Fjallraven Classic Sweden 2017; King's Trail to Abisko

When we booked this walk I still worked in an office... I'd got into work early enough to read a message from Matt to say that he'd found a walk in Sweden organised by Fjallraven (he spends far too much time on their website looking for kit, probably how he stumbled across it) and the entries opened today. Was I interested in doing it? Yes I was, so I booked there and then!

The walk was 110km of trails, mostly on the King's Trail, in the north of Sweden inside the arctic circle in Lapland. You'd walk at your own pace, camping anywhere you could find a suitable spot, and complete the walk in anything up to 9 days. The organisers would tick you off at checkpoints and provide you with dry expedition food and fuel for your stove at the start and two other points on the route. For the rest, you were on your own; carrying all your things, navigating between checkpoints, deciding where to camp. If you wanted to pull out you had to walk back to the start, walk to the finish or pay for a helicopter!

We turned the walk into just under two weeks in Sweden, having never been there before. Starting with two nights in Copenhagen, a wonderful if expensive city. We spent probably too much time on our feet exploring given the walking we had ahead of us. It's a characterful place with great museums (photography museum and the design and architecture museums were my favourites) wonderful cafes and epic places to eat and drink. Restaurant Prinsen is a pricey, but utterly wonderful, place to eat if you want to try Swedish food. The old town is pretty but busy.

Anyway! We'd booked a night train North to Kiruna, it's around a 1500km, train is cheaper than flying (even when booking your own compartment) and it saves a nights accommodation. Oh and I love travelling by train! The train set off at around 7pm and arrived 2pm the following day, it was comfortable, well designed and full of excited people in outdoor gear with big packs on their way for some good walking. We'd acquired a bottle of Sloe Gin for our hip flasks for the walk and the remainder in the bottle served as a nightcap to sooth you into a night of sliding gentle from head to foot end of the bed as the train went round corners

Kiruna, it turns out, has one thing of note in the town, one of the world deepest iron ore mines! As a result the vibe of the town is a little weird as it's been constructed predominantly to house people who work in the mine. The visitors centre has a model cheerily showing how the are going to move the whole town centre and some housing a mile away to allow for the mine itself to expand and dig further down wards. The hotel we'd picked was basic, but clean, spacious and friendly and a short walk from the base camp area for the work where you registered, picked up your map and hiking log book as well as your food and stove gas for the first part of the walk. There was also a merchandise shop, kit shop for those forgotten items and a bar...!

Our final sleep in a comfy bed and we were off for an early start. Packing up our packs, filling water bottles, walking to the base camp where we could leave a drop bag to pick up at the finish and boarding a bus for a 1hr trip to the start at Nikkalaokta. Very quickly you are on a road with no traffic heading into the wilderness, and the start was at a mountain lodge set in beautiful surroundings.

After a quick cuppa, getting out trail log books signed off and a quick pack check we started walking in the 1pm start group. The weather had started clouding over a little and the first 5-6k were quite crowded and hard to walk at your own pace. Some people at the front of the pack were running it and didn't seem to be carrying the mandatory tent! The landscape was dominated by beautiful green Birch forest and we got our first introduction to the rocky paths we were to become used to and the areas of walkway that were boarded out with 2-3 narrow planks of wood to cross streams or boggy areas.

What met us at around the 6km mark was a surprise, Lap-Donalds...! A pop up burger bar serving just one item; reindeer burgers and they were delicious :) The rain started, just light at this point so we fairly quickly moved on after taking some atmospheric photos

On this first day we had bags of energy, so went forwards at quite a pace. I estimate we covered just over 20k between 1pm and 6pm. We were walking at the foot of big snow capped mountains, through trees and then out into the open. It felt fairly warm and comfortable, t-shirt weather when the sun was out, but that changed quickly when it clouded over and the wind picked up. We met the big, lazy arctic mosquitos, which turned out could bite right through thin clothing layers... The only downside was that my pack was starting to rub, on my hips and no amount of adjusting could get that to stop, not great for day 1. To be fair I've had this every time I've walked with a sizeable pack as I prefer to adjust them tight on the hips so my shoulders and back take less of the weight.

We made it to the first checkpoint (Kebnekaire), which was at one of the trail huts. It had a busy friendly vibe, flushing loos and free cake, tea and coffee :) It was good to get a look at how a hut works, if you were walking it alone you could (with good planning) do it with a day pack walking hut to hut. We fired up the stove in the grounds of the hut to cook dinner, our first taste of the freeze dried food we'd be eating the rest of the walk, not bad! We were careful to take our boots off to air our feet and once fed and watered we walked a little further on to a wide open valley where we found a flat patch of ground perfect to pitch the tent for our first nights camping.

Pitching the tent was easy, and it was nice to unpack, get into warm dry clothes and have a sweet snack before bed. I wanted to write up a diary of each day before I slept and forgot the details and we both had repairs to do; me to patch up a dry bag hole with gorilla tape and Matt to sew back up the holes his belt seemed to be making in his tshirt.

