Surprising Sweden - we snuck up on it unawares....
Sweden eh? Abba, moose(s), Freddie Ljundberg and erm,
crispbread. But it's also a massive underpopulated wilderness with
huge outdoor sport potential. Maria Clegg checked it out for OM. It
too her ages to escape, but this is what she discovered...
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We are tougher than you, blonder
that you and better at falling in frozen lakes.
Meet the Swedish Outdoor Academy.. Pic: Maria
Clegg
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The Outdoor Academy is a shadowy consortium of Scandinavian clothing
and equipment manufacturers, tour operators and tourist boards who
co-operate to promote themselves to outdoorsy people outside
Scandinavia.
Which is why, somewhere a few hundred clicks north of the Arctic
Circle, a coach is driving along hard-packed snow to a town called
Kiruna, with its precious cargo of 45 kidnapped outdoor retailers,
tour operators and journalists from the UK, Netherlands, Belgium,
Germany, France and Switzerland.
The Outdoor Academy is going to teach us about Scandinavian outdoor
culture. Here are some of the things we learned:
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The highest mountain in Sweden is the 2117-metre
Kebnekaise. The Swedes, very sensibly, couldn't be arsed to
bag it, so it was first climbed by a Frenchman in 1885.
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Kebnekaise, Sweden's highest
peak. Pic: Patrick Tromglardh. Image Bank
Sweden
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There are 24,000 people in Kiruna - in Swedish lapland -
though it covers an area half the size of Switzerland. At
the end of the nineteenth century, the railroad came to
Kiruna, and people began to visit the region for the
mountain sports. The first huts and trekking routes were
built at the start of the twentieth century.
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The world's biggest iron ore mine is in Kiruna, raking
65,000 tons of iron ore every day. Home to space centre,
space engineering students, sending barrage balloons up to
check on the ozone layer.
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It's not uncommon for temperatures to go down to -20
degrees. That's cold, very cold. So cold that Swedish people
know a thing or two about staying warm in the
outdoors...
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So cold everyone lives in
igloos... Pic: Maria Clegg
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It can be 'too cold' for down jackets - at some point
between your skin and the outside environment is the 'point
of zero'. Wherever this point of zero is, moisture wicking
away from the body will condense and, if it's really cold,
freeze.
In cold conditions, this'll be on the outside of your
jacket, but in absolutely f-f-freezing cold, this'll be
somewhere inside the down, resulting in soggy down and no
insulation as soon as the ice crystals melt
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All Swedes are expert skiiers
from birth. Pic: Maria Clegg
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Mountain travel
- It can snow in July.
- Maps are 1:100,000
- Valleys are large, so your navigation has to be shit hot
- The most spectacular peak is the Dragon Ridge
If you're heading off, always leave an itinerary at your
hotel with date and point of departure; destination, route, names and
ages of everyone in the party and your estimated day and time of
arrival.
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The world renowned Ice Hotel,
possibly not the best choice for
anyone who craves warmth. Pic: Maria
Clegg
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On the Norwegian side, huts are completely locked and you
will need a key. However, the lovely Swedes have one room in the hut
which is always unlocked, with an emergency phone. Pick up this phone
and you can contact the emergency centre if things have gone
fruit-shaped or if you've been forced into a change of plans (by the
weather, for example) but everything's okay, you can leave a message
so the red helicopters don't come looking for you.
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Kidnapped journalists locked in
mountain hut wonder how long it
will be before they start burning the furniture. Pic: Maria
Clegg
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Sweden has some of the best access legislation in the
world. You can put up a tent anywhere for 24 hours, so long as it's
out of sight, and you can go wherever you want, and do pretty much
what you want. There are protected areas and national parks of
course, and in these areas, there are no waymarked paths, no huts and
no skidoos or heli-skiers.
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Maria visited Sweden in winter,
but there's great summer walking on offer with
a well-constucted hut network and stunning wilderness.
