2025-03-28 23:42:33
This March, I spent 13 days skiing the Southern Kungsleden trail the 250 kilometers from Sälen to Fjällnäs in the Swedish mountains, with all of my gear pulled behind me in my pulk. It was my first winter ski trip longer than a few days, and a trial run for a much longer one that I hope to complete next winter. This trail diary is translated from Swedish (with some help from Google Translate) from the updates I posted on my Instagram during the trip. You can find a lot more photographs and videos from the adventure there.
If you’re interested, you can take a look at the route I followed here, and my very extensive gear list for the trip here. For more background on the Southern Kungsleden trail, check out this folder about the trail (in English).
It was perhaps a bit ill-conceived when, sometime in the 1970s, they decided to name the new hiking trail between the Transtrandsfjällen mountains in Dalarna and Storlien in Jämtland the Southern Kungsleden. If you don’t notice the big S in ”Southern”, it’s easy to think that it’s the southern end of the more famous Kungsleden in Lapland, between Hemavan and Ammarnäs, which I hiked a few years back. It wasn’t in Hemavan that I started my winter adventure earlier today, in other words, but at Sälen’s Högfjällshotell in Dalarna. For two weeks, I will follow the Southern Kungsleden past Transtrandsfjällen, Fulufjällets National Park, Drevfjällen, Grövelsjön, Långfjället, Rogen and Rödfjället before ending the trip at my partner Rebecka’s family cabin in Fjällnäs. It will be my first long winter hike and my first visit to the mountains south of Grövelsjön.
The first chance to stock up is at the store in Flötningen by the Norwegian border, which I reach around day seven, and I could feel every day’s ration of food and fuel (two spare days, so nine in total) as I made way up to Östfjället, illuminated first by the evening sun and then by the full moon. Even in the final days leading up to trip, I worried that lack of snow would force me to go for one of my backup plans further north (including the southern Kungsleden with a lowercase s). I’m still not entirely sure that snow conditions will allow me to complete the trip, but at least I couldn’t have wished for better weather on day one.
My plan was to go further today, up to Källfjället and maybe down the other side, but around seven in the evening I decided to call it a day and pitched my tent beyond the Östfjället rest hut after five kilometers. If you’ve dragged skis, pulk and 40 kg pulk bags on public transport for seven hours to visit new mountains, you might as well see them in daylight.
Källfjället gave me a tough start to the day, but after the climb I was rewarded with views of both Fulufjället and Grövelsjöfjällen off in the distance. After the descent to Källfjället’s rest hut, I soon reached the border of the Transtrandsfjällen nature reserve, where the trail wound its way between low-growing spruce trees in hilly terrain through Synddalen. I stopped at the Kläppenskjulet wind shelter to replenish my energy, and had a chat with some cross-country skiers who have a cabin in the area.
The climb up Lägerdalsfjället is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done on a pair of skis. The pulk was insistent on pulling me back down to the rest hut, and after a few hundred meters I threw in the towel and finished the climb in my ski boots, with my skis on the pulk. Once at the top the wind was blowing 10-15 meters per second, so I didn’t stay sweaty for long. Then it was back down into another fairytale forest valley, and back up to another mountain – Östra Granfjället. I’ll feel the altitude difference in my legs tomorrow, but the last part to Närfjällsstugan went faster than expected and also took me through a dramatic ravine with large hanging snow drifts. It turned out that I timed my visit to an event arranged by Snowracer magazine, and several dozen snowmobiles stopped during the lunch break.
When Southern Kungsleden left the snowmobile trail at Västra Granfjället, I had neither ski nor snowmobile tracks to follow for the first time on the trip. It was just me and the red winter trail crosses. That may have been smart of everyone else and stupid of me, because it was also the first time on the trip that I had to navigate around snow-free patches of terrain. When the downhill slopes started to get steep, I released the break rope on the pulk, and with the help of it and a lot of slaloming in the spruce forest, I made it down to the Granfjällssätern break cabin without involuntarily embracing a single tree trunk. From the cabin guest book, it seems that I am the first visitor of the ski season.
As I continued along the trail from Granfjällssätern, it felt quite reasonable that no one had skied it for a while. My guess is that someone had set up the winter trail markings along the winding, hilly and tree-strewn summer trail and hoped for the best. When the winter trail followed the summer trail up a steep, rocky ridge instead of heading out over the adjacent ski-friendly bogs, I gave up and skied off-trail the last bit to the snowmobile trail. It was a happy reunion. I had planned to camp tonight, but the scant amount of snow persuaded me to stay in the Lillbäckstugan wind shelter, which is located next to where Lillbäcken empties out to Fuluforsen. Luxury on a winter trip is not having to melt snow. Nice after a tough afternoon.
