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Ammarnäs -> Hemavan 2011

A new year, a new part of Kungsleden. The crew this year was V+R together with little sister C, but also an old acquaintance in the form of Gustav who went with us a short hike a few years back, and now graced us with his presence again. This was to be a warm-up for a longer trek into Sarek later this year. However, for various reasons the long trek got cancelled, so so far this is my only hike this year. Not that I have given up entirely, I may still get up there one more time!

New gear? Well, if you’ve read previous accounts you’ll be unsurprised that, yes, we had new gear! The most spectacular of which was that both C and Gustav had decided to buy new tents, and in fact single person tents (although Gustav’s Helsport Ringstind 2 is actually a small 2 man tent). So 5 persons had 4 tents :-) As documented to the left, C had the good taste to buy a Hilleberg Akto, just like mine. But shiny and red instead!

My main new gear was a new backpack. Namely the brilliant Granite Gear A.C 60. And damn! That’s a good buy. After a small adjustment it became the most comfortable backpack I have ever worn. My only gripe is the lack of places to tie external gear. But as I bought the optional top lid as well I can always add than when I need a few extra litres. Without the top lid I did fit a 6 day hike, but without cutting down more on volume going past 8-9 days may a stretch. But having said that: I’m extremely happy with it!

Day One; A Light Evening Walk
We decided to meet Gustav at Ammarnäs, and to have dinner at STF. The trip up was uneventful, apart perhaps from the fact that none of us knew how to find STF when we did arrive. Details, details.

As we’ve done previous years we used the excellent Bussgods to send a bag ahead of us down to Hemavan. It is very nice to be able to get a pair of jeans and a t-shirt on after your first post-hike shower! Worked this year as well, apart from the fact the the pick-up place in Hemavan had changed to the Airport which had closed when we arrived. Ooops. We did get the stuff though thanks to R and the help of the staff at STF.

After dinner we set out towards Aigerstugan. Our idea was simply to try ot get above the tree-line before nightfall. It quickly turned out that in order to get there we needed to go the entire stretch to Aigert. Which we did. The First night camp was a few hundred meters past the hut.

We did meet a fellow wanderer coming the opposite way: as a true minimalist he walked in sandals and had lightweight gear, including an umbrella (!). He talked constantly about the TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE mosquitos, and gadflies, and flies, and GOD! THE MOSQUITOES! Er… I may be exaggerating, but according to him we were heading into the worst stretch of fly and mosquito-ridden mountain imaginable. That put us on the mood. But for the record, and we’ll get back to it, it wasn’t that bad by a long stretch.

Which reminds me: The nice lady at Aigertstugan was the first person to be able to tell me if, and why mosquitoes “goes to bed” at eleven. Almost always during my hikes, at about eleven o’clock in the night, the mosquitoes disappear. I have imagined some sort of subliminal food-and-sleep clock that calls the little buggers home, but I appear to be wrong. It’s simpler than that: If the temperature drops low enough the mosquitoes becomes dormant. So a really warm night in the mountains they’ll stay awake. Which they did the first night, just to prove her point :-)

Day Two; Close Thunder
From Aigert to Serverstugan is a straight 20 km walk. But fairly flat, and to be honest, not very exciting. Luckily we got artificial excitement though: Midday we walked straight into a thunderstorm. For those of you who haven’t been in the mountains when the thunder is rolling around (yes ‘around’, not as you’d expect: ‘above’) your head, it is a special experience.

We where kind of lucky anyway and managed to bypass the worst of the rain until the last couple of hours which gave us plenty of fairly nice weather anyway. I have it by rumor that R and Gustav stopped and took a bath at one of the lakes. But bath-chicken that I am I think their just making it up to appear macho.

At the end of the day we where rather wet and the weather didn’t seem to let up. This early in the hike we really didn’t feel like packing wet tents, and when we arrived at Serve, and immediately was served lemonade on the house and putting our feet up, we decided to do something new: namely to stay in the hut as opposed to somewhere close. Apart from the fact that it was very warm inside at times, we had a relaxing evening and night.

