Skiing hut to hut for the first time - Day 1

Abisko - Kårsavagge

Because of a lot of things not working in my favour the past weeks, before I could even set off I had to delay that to try to sort out some things. My skis, that had ended up going back home with my family, and that was now on their way here in the mail, had only reached Stockholm, so I had to rent skis. I also had some last minute packing to sort out.

So I ended up starting skiing in the afternoon, not long before the sunset.

First half km was very slippery and very frustrating, and after falling, I decided to try out the skins that I had rented this time. After that, everything went sooo much smoother! I wish I had used them from the beginning, always, because now I could relax while skiing and not worry about falling all the time.

The sunset on the way to the Kårsevagge hut was beautiful, but going constantly upwards with a 14 kg backpack was really tough on my hips. I skied for a long time without the headlamp turned on, but finally I had to use it. Skiing was not difficult, and the weather was perfect, pretty much no wind at all, yet I was really nervous. I always get nervous when skiing or hiking in the dark even though I know there is nothing to be nervous about. It also makes me nervous skiing and walking on lakes, and doing it on my own in the dark didn't exactly help, even though I knew it was thick enough for a snowmobile to pass there just one day earlier, so why would I worry?

At least the sky was really beautiful with all the stars, the dark outlines of the mountains to the sides, some shooting stars and even some faint aurora.

The last hours was a constant battle with my own emotions, and the last few km felt very tough physically also. So I felt really relieved when I arrived at the hut around 8 P.M. When I arrived I also saw some ice "sculptures" on the ice, showing that the ice was indeed really thick, more than a meter, and my fears about the ice breaking being a bit silly.

I just had time to take off my skis before the hosts showed up. We had met two days before in Abisko, in the reception. They weren't completely done with setting up the hut yet, but showed me the side that was more ready. They also helped me get water and I started to make a fire.

I spent some hours in front of the fire before finally going to bed. I slept great for a few hours before waking up all sweaty - my sleeping bag was wayyyy too hot.

In the morning, I woke up from sounds in the room next to me, and I heard the door opening and closing several times. At first I thought the hosts had started early with preparing the hut but then I saw too guys moving around outside. Later, I got to know that they had arrived at 2 A.M. and had walked all the way there in just regular boots! They had also followed the winter trail instead of the snowmobile track, which meant that they would be sinking with every step they took. Crazy! They just stayed to sleep, then walked back again quite early.