Today, three items had to come out of the pulk for the first time on the trip: the sunglasses and sun protection, because the sky was almost cloudless throughout the morning, and the long ski skins, for the 10 kilometers and 300 meters of elevation gain up to Lilldalsstugan. The cabin is located at the northern mouth of a winding U-shaped valley between Mellanfjället and Näsfjället, and has a magical panoramic view of Fulufjället. On the sunny side of the cabin, I met another skier with a pulk in tow for the first time on the trip. She had run Southern Kungsleden a few years ago, so we exchanged some experiences of the parts of the trail closest to Sälen. This time she was out on a spontaneous ski tour of the area.
After lunch and changing back to the short skins, it was off north and downhill, and after the morning it made for four fast and easy kilometers. I had checked the forecast for the rest of the day during lunch, and the promise of winds of 15-20 meters per second convinced me to take a shorter day and let the climb up to Fulufjället wait until tomorrow. The unmanned Björnholmsstugan overnight cabin is located one kilometer inside the southern national park border, and all eight beds were available when I parked the pulk outside at three o’clock. A night of cabin coziness for 200 Swedish kronor (~ 20 USD). Affordable.
Fulufjället took my breath away as soon as I reached the middle of the round mountain Östertangen, 300 metres above Björnholmsstugan where I spent the night. There were no peaks in sight, just 360 degrees of flat, snow-white horizon. Like skiing in a jar of sugar. The wind picked up the higher I went, and when the peak was reached and I started to slide down towards the Tangådalsstugan cabin, the gusts were probably blowing upwards of 15 metres per second. The guest book in the cabin said that an Eric set off on snowshoes towards Tangsjöstugan the day before. The last guest book entry before that was from September. The balaclava went on before I went out into the wind again and started following the snowshoe tracks north.
Halfway to Tangsjöstugan, a small black dot appeared next to the trail markings on the horizon. It turned out to be Eric from the guest book, who had slept one night in Tangsjöstugan and was now on his way back to the car. We stood and shouted over the wind for a while before continuing in our separate directions. After a while I was back up on 959 meters of elevation again, and after a morning of uphills I felt fast when I got to ride on the flat the last part to Tangsjöstugan. The cabin is of the same eight-bed model as Björnholmsstugan and is beautifully located at the heart of Fulufjället.
I considered continuing a little further and spending the night in the tent, but the sound of the wind howling outside the windows persuaded me to extend my coffee break to an overnight stay. Pretty soon I was joined by a guide with two German tourists and a company of sled dogs, and the wind howled for over 20 meters per second out on the mountain while we sat by the stove and talked about winter adventures with whiskey in our glasses. Kristin from Sörsjön has been running guided dog sled tours on Fulufjället since 1997, so there was a lot to talk about. Cabin comfort night two.
Today I got the mountain weather I dreamed of before the trip. A few degrees below zero, light wind, and enough clouds in the sky that you don’t take the sunshine for granted. The kilometers to the privately owned Rörsjöstugorna flew by, and in the clear weather I could see both Drevfjällen to the west, Grövelsjöfjällen to the northwest and the ski slopes och Idrefjäll with Städjan and Nipfjället in the background to the northeast. The word “Kiosk” caught my eye in the corner of my eye at Rörsjöstugorna, and after a while I was sitting in a wind sheltered snow pit with a cup of coffee, biscuits, chocolate and locally made elk sausage. I stayed there for a long time.
The skiing continued with expansive views and small elevation changes all the way to the shoulder of Brattfjället, where the snowmobile trail took me down to the small village of Gördalen and out of Fulufjället National Park. I’ll definitely be back here. Maybe on a guided dog sled tour…? The descent was exciting after a lot of skiing on the flat earlier in the day, but the thought is always in the back of my mind that every meter of altitude you lose will be have to be regained later. In previous days I’ve slept at a low altitude and started the day with climbing, but I wanted to save myself that tomorrow.
When I started to climb my way up from Gördalen, I skied without my shell jacket for the first time on the trip, and every zipper on my bib pants that could be opened was open. The pulk at least feels noticeably lighter since the start of the trip. Halfway up, a sign told me that I was inside the Drevfjällen nature reserve – a roadless wilderness and the largest old-growth forest area in Dalarna. My home for the next two days. The tent was pitched among the birches just below the tree line. Snow depth: 60 centimeters.
Right after breakfast I realized that the snowmobile trail I was following over Drevfjället was not marked on the map. My first thought was that the trail had been redrawn somewhat, because the trail I was following ran parallel to the trail on the map about 800 meters southwest and slightly higher up the mountain, but when I skied down towards Drevsjön and my trail did not turn north towards Drevfjällsstugan I sensed something was wrong. A bunch of snowmobile tracks veered off off-trail in the direction of the cabin, and after following them for a few hundred meters I arrived at the cabin and the trail I had planned to follow all along. The stove was still warm from the last guests, and served as a drying rack for clothes that had already become damp in the warm weather.
