The Falkfångar trip (30km)

I'm spending the Easter in the beautiful mountains surrounding Höglekardalen, Åre county, in Sweden. I'm visiting the family of my girlfriend and the Falkfångar trip is a yearly family excursion with long traditions. The trip is about 30km long in hilly terrain, allowing for some spectacular views. Starting with a steep ascent to the top of the mountain, then following the ridge to later descend down to a popular ice fishing lake named Dörrsjöarna; before a long and tidious ascent up the other side of the mountain to Visjöen, and from there it's about 7km back to their cabin following the scooter tracks. A bit of a circle, see map below.

Overview of the trip

Maria, her father Tomas, me and two dogs started at about 10am in beatiful sun with a bit of wind. The late Easter this year allowed for little snow in certain areas, but hey, who said skiis doesn't work on rocks as well?

Up the first steep ascent to the top of the mountain

The inital first steep ascent done, but still a bit to go up

Beautiful view from the top of the mountain

The wind picked up quite a bit wen we got higher making things more chilly, but as long as keeping in motion and using the hoodie everything was perfect, and I'm glad I didn't forget to put sunscreen on. Luckily the wind was in our back. I was only wearing a long arm wool shirt below my wind jacket, and it was a perfect combination, never cold, never too warm (no sweat). No need for breaks to put on/off clothes.

Not too much snow all places

I've never been skiing on rocks before, but hey, works well

On the way to the first stop, an emergency shelter to fill up some energy

After a bit more climbing we arrived the top of the mountain with spectacular views in all directions. From here we could see Storsjöen just outside Östersund, the rugged mountains close to the border of Norway and the area below. From the top it was a fun and easy ride down to our first stop, a small cabin built in the mountains to provide for emergency shelter, where we had sandwiches and a cup of coffee.

Maria steering for the small emergency shelter

Having our first stop in an emergency shelter

After filling up some energy after about 10km and the steep ascent, we headed for our next destination, Dörrsjöerna. We followed the ridge for quite a bit, soaking in the beautiful view before we started the descent to the frozen lake. With the snow getting more wet as the sun got working it allowed for many crashes down the hillside where you would be racing down hard icy snow, just to find a sudden soft spot.

Tomas and Egon

Beautiful views down the hillside to Dörrsjöerna

Beautiful views down the hillside to Dörrsjöerna

Well down we met two Sami fishers who had been there for a few days. One of the guys so drunk he couldn't walk on the slippery ice, blaming it was his shoes :) Their snow scooter had stopped working and asked us to call a number and tell about it when we got a signal.

We went over the ice (and I have to say I don't like going over ice, especially with skiis in April!) Not something you do where I live, but if it can carry a snow scooter, I'm sure it could carry me... at least that was what I was comforting myself with. In the end of the lake we found a nice shelter next to cabin and had our second meal for the day. The sun was shining and warm allowed for a nice half an hour rest outdoors.

Our next goal was Visjöen, a long and tidious climb up the valley, criss crossed with rivers and marsh. My skiis were very slippery now and made it even more difficult. Luckily Maria (who had a dog to pull her) and I swapped skiis and the rest of the climb was easy, but I'm sure we must have used a couple of hours up to Visjöen and our last stop before home. Also my camera wasn't working and I couldn't figure out why.

Up at Visjöen we had a quick snakc in a STF cabin before we headed for the last 7km of the trip. Now the terrain was flat and mostly downhill. A nervebreaking trip down the hard snow in the bottom was probably the scariest thing the whole day, but a cold beer was waiting at their cabin and made a perfect end to a beautiful trip!