Day Three; Oh Migod, the Gadflies!
So, our friend from the first day wasn’t entirely wrong: I have never seen, let along been stung by, so many gadflies. At the end of the day you where numb and just couldn’t give a shit about them any more: Let the little bastard sting, I’ll kill it when I’ve mustered enough interest. Oh bother!

Apart from that, this was a rather nice day, with just a little bit of rain as we approached Tärnasjön. At which point we had a choice to make: If we wanted to attempt an ascent of Norra Sytertoppen during the trip, an extra day for weather-adjustments could be good. And since there’s a very conventient boat across Tärnasjön, we could press on to Syterstugan the same day. This would cut one day of walking (mainly though birch woods, oh poor us!) and position us right at Syterskalet for the next day. Said and done!

Did I say nice weather? Well, as we arrived close to Syterstugan it became rougher. We could see heavy rain moving in the valleys. Me managed to pass through the outskirts of one during our walk, but the motherload hit us when we had pitched our tents and cooked dinner. In fact: R handed out dinner through the tent door and then me and C (having separate tents) had to run for it! Heavy rain? Oh yes… But I didn’t get too wet, and I’ll admit: sitting in my tent with the almost deafening sound of the rain and wind on the canvas, eating warm food and sipping whisky made me a very happy camper indeed.

Day Four and Five; Into a Post Card
Syterskalet is one of those iconic images of the Swedish mountains that makes a great image, but is even greater when you’re actually within it. This day started grey and boring but ended up with sunshine coming though. And we did find perhaps the best camping spot we’ve ever had.

So here’s the tip for anyone passing by who want to find the place to camp: east of Viterskalsstugan you can wade over Syterbäcken to get either up into Viterskalet or to follow the path up to Norra Sytertoppen. Just wade across the water and you have a big flat grassy plain you can stay at. But do make sure you pitch the tent so that you can lie and watch Syterskalet in the morning light. I did. And when the tent gets hot in the morning, opening up to a vista like the one to the left explains why I hike. If you still don’t understand, you’re a lost cause.

In fact, we stayed at the same place day five. C, R and Gustav went up to Norra Sytertoppen while me and V explored Viterskalet. On the whole, I think the ascent was the right choice, but V had a bad foot and my legs was a bit too tired so we opted for a simpler day. Not that I’m complaining, the weather was nice and spending a day with V is a luxury I too seldom get to do.

In the afternoon Gustav decided to press on towards Hemavan. He really wanted to catch an early bus home the day after. The rest of us was in no such rush as we weren’t flying out until the day after and opted to stay. I mean, with that kind of camping spot, you really don’t want to move! So Gustav packed up and walked away. And there was much rejo… Er… wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Day Six; Descent
Day six was basically just getting down to Hemavan. A nice, short trek ending with the birch woods in the Hemavan alpine center. Not too much to say about really. We did end the day spliendidly: first a shower, then coffee and a cake, then a beer or two in the sun, then pizza and beer. Really, is there anything more to life?!

Yes, we have pretty pictures!

Now, excuse me while I go dreaming about my second trip this year…

Saltoluokta -> Kvikjokk 2010

This year we continued our quest to do the entire length of Kungsleden. And when I say “we” I mean R+V (as usual, I’ll have to come up with better nic’s for you guys) and V’s little sister, miss C. As usual we really looked forward to it. Actually, V had been doing lists and planned the stuff since… er… well, last year I guess.Our strategy was more or less the same as the year before: follow Kungsleden south and camp by the huts, approximately, with possible modifications along the way.Did we have any new gear? Well, you’ll be unsurprised to know, yes, we had. I mean, it’s not like we’re complete geeks, is it? This year V’s been going on and on and on about lightweight packing, and wimps as we are R and me couldn’t resist her (at east I think that’s the way it went).  So we had slashed our packs and bought some new gear. R+V both sported new backpacks (GoLite Jam and Osprey Exos respectively) and all of us had generally cut down on the equipment.  But not on the food mind you! The food stays! Food is good!So in the end my new stuff was:

  • New sleeping bag: Western Mountaineering, Caribou MF. Sub-kilo down bag, which, with a bag liner, should keep me warm even through most of the autumn. Great stuff! Incredible! Expensive, but damn good buy anyway!
  • I also decided to use my Haglöfs Matrix 60L which I had used on one trip only before, instead of my usual heavy packs. The Matrix isn’t extreme lightweight but still, 1.8 kilos instead of 3 makes for a great relief.