The skiing in the old forests of Drevfjällen was nice, with many gnarled and twisted old pines and some preserved mountain pastures, but the combination of the very well-maintained and easy-to-ski snowmobile trails and a few degrees above zero and sunshine meant that I soon switched to autopilot. Six snowmobiles passed during the day, which was fewer than I had expected. Based on the amount of tracks on the trails and in the terrain, the nature reserve must be a snowmobile hotspot on the weekends. I saw neither skiers nor ski tracks all day.
After lunch at Fågelåsen, the trail gained altitude above the tree line, and the autopilot was switched off when it was time to climb. From the shoulder of Vithågna I had a view of Grövelsjöfjällen to the north and the highest mountain in the Drevfjällen to the west: the 1185 meter high Härjåhågna, which is crowned by border cairn 136. As I stood admiring the view, I realized that for the first time on the trip there was no wind at all. It was nice to stand there in the silence. The trail had also started to freeze a bit in the afternoon, so I ended the day with a good glide past the Röskåsen overnight cabin and back down into the pine forest where I pitched my tent. When the sun went down, the northern lights came to visit.
Today went by quickly. Partly because it was cold last night, so the tracks were nice and hard when I woke up. But the real explanation must be the magnetic pull of Flötningens Gränsbua, the border super market that I reached after lunch. My only longer break before I got there was to admire the first snowfall of the trip.
I actually had enough food to get to Grövelsjön, but after a week with the food I brought from home (except for the kiosk visit at Rörsjöstugorna on Fulufjället) it was wonderful to be able to browse freely among the store shelves. Like all super markets close to the Norwegian border, tobacco seemed to make up a large part of the inventory. After I pitched my tent at Källåsen north of Flötningen, I had sausage and flatbread rolls with beer for dinner and a bag of pick and mix candy for dessert.
The luxurious mountain life continues the day after tomorrow, as I will stay one night at Grövelsjön mountain station before continuing north towards Fjällnäs. If my need for more food was a bit arbitrary, my need for a shower is a lot more pressing. I think the snowmobile riders are starting to smell me through the exhaust fumes.
When I woke up, the only white thing in the sky was the soft peaks of Grövelsjöfjällen, poking up above the treetops. It had been a cold night, which was good news for me. Today I was going to get past an obstacle that the Dalarna County Administrative Board had warned about on Facebook weeks earlier: a few kilometers of the snowmobile trail closest to Guttudalskojan had been plowed. In the worst case, I thought I would be able to ski in the forests next to the road for those kilometers, and for that, a it’s nice to have a frozen snow crust to ski on.
The plowed winter trail was fortunately an anticlimax. There was enough ice left on the road for me to be able to ski around the gravel patches. I soon arrived at the Guttudalskojan overnight cabin, which at least on the inside was stuck in the 1950s in a very charming way. I took a coffee break in the sun outside. The reason the winter trail has been plowed is that there is logging going on in the area. Why they should cut down a small strip of mountain forest between two nature reserves, next to one of the County Administrative Board’s overnight cabins and by a popular hiking trail is beyond me. I’m glad I got to see the area before the devastation.
Eventually, the Southern Kungsleden trail left the plowed road and followed the winter trail into the Långfjället nature reserve, through pretty pine and birch forest to the old mountain farmstead Valdalsbygget, which is located a stone’s throw from the Norwegian border and also has an overnight cabin. Here the winter trail became a tracked ski trail, which after another coffee break (you need many coffee breaks) I continued to follow towards Grövelsjön. The cross-country skiers in fast clothing stared at me and my pulk. Maybe I skiing against the track direction.
About an hour later, I found a tent site above the tree line a bit from Silverfallet, only three or four kilometers from the Grövelsjön mountain station on the other side of the valley. Tomorrow will be a short day with a lot of rest time before I continue north towards Fjällnäs the day after tomorrow. I’m about as excited about resting as I am about continuing skiing. That’s how it should be.
I’ve arrived at the Grövelsjön mountain station! A place I have many fond memories of. The day was spent resting, eating, washing, drying, charging and shopping before the trip continues north towards Fjällnäs tomorrow. The shower was the most anticipated item on the agenda. The staff probably got tired of me asking if the room was ready a dozen times, but it was at least partly out of concern for the station’s other guests. After nine days on the tour, I didn’t exactly smell like a summer meadow when I stepped through the entrance doors.
After a hearty breakfast at Grövelsjön, the trip continued north. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, so the motivation to take on the climb up Långfjället came easily. Of course, I had a coffee break with a view of Storvätteshågna, the highest mountain of middle to southern Sweden, and with coffee and some biscuits in the tank, I then quickly headed down to the County Administrative Board’s cabins by Lake Hävlingen.