Day 2 and I woke at around 7 warm and dry, always something to be celebrated when camping I've found. I'd woken at several other points in the night as I adjusted to the sleeping bag (I'm a wriggler) and when the sun rose at around 3am...! 4 hours of not-quite-darkness a night made for interesting sleeping, but from this point on tiredness took over and sleeping wasn't an issue. It was dry and almost sunny so we took our time breaking camp, having breakfast and packing up. Matt had bought filter coffee and a portable mini coffee strainer, which despite me thinking this would be unusual seemed common amongst the Scandinavian participants! The morning freeze dried breakfasts weren't bad, adding hot water to them ended up with a hot musli and fruit type concoction which I quite liked.

The freeze dried meals for lunch and dinner were pretty good, varied and some of the more flavoursome. After day 3 however I had constant and fairly nasty indigestion, so they definitely aren't something I can live on for long! You could drink the water from the streams and rivers in the area, the rules are to only drink from running water (not pools, ponds or lakes) and that you fill your bottle upstream of a bridge and wash yourself/your things downstream.

Another part of the wild camping experience layers on top of all this, you leave to trace. Now that covers everything from taking all your rubbish with you (and carrying it to the end), leaving your camping spot as you found it and dealing with how to go to the toilet... You can wee anywhere, as long as it's 20m away from any streams, rivers or water sources. Poos however, you need to dig a hole, do your business into the hole, and re-cover it. Or if the ground is rocky cover it with rocks. Any toilet paper you use you have to carry to the finish or burn it and then bury, we chose to burn it! On the more remote sections of the walk you could see people eyeing up the larger boulders for somewhere to go, and with so many walkers it was a challenge to find somewhere that hadn't already been used by at least one other person... There were toilets, mostly long drop composting types, on the route, but they were quite few and far between, and rarely there when you needed them! I had a plastic zip lock bag containing loo roll, hand sanitiser and a lighter that was always in an accessible rucksack pocket.

The second day of walking felt really hard work! We only managed around 18-20k, and the features I was ticking off on the map just seemed to take ages to arrive. The weather was also really changeable so we were stopping quite often to add and remove layers and waterproofs. The checkpoint for today was Singi, a remote spot with a few tents for checkpoints, tent and bucket loos but also a food tent making you free reindeer and lingonberry wraps - yum! Also at the checkpoint was a man with one leg doing the trek on rugged off road crutches, making a good pace he was too, although he found the wooden walkways difficult.

My hips were getting more sore, with bright red streaks where the various seams from tops and trousers were, literally, making their mark. We'd eaten well and kept hydrated, but I think the fatigue of the first day, and our bodies still adjusting to the realities of walking with big packs was taking it's toll. I was exhausted by 3pm and we stopped on a flat meadow just tucked down wind of a small hill to camp. Tiredness meant we pitched out tunnel tent the wrong way for the wind direction and we both felt a bit fed up when we realised and had to turn it by 90 degrees. Once we were in and had eaten I just wanted to sleep, I'd tried to air my feet in their rare time out of the boots and they'd got really cold. This wasn't good, they didn't get warm until I started walking again the following day... I did sleep like a log though!

Day three started with sun, but quite cool temperatures. From this point onwards, due to the temperature and the state of my hair, I was wearing a hat at all times! It was a windy day, with around an hour of really heavy rain, which tested my waterproofs to the extreme. They never seem to be fully waterproof when you are wearing a pack which allows the water to pool on the fabric.

We ticked off two checkpoints and around 25km today, walking at a decent pace. The first checkpoint was Salka was equipped with a sauna and cold river to dip in afterwards, we didn't partake! This was also a checkpoint where you could pick up extra food and gas for the stove. So the pack was at it's heaviest for the one big hill of the walk... My pace slowed right down on the ascents, the pack suddenly feeling far more heavy than on the flats. Luckily the rain had stopped so we took frequent breaks and kept eating and drinking to avoid too much fatigue. The soles of my feet were getting sore from all the time on my feet with the big pack and I was getting a couple of knee twinges from tight complaining muscles. I'm not sure if it's beneficial or not to be able to name the muscles that are getting angry!

We reached the summit of the hill and were greeted with amazing views down the next valley

It was literally downhill from there to the next checkpoint (Singi), which was a small gathering of tents on a windswept spot near a mountain hut. But it served hot tea, coffee and amazing chocolate brownies so all was forgiven! This was the point where we turned from walking West to walking North and picked up the official Kungsleden (King's Trail). We arrived at the checkpoint at around 5pm, having been walking since 9am, so camped pretty soon after it having found a nice squishy meadow shelter from the wind. There was a small shop at the checkpoint so we picked up some treats and a beer each - well deserved!

We were both happy but tired so were snuggled into our sleeping bags from around 8pm! From this point on I did not have a warm nights sleep, despite the layers and the extra liners I was cold and had frozen feet every night. Sleeping bag strategy definitely needs reviewing if we do a similar trip in future. The wind was a big factor though, as the draughts came into the tent and seemingly right through the sleeping bag.

Lots of rain fell overnight, as well as the chilly wind and it was raining still as we packed down the tent. We were well practiced as it by this stage however, so it wasn't too challenging. The morning was very wet and rainy, this meant the wooden board walks got very slippy and I fell off one landing right on the base of my spine leading to a cracking headache. I saw lots of other people fall either off the boards or tired and tripping on the rough, rocky tracks.

