape around.

We took a midday nap, solved a puzzle, played Yahtzee and finally we prepared dinner, this time tortellini with dried feta cheese and chanterelle mushrooms. We were eating inside while the reindeers, who had been around the hut all the time were grazing outside.

Our dinner – tortellini with feta cheese and chanterelle mushrooms

Again it was worth to have a day off in Nallo.

Recommendation for nice people:

Nallo is worth a visit! The hut is cosy and the landscape is of a special beauty. You can enjoy the much more familiar atmosphere compared to the larger huts on the Kungsleden and the arctic scenery around.

Recommendation for not so nice people:

Nallo sucks! The hut is small and has neither sauna or shop. All ways from and to Nallo are difficult to go and as you can see, the weather is always awful. Stay away!

25 August: Kungsleden day 6 – Sälka—Nallo (10 km) Sep 8 2017

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

Today we would leave the Kungsleden. Instead of the route Sälka—Tjäktja—Alesjaure (25 km) we would go Sälka—Nallo—Vistas—Alesjaure (37 km). Annika and I have been in Nallo two years before and fell in love with that place.

Again we woke up early, again it was cold with temperatures round +2 °C and again snow had covered the mountains over night, this time not only the highest peaks. After our breakfast—cleaning—packing routine we left the crowded Singistugorna hoping for less people in Nallo.

We went up a bit, but were on the wrong side of some alpine brooks. Katrin and Andi returned to use the small bridges, Annika crossed the brooks by balancing over some stones, I just waded through – one of the advantages of using rubber boots.

First the landscape didn’t seem to change but gradually the flowers and other plants lessened and the terrain became stony and harsh.

The mountains that framed the valley Stuor Reaiddávággi were rugged and rocky and powdered with snow. The lack of plants let them appear colourless.

More and more we had to cross boulder fields and some smaller streams. Water ran everywhere and we had to look for the path that was marked with piles of stone. Not easy to find in a landscapes made of rocks and boulders, even if some of the top stones were of white quartz.

It was cold, windy and then it started to snow.

We went along the lake Reaiddájávri. We would have to cross the river right behind the lake before it cuts down into a deep uncrossable ravine. Two years before Annika had to wade through in sandals, because the water was to deep for her boots. There are nicer things than wading through ice cold water while it’s snowing …

We were lucky. The water level was low and someone obviously had build a fort of stones that were quite easy to cross. We were cautious anyway, because no one wants to fall into icecold water with a backpack and fully clothed.

We succeeded and took a short rest to eat some chocolate (crucial food on hiking tours!) but we continued soon because of the chilly weather. We followed the Stuor Reaiddávággi and crossed some side valleys with old snow fields – reminders of last winter.

The precipitation got stronger, more rain than snow. While the others continued through the alpine and arctic landscape I went to the ravine to take pictures of the waterfall, but I soon gave up, since the rain fall grew too strong. The last photo after catching up with the others is blurred from the rain on my lens.

Old snow fields, rocks, a ravine and a waterfall

Finally we arrived at Nallo 12:30 and were delighted, that only few others had come there as well. We cooked an instant noodle soup and took a midday nap.

In the afternoon it had started to snow stronger and the wind speed increased while the temperature dropped to +1.5 °C.

The ground was still bare of snow – a good thing for the reindeers, that grazed in the valley.

Snowfall however continued the whole day and evening and slowly started to cover the ground. How good that we planned to take a day of in Nallo the next day.

Wonderful rain May 19 2017

Yesterday it started to rain, just when I entered the car to drive to Umeå. It drizzled and the road started to get wet. On my way the rain increased and became more and more intense.

Between Lövånger und Sikeå it just poured down and my windscreen wipers had hard work to do.

You may wonder why I write a blog article about rain and show a really poor photo. When you come from counties such as Germany or the UK you’re probable used to rain.

Me too, but I can hardly remember when the last rain happened here. The whole April and the first half of May were so cold that almost all precipitation came as snow, not rain.

Sometimes we had got a warmer day with sun now and then – one day I saw even the first butterfly of the season – but the Swedish weather forecast predicted cold snowy weather again and quite often they were right.

And so we got snow in Skelleftehamn 6 days ago, or 9 days ago, or 12 days ago, or 27 days ago, or 34 days ago, or many other days in between, where I either had been away or just didn’t want to blog about off-season snow falls again.

That’s why I was so glad about yesterday’s and last night’s intense rain falls. They seems to end a period of an “eternal almost-winter” and hopefully will have started a period of warm spring. And one day – so it is told by the old legends – even the bleak trees may start to come into leaf and the world will become green again.

103rd February May 14 2017

Today morning was the 103rd February. It has been so cold and snowy the night and morning that I refused to call it 14th May.

Some random photos, taken between 6 and 7 o’clock where temperatures had started being above zero again:

Gåsören in the distance, half hidden in the snow

It took the sun some time to melt away the late snow, but this evening most of the snow was gone and I was content to call today’s date 14th May again.

Winter is finally gone. Winter is gone? Well, if you’ll look at the photos below you see that most of the lake Rudtjärnen is still covered with ice and that due to the cold temperatures this evening even the open parts starts to freeze over again.

But hey, that’s part of Spring, too. So I just say: winter is finally gone! Am I right? We’ll see …

Well, Spring, we’re waiting … May 13 2017

Another snow shower in Skelleftehamn. On ~~102nd February~~ 13th May! Winter is stubborn this year.

One and a half hours later … still snowing …

Next morning: In the night it was snowing strongly and the temperature was round 0°C. At 5 o’clock 8 cm of snow covered the car, the roof and the grass in the garden. But it already had been starting to get warmer and the snow had started to melt. That’s the ugly side of snow weather. I guess in the afternoon the snow will have melted away completely.

And then, Spring? It’s your turn. Show, what you can!