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| Photo by Mr Mikko |
The nature tightened her muscles during the Haglöfs Arctic Weekend 2014, still it was a great event with a fantastic crew of guides, staff and motivated participants!
The ambiance was sparkling, motivated and enthousiastic people everywhere, ready for a weekend of adventure above the Arctic circle. I had arrived Thursday morning, well in time before the forecasted storm that would prove to hold us in her grip the whole upcoming day. The Haglöfs Arctic weekend 2014 was about to start and plenty of participants together with many of my fellow Haglöfs team members checked in to the hotel.
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| Ambiance! (photo Björn Arnemo) |
The scheduled activities ranged from Free skiing on the Riksgränsen mountain, Ice climbing, Ski touring, Igloo-building and Snowkiting, to inspiring and educative lectures in the evenings.
I was going to guide the free ski activities together with my friends and fellow Haglöfs ambassadors Olof Larsson, Lotten Rapp and Per Jonsson.
Our mission: to show the participants our best spots on the mountain, share our passion for free skiing and let them explore theirs!
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| Evening presentation of Olof, myself, Per and Lotten (on the screen) (Photo J.Strobel) |
However, when we woke up friday morning everything outside was white. We had to think twice and come up with a plan B. Roads and ski lifts were closed and the wind was roaring outside with gale force power and visibility close to 0. What could we do?
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| Gale force winds and almost no visibility, we had to think again! (Photo J.Strobel) |
We decided to make the most out of the day and use the weather as an opportunity to practise storm skills, avalanche awareness and transiever training. I was impressed by the participants, their eagerness to come utside and their work glee despite the Arctic storm. We buried bags with transievers practised search skills, probing and showeling techniques. What we did not know by then was that these skills would be life saving two days later and many participants would actually have to use their equipment properly in a sharp situation...
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| Transiever- and search training (Photo J.Strobel) |
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| (Photo J.Strobel) |
After lunch, we tried out windbags, dug bivouacs and snow pits. I wanted to show my group that snow is not just snow...what we see as a milky white surface, is only just the top of several snow layers that have been created through out the season, by weather and various temperatures. These snow layers contain both snow crystals and ice with various resistance and stability. An unstable snowlayer hidden somewhere in the snow pack is the reason why a slab avalanche, the most common type of avalanche this time of year, is being created.
The snow profile we dug confirmed what the previous weather forecast had indicated. The snow pack was very unstable and a layer of facets easily released when we made a rutschblock test. It would be no surprise the up coming days that the steeper slopes were definitely no-go places in terms of security. As skiers, we would have to play it extra safe.
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| Finally, Saturday weather allowed skis on! (Photo: Hans Johansson) |
Saturday was our first day of skiing. In the afternoon, visibility improved and I think people really enjoyed the skiing. In the evening, everyone was so psyched and filled with stories about how good the day had been. I had the pleasure to lead a strong group of skiers and snowboarders from Sweden, Germany, Finland, Italy and Japan!
The japanese riders Ken and So had traveled from the other side of the world only to be apart of this event. It was a true joy to see both them and the others enjoying the day.
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| My fabulous group on Saturday: Ken, So, Erik, Andreas, Oliver, Frej, Johan and Stefano |
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| I'm taking the opportunity to feel some air! (Photo J.Strobel) |
Riksgränsen is in many ways my home mountain. I was born in Kiruna, only 130km away and I can't count all the days I've spent on this mountain! I learned to ski in this area and there are so many strong moments I can recall from Riksgränsen. As teenagers, we would spend weekend after weekend and every school winter vacations here.
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| Nice to put the skis on and lead the group on my home mountain |
Once, Riksgränsen was my vision of a big mountain and pure adventure.
Nowadays, I relate to Riksgränsen as the place that made me take the first, so important steps towards skiing the bigger mountains. I can see Riksgränsen with different eyes today since I've had the opportunity to continue developing and take my skiing to higher altitude. Still, it is a fantastic mountain, rich in it's variety and you should not under estimate its dimensionality. On the contrary,
use the opportunity to benefit and truly explore the terrain and your commitment to the challenges offered!
A film by Simon Jaktlund, our Snow Kite master who has summed up some of the impressions from the weekend!
