Grövelsjön Sweden

The last days in January we went to the Swedish ”fjäll” mountains for a week’s ski tour. I had been on a solo tour two weeks earlier and wrote about it on facebook, so I got a reply from Peter who said that he planned to go to Åre on a solo tour. I had not met Peter for 18 years and we just got in contact a year before on facebook. I replied for fun, ”perhaps we can go for a solo tour together?” He liked the idea so we went for it.

”perhaps we can go for a solo tour together?”

I took my tarp and Peter took his new tent to sleep in. We packed each one their own stuff, as on a solo tour, but we got the advantage of each other’s company. It was going to be a great challenge for me only to sleep under the tarp that is 3 times 4 meters. My plan was to build walls like an igloo but use the tarp as a roof. If you build an regular igloo it takes much more time to make the roof, and the snow has to be really good for making blocks. With the tarp I would save time and it is also easier to build a larger room.

The first night we set up our camp close to the parked car. We packed the things in our sleds and went down to lake Grövelsjön on it’s south side that is in Sweden, the north is in Norway.

It was getting really dark now and we had to use our head lamps to see anything. We had used the hole day to drive the almost 600 km to come here, so now it was darkening. We found a good spot on the shore among some birches. I set up the tarp between two trees, and just put up snow blocks in each end. In this way I got shelter from the wind and quite easily and fast set up with the tarp. Peter set up his new tent for the first time, he struggled a bit to get it right and smooth on the cloth. Then after quite a while, he found out that it was a strap from the inner tent, that made it almost impossible to get it right without adjusting it.

Breaking up the camp and getting ready for the next part of the route to Rönsjön.

The next day we started the real tour, we wanted to go 15 km to the other lake, Rönsjön in Norway upstream from Grövelsjön. Peter was ahead of me packing, so he went ahead over the lake before me. I started maybe one hour after Peter. It was windy and the wind was blowing in the direction that we where heading so I decided to take a shoot at the kite to save some time over the lake. It turned out to be a lucky shoot! With the wind in my back I could glide easily over the lake and soon I saw Peter at the end of the lake.

Snowkiting on lake Grövelsjön.

The lake takes a turn to the left and the wind was better on the right, but Peter was on the left so I went to him, stopped and talked with him and took my camera out to film when I was snowkiting. Unfortunately the wind was not as good any longer, so I soon had to stop and pack down the kite. Now it was not so easy on my skis without skins, even if it was on a flat icy lake. I soon had to put the skins on so I would not slip backwards. The few ours of light this time of the year was soon to come to an end, and we decided to camp along the way in the forest, we could not make it to Rönsjön this day.

The rouet for day one to the first camp site in the forest.

Under the tarp in second camp. I made soup and put in some kebab meat that I had prepared back home. For drink I made tea of melted snow. I have a gas stove from Primus with a preheater that works well in cold weather. I also had some raisins and nuts, and bread with butter and sausage.

Here we go the second day over the mountain to get to Rönsjön in Norway.

Peter is catching his breath on the slope, but he was the faster one.

At last we reached the base camp where we stayed for three days.

This camp I built more seriously because we were supposed to stay a bit longer here. First I dug out a hole, and then built up the walls with snow blocks. And when I had everything right with the bed, cold trap an the walls I could put up the tarp as a roof.

From Grövelsjön to the camp site at Rönsjön.

Peter is setting up his tent in the ”snowstorm”.

The next day we went for a top tour to Gröthogna that reaches 1400 meters and is the highest top in the area. The weather was very mixed with clouds and some clear sky. I wanted to start with the kite over the lake and a bit up the mountain, so Peter went on ahead in regular manner. It went really good over the lake and a bit up the mountain till the wind stopped. I packed down the kite and put on my skins. After a while I crossed Peters tracks so I knew that he still was ahead of me. When I came at higher altitude I found myself above the clouds and the sun was shining on the clouds so it got a nice golden and silver lining.

I of course had to take the camera out and shoot some photos. Higher up I saw Peters skis but no Peter. He had left his skis because it was too steep, so he walked the last bit to the top. He soon came down and I decided to go up, with my skis. I had better skins that covered the whole skis, and gave a good grip in the snow. Soon I reached the top and this monument.

On the top of Gröthogna 1400m. A really nice sculptured monument made of concrete, covered in snow and ice.

Now it was only the fun part left, to do some telemark turns down the mountain! I went to the north west side to see if there was better snow, but here on the exposed mountain the snow had blown away and it took till the lower, less exposed regions till I found some powder snow. But here it was really nice!

The next day I took it easy, I was quite exhausted from the activities the days before. But it was blowing over the lake at the camp site so I took a nice turn with the kite.

And the next day was going home day, we head all the way back to the car this day. It was mostly downhill so it was okay. On the way we stopped at Idrefjäll to take a bath and a sauna, man it was nice!