Where next.....?

With my 40th birthday approaching, (a couple of years ago), we wanted to celebrate in style. We looked at going to Cuba, the Caribbean and eventually we decided to ski the Kungsleden, a trail in Arctic Sweden, through one of Europe's last remaining wildernesses. Having skied for 30 years and having been a ski instructor, I had also taught Andy to ski; we thought we would be able to manage 8 days on cross-country skis. A colleague of mine asked if we had ever been on cross-country skis. “No”, I answered, “ How hard can it be? Surely it is just like walking but on skis.”

Flat ground having made it out of the Arctic wilderness

We set off on the first day of skiing in the Arctic, covering predominantly flat land on the way to the first hut, staffed by volunteers. We struggled, a lot. Trying to keep yourself on two slippery planks, barely an inch wide, with soft boots, only attached at the toes, is a lot harder than you might think. We were overtaken by all sorts as we fell over on the slightest incline or dip, skiing into trees and desperately trying not to fall into streams and snow drifts. It is nearly impossible to turn the things; you can't snow plough and trying to enjoy the downhill rides without falling over was a real challenge. Eventually we arrived at the first hut, taking three times longer than most, with Andy having managed to break his binding. Thankfully the volunteer guardians were resourceful and mended this for him.

Fantastic conditions in Lapland

We had another 7 days of similar travelling but we would be getting ever more remote as we climbed into the glacier carved valleys of Lapland. We had 1:100 000 maps and were wondering how we would cope with such a small scale map when we were used to 1:25 000. Then it was pointed out to us that there was nothing to show on the maps except mountains and valleys. The whole trip largely followed one long valley base with huts thoughtfully spaced at the end of each day’s ski. On some days the navigation consisted of ‘the hut will be shortly after the second valley enters from the left'. We were lucky with the weather, having calm, blue sky days. In the huts when talking with other travellers, (mostly Swedish it turned out), we heard horror stories of people dying of the cold when they got lost between the accommodation huts and the toilets, not being able to find their way back in whiteout conditions. Having been in a severe whiteout in the Cairngorms I can really believe how easy it is to get disorientated in such a small space.

We've done it!

So we completed the route without further incident. We mastered the skiing, avoided the naked saunas with the locals and celebrated with possibly our most expensive bottle of wine ever. It is a fantastic place to explore and we were lucky enough to see traditional Sami people tending to their reindeer; dog sled teams running the route and glimpses of the northern lights dancing above us.

Following tracks along the border

Having now mastered cross-country skiing we are always looking for new adventures. We want to visit remote places and complete expeditions rather than day trips. Our next trip was along part of the Finnish Russian border. Not quite so remote; due to the flat ground we had excellent phone signal for the whole trip and every second day or so we would stay in an old border post or farm. Although not as remote, the trip was just as exciting as the Kungsleden. There were animal prints everywhere; this area is home to brown bears, wolves, lynx, wolverine and much, much more. We saw many prints but no creatures, luckily, unluckily, I'm not sure which.

Going uphill is not so easy

Much of the border had been patrolled by skidoos and skied in previous days so a lot of the route had tracks that we could follow. This made turning a lot easier as the skis were almost forced to follow and stay in the tracks. However, we still fell, a lot. Sometimes we would fall deliberately to stop ourselves descending too fast, or to make sure we didn't crash head first into the trees lining the route. Again, this was a beautiful place to explore. We stayed in many traditional log cabins, specially placed for travellers. These were small but with bunks or platforms to sleep on and log burning stove to cook on and warm the cabin up. We tried out the saunas, (just us). Wow! What a great treat for the muscles. Each morning our legs felt like new following a sauna the night before. If we'd have known the benefits we may have been brave enough to try them in Sweden, but conversely, we might not have been brave enough. We are British after all.

A romantic wilderness hut

So where to next? I keep looking at Iceland, Norway and Sweden again but have not settled on a route that would suit us yet. With a little more research I am confident of finding good trips in all of these places. This year we have chosen Greenland and the Arctic Circle Trail. A longer and more remote trip than previously and a route that we know people walk but we can't find any information on people skiing it. We do know that there shouldn't be any Polar Bears in the area; there are various forms of hut along the route, roughly a days ski away from each other and the route is occasionally followed by locals on skidoos. The weather looks good, ie; they don't actually have much snow in Greenland, the winds should be light and there should be enough snow lying on the ground. We think this is the case, but the Greenlanders are notoriously difficult to glean information from, getting not much more of a grunt in reply to any of my questions.

The great Cairngorm wilderness

This is why we ended up in the Cairngorm’s, trying out our ski kit ready for the trip. The boots are great, they have excellent tread, they are really comfortable and warm but do not have breathable liners so get quite sweaty. Hopefully they won't get too icy in Greenland. The skis are shorter than traditional cross-country skis, with metal edges and fish scales on part of the base to help grip on gentle uphills. This should make them easier to turn so that we can cope with hills better in these than the longer skis. The bindings are also more robust so hopefully they will withstand Andy's efforts to break them. (He is lighter now and so shouldn't put so much force through them when he falls). We are a little worried about the poles. The way our hands fix into them means that they are really awkward when we fall and I can see us either breaking them or ourselves if we are not careful.

We skied on 3 lovely days and one blizzard up in Scotland. The skis did well on the tops with the gentle gradients found on the plateau. Carrying them up and down the mountains seemed a bit of a waste though. Reluctantly we decided to splash out on skins for the skis. These would help us grip in the icy conditions and we would be able to keep the skis on for many of the uphill climbs, to the plateau. With skins we managed to ski up to the summit from the road. We also kept the skins on for the descent. This isn't what people normally do, but apart from not being normal, we needed to keep our speed in check as even with our versatile skis and boots, it is still difficult to turn, snow plough or stop. The skins were ideal and meant we skied down the hill at a lovely, gentle speed.

Skinning up!

Greenland is next, where each day we will cover, on average, about 20km, with ups and downs. Accommodation is there, but with no wood to burn and no stoves, other than our own to cook on. We fear there will be no running water and will have to melt snow and ice but this is really difficult to do with so little snow around, it will also use a lot of fuel. We have a pulk to pull and hope there is enough snow for it to travel on, if not, well, we don't have a plan for that yet. It is exciting and a real adventure.....