Gradually the rain eased off and we were walking on flat ground next to beautiful lakes and beaches

The afternoon was bright and sunny, and as stopped off at Alesjaure checkpoint, which was another mountain hut with a shop, hot drinks and cake for sale - the luxury!! It was also the final food and fuel pick up point, but we didn't need much as we were cracking on nicely at this point and wondering if we could finish the following day instead of two more days...

We got into a really nice rhythm of walking for the rest of the afternoon, enjoying the fabulous scenery and the opportunity it gives you to be in the moment just looking around and lapping up the experience. We stopped to take lots of photos and got a few rainbows.

After another 25k day we camped in a slightly windswept spot, but flat just below a small dip in a large and beautiful valley. Having gone slightly overboard on the food at the mountain hut only a hot drink and snacks were needed before we snuggled into our sleeping bags for the night

At 3am I was dozing after my customary waking for the sunrise, I could hear a snuffling barking noise and the distance ringing of a bell. Matt woke up and asked what the noise was, "Reindeer" I said sleepily. He launched himself out of his bag, grabbed his camera, peered out of the tent and found I was right; a herd of reindeer grazing just on the brow of the hill we were camped on! I even managed to prise myself out of the relative warmth of the sleeping bag to take a look.

When we got up later that morning they re appeared, a nice family group with little ones, snuck up on our tent. They are very quiet and without the bells worn by some of the group you would probably miss them completely as they blend in so well. It was a privilege to walk and sleep on land owned and used by the traditional Sami people who are the Reindeer herders :)

We woke up dry for what would turn out to be our final day on the trail. The sun broke through the clouds, and we set off and warmed up with the first 3k to our final checkpoint, Kieron. The checkpoint was super friendly, and just a group of tents, but one served hot tea and freshly cooked pancakes :)

The final 15k were something like a greatest hits of the trail, beautiful views, back into the tree line for wonderful birch forests and raging glacial rivers and bridges. It was stunning, so we kept stopping to soak it all up.

The soles of my feet started complaining from pretty early in the day, just too much weight and days on feet. The hip chafing wasn't complaining so much after the first 30 mintues of the day...!

The atmosphere over the final few km was brilliant, lots of friendly walkers and places to stop and take in all the views. We found the offical start/end to the trail

And it was a short walk to the finish area. Finishing was fantastic, a great atmosphere with the bar right next to the finish line so everyone got clapped in.

Priorities for us were to get our trail booked stamped and get our medals,  drop all the rubbish we'd been carrying for the last 5 days in the recycling, take our boots off and get them cleaned and then have a beer! Because we'd arrived a day early we were faced with another night of no showers and the tent, so went into the "tourist station", effectively a huge mountain hut set up to ask about a room. I think it's the most we've paid for a room in our lives, but it was so worth it for the extra long hot shower and an actual bed! Our drop bag of clean clothes was retrieved and we felt human again :)

We headed to the bar, grabbed some amazing dinner in the mountain hut, had another beer watching other walkers arrive and cheering them in. At around 8pm we were both nodding off so we headed to bed!! Sadly I woken in the early hours having been hit hard by a cold I'd been fighting off for the last few days, with the shivers and muscle aches and everything. All we had to do that day was move 30 minutes walk down the road to the Abisko Mountain Lodge and chill out - perfect!

The Abisko Mountain Lodge was an absolutely wonderful place, real cosy vibe with friendly staff, wonderful rooms, lots of blankets, homemade cake and an excellent restaurant powered entirely by primus stove fuel! Coudn't have wished for a better place to stay.

From there we caught the night train from Abisko station, 5 minutes walk from the lodge, back to Stockholm, which was another opportunity to hear stories from other trekkers.

I loved the walk, it was very well organised and a great way to explore a truly remote part of the world. I may have already ordered the trail guide with a view to doing more of the King's Trail by ourselves :)

Kit list;
Vango 3 person tunnel tent, the tent we already owned, not the lightest but performed really well with the wind and rain
Osprey Arial AG 65 litre pack, the only item bought new for the trip. Great bag and well designed, love the new Anti Gravity tech with sprung back and waist. Chafing problem happens to me with all packs, so not sure if I could blame this bag.
Fjallraven Keb curved trekking trousers, rare to find outdoor trousers that fit but these do; warm, rugged and perfect for the job
120 weight ice breaker merino tshirts x 2
240 weight ice breaker merino long sleeve zip top
Liner socks x 3
Smart wool hiking socks x 2
First aid kit - focus on blisters and bites!
Loo kit
Wash kit - wet wipes, tooth brush and tooth paste, lip balm, sun cream, deodorant, generic wash stuff for use on face, hands, cooking things! Small travel towel
1 litre water bottle
75cl flask to carry hot water
Enamel mug
Spork
Pen knife
Hip flask with sloe gin :)
Dried fruit, nut mix and snickers
North face waterproof jacket and mountain equipment waterproof trousers
RAB 500 weight down jacket
Thermarest sleeping mat
Deuter 2 season light weight sleeping bag (bad decision on the sleeping bag strategy, wouldn't recommend!)
Fleece sleeping bag liner
Silk sleeping bag liner
Hat, waterproof sealskin gloves, buff
Headtorch and eye mask (neither were used)
Sleep wear; 400 weight merino leggings, smart wool mountaineering socks, 200 icebreaker t-shirt, 260 icebreaker ling sleeved top
Meindl walking boots (nearly 10 years old!)
Black diamond walking poles
Map case, map and compass

Costs;
The only new kit item I needed was my pack, £200 with BMC discount
Flights £250 pp return
Accommodation in Kiruna £45 pp for a double room with breakfast
Accommodation in Abisko £95 pp for a double room with breakfast - much more for the room in the tourist station when we arrived a day early...!
Night trains £240 pp return
Entry fee to event £220 pp
Food and drink outside of the walk was very pricey, higher than London prices, so budget carefully!