All in all I had cut down 2.5 kilos from my base weight and R+V even more. With food my pack weighted about 16 kilos when we started, which makes for a nice change from 18+.Oh, and miss C was on her second ever trek, but had had great coaching from the rest of us – lightweight pack, lightweight sleeping bag and som on ad infinitum -  so she slotted right in. At least, let’s call it “coaching”, the truth is we’d probably bored her to death by the time we got on with it by talking gear constantly. I mean: All. The. Time.

Day one; To Saltoluokta
R had been working in northern Sweden, and V and miss C had been up at their parents place, so we decided to meet in Gällivare. I would fly up and they’d take the train. Thinking back to last year’s broken backpack (mishandled on the flight) I was a bit hesitant: ought I not pack it quite so tight? Ought I wrap it up in something? But my fears were ungrounded, I flew with NextJet, a small Swedish company only flying domestic, to small airports, the bag made it and on the whole, it was a pleasant experience: calm, relaxed and friendly.I arrived before the others and met them at the train station. There’s not much to say about Gällivare. We had a rather dreadful hamburger, bought the last of our food, waited a while and then boarded the bus that’d take us to the mountains.We took the boat across the lake from the place the bus stops, and then promptly proceeded a couple of kilometres up from Saltoluokta to camp above the tree line. A very beautiful sunset and striking view and mosquitoes ended our first day.

Day two; The next lake
This part of Kungsleden has a few lakes that you need to cross. At each you can choose: pay to get a ride or take a rowing boat, but beware: If you plan on rowing you must make sure there’s at least one rowing boat at each shore unless someone else will be stranded, which means that if you arrive and there’s only one boat on your shore you either have to wait until someone crosses from the other side or row over with one boat, tow another back and then return… It may take a while.Crossing from Saltoluokta to Sitojaure works as a nice warm-up for the rest of the trek. It’s above the tree line and easy going, although quite long (approx. 20 km from Saltoluokta station).  It’s a nice trek but probably nicer still going the other way when you get a great view the second half.The hut at Sitojaure is small, and located at the next lake. And beware no. 2: there are not a lot of camping space around the hut itself; you’d probably be better off above the tree line. As it where, we arrived first in the day and could pick spots, and even then it was hard; those who arrived later had to take whatever spot of land was left and probably had rather an uneven ground under their tent.We basked in the evening sun and generally started to seriously relax. This evening we also got the trips only – I repeat, only – rain. And it lasted a whole of 5 minutes… Incredible!We had a mystery visitor in the night! Both me and miss C woke in the middle of the night by something scratching the tent wall. As soon as we made any noise it’d stop only to come back a few minutes later.  On the third time it came back I made enough noise by slapping the tent wall to make it go away for good. What it was? I have no idea, but it sounded like it tried to get in, right where a plastic bag with sausages had fallen out from my backpack… Probably a bjärv. Yes, I’m quite sure it was a bjärv.

Day three; Closing in…
The morning started with another lake crossing. We decided to pay for the ride (“better be there early, he’s known to go 5 minutes before schedule rather than after”) instead of rowing. We where taken across the lake by a lovely little lady (the wife of “he” in the quote above) who steered us through the reefs in the middle of the crossing with a flair (“imagine the to-do if I sat the boat on a stone… well you know: men are like that”).This is also where you get your first taste of Sarek and the real wilderness, the view to the west is getting dramatic. But still nothing to what comes later…The trek to… You get it: the next lake, takes you to Aktse and what a magic place that is! You see, that’s the entrance to Sarek and lies just where Rapadalen ends.We arrived early in the day, as the trek is quite short, camped above the tree line and basked in the sun. In fact, early enough that we could have made a trip up Skierfe that very day, but decided to relax, and then take Skierfe the next day.Any bjärvs in the night? None that I noticed.

