Sitting on a Shelf
(1995)
Kebnekaise
is the highest mountain of Northern Scandinavia (2111 m). The does not sound very much unless you find yourself tramping in snow at 1000 meters altitude in the middle of summer, and there is more than a kilometer to go...
But let us start more slowly...
Lågfjäll
In Scandinavian languages, lågfjäll refers to low, round mountains. Such hills surround the higher Scandinavian mountains. Lågfjäll can be found also from Finland, although Finland generally is quite flat. Sweden is flat, too, except the foothills and the mountains of Western Sweden.
So, on the road again towards Northwest Sweden. From Helsinki, there is about 1300 km to drive. For the first day, it was enough to travel to the summerplace of my grandmother which is in the middle of Finland. The second day involved a 13-hour drive to the foot of the Scandinavian Mountains, West of Kiruna in Sweden. Northern Finland and Sweden East of the Mountains are rather flat and boggy, I would say mostly quite boring areas.
Reaching the mountain foots, everything changes quite rapidly. We parked the car at 9 p.m. and stuck out to the bush. After a 30-minute walk along a path in a valley, it was time to start climbing. Another hour and we were at 800 m altitude above the tree line. Lågfjäll - not very frightening even for the beginner. It is physically demanding enough to climb slopes of several hundreds of meters, but when you are up there, you can walk maybe ten kilometers without major climbing.
However, seeing the higher tops and the large amounts of snow, which appears already in low (1000 m) altitudes, especially in Northern and Eastern slopes, makes the explorer somewhat more realistic than when studying the maps indoors. We readily understood that the route we had planned in approaching the highest tops of Kebnekaise from the North is practically impossible.
After a very beautiful evening, the night was foggy. After 6 hours walking, we came down from the lågfjäll into a large valley, so it was about 3 am. Coming down was difficult enough for the beginner, although this slope was quite an easy one...
Högfjäll
The following day it was time to hit the mountain - time to approach the Högfjäll. The slopes were steeper already from the beginning, but from approximately 1200-1300 meters altitude the character of the mountains considerably changed. In this altitude there was a steep slope where the path going upwards crossed a deep snowpack. You just had to climb in the snow - physically demanding, but technically not very difficult. In this slope, we saw some people gliding down the slope: they just took a raincoat under their ass and let go 100 meters downwards!
The slopes got steeper and steeper, and I got more and more frightened! After climbing on a steep mountain of 1600 meters altitude, we could see the Björlings Glaciär below us, and the "Sydtoppen" of Kebnekaise 500 meters above us. However, in order to reach Sydtoppen, we should first cross a gorge of 200 meters, so we should first go 200 meters down and then 700 meters up! All the way up was covered by deep, more or less wet snow. It started blowing and snowing heavily, and there was enough excuse for us to turn down - and not to the gorge on the way upwards. Back to the valley - partly using the raincoats as snowscooters downwards...
Västerålen
A group of islands in Northern Norway, in the northern part of the province Nordland, is called Vesterålen. Everything is very different from the Northern areas of Finland and Sweden of the same latitude: the vegetation is very fresh and abundant when compared to the more continental areas of Scandinavia. This must be largely due to the mild and humid climate which is due to the Golf-stream of the Norhern Atlantic Ocean.
The islands of Vesterålen are relatively large, there is considerable areas covered by forest and agricultural land.
After a four-hour driving from Kebnekaise, we selected one tiny road in the forest and set up the tent for overnight. When we were having breakfast, the landowner came to see us: he had passed by when driving to his "hytta". Norwegians often build cottages high in the slopes of mountains or hills - Finns use to have their summer cottages by lakes. Oskar Hansen had nothing against some Finns camping on his ground, rather the opposite: he invited us to visit his cottage. However, we were busy to sail to the open sea to see whales; we promised be back in the evening. We also got an important task of buying beer from the nearby village. Beer seemed to be scarce on Oskar's farm, and in general it is expensive in Norway.
We traveled to the Northern edge of the Langöy island through the village of Myre. The wide and open Norwegian Sea opens from the small and idyllic fishing village Nyksund. One of the Whale Safari organizers of Northern Norway operates from this harbor. However, they said that the wind is too strong: they would not be any whalewaching tour that day.
Okay, time to try some fishing. That was much more difficult than one would readily think: there was quite a lot rock climbing before we fond a suitable place for fishing. Further, it was difficult to get the bait out since the rocks behind us were high and it was blowing heavily. Surprisingly, we did not get anything from this spot!