Alpine Mountaineering

A few years ago Matt and I had a conversation about crazy things to do, one of Matt's crazy things was to climb Everest. Whilst this wasn't quite my cup of tea, the altitude is just too much I think, it got me thinking about exploring the mountains. As a result of this chat I started looking into how you get started in mountaineering and we went on a skills course in Wales last year to learn skills like scrambling, abseiling, rope work and techniques for hoisting people out of crevasses or other falls. 

We also tried, late in the season, to book a trip up Mont Blanc (Europe's highest peak, in the Alps) but there were no spaces left at the mountain huts so we had to delay it a year. 2017 turned out to be the year for it! 

We booked through a great guiding company called Alpine Guide, who we had also used for the intro course. Our experience and others feedback of them was brilliant, so they seemed like very capable and safe people to look after us. They also publish lots of information on how to prepare for their trips; kit, fitness etc. And they are always on hand over email to discuss things which is great.

The trip was a week long in total, and we flew to Geneva on a Saturday getting one of the many direct bus transfers to the chalet we had been booked into in Chamonix. Whilst Chamonix is very touristy and expensive I love it, it has a great vibe and epic views of the surrounding mountains including Mont Blanc.

We stayed in a chalet in Les Bossons, on the outskirts of town, which was very much set up for groups off on different trips. Comfortable rooms, shared bathrooms, great breakfasts and a delicious three course dinner package. We arrived in the morning so headed into town to buy snacks for the mountain days before meeting up with the other members of our trip and our guide, Lori. We got sized up for our hired kit; harness, ice axe, crampons, caribinars and slings. We'd also been already made aware of the dangerous conditions on Mont Blanc, due to unseasonably hot weather. There is an area of loose rock and frequent rock falls on the mountain that is usually held together with ice and snow. The hot weather meant it had become unstable early in the season and there were frequent rock falls with car size rocks! We chatted as a group and took onboard the advice from Lori that a Mont Blanc summit was unlikely. 

That evening we packed our kit for our first summit, with two nights away in a mountain hut. Luckily we could leave bags in secure storage at the chalet so we didn't have to carry it! Looking back I definitely erred on taking too much stuff up the mountain with me, if you compromise on hygiene and comfort a little (same clothes for three days) your pack is a lot lighter and your walk easier. Lori managed with a 28l rucksack!

The start wasn't too early that first day, with a long car ride through the Mont Blanc tunnel to Italy and parking up at the head of the valley for a 2-3 hour walk to the the hut we'd be sleeping in. The walk started early along the river then gradually got steeper as it turned into a lovely switch back trail, the final part of the was a bit more rocky as we reached the hut. 

Vittorio Emmanuel 2 hut ( what happened to Vittorio Emmanuel 1?!) was a half dome like structure snug into the rocks with great views and a dammed stream creating a glacier water lake to dip your tired feet into. Inside it was cosy, warm and rustic, all wooden. Upstairs were rows of bunk rooms, our group of 5 fitting neatly into a room for 5. I was on the top bunk, my inner child always wants it that way and it's warmer! We unpacked (not much room for manoeuvre in the room) got our things in order for the following day (we could leave overnight stuff at the hut as we had a second night there) and headed to dinner.

Dinner! Pasta course, main course and pudding of impeccable quality with optional Carafes of wine at around 2800m! Only in Italy :) off for an early night because...

4am start, Lori put the lights on and left us to groan, stumble about and get ready! Bag already packed I just had to slip into yesterday's clothes and head to breakfast, which was a little disappointing after dinner; dry bread, a range of spreads and tea, coffee or hot chocolate served in bowls. At 5am we were ready to leave.

The first hour of the walk was on similar rocky terrain to the previous day, across small drifts of frozen crispy snow. After an hour in an area of massive boulders it was time to put harnesses and crampons on to start walking on the snow and then the glacier. Crampons are excellent on snow, particularly with its frozen, lots of grip and very confidence building. I was walking the whole time with poles which was excellent and helped balance as well as moving some load off the legs. We were roped together so if one of us fell into a crevasse (unseen under the top crust of snow) the others would stop their fall. Quite how we would have fared if it had been Lori who fell in I'm not sure, none of us were that familiar with how to get someone out!

We stopped roughly every hour for water, taking photos, adjusting layers etc all at the same time. You got quite warm on the move but cold quickly of you stopped too frequently or for too long. Nearer the top it got steeper (mountains seem to do that!) and we were roped close together as the new danger was slipping as sliding back down the slope; a slope that by now could go on for some time. We snaked our way up the snow with the drop off getting steeper until we saw the rocky ridge line of the summit, it was really crowded and a bit of a scramble to the top leading to delays. So we went around the side to a secondary summit which we had to ourselves for 10 mins :) it was 5-10 mins of using hands, feet with crampons (better than you would think on rock but not ideal) and trying to ignore the big drop behind you to get to our summit, but worth it!