Day four; … on Sarek
We’ve always wanted to go into Sarek, but never gotten around to it. This was the closest we’ve been so far, as we made it for Skierfe in the early in the morning sun. Skierfe by the way, is a cliff rising some 200 meters above the floor of Rapadalen, and offers a dramatic view into Sarek with its vertical south, south-west side.As we made it early in the morning we arrived at Skierfe before anyone else. The trek is easy if you start out from above the tree line (it’s probably a bit harder from the Aktse itself as you get a couple of hundred meters more to climb). And it’s… Majestic. Awesome. Brilliant. I really have no words to describe the feeling standing with a 200-meter vertical drop by your feet looking out over Rapadalen, the crown jewel of Sweden, with Sarek beckoning in the distance. Simple one of the coolest places I have ever been to!When the other day-trippers started to arrive we reluctantly packed our way back to camp.  We rested a few hours and then went down to catch a ride across the next lake with Lennart, the local boatman. It’s a rather curious arrangement: last seasons they’ve had a schedule, but now Lennart drives 2 times a day, at 0900 and 1700. Perhaps. Maybe. And don’t be alarmed if he doesn’t show up on time, he might be somewhere else, picking up someone else. We had to wait 45 minutes until he showed up, but after that everything went smoothly.I wonder what the Germans we shared the boat with thought though. Lennart’s English isn’t the best (which of course is perfectly natural), and he will want extra if you’re carrying a lot of equipment (which is not unreasonable as weight equals fuel equals cost). But it ended in one rude conversation. It went like this:

“You have 3 large bags. You are 2 persons. Why?”

“Er… We’re taking it across for a friend”

“And how much do you think that will cost?”

“Er… 10€… ?”

“Yes.”

Queue broken English and it sounded like something out of a bad gangster movie. Let’s blame it on the language shall we, but I can’t help wondering what he would have said, had they offered, say 50 instead of 10.From this point on you’re in the woods. Most of the time, there are still a couple of hours left above the tree line, but mostly you’ll be in the woods. Which to be honest, I find rather boring, but as they say, you have to at least try it.We went on for a couple of hours through the darkening birch forest. Until the ladies started to tire, we had after all been up to Skierfe as well, and we decided to make the day.  So we found a nice little hollow a stone throw from a river and struck camp. Slightly wet, and a lot of mosquitoes, but nice.

Day five; Pårte FTW
We had camped just below the point where the trail rises up toward the tree line and the mountain again, meaning: we had a nice warm up in the morning. Again the weather was with us, it looked as if it would rain, indeed it looked at one point as if it was inevitable when we were followed by a dark and suspiciously heavy roof of clouds, but no, it drove off and when the afternoon came and we descended down into the forest again, the sky cleared.Pårte lies on a small bit of land jutting out in a lovely lake. And when we sat there, the final piece of calm descended. There was no one there, the sun shone straight in across the lake and even the mosquitoes kept their distance. Our plan was to stay only to cook dinner, but in the end we just sat there for nearly two hours. Bliss!It was now after six and we decided to walk for a few hours more, shortening the last distance a bit.  We were closing in on a couple of lakes where we had heard there would be some nice spots to camp, when we met a party coming north. The sun was in my eyes, but I couldn’t help thinking “hey, I know that silhouette!” And sure enough, there was Robban, 2nd bass extraordinaire from St Jacobs Chamber Choir. Small world, eh? He, a son and wife had decided to walk the distance almost on a whim as far as I understood; to the point where they had actually missed to buy maps and just started walking anyway. Even though it‘s Kungsleden and “what could possibly go wrong?” I wouldn’t recommend it, but hey! It was their first day and our last, so I gave them mine and slew of good luck to go with it.And indeed, there were some very good spots to camp at the lake. Where we had this trip’s only, but very nice and cosy, campfire.  A campfire and some Balvenie Double Wood 12 Years Old? Oh hell yes!

