Green Foxy walking in Ammarnäsfjällen

(Ammarnäs mountains).
1978
Here I'm standing on the top of the mountain Stubebakte (1274m). In the background the pointed top of Sulåive. (1352m)
This year we planned to go to a top of a mountain. We wanted to go up on Stubebakte (the long mountain) and down beside Sulåive, the the pointed mountain at the left.
Ove drove on the "Vindel road" to Ammarnäs". That road is following the Vindel river. Me sitting by the river.
This river is torrential in spring and the beginning of summer. Here I'm standing on a walking  suspension bridge
The river was real wild.
This sign was by the Vindel river. The bible text sais:
"Fear God and worship Him, who created heaven and earth". Revelation 14:7.
Soon we are in Ammarnäs. Observe that this picture is taken 1978! I have not been there since that. I have heard the road is better now.
Me by the Vindelriver near the village Ammarnäs.
Ove by the Vindelriver near Ammarnäs.
The potatoes hill. On this hill they cultivate potatoes. On this side of the hill the potatoes will not freeze so easy. This hill is famous. Ove in his beige Fjällräven jacket on the picture
We went up to Näsberget by the lift. This was wonderful.
The ticket. But we did not go donw here. We should walk and go down on another place.
Ove on the top by the lift.
From here we should start to walk. Me in my Fjällräven Greenland jacket and trousers I used the same Fjällräven backpack as last year.
Ove on a little path. Ove with his Fjällräven backpack
There were more people walking. But later we did not meet any people in 4 days!
Ove looking out over the landscape.
Behind me you see the massif Stubebakte and the mountain Sulåive. We should walk to this mountains an be out in 5 days and 4 nights.
Ove by a little lake. There were many small lakes. And we saw several birds.
Another lake.
Time for lunch. Ove was coking on the spirit stove. We had bags with freeze-dried food. We also had freeze dried soup and blueberry soup with us. And hard dry bread. Called "knäckebröd" in Swedish  We took the clean water from the creeks.
Moving on. Ove had his jacket tied on his backpack.
Me enjoying the landscape.
We should sleep on this place. All the stuff was out on the ground. You shall NOT do like this when it's windy or when there is storm. But there was no wind and no rain.
A view from the tent over the mighty mountains Stubebakte and Sulåive.
The next day we walked in over difficult terrain with twigs and bushes. Finally we came to a cottage and a storage house on a pole.
But the house was desert and in disrepair. In front of the house was a big rusty pan with legs. We did not go in into the house because that can be dangerous.
We moved on and had our lunch on a big flat rock. That rock was a practical table for us.
Here I'm holding in my small socks. The socks are wet. We had to wade over this creek and it was too deep for our boots. Then you need to take off your boots. And tie the boots on your backpack. And you put on socks. It's good to protect your feet with socks for sharp stones and prevent that you will not slip and fall. I still have these socks. I saved them as a memory of this trip.
On this picture I looked very tired. I found a cranium of an animal. I think it was a reindeer. I did not keep it. Because I think it was weird.
We put up our tent for the next night. Here I was cooking blueberry soup.
There are beautiful lichen on the stones.
Me landing on the moon? :-)  No, I had a special mosquitoes hat.
Ove had a mosquitoes hat too.
A cloud above Stubebakte. Later there came a thunderstorm. We were protected by Stubebakte. Because we had our tent near the mountain. It was dramatic to hear the thunder's echo on the side of the mountain.
The next day we climbed higher.
A little pause.
There were many  patches of snow.
Now we were on the top. And we put up our tent here.
It was rather cold here and I needed my hood and my side hand- warming pockets. Later Ove sent this picture to the newspaper and they published it in the paper.
When we awoke we had fog. Why did vi camp on the top of the mountain! This was not so wise.
We had our tent inside a cloud!
We went to the creek to drink water. A cold wind was blowing.
Me standing by the creek. I was worried.
Tent in the fog. You hardly can see it.