The fastest winter trail north from Hävlingen goes directly to the Rogenstugorna cabins across the lakes to the north, but my planned arrival day isn’t until Friday (day 15), so I’m in no hurry to reach the end of the trip. Instead, I followed the winter trail east that goes back up above the tree line and past the Swedish Tourist Association (STF) Storrödtjärnstugan cabin. The freshly snowmobiled track up from the lake was so icy and slippery that I had to double-check that the skins were still there, and so narrow that my skis repeatedly got stuck in rocks and gravel on the sides when I tried to make my way uphill. I wish you could see yourself in that moment, with panicky eyes as you tense every muscle and desperately hold on to your poles to keep from falling flat on your face (whereupon the pulk pulls you down to the bottom of the hill to a Looney Toones sound effect). After sweat, swearing and a little bloodshed, I finally made it up to the tree line where I ate a packed lunch from the mountain station with a view of Töfsingdalen National Park. Another place to visit sometime.
After another bit of climbing up to Slagusjön, the effort was rewarded with a fun downhill to the Storrödtjärnstugan cabin, where I took the opportunity to add to my collection of cabin patches. I had to restrain myself from continuing to ski down the winter trail to Rogen in the afternoon sun. Instead, I put that energy into hunting for a nice tent site. Finally, I found a plot with a patio where I could sit on the thawed mountain heath and admire the view of Rogen during dinner.
Today’s 18 kilometers were probably the most boring of the trip. That’s because 14 of them took me across the frozen surface of the lake Rogen, and even with the wind at my back (5-10 meters per second in the middle of the lake) it’s quite tiring to ski past a seemingly endless line of trail crossings from morning to afternoon. I stopped at the Rogenstugan cabin and had a chat with the cabin host, which was a nice break from the monotony. I also bought a beer at the cabin store. “Because you’re worth it” is not the Carlsberg slogan, but those were the words I heard whispered when I saw the can on the shelf.
I pitched my tent next to Bustvålen on the small strip of land between the Rogen and Rödsjön lakes. The forecast calls for strong winds after dark, so it feels good that I’ll stay the night in the forest. After the tent was up, the snow melted and the bags unpacked, I set off to admire the local supply of wolf lichen and look for running water. The simple pleasures of the mountains.
”Klabbföre” is a Swedish word describing the dreaded snow conditions when the half-melted snow gets stuck beneath your skis, and that’s what I woke up to. During the morning, every single snowflake that had fallen during the night seemed to stick to my skis until I was walking on stilts. When I arrived at Skedbrostugan, I took off my skis and scraped and brushed until there was not a single ice crystal left, and after that the skis got along better with the surface. I had great skiing all the way to Broktjärnskojan, right next to the beautiful Rödfjället. It was snowing quite heavily and I had been looking forward to a break indoors.
In the door I met three skiers who were on a trip from Ramundberget to Grövelsjön. One of them had a bit of a bruise on his face after he fell on the steep downhill slope from Rödfjället, but he said that his glasses took the brunt of the impact and that it wasn’t as bad as it looked. It looked pretty bad. The slope that was so steep that he fell on the way down, I was now going to climb, so there was a long coffee break in the cabin before I started. Considering how little the pulk weighs now, it is probably the hardest climb on the entire Southern Kungsleden.
It was a nice reward to get up to Rödfjället and get a little view of Tänndalen’s familiar peaks.
13 days after the trip started at Sälens Högfjällshotell in Dalarna, I reached my partners family cabin in Fjällnäs and completed my first long winter adventure. I finished with a nice morning on the snowmobile trail that runs over the Storkläppen mountain, between Svansjön and Tänndalen’s ski lifts, where I had a view of the entire valley and towards the higher peaks to the north. After arriving at the cabin, I hung things out to dry, showered (three times), spent some time in the sauna, ate pizza, had a bottle of red wine, and lay on the couch a lot. I’m tired, but very happy and satisfied with the trip.
I highly recommend the Southern Kungsleden trail. For me, who has never visited the mountains south of Grövelsjön, it was fun to see both Transtrandsfjällen, Fulufjället and Drevfjällen on the same trip, and Fulufjället in particular has me keen on return visits in both winter and summer. Apart from a tricky ski trail close to Granfjällsstugan in Transtrandsfjällen (and the plowed snowmobile trail at Guttudalskojan), there has been good skiing all the way, despite a winter unusually skimpy on snow. It was nice to see the stretch between Grövelsjön and Fjällnäs again, but from a new perspective and in the wintertime.
If all goes well, me and my pulk will be back in Grövelsjön in February next year to start an even longer ski trip, all the way up to Treriksröset, on the ~1 300 km Vita bandet (White Ribbon). But before that, I’m going to enjoy the summer season.
The post Skiing the Southern Kungsleden Trail appeared first on Anders Norén.
2025-01-10 20:16:51
The snow has been taking its time here in the southern end of the Swedish mountain chain this winter, and in lieu of skiing and winter camping, I got around to building another free WordPress theme.
