Arctic Sweden-Norway (last April)
Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2018 3:15 pm
These are some pics from the first of my two trips to northern Norway and Sweden last winter. On this April tour my wife and I skied from Hemevan, Sweden to Bodo, Norway. Crossed the Artfjellet, Ranafjellet, and Saltfjellet mountain ranges. Mostly rolling tour with some long lakes in the mix- typical days range from 20 to 30km, cabin to cabin. The ski out to the Arctic highway had a vertical drop of about 2,000 feet, nice finish. We only saw one other party, on the penultimate day- a group of seven French skiers, all pulling pulks- excellent skiers. We saw no other human tracks.
My wife broke her foot during this tour and then skied over 150km with a Lisfranc fracture, she had surgery when we returned. She got the screws out in October and was telemarking on the big Alpine slopes in Austria by Thanksgiving so she will be good to go for this year's northy outings. We both used Madshus Eon skis and Rott 3-pin bindings, I used Alico ski-march boots, she used very light Garmont leather boots (too light), we had kicker skins but did not use them, not so hard to get traction with 26kg backpacks. She just bought some Crispi Svartisen boots from Mike K and tested them this past week in Austria- likes them, though that was mostly following the Oetz river i.e. flat. She will try some turns this weekend in the Dolomites. I am switching to NNN BC Magnum bindings (I can't tele anyway) and picked up a pair of Madshus Glittertind boots, they seem fine.
I spend a lot of time in Norway, I love it up there- great people and great country, shame about the weather though... All of these pics are from the final two days, fairly heavy weather the rest of the trip, much white-out, tons of snow.
^The Missus
Moi
The French Quarter (there are two cabins on this site)
The last day's climb
We strategically let the seven pulks leave first in the morning! Looking back at the last cabin.
The ski out to the valley where the Arctic Highway and the single-track Nordland Railway is.
My wife broke her foot during this tour and then skied over 150km with a Lisfranc fracture, she had surgery when we returned. She got the screws out in October and was telemarking on the big Alpine slopes in Austria by Thanksgiving so she will be good to go for this year's northy outings. We both used Madshus Eon skis and Rott 3-pin bindings, I used Alico ski-march boots, she used very light Garmont leather boots (too light), we had kicker skins but did not use them, not so hard to get traction with 26kg backpacks. She just bought some Crispi Svartisen boots from Mike K and tested them this past week in Austria- likes them, though that was mostly following the Oetz river i.e. flat. She will try some turns this weekend in the Dolomites. I am switching to NNN BC Magnum bindings (I can't tele anyway) and picked up a pair of Madshus Glittertind boots, they seem fine.
I spend a lot of time in Norway, I love it up there- great people and great country, shame about the weather though... All of these pics are from the final two days, fairly heavy weather the rest of the trip, much white-out, tons of snow.
