Härjedalen in south Sapmi/Lapland is one of the best places in Scandinavia for snowfall early in the season. It is far away from the ocean which ensures an arctic-like winter climate. Funäsdalen, located in western Härjedalen, lies 580 km from Stockholm and is the winter resort with most snowfall in Sweden.

Here the reindeer roam free together with the animals of the arctic fauna, like wild herds of musk ox, bear, wolf, wolverine, arctic fox, eagle and lynx.

Course program in English
Course program in Spanish
Information about Funäsdalen

This is a zoomable and clickable log book that shows our progress:

These are the tentative checkpoints:

Show large map with the log book
Show large map with the checkpoints

I use one kite size larger than Miro since I weigh more. This means that we don’t need to bring two kites in the same size. Yesterday when training Miro was using Access 6 m² and I was using Access 8 m². The day before yesterday we had harder wind so Miro used Access 4 m² and I used Access 6 m². We will bring six kites in total during the race in sizes from 4 m² to 14 m².

We have had some time to make a little touristing in the Vadsø area. Just to see this arctic coast is a great experience.

The enormeous expanse of snow, the strange ice formations and the loneliness when swooping over the snow desert makes it a very special feeling to tour on the sea with kite. And the snowkiting downtown Luleå is also first-class.

Here are mobile phone photos that I continously upload via MMS during Easter:

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Other web pages
Surfbussen – En Snökitehälsning från Ramundberget och Luleå
Kitecrowd – Easter on sea ice
Kitenation – Påsk på havsisen
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I was kiting with Ozone Access and Ozone Frenzy in the hard wind. At the end of the week the wind decreased, so I got a chance to try a 12 m² Ozone Manta M3. One day the wind was a moderate 5 m/s (10 kts) but it was still easy to climb to the top of the Trysil mountain with the Manta. The last day the wind was only 2 m/s (4 kts). I had to start the kite by skiing downhill in order to get it up in the air. When it was flying I managed to snowkite to the top of the mountain. It is an amazing kite! When working with it and flying it quickly, it generates a strong pull so it is possible to climb mountain slopes in moderate wind. At the same time it is very safe; if it starts to blow hard, you just park it in the sky and the pull disappears. The Manta also works fine on cross country tours thanks to its large wind register. I will use Manta on VAKE. I will most likely sell off my current kite quiver and invest in a set of Mantas. I will probably use Access 4 m², Manta 8 m² and Manta 12 m² during VAKE.

Six days of skiing and snowkiting gave me a good workout for the VAKE race.

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Other web pages
Surfbussen – Anders Marklund tränar inför VAKE- 10
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We will keep this home page updated during the race, so you can follow us on the tundra online.

Home page of the race: www.vake.no

Way to go Paul!

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Other web pages
Kitecrowd – NU KÖR VI…. courtesy Luke S.
Kitenation – new land buggy tricks
Surfbussen – Kite buggy på framfart i Sverige?
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Gotska Sandön is the most isolated island in the territorial waters of Sweden and the entire Baltic Sea. I had not visited the island before, but I had heard it is remote, desolate and barren, but at the same time strangely beautiful. The name “Gotska Sandön” literally translates as the “the Gotlandic Sand Island”, from the province of which it forms part. As the name suggests, the island is a kingdom of sand, with kilometer-long deserted sandy beaches. The island consists of sand dunes covered by a windswept pine forest.

        Aerial view (from Wikimedia Commons)

Gotska Sandön has fascinated visitors for centuries. Because of the sensitive flora and fauna, a maximum of 165 visitors are allowed on the island. The visitors stay in tents or in huts on a camp-site. The only populated place on the island is the camp-site, where the park ranger and some camp-site wardens live. The Gotska Sandön National Park was founded 100 years ago. This makes it the oldest national park in Europe, together with some other Swedish parks. My goal was to explore the island with kite buggy.

Friday

I arrived at the island a Friday afternoon in mid July. On the beach the camp-site wardens waited with a tractor and a wagon to transport the luggage to the camp-site.

        Arriving the island

The island has no harbour so the small ferry lands directly on one of the beaches that has deep water. In certain wind conditions the ferry cannot land on the beach, in which case a rubber dinghy goes in shuttle traffic between the ship and the beach. This day the weather was warm and calm so we could land on the beach.

        Tourists entering the island

Upon arrival the passengers are expected to help out unloading the luggage.

        Unloading the luggage

While the tractor transported the luggage, I and the other tourists walked to the camp, where we arrived after 45 minutes’ walk. There was a south-westerly breeze – perfect for kiting on the beach Västra sidan, the West Side. I unloaded my equipment from the wagon and eagerly headed for the beach. It was not a very strong wind but it became a perfect warm-up of the kite weekend. Even though most of the beach turned out to be too soft for the buggy, there was a narrow stretch of hard sand close to the water. There is no tide in the Baltic Sea, so the stretch of hard sand is formed by the waves. I had a fun time kiting back and forth the beach with my 10 m² foil, along the water’s edge, sometimes in the waves, sometimes dry-shod.