Day six; Black hole and bus
OK, so we didn’t really enjoy the woods. And also, the ground this particular bit is rather uneven. Actually, Robban et alles had been a bit concerned when they met us and was eager to know if the trail got better further north, which we had told them it did indeed. And I understand the concern, going this part of Kungsleden from south to north gives you a rather boring and, if you’re not used to it, kind of rough, start. But you do get all the nice views at the end. Which direction to go, you pick and choose yourself; if I was to do it again, I’d go south to north instead, do the woods early and end with the nice stuff.So, not much too add really. Down through the woods. A surprisingly good hamburger in Kvikjokk. Bus to a black hole they claimed was actually populated by real people, although it was hard to imagine standing there waiting for the train in something that looked like a ghost town. Then night train home. The end.Overall? A really, really nice trek with the unforgettable Skierfe and Rapadalen in the middle. I probably never have been that tanned in my entire life. And the lighter packs really made a difference, at the end of the trek my pack probably weighted just over ten kilos (which by the way includes a 2 person tent), and R was probably down to 8 kilos or so. It is a noticeable difference and makes it much easier on your feet and back. I recommend you speak to us before your next trip if your starting weight looks to go above, say, 16 kilos including food.Yes, we have pretty pictures!Yes Sarek, we will be back…

On popular demand: My addictions

Since someone asked, here’s a run down of the Internet applications I regularly use, and why. Enjoy!

  • Google (there’ll be some of these):
    • Gmail – Since I started GTD’ing I’ve come to realize how much an empty inbox is worth. But then, you need search capabilities to back it up. At the moment, I’m doing all my emails, private and business, via Google. Also, the Android Gmail application rocks.
    • Calendar – What can I say? It is simply the best. I currently have 2 calendars for myself, one for me and one for my business appointments, as well as one calendar for St Jacobs Chamber choir.
    • Reader – Again, the best of the bunch. The ability to stay in sync with your reading list is a must have. I kind of like the interface as well. And I use NewsRob on Android too.
    • Documents – Not so much, but it is convenient at times. Otherwise I’m very much off-line when it comes to document management and editing.
    • Picasa – This is where my public albums live. That’s right, you may be in there! Have a look, fungrim’s the name.
  • Remember the Milk – This is where my tasks and projects live. Live the simplicity, the Android application, and the name. I’m a paying user here.
  • Hootsuite – The geek weapon for managing you social presence. Good stuff, but not for the weak hearted. I currently use it for Facebook (daytime), 2 twitter accounts and my LinkedIn account.
  • Evernote – Together with WebClipper it’s the ultimate web reference tool. This is where I collect references and ideas. Good Android application too.
  • TripIt – Damn convenient! Just forward your booking email to it and you have it all sorted out. This saves you from receiving a booking confirmation for, say, a flight and then manually insert it to your calendar. Decent Android application.
  • Dropbox – Again, damn convenient! A shared storage that just works. Access the same folder from multiple computers. There’s all sorts of neat stuff you can do with this, and I have only started.
  • Xmarks – Bookmark synchronising over multiple browsers. What would I be without it?

All of the above with the exception of Xmarks and Hootsuite works very well with Android (xmarks doesn’t exist on Android and the Hootsuite application isn’t very good) which is perfect, I’m a very happy nerd!And yes, I’m on Facebook, Twitter, WordPress and LinkedIn as well. You’ll find links to my profiles below:

That’s about it. Not too addicted, eh?

Restart

To those close to me, it’s no secret that I have been too close the wall for comfort the last couple of months. Since November I’ve tried to step down a bit, to sleep more and to relax. However, I’m getting more and more certain that this may not be enough.

For years I’ve known that the ambition driving me has been, and continues to be, fairly destructive. However, I’ve not seen any easy way out; this really is the only way I know of to be me. I’ve dreamt of getting to a point in life where I could stop, just sit down for as long as it takes until I’ve found a new way, a new contract with myself.

But now it seems the choice has been forced upon me.

