Northern Lights

Some photos from tonights northern lights. Not the best still trying to work out my new camera but I am sure I will get heaps more practice in the winter to come. Enjoy!

It continues to snow and it is actually settling a bit now. I wonder if I will wake up to a wonderful white winterland??? =)
I love snow!

Katterjaure

Snow!

Yep that is right it has been snowing in Abisko village today. It didn't settle but it snowed pretty heavy and we got snowcoverd mountain tops. Looks very pretty indeed. I have finshed my fieldwork for my little project that I am doing. I went in the helicopter to the last lake and it was an amazing view over mountains and the vallyes. It was a very warm day as well (last weekend) and there was no wind so the lake looked like a mirror. Otherwise work is busy which is cool. The tourist station had their closing party last night, so we were there and had some food and drinks. In the bar Pekka Power played covers (seen him 3 times now...so sort of know his list of tunes..). I think the tourist station will open briefly for xmas and new year maybe but otherwise it will be closed until the skiing season starts. It feels like most tourists have left and the village is preparing for winter.
My mum is coming to visit me next weekend, that will be great fun, I am really looking forward to that. Then the weekend after that I am off to the UK and Nottingham to celebrate my 30th birthday, can't believe I am gonna be soooo old but I think the increasing number of grey hairs that are popping up on my head sort of confirms my old age he he he. Otherwise life in Abisko is going along at a nice and steady pace and I feel more settled here now. It was hard in the beginning when I first arrived and I was really unsure if I had done the right move or not. But now with my work being so interesting and I got some friends here things are looking up.

Finally in the van!!

Did I mention it rained???

Only 1km til the van, tired and angry with the heavy backpack!

Antarctic or the Arctic???

Låktajåkka panorama

The lake at 1300m asl

Walk up to the high alpine lake

So I have been a bit slack in updating my blog, yes I know... However this is a sign of me being busy of course. I have now managed to sample 3 more lakes and the high alpine lake at 1300m asl was a challenge to say the least. I had a field assistant with me (Thomas a talkative german guy) to help me carry stuff etc. We walked up to Låktajåkkastugan a cabin at 1245m asl in the afternoon took us 3 hours to get up there and the weather was pretty shitty thick fog and rain and wind. Got there, struggled a little to get the tent up, considering not putting the tent up and spending the 300sek per person to stay in the cabin but in the end opted for the tent. Got the ten sorted then went for a sauna and a beer at the highest alpine hut in Sweden =) All warmed up we then headed back for a sleep in tent, however the wind was blowing pretty bad now i reckon we had gusts upto 20m/s so not much sleep as threating about the ten blowing away. Morning and tent still standing and both of us were dry, escaped the rain! Had brekkie in the hut and then headed out in the fog trying to locate my lake at 1300m asl. Hey it is so much harder to find anything in the fog, the GPS was followed closely as there was no other way for navigation. Then all by a sudden the weather cleared and we had this amazing view over the låktajåkka river and all the way down to Vassijaure. This is one thing I like about climbing hills (or the only thing I like with climbing hills), the view at the end of it!! See I do not really like walking uphill but when you see the view then it is all worthwhile. And on top of that the scenery in the high alpine regions here is very similar to the Antarctic as there is nothing growing there, just rocks and lakes and snowfield, beautiful indeed. We found the lake after trekking around a small glacier and some sidetracks but in the end I collected the water sample 10L and we headed back down a 11km walk back down to the van. Well the good weather we had was all gone , the wind was back and we had snow and hail what a change in weather. We experienced it all in one day, the unpredictability of the alpine region is a fact!
Well enough of my sampling expeditions and back to life on the station. At the moment there is an american scientist here, Michael Pace and today we had some seminars at the station presenting our research and later on we had a meal at the tourist station. It is always nice to have new inputs from foreign researchers as they have a fresh view on things and it makes you think a bit more about your research. Tomorrow we are flying helicopter to my last lake, it is not that far away but they wanted to show Michael the area and then helicopter is the best way so it is being combined with my sampling, no problem with me =) I like flying helicopters of course!!

I have also managed to check out the iron mine in Kiruna and was down in the mine which was pretty cool to get the history of the mining village Kiruna. Quality steel from Sweden, or so I was told.