We traveled to another harbor of the northern edge of this island, Stö. We rented a boat for a couple of hours, in order to get the baits into water. Finally we got one fish into the boat, and another was almost caught! Later we heard that the silver-colored fish is called sei, and that the one we caught was just a kid - they grow up to 10 kg.
Since it was windy, I already worried if our 4-horsepower engine ever would be able to push us back to the harbor against the wind. However, this happened, and we traveled back to the hytta of Oskar Hansen.
Oskar was a recently retired fisher and farmer, and he obviously had a little lack of activities. All his life, he had been working very hard with his 7-man fishing boat and his farm. Now his son has taken over, and after retiring in the age of only 62, Oskar constructed the hytta in a very beautiful place. Well, according to the instructions Oskar had given us in the morning, we bought some beer from the village of Myre, and it was a long night of fishing in the nearby little lake, having beer, fish and other food...
Early in the morning it was time to get to the harbor: hopefully the Whale Safaris would be arranged this day. It was enough to drive to Myre and have a couple of telephone calls: no way, the wind was blowing from the West, and it was too strong. Time to travel to the Lofoten.
Lofoten
This was the first place we found a considerable amount of tourists. The islands of Lofoten are smaller than the islands of Vesterålen, and much more famous. Thus, when coming to Solväer, the atmosphere was like in a marketplace. We heard from the tourist information office that no whale safaris are arranged in the Lofoten, but there are some whalers who are catching whales. Further, we were told that for these whalers, the recent days were not too windy. I considered that these fellows probably do not want us on board to take photos...
Southwards. We went to the first and last museum of this trip: the Lofotr Viking museum. There were some Viking houses and a reconstructed Viking ship. One thousand years ago, Ottar was the Viking living northmost. Leif Erikson was the fellow discovering America. This happened since he accidentally passed the southern edge of Greenland, where his father Erik Röde had established some settlements.
How about more fishing. We drove to a small village to ask where to rent a boat. Some people of the village argued that the wind is too hard, but I got them convinced that we are semi-professional fishers, and we have been foretold to die in the bed. Ten they advised us to a nearby village where there would be boats. They further advised us not to fish too much since otherwise there would be heavy customs fees when returning to the European Community...
We fished a lot. My brother tried to clear his own fishing line simultaneously when operating the boat, and still simultaneously I screamed him to come with the hoop net, again and again...
We learned something: if you want to get big fishes, let the bait go deep. If you let the bait to go deep, use a STRONG line.
Skiing at Svartisen
The greatest glacier of Northern Norway is called Svartisen. After taking a ferry from Lofoten to the continent, we drove along a long valley, Beiarndalen, close to the edge of the glacier. The road ended close to the glacier, but about 500 meters too low. Nothing but climbing. The beginning was quite easy, but the more up we climbed, the slope became steeper and steeper. Finally it was quite difficult. However, somebody had made some paintings on the rocks in order to show where to climb, and there also was an old security rope visible in some places. Astonishing! We were in the middle of wilderness, there was no path or hiking trail, but somebody had marked the route! Well, this made us to believe that it IS possible to get up. We did.
The reason for the markings was apparent at the edge of the glacier: there was a small Fjällhytta, heavily anchored in the baserock. Somebody really had made this cottage in the middle of mountain wilderness, in a place where no children or old people are able to climb, neither most young women!
Skiing on this glacier was much more interesting that in many other ones since this was hilly - Norwegian glaciers are mainlyrather flat. It was partly cloudy, partly sunny. In these light conditions it was quite difficult to approximate the steepness of the snowy slopes, and some of the slopes seemed to disappear into the deepness...
Finally it was time to get down from the glacier. This was much more difficult than climbing up. Fortunately there was the rope which was still useful for two purposes: a/ to give additional security for the case that the grip from the ground had slipped b/ to show us where is a path that maybe can be used for descending. In spite of this, I was scared. When climbing down, it is impossible to think anything but the next move. However, when sitting for a while in a small shelf and waiting the buddy to get to the next one, there was time to think - and feel very uncofortable.
What is the worst thing which may happen if I fall down? I decided that I rather live although I would be crippled, and thus death is the worst that may happen. Further, what does it matter if I die a little sooner or later? Not too much from the point of view of the evolution of species, still less from the viewpoint of geology. Even I can accept myself it if it is the price I have to pay for having life in my years. After this thinking procedure I was not that scared anymore. I recommend such a process for anyone seeking for, and finding trouble.