It’s called Spiekermann and is designed with blogs and portfolios in mind, but like most block themes, it can be used for pretty much anything. You can download it from WordPress.org, read more about its features here, or check out the demo.
The most eye-catching features in the theme are the asymmetrical grid on archive pages, and the offbeat typeface used for headings, Alpha Lyrae, which blends pixelated characters with sans-serif ones. Alpha Lyrae is prominently featured in the footer of the theme, where the site title is scaled up to fill the entire width of the screen. Spiekermann includes other type options if you don’t like your headings chunky, as well as ten different color schemes to choose from.
Spiekermann is named after German designer Erik Spiekermann, who in addition to designing FF Meta and writing Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works designed a print that’s been hanging in my office for the past couple of years. I’m a big fan of his.
That’s Spiekermann! I have some other theme designs in the pipeline as well, but I hope you won’t get to see any of them on the WordPress.org theme directory for a while. If you do, it will have been a very disappointing winter.
PS. I’ve deactivated my Twitter account. Long overdue. You can find me on Bluesky these days, although I likely won’t be very active there either.
The post Introducing Spiekermann appeared first on Anders Norén.
2024-12-18 17:50:46
Our original hiking plan for this August was a one-week trip to Jotunheimen national park in Norway. With the start date only days away, me and my partner Rebecka decided to heed the weather warnings and change our plans. We’ve been looking forward to visiting Jotunheimen for years, and we didn’t want to do it during a week of constant downpours and non-existent views.
Instead, we set our sights on Vålådalen nature reserve, just three hours from home, where the forecast looked much better. Vålådalen is a classic hiking destination in the Swedish mountains. At its heart lies a large valley with old-growth forests, surrounded by some of the most beautiful fjäll in Scandinavia, and the large tourist station that serves as the starting point for most visitors is easily accessible by car and bus. Despite that, neither of us had visited it before. I’ve become a little bit obsessed with visiting all of the cabins belonging to the Swedish Tourist Association (STF), collecting a cloth cabin patch as a memento from each one, and I drew up a route that would allow us to visit four of them on our hike in and around Vålådalen. Five, if you count the Gåsen cabin, which was shut down last year.
The route is a variation of the classic route Vålådalsfyrkanten, with a detour to the closed Gåsen cabin to the west, and a loop around the Anaris mountains to the east. It looks like a fish on the map, so we’ve dubbed the route Vålådalsfisken (the Vålådalen fish).
We got going around three in the afternoon after lunch at Vålådalen mountain station, where my mother worked for one season in the early 1980’s. After one kilometer, we realized that we had hiked in the one direction and had to double back. Once we got on track again, I tried to catch a piece of cheese Rebecka tossed me with my mouth, and managed to punch myself with the grip on my hiking stick, giving me a split lip. Not the most auspicious start, but all was forgiven once we reached the tree line and got views over the Vålådalen valley behind us. To me, lush forest valleys are best experienced at a distance. At least during mosquito season.
We arrived at the STF Stendalsstugorna cabins just past seven, after 14 kilometers of hiking. The main cabin was rebuilt from the ground-up in 2014 after the old one burned down. It seems comfortable and convenient with its multiple modern gas stoves, solar panels and a massive deck facing south, but it lacks the coziness of the classic STF cabins. I added another cabin patch to the collection and got a quick chat with the cabin host before we continued.
West of Stensdalsstugorna, the trail climbs up to a 1 000 meter plateau between the peaks Tobbege and Stäntja, with beautiful views on all sides. On our left, Lill-Stensdalsfjället basked in the last sunlight of the day as we made camp. The clear sky meant that we could spend the evening with the vestibule of our Hilleberg Helags 3 tent rolled up and tucked away until it was time for bed. Neither of us had any regrets about our change of plans.
The 14 kilometers from Stensdalsstugorna to the Gåsen cabin are some of the prettiest 14 kilometers I’ve ever hiked. From the moment we packed up our tent east of Stäntja to us arriving at Gåsen a few hours later, we had stunning views over the surrounding mountain tops, culminating in the panorama you get over Helags and Sylarna from the shoulder of the mountain Gåsen just northeast of the cabins. Lovely stretch of trail.
The Gåsen STF cabin closed permanently on January 1 this year, to reduce the disruptions to the reindeer in this part of Jämtlandsfjällen. One room in the main cabin is still left unlocked for emergencies, so we had a peek inside. Seeing Gåsen for the first time made me regret not visiting it while it was still open. It’s a spectacular location, and still well worth a detour for the views alone, even if you have to spend the night in a tent instead of a cabin.
From Gåsen, we turned east into the Härjångsdalen valley and started the descent back into Vålådalen, with more great views over the pearl necklace of lakes in the bottom of the valley. We hiked a little too fast and too far, though. I wanted to get to the Vålåstugorna cabins before seven to make sure I’d be able to buy my cabin patch before the store closed for the day. We made it just in time, but it wasn’t worth ending the day with a relentless march to meet a self-imposed deadline. The keepsakes from the hike aren’t more important than the hike itself.