        The beach Västra sidan

After many enjoyable runs on Västra sidan I kited to the northernmost cape Bredsandsudde. The entire cape had harder sand, not hard enough to tack in the mild wind, but fun to drive on in full speed in cross-wind.

        The cape Bredsandsudde

Saturday

The weather forecast for Saturday morning promised south-easterly winds, turning to the east. This was too good to be true! It meant that I perhaps could traverse the entire island with kite buggy, from the cape Tärnudden in the south-east to the cape Bredsandsudde in the north-west, following the northern coast. So I packed kites, food, water and a change of clothes in waterproof bags and left the camp, walking towards cape Tärnudden on the other side of the island, pulling the buggy and the load.

        Pulling the buggy

The inner parts of the island consists of sandy heather-covered heath-like pine forest. I have walked in this kind of forest earlier, but not here in the southern parts of Sweden, only in Lapland in the arctic parts of Sweden. But unlike Lapland, this place was mosquito-free.

        In the forest

After a couple hours of hard work, walking and pulling in the soft sand, I arrived at cape Tärnudden. There I met two tourists on the beach, the first I had seen since I left the camp-site in the morning. The wind had already begun to turn towards the east, so I did not have a straight crosswind, but a little headwind. I rigged my 7 m² Frenzy, sat down in the buggy and finally sailed away. Despite the slight headwind, I managed to kite along the beach Franska bukten to the cape Kyrkudden, even though it did not go too fast. It felt good to look back on the covered distance.

        The beach Franska bukten with the
        cape Tärnudden in the distance

From now on, it could only get better, considering the wind direction. But first I had to pass the cape Kyrkudden. The cape consists of stones, gravels and rocks, so I had to pull the byggy around the cape to the beach Källahamn, holding the bar in one hand, kite in the air, and the buggy in the other hand. When I sat down in the buggy and drove away, I now had slight tailwind, so it went like a flash with the Frenzy. I drove up on the soft sand to slow down the speed but the front wheel sliced in the sand, the buggy turned over and I flew out into the sand and dragged about ten meters. With sand from head to toe and with a minor scrape wound on the arm, I decided to have a lunch and swimming break.

        Lunch break on Källahamn beach

It was an incredible feeling to be the only person on the entire beach; 25 centigrades in the air, decent water temperature for swimming, blue sky and a good summer breeze. It felt like being alone on a Caribbean island. I realized that I would sail quickly back to the camp in the tailwind breeze, so I decided to have a long break to enjoy the environment. I spent some hours relaxing, swimming, sun-bathing and beach-strolling.

        Beach treasures

Eventually it was time to leave. The wind had increased somewhat, so I changed kite to Access 4 m². In the horizon I saw the next destination – the Säludden point.

        Towards Säludden

Now the buggy went with express speed. What an experience to whiz on the water’s edge, in a spray of sand and water! Just before arriving at the Säludden point, yellow signs showed up, declaring that the point is a protected area with no admittance. The reason is that seals come up from the water and rest on the rocks. So I had to start pulling the buggy again, rounding the seal rocks.

        Sign at Säludden

After the Säludden point begins the beach Las Palmas.

        Las Palmas

I sailed quickly along the Las Palmas beach to the next point – Stora beckrevet. Again I encountered rocks, so I pulled buggy while keeping the kite in the air. Then I continued with a breakneck speed along the beach Norra sidan. Here I was buggying a lot in the soft sand to slow the speed. It was great to skid in the sand, flying out into the water, speeding along the water’s edge in showers of spray, and then skid into the soft sand again. At the end of the beach I met two tourists – the only people I had seen since cape Tärnudden. Shortly thereafter I met the ranger who came driving on the beach in a jeep. He said that he had never seen a kite buggy before, but he thought it looked like fun. The ranger told me that I would probably have good conditions on the cape Bredsandsudde for my activity. I thanked him for the advice and continued. Between the beach Norra sidan and the cape Bredsandsudde I encountered rocks and gravels. However it did not look like impossible terrain, so I continued in the buggy. It was a rough ride and I almost bounced off from the buggy, but I managed to pass the rocks to Bredsandsudde. Here I had strong wind straight from the back, so I played with the buggy and drove like crazy in zigzag along the sandy cape, until I came to the northern tip of Gotska Sandön.

        Cape Bredsandsudde

My little expedition had turned out well, with a few scratches on the arm as the only mishap. I walked back to the camp, fetched a beer from the food cellar and enjoyed the cool drink in the warm summer evening.

The names of the beaches and the capes

Hope you enjoyed the trip report. Here is an attempt to translate the names of the beaches and the capes.

Beaches:
Västra sidan = The West Side
Franska bukten = The French Bay
Källahamn = Water-hole Harbour
Las Palmas = Las Palmas
Norra sidan = The North Side

Capes and points:
Bredsandsudde = Broad Sand Cape
Tärnudden = The Tern Cape
Kyrkudden = The Church Cape
Säludden = The Seal Point
Stora beckrevet = The Great Tar-Pitch Reef

The names may sound like something from a pirate novel. Gotska Sandön is actually a former pirate’s nest

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Other web pages
Kitenation – Kiterapport: Gotska Sandön med kite buggy
Kitecrowd – Kite buggy across Europe’s oldest national park
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