So what to do?

I’ll start here. There’s three things I need to put down, objectives to aim for the next 6 month, goals to keep in sight for the long run, and a set of aphorisms to steer by. These lists will probably be updated and updated as I go on, but that’s the point.

Objectives

  • Sleep more.
  • Get fit.
  • Sing more.

Goals

  • Get well (duh).
  • A new contract. I must be able to have ambitions and dreams without paying this kind of price. It would be nice to be content with what I am, instead of what I do, or even worse, what I could do.

Aphorisms

  • Change “must” for “want to” or “would like to”.
  • Don’t be afraid to fail, or to appear weak; it’s only human.
  • Never delay tasks that take less than a minute to do (you do have the time).
  • Do stop and smell the flowers.

And I leave you tonight with a poem, in Swedish I’m afraid, that I remember from long time ago. This poem echoed in my soul once, to the point where I printed it on my first website. Perhaps it is time for me to see if I can find that young man, so desperate to sing, again.’Til next time, good night.

Jag har drömt… (Dan Andersson)
Jag har drömt jag skulle sjunga vad jag känner,
hur jag hatar, hur jag älskar, hur jag bannar, hur jag ber,
hur i vanvett jag flyr från mina vänner,
och i mörkret till den okände ber.

Jag har drömt att jag en visa skulle sjunga,
om alla själarnas fasor, alla himlarnas ljus,
om när all världen jag ser dansa och gunga
och darra i dåraktigt rus.

Jag har drömt, att när alla stjärnor skina,
över vildmark som viskar, vad i ensamheten hänt,
att alla vindar som kring tjärnlanden vina,
skulle lära mig att kväda vad jag känt.

Jag har drömt att en liten, liten kvinna,
skulle söva mig med visor, skulle smeka mig med skratt,
och när allt som jag byggt måste brinna,
skulle följa mig i elddopets natt.

Jag har tänkt att alla jagande åren,
som ha dödat det jag älskat, som ha stulit vad jag fått
skulle lära mig en visa om våren,
som har bott hos mig och bländat mig och gått.

Jag har trott att alla stormarna som rasat,
i min själ skulle blandas till en vansinnig sång.
Att där jag snavat över helvetet och fasat,
jag skulle lära mig dess visor en gång.

Men se mitt solur mot middagen skrider,
och aldrig har jag sjungit vad mitt hjärta har bett!
Skall jag sjunga först i dödsskuggans tider,
när det ändlösa mörkret jag har sett?

Skall jag leva tills jag lärt mig att smida
alla rosor, alla fasor till en levande ked,
som skall skälva som en rusig och glida
som en stråkton i dödsmörkret ned?

 

Brain Scan

My brain’s hurting. I must be getting old.For reference, this is some of the programming topics I’ve read up on (or at least tried) lately:

  • Guice and Spring
  • Declarative transactions and JTA
  • EDA, Pipelines and CEP
  • SOA and ESB and NMR
  • Column databases and distributed file systems
  • Wicket and various related Ajax components
  • OSGi in various permutations with the above
  • BI, in-memory BI and CEP (again)
  • AOP and/or IoC patterns

And now I’m contemplating the fultility of programming.

Baritone Bash 2008

I’m a bad, bad blogger. I’ve forgotten to tell you about the main event this autumn. The earth-shattering, sky-rendering, all-time freaky fun event of the St Jacobs Chamber Choir Baritone Bash of 2008.

For those of you not familiar with the event… Er… That’s not very strange, since we invented it this year. Since the 1st bases of the choir have always been the pinnacle of male beauty, intelligence and loudness, we thought we’d celebrate it by: 1) eating A LOT; 2) drinking A LOT; 4) slaughter a few male choir parts at the piano; and 5) be “almänt självgoda”.

In attendence, yours truly, E2, Herr Mürberg und the Castle.And I’m happy to report that we succeeded admirably on all points. I wont be able to give you a blow by blow report, so you’ll have to make do with some documentation of the food.

And if you wonder: Yes, E2′s a very good cook.