The cabin host in Vålådalsstugorna recommended tent sites a few kilometers further down the trail, but when we got there, they were already occupied. Then the rain caught up with us. Faced with the choice between a tent site right next to the trail or a potentially nicer tent site further ahead but with a wet Shiba Inu in the tent, we chose the former. By then, we were all pretty wiped. Fortunately, a patch wasn’t the only thing I picked up in the cabin shop. When you drink it in the tent after a long day on the trail, Carlsberg is, in fact, Probably The Best Beer In The World.
As you can see by the number above, day three went long. Too long. Vålåstugorna to the Lunndörrstugan STF cabin was a pretty stretch of trail, especially with the view into the U-shaped valley Lunndörren towards the end. We arrived around lunch and discovered that the cabin host was out on a hike, so I missed out on my cabin patch from Lunndörrstugan. Probably karma for my insistence on us arriving in time for the previous cabin the day before. The cabin hosts are always present in the morning and evening to help visitors, but can be out exploring in the middle of the day. Me and Rebecka have talked about volunteering for it some future summer season.
After Lunndörrstugan, the trail continues to one of the most famous locations in Vålådalen nature reserve: The gravel pyramids in Gröndalen. The landscape here has to be seen to be believed. It was formed during the end of the last ice age, when the ice sheet covering Northern Europe melted. The entire valley looks like a sandbox for giants. As we entered Gröndalen and took aim on the mountain pass that would take us to the Anaris cabin, we passed near the site of the 1978 Anaris disaster, in which eight skiers lost their lives to a sudden winter storm. There’s a commemorative cross marking the site of the accident by the old winter trail, but we left that for another visit to Vålådalen.
Instead, we took on the 300 meter ascent to the pass between Stor-Anahögen and Aaresketjahke. After a short break to admire the view over Gröndalen behind us, we continued south into Hällådalen and towards Anaris, which had already started to don its fall colors. I did get a cabin patch there (depicting a trout – fitting given what we’ve named our route), and we had a chat with the very friendly cabin host. I read a feature recently saying that Anaris is one of the least visited STF cabins, where days can pass without any visitors, but this evening, there were no less than eight hikers there at once. Me and Rebecka were the only ones not staying the night.
We wanted to be back by the car pretty early the next day, so we continued a few kilometers up to the pass between Kraapa and Kruptjie, where we set up our camp. The smart move would have been to make camp before we reached the pass, to get more shelter from the wind, but we were too tired to care.
We had planned to make an early start on the fourth and final day, but not quite as early as 5:30, which was when Rebecka woke up to rain splashing her in the face. The wind had turned during the night and was pummelling the tent from the north with gusts up to ~20 m/s, pulling one of the ground pegs lose. The large stones I had placed on the south-facing pegs, now downwind, helped little. We decided to skip breakfast in the tent and quickly packed up. Taki, to his immense credit, was the least stressed of the three of us.
We followed the summer trail to the Staalavielie rest hut where we planned to have breakfast, but it was occupied both by a German couple that had spent the night and an army of midges. Instead, we continued south on the winter trail towards the Issjödalen valley up to the tree line, where we found a lovely spot with a view over the forest.
I say winter trail because it’s marked as one on the maps provided by Lantmäteriet, the Swedish mapping agency, but the sign by the Staalavielie hut put it down as a summer trail as well. I suspect there was a summer trail there at some point, since the path following the winter markings was pretty well trodden in spots, but there were no traces of wooden planks covering the many marshlands we had to cross.
It was a relief to reach the proper summer trail by Issjön, where we took a moment to inspect the royal hunting cabin before we followed the luxurious forest trail back to our car by Vålådalens fjällstation.
Do we recommend the Vålådalsfisken route to others? Yes! We got to hike through the old-growth forest in the heart of the nature reserve, but also experienced the wide-stretched views from Gåsen to the west (head of the fish) and the dramatic mountain passes around Anaris to the east (tail of the fish). Our big mistake was to do it in just four days. According to our phones, the route is about 120 kilometers. Five to seven days would have made more sense, and been a lot more enjoyable.
Still, Vålådalen nature reserve made a good first impression on us, and we’ll definitely be back. Maybe in winter next time.
The post A summer hike in Vålådalen appeared first on Anders Norén.
2024-06-28 00:42:04
For Midsommar this year, me, my girlfriend Rebecka and four of our friends stayed at the STF Grövelsjön mountain station. One of those friends, Wilda, was there to start her Green Ribbon – the same hiking adventure I went on last summer. Rebecka and another member of the gang joined Wilda for the first section of the hike, and I took the opportunity to go on a little hike of my own.
