Catching up on a couple of years- Norway/Sweden

[randoskier]

In 2019 took a small craft up the Tysfjord 68° N. Towards the end of the fjord the sea was becoming quite frozen, I helpfully asked the skipper if he had seen the movie The Titanic. He dropped us off and we skied through the Narvik mountains headed for Abisko, Sweden. The snow got so high at the Roysvatnhytta (cabin) only my wife could fit out the small crack between the top window and the snowdrift, she dug out the door. We had 3 meters of snow in 3 days and very high winds, temperature was -22° C. We stayed there until the storm finished (3 days), not hard to do because this cabin has a DIY dry sauna. We had snowshoes to get from the cabin to the woodshed, sauna, and outhouse. We also camped several times on this trip when we were blocked by whiteouts. Skiing was great except for white outs, my wife skied into a hole about 5 meters deep, and 10 meters in diameter followed by her pulk. She landed in deep snow and was not injured. Even following a GPS track you must be careful, it is very easy to ski off a cliff, sometimes what looks like a 3 foot drop is 50 footer. If whiteout is really bad we stop, wait and if it continues set camp. After this trip and some day skiing in the Lofoten Islands my wife returned home and I sailed north on the Hurtigruten coastal steamship and was going to ski from Alta to Kirkenes (around 70°N) I began by skiing south from Alta on the classic Finnmarksvidda traverse and intended to ski across lake Inari in Finland and then north from the 3-country cairn on the Norwegian side along the Russian border to Kirkenes. Unfortunately I got food poisoning during the Finnmarksvidda leg and had to be evacuated to Alta by snowmobile. I might return and do it this year depends on Covid. In 2020 I did not ski at all because Covid was bad here (Italy). I did get out in Spring '21 though...next report.