Short kayaking trip in beautiful weather on the last day of activities.
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Great commentary by the guide and foreman Tom Svensson at Nordens Ark during this tour.
Martin Kössler cooks the “Gold of the forest”, the chantarelles.
What started out as an easy hike through the forest became a challenging orienteering through suprisingly tough terrain.
Very rewarding to have done it and found all the markers.
Here’s some video footage from our canoe trip on the 24th. Enjoy 
If you’ve read the other posts you can probably appreciate how wonderful it was to sleep in a warm soft bed.
Workshop
After a nice breakfast most of us jumped on a bus heading to the nearby ski resort Björkliden. It was the place where the OAS Workshop would take place.
Björkliden is a very nice ski resort with a good welcoming friendly family feel.
Lot’s of representatives from the region were present and from what I could tell the workshop went very well. Everybody got at least 15 minutes with everybody. Information was shared and business was made. I imagine all the participants of the OAS had good use of their outdoor activities and their new experiences during this workshop.
I went joined the ice fishing group for 1.5 hours and then headed back to also be with the beginner alpine skiiers for a while.
Ice fishing
After a 20 minute walk up along the mountain we reached tiny lake which was the location for our ice fishing. We got some instructions on how it was done. After what felt like an episode of Fear Factor with the maggots and the hooks we all went to our own holes in the ice, put out the reindeer hide and started fishing.
After 1-2 minutes one member of the group got the first fish, no kidding! Amazing
Alpine skiing, beginners
I had to leave the ice fishing group early in order to also cover the alpine skiing beginners group. I didn’t mind though because I’ve only skiid once before so I’m a beginner myself. As someone born in Lapland I feel kind of silly but hey, not everybody is born on skiis. Not even in Sweden 
Cave Tour
I wasn’t there myself but I’ve gotten some good pictures and some stories from the trip.
The group suited up with snow shoes and went on a 40 minute walk on the mountain to get to the cave.
As it turned out the cave wasn’t so easy to explore as some believed. There were some challenging climbing up and down ropes down there. But I think it was a good adventure for most participants. Another lesson learned for the OAS though (see the ski touring story) Some activities have proven to be harder than first communicated.
As amazing as these sleeping bags are I still felt a bit cold this morning. Nothing that couldn’t be solved with a pair of socks and some more clothes of course. But I was quite suprised when I unscrewed my water bottle and nothing came out of it. The water inside had frozen! And there we had slept. In 11 minus Celsius.
The weather today was amazing! Sunny and blue skies - the best weather we’d had so far. So we moved the benches outside from the Lavvo and into the sun.
It was now time for the second day of our big activities. The telemark groups went back to Björkliden, the ski touring groups went out and my group, the snow shoe group, set off towards mount Nuolja.
This majestic mountain towers over Abisko and it’s presence is always felt. It has only one lift and it’s the longest and oldest one in Sweden. It takes twenty minutes to reach the top but it’s worth it.
Once we were up on the top we got to experience what the word view means. Amazing!
Still the enormous lap gate watches over the entire are. It’s easy to see how it has become such a popular symbol for this region.
We walked around on top of Nuolja for a a while before heading down the mountain. I didn’t go with the group back down again. Instead I stayed on the top and had a little walking of my own.
It can be hard to relax and really enjoy the event and the surroundings sometimes when you’re in a big group. Spending a little time alone though I could really feel the peaceful rythm and the majestic nature all around me. This is the feeling everyone should experience!
We had moved all our stuff to Abisko Tourist Station today so we met up back there later, one group at a time. We now have rooms with real beds and showers!
After a shower and a sauna I was ready to go again.
The start of the King’s Trail / Kungsleden
When all the groups had found their way to the tourist station, showered and gotten settled in we headed back up to the top of Nuolja again. Only the snow shoe group had been up there before. For everyone else this was a new experience.
Once up there we had a very good dinner. The sun was setting and from this beautiful restaurant we could see the evening sun on the mountains. Good food, drink and company.
The restaurant is called the Abisko Aurora Sky Station during the winter.
Warm… soft… bed!
We survived the cold night in just our sleeping bags! Phew. Actually, except for the hard ground, I think it was perfectly OK. The huge fluffy sleeping bags we borrowed were amazing.
You don’t even need to take my word for it. Look at this picture! This is the first thing I saw when I stepped out of my Lavvo(Tipi tent) at 7 am. Some guys had actually slept outside!
One by Silva about compasses and navigating and another by Primus about their portable gas canisters.
We then split up into our respective groups depending on what activities we had chosen. I had decided to go wherever the most people were going and that was snow shoe walking. Others went ski touring, one trip for beginners and one for advanced. The third activity was telemark skiing for beginners and advanced.
On with the snow shoes and away!
We immediately started climbing a big hill to get a good view and it was a challenge. The view from the top was amazing. After everybody had taken the opportunity for some good photos we moved on and found a good less windy spot to dig in and have lunch.
And by dig in I mean literally: dig in the snow, as this video clip will show:
Time for lunch! Making seats in the snow and cooking lunch with portable cooking stuff
00:42
The lunch was very nice. There’s a special feeling in preparing your food in the outdoors. Especially in circumstances like these where you cut you seat in the snow, you’re a little tired and you’ve carried all the equipment and all the food. Basically you deserve that lunch! You’ve earned it
The ski touring group for beginners camp across our lunch camp. Say hello to Jenny! At this moment she had know idea of what challenges laid ahead. More about that later.
After a couple of hours of snow shoe walking we head back to the Lavvos. A small group of tough souls went out for a second walk without the back packs. I was later told they had a very nice time.
We made dinner together in the big Lavvo with our portable gas canisters. Amazing how good some semi ambitious pasta can taste after a day of snow shoe walking
One night outdoors in sleeping bags is not enough. We settled in for a second night as the thermometer plummeted down to - 11 degrees Celsius. Oh sleeping bag! Don’t fail us now!
Some of us discovered the hard way how difficult it is to sleep when the sun comes up at about four am and shines you straight in the face. But hey, it’s exotic!
We then proceeded with the checkout and hung around waiting for the dog sled trip to start. The weather was beautiful and the anticipation could be felt in the air.
As you can see in this video clip it started out as pretty crazy but then became a very nice trip to the Ice Hotel. The dog sled trip took 80 minutes.
Check out this video and of course the foto gallery.
The amazing Ice Hotel in the north of Sweden.
It’s already melting though but check out some of the inside
It’s already melting though but check out some of the inside
04:42
After a quick bus trip to Abisko we got ourselves settled in some real Sami Lavvos. There were five smaller ones and one very big one. We had a wonderful dinner inside the big one. There was a fireplace in the middle to help keep us warm.
The inside and outside of a huge Sami Lavvo. The sun sets in Abisko approx 8 pm. Northern Sweden
00:42
It will probably be about - 10 C tonight so this will be exciting
Good night!
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