Göran Assner - Image Bank Sweden
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Winter mountain trails are marked with red crosses, set
about 40 metres apart. A change in direction is marked by twin
crosses. Winter and summer trails aren't the same, 'cos some winter
trails cross frozen lakes that are impassable in summer.
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Göran Assner - Image Bank
Sweden
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The 500-km King's Trail (
Kungsleden) long distance path, is
probably Sweden's big draw and is a fantastic multi-day backpack. See
this
page for one walker's personal description and pictures.
More Information Sweden really does look fantastic, and the
best place for information on trails, huts, weather forecasts and
avalanche reports is
www.naturvardsverket.se
and yes, it is in English. Or it can be.
Outdoor Culture
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Low temperatures mean
reliable water ice.
Maria in action.
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The outdoor culture of Sweden is based around hunting, fishing and
cross-country travel. Swedish peoples aren't that interested in
peak-bagging, and so very few people get caught in avalanches.
Falling through ice into frozen rivers and lakes, now, that's a
different story...
Gore's Windstopper is the numero uno, must-have fabric in
Scandinavian conditions, because while rain isn't an issue, wind,
cold, snow and, crucially, breathability are. Pretty much all hoods
have steel-wired hoods for the same reason.
It's one of the reasons that Scandinavian outdoors brands like
Haglöfs,
Silva
and Hilleberg
are buidling reputations for effective, bombproof kit.
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Quote of the day:A sleeping bag is a Thermos
flask, not a radiator! You cannot expect to put cold tea in
a flask and pour out hot tea five hours later.
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The local Sami - Lappish - people used to
castrate the
reindeer by biting off their testicles. (When this procedure was
described to our group, a line of six men all crossed their legs at
the same time.) The reindeer are culled in May, the Sami believe this
to be a time of renewal and rebirth. Bad news if you're not a
buddhist reindeer then.
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Don't worry, it's just a little
nip... Pic: Patrick Trägardh. Image Bank
Sweden
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Silva's new ADC Summit electronic compass measures
temperature, factors in wind chill, altitude and wind speed. Perfect,
they say, for mountaineers, crane operators, firefighters and, er,
snipers. Gulp...
There are three different balancing zones for land
compasses, divided by pleasing wavy lines around the globe. If you're
going to NZ on holiday, take your UK compass and forget about it. If
you're moving out there, you might as well buy a Kiwi compass. It
doesn't make any difference to functionality, says Silva's Goran
Andersson, it's just an aesthetic thing.
More Swedish Facts To Learn
The traditional pattern on a Norwegian sweater is called a
snow rose. Too lovely...
The
Ice Hotel is open between November and May. It takes 30
artists six weeks to build the hotel and ice theatre. Last year there
were 15,000 guests in the 66 rooms.
The hotel is built from nothing but snow and ice. There's only one
other like it, in Quebec. Bump into a lady with a wheelbarrow of
cleaning fluids. Can't help wondering what's to clean?
The temperature inside the ice hotel is a mild -5 degrees
C.
The ice is so pure, it's exported to Singapore and the Sahara.
Ice to Africa?
Orienteering was invented by Silva to sell more
compasses!
The next big thing is Nordic walking - yes, you must buy
special shoes and swing your arms a lot.
As well as breathable waterproof jackets, Gore also manufactures
synthetic blood vessels.
Finally... no article about Sweden would be complete without a
picture of the Northern Lights, so here it is :-) More about them
here.
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Tomas Utsi - Image Bank
Sweden
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More Information
Maria visited Sweden in late winter when temperatures still fall
as low as minus 20 C. Things are much warmer in the summer though,
and the rolling hills, lakes and forests apparently make for some
great wilderness walking.
For more information on the web see the Swedish Environmental
Protection Agency web
site - really - and for general information Visit
Sweden.
For specific information on Swedish Lappland see this
web site and for details of the legendary Ice Hotel, which is
rebuilt every year, click
here.
Sweden is now more affordable than in the past, cheapflights.co.uk
lists return fares for under £100.
Oscar Järkvik