Back down that scramble seemed harder, not as easy to see where to put your feet. I had a minor moment of panic at one point, and learnt a bit from it. It clicked on my mind that both guides we'd had, on this trip and the course in Wales, had sung or whistled over the more technical bits, so I tried a bit of singing to myself and it really worked to calm me down and help me focus on the rhythm of keeping moving :)

Back onto the snow the pace picked up, a little too much for me on some sections as I got pulled down the hill by the rope attached to the two in front... the key is to get off the mountain early before the sun warms the snow and it becomes soft. Soft snow is much easier to slip and fall on and it won't support your weight if it's covering a crevasse. We took off ropes and crampons when it got less steep as off the glow over but still snow covered, two glissaded (a sort of sliding skiing with your boots on down hill) and I walked, fell, walked a bit as I tried to follow and do the same! I got overtaken by a guy sliding down on his bum at one point and decided if you can't beat them join them; tobogganing is the technical term apparently. 

Back to the hut by 1-2pm for a cold beer (by this time the sun was pretty warm!) and snacks, time to dry kit and re pack the bag before another amazing dinner!

The following day was a later start and a walk back down on the switch backs and along the valley to the car. Practicing my downhill skills on solid ground after showing myself up the previous day. We were dropped back in Chamonix and went shopping for new glacier glasses, for me, and a sun hat and new mid layer, for Matt. My eyes are very sun sensitive, being blue and having been over exposed on my first ski holiday, and category 4 glacier glasses just didn't cut it...

That evening a very vicious cull of all vaguely unnecessary kit was carried out as we started up another peak the following day. Hygiene and comfort were further compromised just to make the walking and climbing less taxing, the weight really makes a difference at altitude and when you are trying to balance on steep, rocky, or scramble terrain. Minutes were taken on the decision of whether to take a spare pair of pants...!

We'd sadly been informed that Climbing Mont Blanc wouldn't be possible, from the description of the size of the rock falls I can't say I was to disappointed.

Another relatively leisurely start followed the next day back through the Mont Blanc Tunnel to Italy, and then rather unexpectedly three lifts up from the valley floor in the Monte Rosa ski area. A stop for coffee in a brand new lovely mountain hut before an hours walk up to Canpana Gnifetti hut. The terrain was a mix of snow, a bit soft and wet at this point, and rocky scrambles. No crampons on for some reason so the last snow slope traverse was slippy and hair raising, finished off by an unexpectedly steep and more technical scramble to take you to the hut itself at 3600m. It was precariously positioned on a steep part of the mountain with quite impressive views!

Another ever better dinner with so many round of seconds I lost count and wonderful pastries for dessert. The sleeping arrangements weren't as good, possibly as this was a last minute booking. Four of us were in a room for 8, all the bottom bunks had been take of the 4 layer high bunk system with beds at all angles right up to the ceiling. I took the one right in the top, which turned out to be very hot in the night and I couldn't get out without climbing over at least one other person!

Another 4am start, a good varied breakfast complete with cake and we were off with crampons on for the climb to the top or Punta Gnifetti 4500m. The route was more rolling than before with less steep or technical bits, but with more altitude. 

A slower pace set by our guide meant I got in trouble for not keeping the rope tight a couple of times. There were lots of false horizons before the final peak cane into sight, and it had a hut on top, the highest in Europe!

I had more of a chance to enjoy myself and take in the beauty of the surroundings on this climb, because I was a little more experience or because it was less technical I don't know but it felt more comfortable. Although the legs were tired and aching before I started which added to the challenge!

We got to the summit and took some photos before diving into the hut for a hot chocolate and for me to eat my summit treat; a packed of mini cheddars :)

Back down was fast and I got a little more confident in downhill technique. Snow was getting soft and we all had a heart stopping moment when your foot suddenly sank knee or thigh deep into the snow and the being went "crevasse"! We walked straight past the overnight hut and down to the top lift in pretty much one go, rewarded with freshly baked bread and fab Italian coffee whilst waiting for the lifts to re start after their lunch break. A little time in the lifts to take in our achievement was nice and then to watch the valley get greener and more tree covered as we swopped down to the valley. Note to self I definitely want to go walking in the lower Alps in the summer, trail du Mont Blanc maybe?!

A sleepy drive back to chamonix with a quick stop at the bigger outdoor shop I've ever come across in my life! Checked back into our chalet with so much love for a double bed and a room to ourselves :) more unpacking and re packing the bag, a snooze and a lovely dinner in a tiny little restaurant in the next door campsite, fab set menu with salad, steak and ice cream and a celebratory glass or two of wine, fab.

A more leisurely start for our final day, what would have been summit day originally, and we'd decided as a group to try some via Ferrata (by iron, in Italian), hands up I had only a little idea what this was but I'd not tried it before so why not!

