Tresticklan Nationalpark by ski (plus a moose sighting)

There's places where every swede seems to go to, for cross-country skiing or to spend their weekend in a cabin: Åre, Idre, Jämtlandsfjällen. There's other places, far closer to the big cities like Gothenburg, where very few people go. One of those places is definitely Tresticklan Nationalpark. It's pristine, wild, rather easy to reach, but just not very known.

I can just recommend any outdoorsy person to go there and maybe even spend a night in Budalsvika hut, on the Norwegian side of the border.

Here are some pics of this weekend, on which we saw a moose, glided through a sublime, frozen winter landscape, sat by a warm fire, ate a lot of good food and met some interesting people. Also it was surprisingly cold, with under -20C during the night and early morning. 

Just after the picture the moose walked on bug, fluffy feet back in the forest. This mas my closest moose encounter yet.

The colours were stunning

One ski-pole is not a new trend- the other one simply broke some kilometers into the hike.

Budalsvika in the snow. No footsteps to see.

Beautiful ice flowers

Good to get some fire going, when it's -7ºC indoors

Melting water for dinner

Everybody lined up around the stove

Temperature was dropping steadily

Icy window decoration in the morning

The woodshed

Breathing hurts a little bit, until your lungs get used to the air temperature

Learning what to bring on a trip, or: evolution of my gear

Hiking in northern Spain, 2011 style. 

Learning what to bring on a trip

or 

Evolution of my gear

As I happen to frequently take pictures of all the gear I bring on a trip, I have an overview over how my setup has changed. I haven't been into serious hiking for all too long, but my gear, what kind of clothes and food I bring, has already changed a lot. 

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of my gear on the Camino de Santiago I walked in 2011, 2012 and winter 2014. I absolutely don't remember what I brought back then but it would be interesting to know. The only picture I have is the one below, of my cotton packpack ready for the Caminho Português in 2011. It's a 50 liter pack and I hiked in summer... my sleeping bag was way too warm and big. I mean, it doesn't even fit into the pack! 

                                             

Caminho Português 2011

But to be honest, I had no money at all back then and buying a second sleeping bag just because my other one is too big and warm, was not really an option. What else I remember from that trip was that I had long cotton pants that I didn't use a single time, also I walked in a heavy skirt, H&M cardigan and with tennis shoes on. Unsurprisingly I was sweating a lot in my clothes and I had aweful blisters from day one of the trip. It never occured to me though that it was because of my clothes, I just accepted it as it was. 

What else would you wear on a 120km hike? Blundering in september 2011. 

In 2012 hiking for me was all about wearing Nike running gear from head to toe. Way better than H&M cotton.

I know that there's different opinions about this, but I don't think (anymore) that Fjällräven cotton clothes are optimal for glacier hiking, or any hiking really. Too heavy, too bulky, too warm. Sold all of that stuff.
February 2014, Solheimarjokull, Iceland. 

Some years later I finally discovered the existance of hiking gear and clothes that need less than three days to dry after they become sweaty. Still there was a quite limited perspective on what was available, but I think that's perfectly natural when you are just getting in to a new hobby. At first it's always hard to see what you really need, what products are just useless and which are your personal favorites. It's a process of buying, trying it out, selling stuff second hand and starting over. 

Here's two pictures of my first Kungsleden in summer 2014. Since then I have changed basically everything you can see in this picture. The sleeping bag was colder than sleeping naked, the hiking poles broke right after this trip, the compression bag was incredible heavy and bulky, the water bladder leaked and got permanently green on the inside (blergh...). The gas stove is not bad but very sensitive to wind and quite slow. Why I brought several meters thick rope and a headlamp (midnight sun) is still a mistery to me...

I still have the gore-tex jacket though and it's still awesome, same for the Lifestraw water filter (that you don't need in Lappland though) and my compass. I also still use the first aid kit which I restock accordingly to the trip I'm on. 

Taking a look at the food I brought... it's actually not too bad. It just lacks some fresh stuff and there's definitely too little proteins and fat in the picture. I remember that I was dreaming about cheese, fries and oily stuff. Nowadays I would be bringing a salami, a little bottle of olive oil (I'm not a big fan of butter) and more canned fish. If I had space maybe also some fruit or veggies for the first days.

