There's a sporting goods store a short block from our hotel here in Luleå, and they rent skis, so we were on their doorstep as soon as they opened on Thursday morning. We got our skis...the same sort of Fischer Twin-skins Sheila liked back in Bruksvallarna....tossed them into the car and set off on the (theoretically) two-hour drive. As is often the case, it took us somewhat longer. Despite being a sunny day, the roads were rather icy....I don't know when it was last above freezing here, but it has apparently been a while.
There has been some commentary, that we came such a long way for it to look so much like Colorado. See pics later in the post to dispel this idea.
Once we arrived in Arvidsjaur, we had some time to kill before we could get into our AirBnB apartment, so we drove over to look at the closest ski area, Rymmarstadion. We stopped in at a nearby campgroud / youth hostel, Camp Gielas, to ask about trail passes, and discovered that all the cross-country trails are free!
We had thought we might ski a bit before going to the apartment, but decided it made more sense to go get some groceries before meeting Mady, the caretaker. The apartment's owner, Sven, lives in Germany. LOTS of Germans come here....it's a major center for automobile testing every winter.
For those who are interested, here is a link to the Winter Automobile Test Site. SPGA — Swedish Proving Ground Association . As you can see from the little map, the Test Site is at more areas than just Arvidsjaur, also Jokkmokk, Arjeplog, Älvsbyn and Luleå. All are within Swedish Lappland - rather a striking overlay of modern technology on the homeland of ancient reindeer herders. At Jokkmokk is a really wonderful museum of all things Lapplander -- Sheila and Lars spent a day there many years ago and Lars first visited the much earlier version of the museum decades ago.
The drive hadn't been too stressful, but we decided to just settle in for the evening. We could see the lit-up ski runs across the lake from our apartment, and were really looking forward to getting out in the morning.
In the morning, our view was more like this....
....but we went out anyway. There aren't many pictures of skiing in Arvidsjaur, as the temperatures were between 14 and 18F (-10 to -8C), and pretty windy, so the effort to take off gloves in order to take pics....well, it just wasn't happening. Although there are lots of trails around Rymmarstadion, the trail map was confusing.
The colors on Swedish trail maps indicate the LENGTH of the trail, rather than the difficulty. And nobody had been out to set tracks, so it was our best guess where to go. Someone had skiied earlier, so we opted to follow their tracks....which of course headed out on the 7.5k (longest) trail, which was clearly marked as a one-way. So we decided to just ski around close to the buildings for awhile. Breaking trail in 4" of powder gets a bit tiring, so we went back to the apartment (5 minutes away) for a break. We ate lunch at Hans i Hornet (Hans in the Corner), a little bakery/cafe that didn't look that great from the outside, but which had a delicious open-faced sandwich of shaved reindeer meat, mushrooms, and cheese. We really like reindeer! It's delicious!
After lunch, we decided to head for Vittjåkk, with the help of the car's built-in GPS. Which proved to be a mistake. We had gone a fair ways off the main highway on a snow-packed road, when the GPS said to make a left turn into a much narrower road. We were suspicious, as the ski area had been well-marked up to this point, but made the turn anyway. And immediately decided it was wrong. But...in trying to turn the car in the completely white landscape, in flat afternoon lighting, we managed to pile into a snowbank. And get stuck. Lars was doing his best to un-stick us, using a ski as a shovel, when Sheila managed to flag down a passing vechicle on the wider road. The exactly RIGHT passing vehicle, as it turned out. It was a couple who lived up near the ski area, and the guy not only knew that our rental car HAD to have a towing hitch, he figured how how to deploy it (take off a panel in the rear luggage area and push a button....). He then went home, got a tow-rope (still in its packaging), came back and yanked us out. He said it happens a lot, which is why he owned a tow-rope.
Somehow, by this point we had lost all interest in skiing at Vittjåkk, so went back to Rymmarstadion....our earlier tracks were still visible, and we did a couple of short loops, sort of in the spirit of "get back on the horse". Still snowing, still cold and windy. We knew it would be, of course, and had brought the right clothing, but still not conducive to pulling out your phone to take pics.
The next morning, it was STILL snowing. We went back to the stadium, where our tracks from the day before had almost vanished completely. Breaking trail in 7" of powder is even more tiring than 4"! And Sheila had the wrong combo of gloves, so her hands got VERY cold, so we made our same short loop and availed ourselves of the warming hut for about 30 minutes. We got a couple of pics from inside.
Then we decided we should head for the trees, in the hopes of getting out of the wind, and also seeing something more appealing than a biathon stadium. And so you FINALLY get a few pics of skiing in Lappland!
We went back to Hans i Hornet for another renskav macka, although this time we split it....they're BIG! And then had room for dessert. Lars had a choklad bolle, Sheila got her favorite mazarin....one of the best ever. We did a bit more grocery shopping, and decided we'd had enough skiing. Seemed like a better idea to rest up before the drive back to Luleå, which was showing every indication of being a slow one, as the snow was supposed to keep going for yet another day. We did go and grab some pics of the Arvidsjaur church, which is an unusual style. It's fairly modern, having been built in 1908.
In the morning, we brushed the car off yet again, and headed back to the coast. It was a bit slower, as expected, largely because any time a car passed us in either direction, we had to slow down until the small blizzard settled down. The disadvantages of powder snow! We snagged a few pics on the way back.
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| Ummmm....THREE tire tracks?? Shouldn't there be four???? |
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| YIKES!!!! |
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| Not Colorado. |
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| Nope. |
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| Still not Colorado. |
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| Not this, either.... |
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| This was sometimes the only way to be sure where the road actually was! |
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When we got to Luleå, we realized that they had gotten even more snow than Arvidsjaur! There is now a large mountain across the street from the hotel, that wasn't there 4 days ago. And we had been wondering why the sidewalks in both cities were so wide....they plow them with full-size snowplows and/or skiploaders. Here's one on the sidewalk by the hotel, as seen from our room.
We're back at Elite Stadshotellet, with a bit of an upgrade. We're tired, and figured we deserve it.
And that's more or less it for this trip. Tomorrow, we spend most of the day here (it's supposed to not be snowing, so we hope to be able to get out and see some more of the city), then fly to Stockholm, overnight near the airport, fly to Reykjavik, spend a day there, and fly home on Wednesday. There might yet be another post, depending on what we get up to here and in Reyk, but the main events are over.
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