Early Friday morning, the night train has just arrived at Are. The clock says 09,20. A night with two unknown persons, and one of them has been using garlic as a ingredient instead as a spice. Whatever, I put on the backpack and start the journey. My thought was to take a nice cup of coffee, but I change my mind. Now I am on track. I follow the road trough the small village and into the tunnel up to the Tott hotel. The plan will be to follow the Tott hill up to the trail towards the  Nalle cliff. Just after Tott I have to put on the snow shoes. I follow the edge up to the trail. Someone has use the trail so I can follow the tracks. The track is narrow, and I have to take the snowshoes off. I stay a short moment at the Nalle cliff, before I try to find the path towards Totthummeln. Here the trail looks like a book from Elsa Beskov  I read when I was a child., Olles Skitour. After a while I can find the track and continue. A kilometre later I turn west and I can put on the snow shoes again. The sun is slowly going up higher and the wind is quite calm. A meet to skiers and we agree of this is the perfect day for adventures. I keep a steady pace, and soon I have reach the level of the cable cars top station. Now the trail become much steeper. With snow shoes the best is to just go right up, but that is more risky due to avalanches. But it is not so much snow here, so that good. I keep up  the pace even though I breathe much more heavy now. Of a sudden I reach the plateau, just before the last climb up to the peak of Areskutan. I stop for just a minute before I continue with a furious pace. six minute later I reach the peak. And what a reward, almost no wind and a view over the whole Jamtlands mountains. It cant be better. Three skiers has just arrived to the top, and do them self ready for a nice couple of turn downwards. I just look and enjoy. Five minutes later I am on track again. Above the clouds it is just a pleasure. I meet two skiers on my way down, and we all agree that it cant be better than this. Four hours later from the start I arrive at Are again. Now my friends, it is time for a nice cup of coffee at Are bakery. After that I enjoy the atmosphere of the village. At 16.00 it is time for coffee number two at Are coffee roastery. The barista and owner Per Nordell and I have a nice conversation. We talk about haw to live the life that we want and that is nice. -Stockholm is nice to visit Per tells me, but I dont want to live there. And I think if you build a wall around the city,(the music of the the day will be a symbol out of this) the claw marks will not be on the outside he says with a big smile. I think he is totally right there…At 19.30 I am on the night train again. The waiter at the restaurant ask me -wasn’t you here in the morning? Yes I was I replied. I’ve been up at Areskutan and down. He just shakes his head….The shadow of a alpinist…

Wednesday we start the calendar, see ya…

They’re Bulding Walls Around Us – YouTube

(The person at the photo does not have anything with the text to do) It is not easy to hire the right persons with the right attitude. But I got a good suggestion yesterday. A manager who own´s a guide company told me his way to be sure of hire the right persons. He always invited all the applicants to a party in a mountain lodge. Everything in bar was for free. At 03.00 AM he knocked on the applicants doors and called everyone to help him with some duties. The ones that stood up and helped him got hired, the others had to go home without being passed for the assignment. An easy way to get the right people for the mission…

At the moment we are planning for the upcoming winter assessment for the IML-training. It will be in Katterjakk close to Abisko and Riksgransen. I am also in the middle of planning the 11th mountain tour this year. So on Thursday I embark the night train bound for Jamtland. Looking forward for a peak tour and a good dinner afterwards. Check next blog at Sunday and you will be updated.

I am also planning and preparing for the upcoming calendar, so dont forget to follow us next Sunday with updates from the 11th mountain tour, and also the calendar from the 1st of December…

It is also time for planning upcoming adventures. Why not do a snowshoe tour to Blahammaren Mountain lodge in the winter. A nice tour and a three-course dinner…Contact us for booking.

KACEY MUSGRAVES – justified (official music video) – YouTube

See ya soon..

At the moment we are in between two seasons. It is time for reflection and contemplation. In the sami calendar we are in the pre-winter season. At the moment the snow light up the dark evening/nights and dress our playground in duvet. The cycle of the year is fantastic, and if you follow it you will feel more alive. From that point of view I’ve been having a fantastic year; a lot of both small and big adventures. Now is the time for planning the winter season and maybe to plan your training. Why dont you plan for a first aid course with Adventure Medicine, Utbildning inom vildmarksmedicin- Adventure Medicine or why dont you take a avalanche course; Kommande Evenemang – Kittelfjäll Adventure (kittelfjalladventure.se) or a winter training for beginners in Jamtland Vinterutbildning i fjällmiljö – All in Nature SWEDEN I will also give you a heads up of a good books, that might give you more longing for European adventures: The Hidden Tracks – Fotvandring – inbunden (9783899559552) | Adlibris Bokhandel and also the Wanderlust Europe – Europa – inbunden (9783899558661) | Adlibris Bokhandel

At the moment I am planning for the upcoming November tour. This one will be a short and fast adventure, but with a good planning it will be a great adventure, to be continued..

When it comes to gear I have stared the evaluation of the Beyond Nordic  BN007 3L Hard shell pant yellow. This is a 3 layer pant. It has a good price: 140 Euro. The finish is ok, but the fit gives more to be desired. It has alpine-fit, but still there is some need of improvement from my point of view. But so far I think they are price-worthy.

And as I told you before the advent calendar is coming up soon. Here it will be contests, facts and Christmas gifts suggestions. For example you will have one book gift suggestion every day…

State of Sound – Higher Love (Lyric) ft. Viktor Norén, Gustaf Norén – YouTube

See ya soon

This has been a interesting week, this including good workout, nice meetings and also good reflections. I was listen to a pod with Alexander Bard about the future. It was very interesting and make me to see things from another angle. One of his thoughts was that we will have multiple personality, depending of in what room/context we are in at the moment. I might be wrong, but for me it sounds like it would be like loosing the one that is me. Its sounds like the whole life would be like a role play?! What I rather will be to not look at yourself from the perspective of others. You can always change your direction not depending of your background,  age or profession. At the ”Vildmarks guiderna” wilderness guide at the kunskapskanalen we can follow a guide, Martin Breu who changed his life situation and become a rafting guide. So why not doing what you really wanted to do?

At Thursday I was holding a lecture about the IML-training and process including mountain safety for the Swedish alpine club. A very nice event. Lots of good questions and a nice atmosphere with a nice chat with all the participants afterwords.

Today I will present a hidden Mountain Lodge. Deep in the Offerdals mountains its places. Not so many knows it or have been there. So if you want to visit a genuine Sami mountain lodge and reindeer husbandry this is the place.

When it comes to the workout I think it has been a good week. Today I got 22 km in my legs already at 13.10. And then a triathlon with Ski-ergo, row-machine and air assault bike and boxing was not included.

At the end I will review the Beyond Nordics BN007 3L Hard shall pants. With a cost of 151 Euro spontaneously I think it is price worth. Lots a nice details and of course their tool hook, for ice axe etc. So I will hard test this one during November and will present the result in beginning of December.

And at the end of todays blog I want to suggest a book for Åre friends. Why not read Årebilder of Ola Rockberg and Martin Alzén.

See ya soon, and dont forget soon the advent calendar will be here:-)

The Dead South – Black Lung | OurVinyl Sessions – YouTube