Here's what I brought on a snowy trip in Jämtland in the end of September 2014. I finally got better hiking poles and a better sleeping bag and sleeping pad. If your sleeping equipment is bigger than your backpack and heavy as a stone, it just can't work out. I also got some durable, light metal cutlery, which I'm still very fond of. 

I still use most of these clothes, besides the gaiters that were not breathable at all and made my legs sweat that much, I could have stepped as well in any puddle around. After this trip I swapped out my drinking bottle for a Nalgene. The aluminum bottle from Sigg was freezing every night and ended up leaking all over my sleeping matress which willingly sucked up half a liter of water. Not so nice in a cold night...

In March 2015 I went skiing on Kungsleden and spent a week in Abisko. I didn't camp though, so my packing doesn't include a kitchen or a sleeping pad. I still think that this is quite a good setup and I would bring basically the same on a similar trip. Of course I also brought skiing boots, they're just not in the picture. The sneakers I brought are a bit too heavy and in the meanwhile I got some secondary shoes that I can wear indoors or just for going to the outhouse that are less than half the weight of these. I sold some of my sweaters and ski underwear on a flea market in summer and substituted them by merino wool products. Wool is just the warmest and most comfortable material. 

The sleeping bag felt a bit too heavy for me, with 1,6kg. I recently sold it and ordered a new one from Roberts.pl that will be only about 800 grams while having the same comfort temperature. 

In June 2015 I went for a two week camping trip in Lappland again. There was so much snow left that we went on snowshoes, it was actually not that different from March...

I try to bring all my socks and underwear in wool and go lightweight. The Smart Wool socks are so warm, fast drying and never start smelling, that it's enough to bring two pairs for the whole trip. One pair that I wear during the day and one pair for the evening and night. 

The crampons and the Therm-a-rest didn't make the cut and I left them at home. 

A look into the Trangia kitchen. The idea is to fill out all small spaces and bring just as much as needed. There's no need to bring more detergent or more than half a sponge for washing the dishes. 

Around the cooking pot you can see all other kinds of stuff I brought. I don't save on lighters, matches and a fire steel. 

I'm being realistic though and know that in a couple of years I will look back at these pictures and think 'was I crazy?'. Or just imagine how it will be, looking back twenty years from now!?

Picking gear and equipment, improving it, changing it,... is really just one of my hobbies and I think it's a lot of fun. I'm not regretting any of the "poor" choices I've made in the past, all of the blisters I got from Lidl socks and pain I had from my too heavy backbacks. I think it's interesting to evolve and be able to look back to see where you've come from. 

Dreaming about next year's big hike

The incredible feeling of finishing a trail, of coming to the top. 

Now in December the days are short and dark. The best thing, especially at work, is to dream about my plans for next year. At this point I don't want to call it "planning" yet, cause I still haven't decided for a specific hike. 

A big inspiration for me is the norwegian adventurer Lars Monsen, who has spent years of his life in the Scandinavian wilderness. I recently got two of his books and especially the story about his year long hike through Norway is an absolute inspiration. In 1988 he and his friend Trond decided to walk along the Norwegian border, all the way from Russia to the south of the country. Even considering that the conditions have changed a lot since then, the book gives me the awesome feeling that I can make happen anything that I dream about. 

Mixing up languages- one in German one in Norwegian

 I can't even say what attracts me so much about a long hike. I guess it's the feeling of adventure, of doing something unusual, outside of the time frame of a normal holiday. Also it's the concept of "holiday" that I don't like. Holiday is a week or so to take a rest and get a break from work in order to relax. What I want to do is (at least in my mind) not a holiday. It's not an expedition either, since others have done it before, it's an adventure, a task that I give myself, an experience I want to have in my life. 

Of course I can't even be sure I will stick to my plan. What if I get tired of walking? If I start to feel bored, worn out, if my body hurts, if I feel lonely or lost? 

I know all these things can and most of them will happen, to some extend at least. What I will try is to overcome the negative feelings, wait it out, see if it gets better and maybe afterwards realize how overcoming these problems made me stronger. 

