Bruksvallarna

Bruksvallarna's motto, "Bäst i längden" means either "Best in Nordic skiing" or "Best by a long shot".

Bruksvallarna is a cross-country ski mecca, with 350 kilometers of groomed ski trails, and another 450 kilometers of back-country.  Of which I think we managed to see about 5k...turns out, neither of us is actually prepared for this trip, for various reasons.  And the snow conditions haven't been the greatest, either.

Regardless, we did get in some good days on the trails, once we rented new skis.  Sheila was VERY happy with her Fischer Twin-Skins, length 177cm, and Lars got a pair of Åsnäs Mountain Racers (length 185, skin skis, metal edges, alpine flex, adequate sidecut (60-48-55) for easy turns and control on downhills and suitable for rapid addition of skins suited for major uphill skiing, followed by downhill decents, aka alpine touring). Both pairs of skies are significantly shorter and softer flex than the ones we originally rented. The Åsnäs skis are ones Lars had often wanted to try, but, none were for rent -- if living someplace like Bruksvallarna he would likely have his very own pair.  Both pairs felt a lot more like the ones we use at home. Cross country ski rentals in Sweden and Norway seem mostly oriented toward younger, race-oriented folks, thus rental skis are predominently long, stiff, fast-gliding skis for folks with very strong legs and a lust for speed, not for easy, secure up and down hill travel for older, wimpy folks.

We started off at the Stadion (training area), where the terrain is very flat.  There are 4 or 5 short straightaways for people to train technique, and a short circular course of widely varied terrain for the hot-shot teenagers to do something that looked like motocross on skis.  And an area for little kids, as well, with sledding hills.

Once we'd come to terms with the new skis, we set out on one of the easy trails along the river, Sun Maid (yes, sponsored by the raisin company).  The full length goes 8k to the nearest downhill area, Ramundberget.  It was fairly flat, climbing gently along the river, with a couple of hills where we could test the holding power of the new skis.  We skied for awhile, took a break back at the cabin, and came back out in the afternoon.  The softer afternoon snow let us go quite a lot farther.

Bruksvallarnas Fjällhotell, with our cabin to the left, as seen from the riverside trail.

Tuesday was fairly icy.  We took a different trail, along with about 400 other people.  It's really interesting to see the great interest in this sport here....the hotel TV was tuned to the World Cup skiing pretty much 24/7, and whenever we were in the hotel lounge, there were people watching the Nordic races.

Wednesday was quite windy, which at temps a bit below freezing led us to try another river trail, as it was mostly out of the wind.  I think there were about 900 people with the same idea...we spent the whole time stepping out of the tracks so faster skiers could pass us, or so skiers going the opposite direction could go by.  Downhill has right-of-way, uphill moves aside.

3 days of skiing was about all we could take, and it was still windy, so we drove down to Funäsdalen and went to the provincial museum.  These photos might remind you of the ones from the museum in Røros...the towns are less than 50 miles apart, so it's not surprising that many things were the same.

What the well-dressed sledge driver wears.  We saw a lot like this in action, in Røros.

Spinning equipment

No reason tools can't be pretty!

Even in the winter, there is much to do.

Man's coat--around 1800

Men's vests

Young, unmarried woman's hat

Women's bodices

Wedding dress, early 1800s

The musueum was having a special exhibit of pieces by a particular furniture-maker, Jöns Ljungberg (1736-1818), who was pretty much single-handedly responsible for a style known as "Härjedalens Rococo"....very ornate.  I stole this from the museum's website, because it was about 7 feet in the air on top of a cabinet, and it pretty much sums up his sense of style.

                                   

We did our best to photograph some of his veneer work, but between the lighting and the glass display cases....  It's very elaborately pieced together out of tiny strips of wood, although some of the wood is actually striped, so it's a bit hard to see what's what.

Thursday morning, when we planned to load up the car and drive back to Östersund, we awoke to white-out conditions and about 3" of snow on our porch (hard to tell because of the drifts).  As we ate breakfast, we discussed whether or not to stay another night and drive the next day.  It quit snowing and the sun came out.  By the time we had packed up, it was snowing hard again, and very windy.  We went over to the hotel to check the forecast.  The sun came out.  Other people were driving off, so we decided to go for it.  Staying would just complicate the next day.  It was kind of hairy between Bruksvallarna and Funäsdalen, but we have an all-wheel drive BMW, and it was just a matter of slow and steady.  Once on the main highways, it wasn't bad at all.  We did get slowed up by a herd of reindeer at one point, but otherwise it was an uneventfull trip back to Hotell Emma.

Blurry reindeer...

Church in Vemdalen