Trip in the Fell (Fjäll)

Friday was another day out in the field and this time we (Thomas and I) had hired a skiido at Björkliden to be able to get two other lakes. One of them being a high alpine lake up at 1300m asl. We had a sled on the back of the skiido with all our gear and Thomas did the driving. It was such a lovely day, sun was shining, clear blue sky and a pleasant minus 5 degrees. I am fascinated with the skiido, it can climb extremely steep hills and carrying two people and a sled. I suppose having Thomas driving helped heaps as he has got lots of experience and knows the area around here very well as he used to be an alprescuer (fjällräddare). The whole day went really well and I cannot believe how beautiful the Swedish "alps" (fjäll) are. So as Fredrik pointed out there actually is a word for fjäll in english which is fell. Skiidos are great vehicles however they are rather noisy and their presence spoil some of the quietness that you are meant to experience out in the fell. Particularly there are a lot of Norwegians around on their skiidos and they are speed demons and like to test the skiidoos by going up real steep hills.I bet there are at least one Norwegian injured each year from doing stupid tricks on the skiido. I also heard that in Norway there are not so many tracks for skiidos as we have here in Sweden, hence that is why they come over here and cause havoc.
On another note, my old Antarctic mate Dave (Winkle) got married on saturday in Melbourne. Some other Antarctic friends were there to celebrate with him (Benny, Watto, Tb and the Captain). I got a nice call from them all on saturday and they all seemed to have had a little bit too much to drink but it was fun to hear from them and to hear about the wedding.
Today I have been out skiing, quite a long trip down to the abiskojokk and back but it was great weather and you could actually sit in the sun and sunbake as it was plus degrees!!!! Spring is on its way and the fell is looking its best.







Lapporten viewed from Björkliden










Leaving the first lake at 1300m asl... going up means that you eventually have to get down...










....and down we went, should be able to make out the steep slope we came down (it is in the shade in the middle of the photo)














...and then up again









...for a spectacular view, how amazing is this??!!






We had some low clouds at the second lake, looks kind of like fog I reckon












You can see the clouds coming in in this photo where Thomas is drilling the ice. So much snow on the ice.














And the beautiful skiido.... ahhh I want one!!!













My elk friend at the station