It is a reason why skiers who were brought up skiing in this area often are good skiers: the snow conditions are varied and sometimes demanding. You learn to handle a varied snow pack here and the terrain offers pretty much everything you search for as a skier: varied angles, small cliffs, bigger cliffs, unprepared slopes, pists, wide spaces, mountain faces, creeks and nature shaped jumps.
In Riksgränsen, you need to keep your eyes open 'cause the terrain will often surprise you and demand your focus and commitment. This is the best place in Sweden to learn big mountain skiing in a smaller scale and the beauty of the nature around will definitely leave you with long lasting memories. Exactly those type of memories you bring out in the office when you long for that perfect day outside!
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| Time to end a nice day on the mountain! Photo by Bruce Duncan |
It was sweet to see how much the skiers and snowboarders appreciated the site and how they gained confidence through out the day.
When Sunday arrived we were all rewarded blue skies and SUNSHINE. It was wonderful to finally see the surroundings properly and I felt proud to show our participants how beautiful this area really is. The 360º view from the top with all that vast areas of nature: lakes, mountains and valleys as far as you can see, all covered in white, and the fjord and sea on the other side of the border in Norway...simply beautiful.
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| My happy group on Sunday! |
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| Time to enjoy skiing and sunshine (photo by Patrik Lindqvist) |
The minute when everything took another direction
Just after 11 o'clock I was about to take the ski lift up with my group when a white cloud suddenly appeared and covered the neighbor mountain Nordalsfjället. I immediately understood what had happened and threw myself out of the line to inform the ski patrol. It was the first beautiful day after the storms and I could easily see the ski tracks that lead into the steep eastern slope of Norddalsfjället. Then they disappeared.
The skier had trigged a huge avalanche as he skied into the steeper part of the slope. A prominent crown now covered the whole width of the mountain and it looked like the snow had been shaved off the slope. If someone had been caught we could not lose any second. I left my group and reached the site just as a skier was dug up by my fellow Haglöfs friends Lotten Rapp and Björn Arnemo. He was luckily found less than 5 minutes after the avalanche broke and his worst day in life turned out to be his best. He had survived thanks to their quick response and proper actions.
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| The whole slope has come down |
We did not know if there would be other vicitims and the search continued thoroughly. At first, signals from transievers and mobile phones carried by people not participating in the actual search, disturbed and made the situation harder to evaluate. Eventually we had searched through the debris with transievers and recco equipment. Still, it was not possible to say for sure if no other person was buried. Avalanche trained search dogs indicated in the debris and the search continued with probing and digging.
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| Transiever search through the debris |
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| The crown just under the saddle point |
It wasn't until the next day that the organized rescue teams, police and military would be able to abandon the search and confirm that no more person had been buried and we could all go home knowing that no one got injured this time! This accident got a good ending thanks to the fact that the skier who got caught did not get hurt or buried too deep, that he was found quickly and that people around had high competance and could apply it instantly.
I believe many people got a strong eye-opener.
I would like to take the opportunity to praise everyone involved in the search for their contribution. No matter previous experience, people did their best and put all their energy in. To dig and work in an avalanche is a very demanding and hard effort for both the body and mind. I think we all learnt something this day.
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| People lined up probing the lower debris field, no one got injured in this avalanche and we can all use this experience as practise and learn. |
Arctic Weekend 2014 included a large variety of experiences and happenings. The most important thing and what I will remember the most, is the SWEET response coming from the people I met, the people I had the pleasure to ski with and talk to. You are wonderful! Thank you for sharing your experiences, impressions and enthousiasm!
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| Time for skiing: Morgan (right) together with Emilia, Malin and Peter in the front. (photo by Patrik Lindqvist) |
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| Snow Kite (photo Hans Johansson) |
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| Snow Kite guru Simon Jaktlund knows how to hande the wind! (Photo H Johansson) |
Thank you Haglöfs friends and staff, especially Calle Hård. I feel priviliged to be a part of such a beautiful and well organized event together with the others in the Haglöfs team. No wonder we look forward to next year!
For those of you who would like to take part of the Arctic Weekend 2015, the dates will be
12-15 march. Sign up at Haglöfs.
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