My route took me from Grövelsjön to Fjällnäs through Femundsmarka national park in Norway, which I’ve heard a lot of about but never visited. One of the things I’ve heard is that there’s great fishing in the park. I’ve had poor fishing luck so far this season, and figured if I can’t catch something during four days in Femundsmarka, I should probably hang up the rod for the season.
In hindsight, I should have opted for a shorter route (probably by staying further west, passing Røvollen and skipping the Skedbro cabin entirely), but I still had four lovely days in the mountains with great fishing.
You can find my pack list for the hike here, an approximate trail here, and more photos and videos on my Instagram.
After saying goodbye and good luck to Rebecka, Wilda and Malin in front of the blue door at Grövelsjön, I headed west up to the Norwegian fjäll on the Linné trail. It was sweaty work beneath the nearly cloudless sky, and more climbing would follow. I had my first coffee with a view over the greenish gray face of Grøthogna (1402m), which was my goal for the day.
I continued down to Sylen, the Norwegian settlement north of Grövelsjön, and said hi to people I recognized from the breakfast buffet who had taken M/S Sylöga across the lake and were hiking back. From Sylen, I followed the DNT signs up towards Svukuriset and lake Rønsjøen. It was a beautiful lunch spot, but I decided to try a few casts with the fishing rod before I got the water boiling. A few throws turned into a full hour when I got my first catch after just a few minutes.
At Rønsjøen, I left the trail heading north up into the cauldron next to Grøthogna, where I found a rock-free spot next to one of the unnamed lakes (1109). The lakes didn’t show any signs of life during the evening, but it seems wrong to complain when I got to end the day with the view over Grövelsjön, Långfjället and Rogen from the peak of Grøthogna. My plan for tomorrow: less hiking, more fishing.
I woke up at eight after eleven hours of sleep. It had rained during the night, and a thick fog had settled above the cauldron, hiding the peaks of Grøthogna, Sylfjellet and Rønsjøruten to the north, east and west. I think I like the fjäll best like this. When it’s a little bit grumpy.
As I descended the cauldron to the north, I had a stunning view over the wide-stretched rocky moor surrounding the triple peaked Stor-Svuku in the northwest. It was pretty, but also completely devoid of fishing lakes, so I took aim on the river Grøtåa on my right and followed it through birch and pine towards the lakes in the north. It was a wild and pretty landscape but also completely mosquito infested, so I headed back up above the tree line for lunch. From there, I had a clear view over the lakes where I hoped to find fish in the afternoon.
One of those lakes was Frysihjeltjønna (“Freeze to Death Lake”…?), and when I passed it a few hours later, there was lots of activity on the surface. Within a few minutes, I had a decently sized perch on the hook. 45 minutes later, I had pulled up five or six more. None of them huge, but all of them fit for the campfire on a hike with proper cooking. It was difficult to leave the perch-filled lake behind, but I wanted to cover some more distance before I made camp, so I continued on.
I found my campsite on a small peninsula by Litlbuddhåen an hour later. It was a lovely spot almost completely surrounded by the lake, but the fish were less cooperative than in Frysihjeltjønna, so I settled for a dip in the evening sun. That’ll teach them.
My campsite was only a few kilometers from the Swedish border, so I started the day by passing a yellow “Riksgrense SVERIGE” sign close to the Reva break cabins. There was a scattering of tents by the cabins, but the people they belong to were probably out in fishing boats. I continued to STF Skedbrostugan where I stopped for lunch. It was a detour, but it’s always cozy to stop by a cabin when it’s nearby. The cabin host season hasn’t started yet, so the cabin was empty.
From Skedbro, I followed the signs towards Røvollen which led me west over the shoulder of Skedbrofjället where I once again crossed the Swedish-Norwegian border. The views were spectacular in all directions. Just beyond Skedbrofjället, the trail took me to the Fautbua overnight cabin. A sign inside told me that the timber cabin was built in 1918 by Femundsmarka reinoppsynsman Jens Jensen Langen, to be used for gathering, fishing, and hunting. It also said he shot more than 87 moose during his life. Seems excessive.
It was a warm day, with few clouds to give shelter from the sun, so my feet appreciated the series of river crossings just before the trail reached the lake Nedre Muggsjøen. Nedre Muggsjøen tried to entice me with its sandy beaches and well-worn tent sites, but I wanted to get a bit further and continued on. (It seemed like a nice place for packrafting.) I made camp by Halvortjønna a few kilometers further south, which instead of sandy beaches offered a great view over the mountain Storviglen, which I’ll pass on my way to Fjällnäs tomorrow.
I was pretty tired by the time I made camp, but I figured I couldn’t go to sleep next to a lake without at least trying to reel in something. I’m glad I did. The trout wasn’t big enough for a frying pan, but with it, I’ve managed to catch something every day during the three days I bought a fishing permit for. Femundsmarka definitely lived up to its reputation on that front.
