Huskies are born to run, so the musher needs to always have one foot ready to stamp the sled break into the snow — letting the dogs know they need to slow down.
In Swedish Lapland, reindeer herders work alongside the mining and tourism industries, winter nights are long and offer an excellent chance of seeing the Northern Lights — just one of this remote region’s many natural wonders.
BySimon Bajada
February 23, 2023
•8 min read
This article was adapted from National Geographic Traveller (UK)
In this boreal terrain, a vast wilderness of spruce and birch, a place like Aurora Safari Camp offers a welcome refuge.
After a day out snowshoeing or snowmobile riding, travellers warm up fireside and plot the next day’s activities with the help of local guides.
Here, camp co-founder Jonas Gejke prepares an afternoon fika (a coffee and cake break) that includes waffles, cooked on a cast iron griddle and served with cloudberry jam, and cinnamon buns.
As an afternoon sunset casts a pallid glow on the frozen Råne River, there’s the option of a sauna or a plunge through a hole carved in the ice.
Outside the small town of Niemisel, we pass a frozen waterfall, the low-lying sun highlighting its icy formations.
Later, in Trolltrumman homestead, we meet Mikael and Tina Eriksson.
The herd includes a newborn leucistic deer.
The herd includes a newborn leucistic deer.
Despite its small size, the Lapland town of Mårdudden offers an impressive network of snowmobile trails that lead up to the Arctic Circle. It’s ideal terrain for visitors to explore, thanks to locals who pitch in to groom the trails. For most of the winter, the region’s slender woodland conifers are laden with snow, causing them to stoop and bend, creating an array of unique shapes known as ‘snow ghosts’.
Kenth Fjellborg prides himself on prioritising his dogs’ wellbeing.
We travel an hour from Kiruna to Fjellborg Arctic Lodge, riding over frozen lakes where the only sound is the panting of the dogs muffled by the deep snow.
Here, they refuel and we bed down in cabins. The next day, as the sun finally peeps above the horizon, breaking the darkness of the long night, a typical Swedish breakfast buffet energises us for the day ahead.
Mårdudden’s population doubled from seven to 14 during the pandemic, as Swedes escaped city life, but it’s fair to say it’s still a small town.
The Outpost, originally a general store, is now a four-bedroom lodge that travellers can use as a base from which to explore the wilderness on snowshoes, snow bike or snowmobile.
If you're lucky, you may get to see the sky light up with the Northern Lights.
