Joanna Tsai went up to the frozen north and came back with memories of dog sledding, sauna bathing and snowmobiles.
The last weekend in January I went up north to the frozen and dark place that is Kiruna.
There were IT problems at the CPH’s airport, so instead of taking five hours to reach Kiruna, it took twelve and I arrived at 1 a.m. But I was lucky that I made it, as there are only two flights a day up to Kiruna and my three friends and I were going on a dog sled trip early the next morning. Putting all bad feelings and thoughts aside (which was hard because there were a lot of them and I tend to hold grudges), I was happy in the morning when one of our mountain men guides whisked us off to a remote area where we put on 
ridiculous ski pants and huge snow boots. We listened attentively to their directions because if we got hurt the hospital was far away. Scary…
Taking the dogs from the van to the holding line outside felt cruel, as we had to pull them up by the collar onto their hind legs.
They looked silly hopping alongside us, but they’re strong and could have pulled loose on all fours!
Since there were only twelve dogs and three sleds, we rode snowmobiles out to our overnight Sami camp. I’d never been anywhere near a snowmobile before, and it surprised me how loud they are. We rode out about 10k into what I call wilderness (I’m a city kid), although we were passed by locals on their own snow mobiles and could see small cottages in the distance.
At the camp we chopped wood for the fire places and sauna, fetched ice-cold drinking water from the half-frozen river, and ate delicious reindeer stew.
When it got dark before 4pm, we settled into our toasty four-person cabin, made tea, and caught up on the latest gossip. After our dinner of reindeer meat and vegetables we saunaed (is that a word?). I was surprised that some of the Chinese group went in and it wasn’t surprising that the girls did keep their towels around them the entire time, even when rolling in the snow. Besides them it was us and some Germans, surprise surprise, they’re everywhere here.
We ran wild
ly to the frozen river a few times during the night to see the slowly dancing Northern Lights, but sadly cloud cover prevented us from getting pictures or seeing their green color. It was still amazing, and our pants did a good enough job keeping us warm that we lay on the snow and stargazed. At the risk of being corny, it was perfectly peaceful inside and outside my body- one of those moments to treasure, where I felt like my skin didn’t separate me from the world, the snow, the wind, and my ugly pants.
I could always find Orion, but never before as clearly as on that night. I loved the sky because it made me feel at home when I wasn’t.
The next morning I went on an arduous cross-country ski excursion to see hunting pits that were 150 years older than the city of Kiruna. They were old wood skis and I had to ditch them half way in because they broke. I wanted to lay down and die by the end, and was very glad that the dogs did the work on the trip back! Driving the sled was really fun, although we only worried about breaking because the dogs behaved like trail horses, following the lead sled. It was cute to see them roll in the snow during our short breaks to cool down although it was difficult to believe that any animal could overheat in that weather. Granted, it was relatively warm, only about -10C, instead of -36C, as it was the week before.
Driving back to central Kiruna in my state of exhaustion, I appreciated how simple, beautiful, extreme, difficult, cold, hungry, peaceful, and happy life can be.
Come back next time for part 2 – surviving a night in the Ice Hotel.