25 degrees celsius is too hot for any hike, but it was especially grueling during my climb up the mountain Storvigeln from Ljøsnåvollen. By the time I reached the 1340 meter mountain pass, 500 meters of elevation gain later, I was drenched in sweat. At least I could take my hard-earned break with a great view. Over Jämtlandsfjällen to the north, and Femundsmarka to the south. On my right, I had the Storvigeln peak another 200 meters of elevation above me. An adventure for another day.
Aside from the views from the Storvigeln pass, the last day was pretty unremarkable. I knew Rebecka was waiting for me in Fjällnäs, so I quickly made my way down to lake Bolagen and back into Sweden, up the Bolagskammen ridge, and then down through the birch forest to road 84 next to lake Malmagen where Rebecka met me. My salt stained sun hoodie got some side eyes when we stopped at Hamra Livs for some much needed ice cream.
Femundsmarka made a great first impression. I’ll have to drag Rebecka with me for a future visit – I’d like to spend some more time around Svukuriset and Stor-Svuku. But first, we have another Norwegian national park hike planned. We’re going to spend around a week in Jotunheimen in early August, with our shiba Taki along for the ride. Very excited for that.
The post Four days in Femundsmarka National Park appeared first on Anders Norén.
2024-05-13 01:01:20
If you want to make a designer cry, tell him or her to redesign their website. I’ve made three attempts since I did my last redesign two years ago, and every time, I’ve procrastinated by releasing another free WordPress theme instead. I find that designing for others is a lot easier than designing for myself. I think I’m a bad client.
A silver lining is that I got a lot of free WordPress themes out of it. My most recent one, Pulitzer, served as the starting point for my fourth attempt, which you’re likely looking at now. Like Pulitzer, it’s a straight shooter with small font sizes and simple layouts, partly inspired by the new design that Rich Tabor is rocking on his blog. After running a theme with massive headings for two years, it’s a nice change of pace with text sizes that max out at 18px1. I like this trend.
Another thing that the new design has in common with Pulitzer is the Block Bindings API introduced in WordPress 6.5. The redesign uses it to output the download and demo links as well as the metadata on the theme pages, and being able to do all that with a tiny amount of code and no custom blocks is huge. In a way, I’m glad I waited with building a block theme for the site until 6.5 was out.
Here are some other changes in the redesign:
Between work, Pulitzer, Vermeer and the redesign, I’ve been pretty busy with WordPress stuff these past two months. With hiking season soon starting, a trip to Austria in early June, and me and Rebecka moving into a house of our own in Vemdalen this August, I’m looking forward to less time spent in front of screens for a while.
The post A new coat of paint appeared first on Anders Norén.
2024-05-07 21:39:14
I have a new free WordPress theme out today! It’s called Pulitzer, and it’s a minimal blog theme designed for writers. You can download it from WordPress.org, read more about its features here, or check out the demo.
If you follow me on Twitter, there’s a chance you’ve seen Pulitzer already. I usually don’t write about my themes until they’re live, but I decided to try something new this time. Rebecka was in Stockholm for the weekend, so I challenged myself to build Pulitzer before Monday rolled around, all the while live-tweeting my process for building block themes. If you find that sort of thing interesting, you can check out the Twitter thread here.
The TL;DR of the thread is that I submitted Pulitzer on Sunday afternoon that weekend. While getting it ready in time was my main goal, I also wanted to explore the Block Bindings API that was added in WordPress 6.5. If you haven’t heard about it, the Block Bindings API is a new way to include dynamic output in blocks. You can find a good introduction here.
Pulitzer includes three uses of the Block Binding API:
The kicker? Adding all of these took me no more than an hour, despite me never having used the API before. It’s shockingly intuitive if you’re used to block themes already, at least on the developer end. There’s still work to be done (and being done) on how this is presented to the user in the interface, but it’s undeniably going to lower the bar for building complex block themes. What previously required custom blocks written in JavaScript, or PHP based workarounds with third-party plugins like Advanced Custom Fields, can now be done with a tiny bit of HTML block markup and good ol’ PHP. I love it.
It also raises the question about what is and isn’t theme territory (again). If a user switches theme from Pulitzer to something else, their typography and color settings will (theoretically) come with them, but they can’t bring along the Pulitzer reading time indicator without digging into the theme code. That was business as usual back in the classic theme days, but block themes have started to move towards a complete separation between design and functionality. Adding the reading indicator to Pulitzer knowing the feature is locked to the theme felt like I was doing something illegal. I’m glad it’s allowed on the theme directory, but I hope it doesn’t end up being abused.
Anyway. Pulitzer is out now! I hope you like it. I have been tinkering with another theme design, but it will probably be a while before I get around to building it. And I definitely won’t do it over a weekend.
The post Introducing Pulitzer appeared first on Anders Norén.
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