More kit was needed, a double clip and bungee type system you attached to your harness that you used to clip on and off the safety wire attached to the rock that caught you if you fell. The route was along an exposed rock face about the valley, metal steps attached to the rock and walkways, wire bridges and some old fashioned scrambling and climbing to go up and across the face for about an hour. Your had to unclip and re clip yourself one bungee at a time, like you do at Go Ape, so you were always attached to the wire and we were roped together in threes. I wondered if one of the men I was roped to fell whether I would just be pulled off the face...

It was a great experience, I found it easier than I imagined to not think about the height/drop and just concentrate on what I was doing, the views were spectacular and most of the time it was a fun challenge to pick your route and figure out foot and hand holds. There were two occasions where it got a bit scary, mostly as I could see where I was putting my feet and they slipped, heart stopping! By the time we finished I was spent and my hands were shaking a little.

 

To wrap up the week we went out for a wonderful meal with our new mountain friends in town, cheese, steak and local beer; what more could you want to end the week! 

Canadian Boreal Forest Bushcraft with Ray Mears

This is a trip I've been looking forward to for a long time, a true once in a lifetime adventure to learn bushcraft in the wilderness of the Canadian North with Ray Mears. We've been preparing for over a year, endlessly researching the kit to buy and spending a small fortune buying it. When the aim is to survive, thrive and sleep outdoors in temperatures that can drop to minus 40 centigrade you need a lot of insulation!

I just about manage to squeeze in below my 23kg baggage allowance; by fully using my hand luggage allocation and I'm still feeling odd about taking a knife, Swiss Army knife, saw and snow shovel on a plane, but Air Canada assured me it was ok. We meet the other 14 people on the trip and a member of the trip staff at Winnipeg airport and I realised I am the only female on the trip; I'd guessed we would be in the minority but I was hoping I wasn't the only one! There is lots of banter as we queue for our small charter flight to Red Lake, the men doing a little sizing up of each other; checking out kit and asking about experience. 

The flight is quick and easy, even though the airline seemingly only have four staff and hand write their boarding passes

When we arrive in Red Lake we check into a hotel and head out to the only restaurant in town for a meal; this isn't what I was expecting!

Red Lake is a town where you get around in a pick up or a snowmobile 

Our hotel is the resting stop for some of the drivers and the film crew for the Ice Road Truckers TV show; despite all the talk from the guys in the group I am the only one who plucks up courage to actually talk to the feisty girl who stars in the show...!

I then understand more about why we are in the hotel first; we get out kit checked and some are told to buy more items, Matt and I luckily pass. We are however told our good, goretex, snowboard gloves will shatter when it drops below -50... We get the opportunity later in the day to visit an outfitters to buy any extras we need and also pick up our hunting and fishing licences; I'm quite proud of mine!

Yes I realise they spelt my name wrong :) The shop also sells a huge range of outdoors gear, hunting equipment, guns, bows, fishing bait and scent you can use to lure animals closer; including "female Moose in heat"...!

We have a day and a half of lectures based at the hotel; about the environment we will be travelling in, cold illnesses like hyperthermia and frost bite, how careful you have to be, what kit to wear when and other dangers. I get that the briefs are to try to calm any gung-ho members of the group and get people focussed, but as someone who was already on the nervous side they got me quite worried... We also had a test that proved what little I knew!

The fun bit was getting sized up for snowshoes and trying out walking in them; I got on with mine and really came to love them over the rest of the trip. 

We also got to get to know the team a little;

Ray; who needs little introduction and is unbelievably knowledgable. Full of detailed information, anecdotes, stories, advice and endless curiosity about the things he doesn't yet know

Ruth; Ray's wife who is constantly on the look out for people, spots when you go quite or look cold, and makes sure everyone has what they needs. She's a very strong, intelligent and capable person in these climates.

Keith; an instructor who has an unflappably calm demeanour and is great at calmly organising and explaining things. He went on to become someone I really trusted on the trip.

Dan; who organised the whole thing! Incredible skilled outdoors man, patient at explaining and very confident in the environment.

After two nights in the hotel getting to know each other as one group we headed out to our camp via 4x4 pick up along treacherously icy uncleared roads and then via snow shoe for a mile into the woods. The camp is a fishing camp in the summer and wasn't ideally set up for use in the winter; no running water and a few roof leaks as the snow thawed. But the warm wood cabins were our home from home for the week and we soon settled in.

It's -12 when we arrive and after more lectures we head to bed, my first try of the arctic, down sleeping bag I've bought. Given I was inside it wasn't as toasty as I'd hoped...

The following day we spent much more time outdoors, learning ourselves how many layers to wear. Just moving around a little keeps you quite warm compared with being still, hard effort like snow shoeing or chopping wood and you get very warm. The rule is to adjust layers before you need to, as the last thing you want to do is sweat; it freezes and you get very cold very quickly. There is lots to learn especially when a lot of our kit is new. Matt and I are unusual in that we aren't top to toe olive green from outdoor bushcraft shops; mixing it up with bright snowboard gear instead. Incidentally that worked quite well, and managed down to -35.

We were demoed a few different techniques to build a fire and were set off into the forest to try them. The key is to dig down to the ground first, otherwise your fire will melt its way down into a hole and put itself out. The other thing to look out for is dry wood; twigs that snap cleanly and dead wood that's still standing. Birch bark is great with fire sticks to get things going and you need kindling and wood of increasing sizes to pile on top. It was quite a location for my first ever, lit from scratch, fire!

