A Camino beyond the Arctic Circle

I have often read about the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, this network of itineraries leading to the tomb of the Apostle James, and how this journey can have a special meaning for everyone. Unlike that our Camino through the mountains of Sarek was a pilgrimage on skis beyond the Arctic Circle to places of extraordinary beauty, crossing snow-covered hills that bordered mountains with elegant lines. It took us across frozen lakes and rivers where, as with any pilgrimage, we met other travelers who were on the same mission. Each of us had food, a tent, sleeping bag, stove and gasoline on their sled, but also desires, thoughts, emotions and sensations that, towards the end of the journey, melted faster than the snow with which we had surrounded ourselves to leave the place alone to the amazement of being there, to the warmth of the friendship lived: enveloped in a blaze stronger than the cold of the Arctic nights...

We were fast, taking only eight days for the 97 miles that took us from Kvikkjok to the Swedish Tourist Association's Akkastugan hut – including the more than twelve miles that we lost in the illusion of finding faster access and that led us instead to the infamous Arctic woodland. We arrived after one day of really bad weather – snow, wind and fog covering the 15 miles of the last stage. Ten hours of wet snow on which the skins of the skis constantly stuck. At the end of the crossing and after a day of rest we also grabbed the dream of a climb to the second peak of Ahkka, a breathtaking ski mountaineering route, one of the most beautiful of those on which our skis have had the good fortune to lead us.

Ahkka means "Old Woman" in the Sami language, and its shape, two reliefs facing each other that join in a spectacular canyon, can be compared to a belly ready to give water and life to the lake below. The first part of the Sarek crossing is the busiest. Few travel the long itinerary, the one that from Kvkkjokk reaches the village of Ritsem beyond Lake Akkajaure. Most prefer to enter the Sarek massif from the town of Saltoluokta where it is also possible to rent specific necessary equipment such as sleds and skis and which offers faster access and simpler logistics.

Others instead limit themselves to covering a part of the King's Trail, the "Kungsleden," a more comfortable and well-trodden itinerary but which keeps to the outer edge, to the east of the mountain range, however reaching much further north, up to Abisko, in the heart of Swedish Lapland. In reality the whole area affected by the crossing is located beyond the Arctic Circle in Sami territory, a territory still affected by reindeer transhumance today. The weather is very variable: in the same day you can go from a clear sky without clouds to overcast, variable to a stiff wind with fog, snow and sleet in a short time. The biggest unknown, however, is that linked to the strength of the wind. Gusts can reach over 80 miles per hour.

For this reason we had equipped ourselves with a satellite communication device with which we could receive and send text and e-mail messages despite the lack of cell phone reception. Thus we were able to continuously receive information about wind force and direction, the amount of precipitation and the temperature which was between -4 and 32° Fahrenheit in the period we had chosen at the end of March. Before our trip temperatures had dropped as low as -22° Fahrenheit, but then they climbed again. We risked finding unfrozen water in lakes and streams that we had to cross. Therefore, to remain flexible, we chose to bring tents for the nights. Traveling among these mountains is entirely different from making a multi-day crossing on skis in the Alps.

You are quietly submerged into an Arctic world with vast spaces and proportions that are nothing compared to most previous experiences. Something that has in fact more to do with a pilgrimage and leads to looking into the innermost folds of the soul. To seek strength and solace among the distant peaks, among the lakes of thick and hard ice. To follow the tracks left by the few skiers who have preceded us; to cross the footprints of ptarmigans, arctic foxes and other animals that like us roam these places, lost in an immensity to which we humans are no longer accustomed.

These distances force the heart to beat to the rhythm of the effort in which one immerses oneself and to indulge in the tempo imposed by the wind, the sun, and the snow of that stupendous environment which is the Arctic.