It went raining and the fog went worse. We tied extra ropes on the tent so it should not blow away. But our little Norwegian tent made it. And we had a rope with us to the creek and went holding in it so we should find the way back to the tent. Only one of us went to the creek and then we could whistle to each other. We were trapped in the fog. Vi slept one more night on the top of Stubebakte.
There was less fog the next morning. We packed, put on our rain suits and moved on
We should have gone down on the other side of Sulåive. But here was no fog. It was more steep. We walked down here between Solåive and Stubebakte. This was very straining.
Here I'm walking down. When I walked on a snow patch, I slipped and fell. I hurt my wrist on my right arm. I was gliding down a bit on the rain cover I had on my backpack.
We came down on the lower mountains. Ove made some lunch and he put a emergency splint around my wrist. It seemed that I had not broken my wrist.

It still was raining.
It stopped raining. We took off our rain suits. We moved on. It was more straining for me to walk with the pain in my wrist. But still I could enjoy nature.
There was moisture on the camera lens. We did not know this. But that's why the side of the pictures went a little blurry. Me and Sulåive and Stubabakte in the background.
It was gorgeous with all these small lakes.
I took a picture of Ove.
Sulåive reflecting in the water.
Me by the lake and Sulåive reflecting in the water.
Ove by a lake.
Another gorgeous lake.
And another gorgeous lake.
Fortunately we were not bothered of rain anymore. We could put up the inside tent first. When it's raining you need to put up the outside tent first and after it go inside and get the inside tent under the outside tent.
I felt happy to be on the lower mountains again.
Ove was cleaning the lens of the camera.
We were sitting in front of the tent. Then we heard a yelping sound. And we saw a fjällräv = arcic fox running on the other side of the creek! This was so exciting!! It was too far away to get a picture of it.

The picture of this Arctic Fox is taken in the zoo in Lycksele.

We went to bed. Then we heard the birds making noise. The birds  seemed to be upset. We opened the zip of the tent. Then the fjällräv (Arctic fox) was standing only 2 meter from our tent. But when the fjällräv saw us looking out of the tent, it went afraid and run away. Neither this time we got a picture of it.

Here a picture of another fjällräv in the Lycksele zoo.
A new morning. We tried to dry all the moist things. The bushes were used as drying rack.
Moving on. Me with Sulåive in the background
We followed this creek a bit.
Now we saw the valley and the lake Tjulträsk. On the other side of the lake the mountain Stora Aigert.
The creek run down from the mountain and we followed  it down to the valley.
Ove in the woods in the valley.
I had to force the trees and bushes to come to the path.
Ove on the path. He had taking off his jacket and tied it on his backpack.
Now the path followed the lake Tjulträsk.
Finally we reached the country road to the village.

But we had to walk about 8 kilometres on this road the village. But we were lucky. I women who was Ove's co-worker now  married to a Sami man lived in Ammarnäs. We visited them the night before we started walking.

And just that woman happened pass with her car. And she drove us to the village. Aw, we felt so happy. It's good to have freidns.
It was wonderful to take a shower in the hotel and get good food. Me in front of the hotel. The hotel was a nice red building.

Observe that this picture is taken 1978. They renovated the hotel and now it looks so pretty.
Ammarnäs fjällhotell & skidcenter
We took en evening walk in the village and enjoyed the Vindel river.
There was a little plane in the village. You could pay and then get a ride in the plane over the mountains. But this was expensive. And we had at this moment got enough of the mountains.
Inside the church in Ammarnäs. I said a thank prayer to God that we came safe back to the valley. This trip has been rather adventurous for me.
Me by a Sami kåta in Ammarnäs.
 
But what happened with my injured wrist? There was no doctor in Ammarnäs. The next day on our way home we passed the village Sorsele and went to the health caring and my wrist was X-rayed. The doctor told me it was not broken. I was sprained. After some weeks it went healing. I was training my wrist and this helped to heal it faster.
 
I will remember this trip as long as I live. I learned a lot about life. Nature is teaching you to be humble and, kind. And how to show love to people and animals.
Wilhelmina Schedin 2016-03-03