Our next demo was how to build a simple shelter, I had a sinking feeling where this was going... It took Ray, with two experienced helping hands and pre gathered materials, an hour to set up one shelter of a compressed snow bed with spruce mattress and a wooden frame and tarp roof. A three log fire was lit in front to heat the length of the bed. It was 3:30pm and our task was to pair up and build our own, with two shelters either side of the fire. We would be sleeping in them that night...

We cracked on! Heading into the forest, marking where we left the snowmobile trail, with another pair from the group. You never travel alone in these conditions, always as a pair and ideally with another pair so you can all keep an eye on each other. We stopped down and dug and lifted the snow so it would set into a hard base for our beds. We dug down for our fire, though not far enough we found out later, and we set about collecting wood for the fire and for the shelter frame and spruce boughs for a mattress. The forest was looking beautiful

But it was getting cold and the air really bit into any exposed skin. At 6pm we were called to see a different type of fire that Ray had built, and then to go for dinner. Our shelters didn't have roofs on yet and we had no firewood. I started to get a bit panicky, it was -20. 

Dinner was quiet, no one was happy with their progress and many people were nervous. I had to have a few minutes on my own to try and quell the rising levels of panic. I only got myself out of the cabin and into the forest again by saying I was just going to help Matt with the shelters and then I would head back. Once we were out there the sky was dark and flushed with the green of the northern lights.

The moon was bright and you could see enough for most tasks without a head torch. Once back out at the shelters we settled into the work a bit more; I was collecting spruce and firewood and Matt concentrated on getting the fire going which made such a difference to warmth and morale. By keeping moving I was still feeling warm, even though I was in my lighter coat. 

Ray uses the term "mothership" for your warmest coat, which for me is a level 5 arctic spec Canada Goose; the first item I have ever bought with real fur, coyote trim on the hood. We find out that faux fur is just rubbish in this cold, freezing, brittle and sticking to ice and snow. Your mothership, a good hat and pair of mittens are your key to staying warm. 

Once we stopped moving around and had finished the shelters and had enough wood for the fire the mothership went on and we made our beds. The lesson on what to take off and how to get into your sleeping bag still fresh in my memory; but it looked really, well, cold! It was hard to manoeuvre around the shelters as despite packing the snow you still sunk into it unexpectedly if you took off your snow shoes. After a hot drink from my frankly brilliant thermos we got into our sleeping bags; for my whilst still wearing 200 and 400 weight merino leggings, thick socks, 200 and 260 weight merino tops, merino balaclava, woolly hat and a buff around my neck. My outer waterproofs trousers, down jacket and boot liners joined me in the sleeping bag. Boots went between the sleeping and bivvy bag. The mother ship coat went on top of you for more warmth. The sleeping bag was so so cold, and instead of me warming it up it felt like it was cooling me down. I got in with warm feet and within 15 minutes I was struggling to keep the feeling in them. The fire was starting to sink and losing its heat.

Movement makes warmth (one of Ray's quotes); so a wriggled and wriggled and wriggled to try and warm up myself, the bag and mostly my feet. It didn't seem to work. That beautiful sky now looked scary; like it was stealing my heat. The small amount of exposed face froze and I felt the panic returning. I lost track of time but at some point I started having these uncontrollably bouts of all body shivers, but I was afraid to get up and out of the bag as we'd been warned that you get even colder then and there is a bigger cold injury risk. After a while we made the call to head back and Matt patiently guided my slow, uncoordinated, shivering form back to camp. Despite warm drinks, sitting by the stove and a heated cabin I didn't fully warm up until the following afternoon (when we were out working hard in the forest again) if I wasn't careful the shivers would return, it was scary. We managed around three hours in the sleeping bags. We found out later that it had dropped to nearly -40 and other groups had got into their bags much later, which may have helped.

This is a picture of the shelter taken a few days later

The following day was nice and active, thankfully. Learning the right technique to chop wood on a soft surface like snow, how to easily split logs into suitable sizes for fire. How to carve kindling into fire sticks with lots of small curling bits of wood that were easy to light.

We also learnt how to build a Quinzee, similar to an igloo but made with lots of snow shovelled into a dome and stamped down with snow shoes so it freezes solid. You then comes back later to hollow it out, after pushing in sticks so you know the right depth. I was the last person stamping down so had to do the precarious slide off the top, without destroying the shelter, at the end. The weather conspired against us and they didn't freeze fully until right at the end of the week so no one got a chance to sleep out in them.

We learnt a lot about knives and my wonderful knife, primarily bought due to it's pretty curly birch handle, came into its own. It's very sharp and perfect for carving and working with wood. We learnt how to carve basic shapes and got set on our first carving task; making a frame saw in our groups of 4. The theory here is that you take the saw blade inside a cooking pot into the forest and make the rest of the saw from wood when you get there to save carrying it.

After a very long and very good nights sleep back in the cabin we were out snowmobiling for the day. 

Steep learning curve; a quick intro to the controls, small test ride around camp and then out onto a lake covered in "overflow" (where lake water sits between the ice and the snow on top) which is notoriously difficult on a snowmobile. I was driving first, although when I say driving it was more like hanging on whilst the machine slid, gripped, hopped, bogged down and shot off over the varying surfaces that were indistinguishable to me under the snow. If you slow you get stuck so I just pinned the throttle, topping out at 60mph while the others on bigger four stroke machines were pulling away (we were on a two stroke and two up). It was exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure!

