Lake Ladtjojaure, on the way to Kebnekaise mountain station.
Stunned Swede. On my way up to the Toulpagorni mountain top (the one on the right at the midnight photo below)
I have just come back from my “Swecation” to Kebnekaise in the very north of Sweden, and I must admit I am stunned. Having lived in Sweden all my life I have heard people talk a lot about the midnight sun, but used to think that the light summer nights in the southern parts of the country were something similar.
After having spent one week living in a tent in constant daylight I know it’s not the same. Going to bed at 2 am, watching the sunshine paint the mountain tops in gold and a few clouds passing over a perfectly blue sky – and waking up seven hours later to see the same sight (only with the sun lighting up another mountain) is something quite extraordinary.
But despite being a very remote place where Nature seems to reign, human activity does reach even to Kebnekaise. The top of the mountain’s South peak, which is Sweden’s highest point, is made up of a glacier. Looking at it from the valleys below, it rises its white silhouette slightly above the other peaks. But with climate change warming the atmosphere the glacier melts and the peak shrinks. Last year when the maps were revised, the height of Kebnekaise’s South peak was changed from 2111 to 2106 metres, based on its average height during the last decade.
The peak is measured once a year by scientists from the Tarfala research station. They have kept a check on the glaciers of this area ever since 1946, collecting what is now the world’s longest continuous series of glacier mass data, providing knowledge about how much these glaciers are shrinking.
No need to carry water around.
One day we took a walk to the Tarfala valley, where the research station is situated. Watching the glaciers covering the mountain slopes, wandering over the giant field of stone blocks and reading articles in the mountain hut about winds up to 81 metres per second, tearing biuldings into pieces, makes lots of used clichés run through my head. But it is a fact: facing those majestic mountains humanity does feel very tiny.
Reindeer in the Tarfala valley.
Midnight in the valley below Kebnekaise. Notice the sunshine on the mountain top to the left.
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