Even giving up before finishing the hike is of course a possibility but I will try to avoid that, of course. One thing that can help to overcome situations in which I will want to give up is for instance this blog, or signing up for an "official" hike, such as Gröna Bandet or Norge på Langs. Knowing that there is something specific to archieve, that I can count the kilometers backwards to point X and that some people are virtually following my trip is definitely a huge motivation. 

Other than that, signing up for anything seems a bit pointless of course, since I would need to follow specific rules, which takes away a part of the freedom of the hike. But because of the motivational aspect I will probably still do it. 

Winter! Winter?

Snow, rain and a weird colored sunset. This afternoon.

Yes, what's happening to the winter weather? Today and yesterday were more like days in late spring: rain, melting snow,... Way too warm temperatures. 

So I decided to drive home already tomorrow, one day earlier than planned. Simply because skiing or any other outdoors activity simply sucks right now. 

Yesterday I still went 25km on my backcountry skis though and today I was out in the darkness and had a nice fire with another girl who stays here. 

Oh, and I also built two amazing snowmen (one is a snow girl, the one with my hat on,) 

As you can see from the stats I'm a terrible skier and I will have to change my technique radically if I want to participate in next year's Kortvasan, which is 30km. 

For all non-swedes: Kortvasan is the short version of the 90km skiing race Vasaloppet, which takes place in Mora, every year in March. I signed up for the shorter version and now I'm going to have to bite my way through it. 

Sometimes I don't even know why I do these things and put myself in trouble ;)

And here norwegian adventurer (and my personal idol) Lars Monsen with my last words for today: 

A windy day in the forest.

I'm still amazed places like this exist on earth.

This morning I woke up to the sound of the trees swaying around and small branches flying against the window. It was definitely too windy to try to go higher up on the mountains, above the treeline. In the mountain station there is a cool weather station and some information about wind chill factor. For some reason I'm a real nerd when it comes to weather oberservation and I love the automatic calculation of the felt temperature. 

(The minimum temperature doesn't show on this picture. It changes between the measured temperature and how long ago this was measured)

Here's some more about the effective/felt temperature

I tried some x-country skiing, but the tracks were ruined by the wind and melting of the last days. 

great.

Later on I went backcountry skiing in the forest and tried to take a little video of it. It's not exactly action sports, so consider it a relaxation video ;). My skiing, which is otherwise of course perfect, got a little bit worse by holding my phone in one hand all the time. I had both skiing poles and both gloves in the other hand and basically nothing to push or balance myself. So all mistakes or any whacky style you see is of course only due to that. 

So here it is, my first (shaky) video: 

And some more pics of the amazing midwinter light! 

STF mountain station

Everything on the other side of the lake is Norway.

Another untimely sunset at 14.30 pm. 

A lot of reindeer and a bit of skiing

This morning I woke up to a beautiful sunrise and no cloud in the sky. I got ready quickly, to not miss any of the daylight and got my equipment from the car. Such a nice feeling to stand on the skis again! 

As soon as I got away from the cross country track though the snow showed it's true face and it was a crust of ice with some melted slush underneath. Needlees to say it was very very hard to go uphill in these conditions. I have no skins on my skis (because I don't own any) and it felt a lot like going on an escalator that goes the wrong way. After about 45 minutes I looked back and I realized that I wasn't going anywhere. So I decided to drop my plans of getting to the top of Jakobshöjden for today. The way down took me about three minutes.

As I was already rushing downhill, I continued to the nearby lake and then up again to the mountain station. 

I drove to Idre, which is 40km away, to look for some skins, fuel the car and do some shopping. On the way I encountered at least a hundred reindeer that were licking the salt of the street. They are completely crazy about the salt that is used by the snowplow in order to make the road less slippery! Some moved away as the car approached, others couldn't resist and continued to lick the asphalt, even as I was half a meter away. I got out of the car several times just to look at them. One even came to me and sniffed on my hand. Unfortunately for the reindeer my hands were not salty.

would you guys mind to move a little? 

Nipfjällsjugan

"Got some salt?"

Sámi flag, as Idre is Sweden's southern most part of Sápmi

Storsätern Kapell

3 pm sunset over the STF Fjällstation