5 Men, 4 Days, 3 Nights
Bieggolmai, tell us the story behind this great poster !
Sadly, the Farao curse reached out and grabbed Frikk just days before departure !
So that left us with five brave souls
- Moski
- Bieggolmai
- Hank (rookie with just 3 nights in a hammock)
- Joz
- Sebbe (a poor ground dweller)
Me and Hank met Bieggolmai @ Lapland Airport in Gällivare 17th Feb 12.00.
How far north is Gällivare ?
Pretty far North !
This is the Arctic Circle and Gällivare is 64 km north of that .
We had chosen Muddus National Park for SKAHOw 2012 .
Day 1 2012-02-17
We had a parking lot as a meeting place,
67° 1'16.25"N 19°56'48.23"E (click or copy and paste, in search in google maps).
Bieggolmai drove me and Hank there and we got there at 13.00 .
Team1 was ready to go at 14.00 when Car2 (Joz and Sebbe) showed up.
So, team1 started to scout ahead.
67° 1'8.62"N 19°56'44.56"e
We had to break trail in 20cm snow, so the Conditions was pretty hard.
Hank was suppose to borrow skis from Bieggolmai, but his mega shoes was to big for the bindings, so he snowshoed the whole trip (Hero Flag).
That left breaking trail to me and Bieggolmai.
But when i took the lead i could only do 100-200 m, then i was wasted !
So Bieggolmai did most of the trail breaking this day (Hero Flag).
About halfway we ran across a sign that said snow mobiles "NOT ALLOWED",
right beside that was a huge snow mobile track speeding in to Muddus.
We cursed the stupid *******
We hit Camp 1 @ 16:30 66°59'12.41"N 20° 0'55.01"e
The sun pretty much went down as we skied in to Camp1.
Team1 started with the setups straight away.
I did the hole setup with skis on and only took them off when i went to bed.
Team2 with Joz and Sebbe turned up awhile after team1 and they had to do their setups in the dark.
Everybody was tired and got busy with cooking dinner.
When that was done, all went to bed, hardly any talking at all
Day1 Summery 5.2 km in 2,5 hours thats only 2km/h
Temps during the day was -10 to -15 C.
Day 2 2012-02-18
During the night we had -18.5 C @ 23.18
We slept long and we didn't start before 10.50.
Todays target was the safe house a 8km stint.
66°55'32.44"N 20° 6'40.62"e
Camp 1 had no wind, but as you stept out only 20m or so, you had a nasty cold wind straight in the face.
We had to fight that the whole day and i loved my googles
Do you remember the snowmobile BASTERED ?
Today he was our pal !
His snowmobile tracks past right outside Camp1 and went in the right direction.
Happy days, no breaking trail !
Naturally i took the lead
I stayed up front pretty much all day with Bieggolmai and had an easy day .
Hank didn't have a good day, Joz and Sebbe stayed back with him.
After 4.3km the Snowmobile tracks made an 180 and seemed to go somewhere else completely.
We had to give up the ideas on reaching the safe house,
we decided to backtrack and look for a camp.
Return point 66°57'24.23"N 20° 1'19.02"e
We reached Camp2 66°57'35.75"N 20° 2'13.78"e @ 13.20
I did the same as the day before and did the whole set upwith skis on.
Only this time i tooked them off right after, i sunk tigh deep straight away.
So i took my trusty shovel and digged in.
Of course a had to lower the hole setup with 0.5m later on.
This evening we had some time and energy to socialize for an hour or two,
but we soon hit the hammocks.
Day2 Summery
5.4 km in 2.5 hours
Temps during the day was around -5C
My Camp 2
Day 3 2012-02-19
During the night we had -5.3 C @ 04.13
There was also a weather varning 2 out for our area, 30 cm of snow.
Just what we needed, more snow
After eating breakfast and taking camp down we left @ 10:32.
The target today was to start heading back to Camp 1.
The snowmobile tracks was gone, it had snowed to much during the night.
But, it was fairly easy to feel your way forward.
HINT, If you went off the track you sunk to the waist
The Snowmobile ******* was by now the HERO !
And if i ever find out who he is, i will buy him a whiskey bottle
Bieggolmai and Joz was at the front breaking trail on the over snowed tracks almost the hole day.
But at the end of the day when we reached Camp1,
it was way to exposed to the wind, we went further to find a better spot.
We found Camp 3 here @ 13.20 66°59'25.19"N 20° 0'12.42"e
Day3 Summery 4.5 km in 3 hours
Temps during the day was around -5 C.
Day 4 2012-02-20
During the night we had -12.6 C @ 07.48
We had an early start on the FINAL DAY !
Everybody was up @ 07.00 and we have a dream to be by the cars at 13.00.
Me and Hank have a plane to catch.
I had alot of ice under the sleeping bag and on the IX UQ ?
I have no clue why i/we got hit by condensation this last night
My fuel strategy was scaringly spot on !
I had just about enought for:
.
- breakfast
- vacuum bottle with tea
- warm forrest water in a bottle (melted snow with a lot of crap in)
Yeah, i am aware it was stupid !
But i had problems with a leaking pump and the plan was not ment melt snow all the time.
We where suppose to fill our bottles from a drilled holes at the lakes.
We break camp and heads out 09.00, we use the same tactics as the day before, find and stay on that old snowmobile track.
That works great for 1km , then heads of in the wrong direction again.
Now we move to Plan 2.
We are very close to our old out tracks and after awhile Bieggolmai sails away, breaking trail on our old tracks.
He had a real nack for staying on track !
Hank scared us with the most serious incident on this trip!
His right leg simply disappeared when we crossed a small stream.
10.58 67° 0'19.84"N 19°58'13.01"e
Hank sinks with one leg when he crosses the stream as third.
He got ashore quickly and Joz drags both pulks to safety.
You have to hear the wet parts of the story from him, but i think he manage to keep his socks dry ?
We reach the parked cars @ 12:40
Day4 Summery 5 km in 3 hours and 40 min
Temps during the day was around -15 C.
I am sure that all 5 agree that this was the hardest and coldest SKAHO so far.
Will i sign up for a new one ?
Sure, but can we wait until summer
I had a great time, thank's mates !
Isn't strange how equal the stints are ?
- Day 1 = 5.2 km in 2,5 hours
- Day 2 = 5.4 km in 2.5 hours
- Day 3 = 4.5 km in 3 hours
- Day 4 = 5 km in 3 hours and 40 min
This was not planned, it just happend.
Yeah we all finnished with a Pizza before we split our ways !
Snow deapths
Things i learned
- i didn't drink enough
- It's hard work to be alive
- It's great to burry the water bottles in snow over night
- Real food is expensive but taste GREAT
- Bring more fuel
Airport Nazists
The Airport Nazists stole my fuel bottle !
Before the the check in, i rinced the bottles inside with water a couple of times.
And i finally filled it completly with water, since the fumes are the dangerous stuff .
Didn't help, they nicked anyway.
But common, what can burn ?
It's no fuel or fumes left.
I am gonna repeat that routine and add a open flame,
just to see what happends after this report
Wish me luck !
I guess i have to be lucky that they never thought about the stove or the pump !
Any thoughts or ideas on how to avoid loosing fuel bottles ?
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