Matt and I swapped driving, which was good as the hip really didn't like the battering in such a low seating position. You work hard to drive them so the breaks were welcome. The pieces of single track through the woods were wonderful and the 4 hours is took us to travel 100km felt like it went far faster. You often unexpected came across an uncleared road which made for fast progress

The following day was all about more preparation for another night in the woods. We were in our groups of four and practiced putting out our canvas snow tents and portable wood burning stoves in the camp, they get warm quickly which I was pleased about!

Over the last day we'd been carving our own small fishing rods and also making tip ups; fishing rod devices that can be left alone with bait in the water and a flag that tips up in the air to alert you to a bite

We tested them out on the ice, wearing all the warm clothes available. First clearing snow, then drilling through the ice, clearing the slush out and manning the ice hole keeping the bait moving. I had a couple of bites but no luck catching anything.

Final lesson of the day was how to cook bannock, delicious bread,from flour, milk powder and baking powder that you can bake in 20 minutes in a pan on a stove or fire. 

We also learnt how to set traps, with bits of wire twisted into a noose and how to position them so that animals would go through them but also be killed quickly when they did. Armed with all this knowledge we set off into the woods for another night.

We took turns hauling the toboggan deep into the woods and started working well in our team of four to clear and dig down an area for our tent, collect firewood and collect spruce for bedding. I was on spruce and managed to strip 9 trees of their springiest looking branches in a couple of hours :) We went big on the amount of firewood and split logs we needed and hot the tent up and stove going whilst it was still light. It was really nice to make that much progress and get a cup of tea on the go; amazing how much better you feel. 

In the tent we had about two thirds as a sleeping platform with two thick layers of spruce, upside down for extra springiness, either side of a tarp. We dug a porch area to the ground to act as a cold well and so the stove didn't sink into the snow. We got a bannock on for dinner and there is us ate our camping rations whilst looking on jealously as Andy fried himself fish and chips from the pike he caught and a couple of pilfered potatoes! 

The camp was lit with candles, and we had tea lights outside to light the way to the path out of the woods and the designated toilet areas. It felt so cosy inside

We set up a rota of people to look after the fire, keeping it stoked, ensuring people's clothes were drying and making sure we had a good stock of melted snow. I slept well and woke up very warm and cosy, woo Hoo! Fresh breakfast bannock had been made and Matt had tea on the go. Perfect way to start the day!

The temperature had gone below -30 outside and we'd measured the temperature at ground level in the tent at +18. Awesome! The inside of the tent was decorated with brilliant intricate frost patterns. 

We chilled out in the tent for a bit, I cooked more bannock with a packet of biltong kneaded into it for lunch, nearly slicing the end of my finger off in the process, proof how sharp my knife is. Quickly covered up with dressing and gaffa tape before my squeamishness got the better of me, it went a bit zombie for a while but is recovering now. 

We went out to set some traps near tracks we'd seen nearby, great fun but caught absolutely nothing. 

We unpacked everything, having to time it around the cooling stove, and hauled everything back to camp. Lots of unpacking to do and then a session learning types of knots; to tie up a tarp or to rescue someone from the ice. I found them hard to master but will keep practicing!

I was feeling really at home in the forest now and so happy with our night out in the tent. Our last night in camp was great fun and a late one as no one really wanted the experience to end.

Our last day in camp involved learning about safety and rescue signs of you get into trouble and a practice in making Swedish marshmallows, where you put a big piece of snow on a stick near a fire so it melts water into a pot below. It worked and I was left with a cup of very smoky tasting water, goes well with a dram of whisky apparently!

With that and with a last long look around camp, and a little lump in the throat, we walked back out of the woods and were driven out to Red Lake. We got reintroduced to civilisation in stages, from our hotel, out into Red Lake for dinner, flying back to Winnipeg the following day. (After substantial negotiations on which people and who's bags didn't make it onto our charter flight; we were so spectacularly over our weight limit for the plane)

It felt very odd to be back on a city again, being around so many people and amongst the sky rises felt plain weird. We've had many conversations about what we did on the trip, what we've learnt and how we feel about it all; and it's all quite hard to put into words. I feel stronger, more knowledgable and more empowered to live in one of the toughest environments in the world and I am so proud of that. It's given me more overall confidence in myself. I am also pleased with how we got on as a couple working together and under lots of real pressure; life and death type stuff makes you stronger. I am left feeling even more strongly that I need to have plenty of time in the outdoors in my life and that a desk job really isn't where I am happiest; this just might be something life changing :)

I am also left in awe of Ray and his team; the knowledge and skill in the outdoors is stunning and their ability to teach it so well and let people confidently practice what they've learn was excellent. Ray himself is a real treasure trove of lost arts, skills, techniques and stories that he doesn't just remember and recount but keeps alive by using and teaching them. A truly inspiring person.

And as if to test what we've learnt the fire alarm goes off in our Winnipeg hotel early in the morning after the trip; I instinctively grab my hat, mittens and mothership and run out of the door. Ray would, hopefully, be proud.