The gang at Kiruna airport.
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First day we went ice climbing at Skartaravinen, a small canyon close by the mountainlodge.
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Toprope rigged, coming down.
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Jörgen climbing.
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Chris first go at ice climbing...
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And he made it to the top.
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May I present to you Chris, the ice climber :)
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On our way back to the mountain lodge.
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Our room barely fit us and our kit.
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On the second day I had my eyes set on some slightly harder ice up in the Tarfala valley.
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A team was already there climbing.
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I took the lead up...
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with Jörgen belaying.
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Jörgen coming up, the other team coming down.
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After Jörgen came down it was Chris turn.
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Chris coming up, second time ice climbing now.
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He had never been this high up on a rope before.
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Everyone down, ready to head back.
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On day three Chris and Jörgen got up at stupid o'clock.
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They were up and away at sunrise.
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The plan was to take the west route up to the peak of Kebnekaise.
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The aftermath of an avalanche. Scary stuff.
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A few hours in the clouds started to role in and the wind picked up...
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So they had to turn around...
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And ski back down.
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Some very nice scenery up there...
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And the snow was good.
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Chris taking some turns.
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Enjoying the snow...
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Until his binding broke.
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Binding fixed and as good as new... almost.
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Heading down towards the avalanche. One would not have wanted to be close to that it when it went.
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While Chris and Jörgen were on their summit attempt I went ice climbing here. The line to the left was about 80 meters which is hard to tell as the trees look like shrubs in this photo.
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Heading back to the lodge after climbing I took a route along the river.
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On day four we headed to the Tarfala valley to set up a camp.
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Hats off to Jörgen för taking the sledge...
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Hard work and no complaining.
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Heading up the Tarfala valley.
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Chris flattening out our campsight.
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The tent is up hours and hours later.
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The Rab boys.
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The hardest thing with winter camping is getting out of the sleeping bag in the morning.
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Chris is down there being lazy fetching water...
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While we did the tough job of guarding the tent.
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Heading down into the valley and up the other side.
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Rocks ment I didn't have to use my snowshoes. Hurray!
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The uphill part of backcountry skiing.
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The hard-core skiers obtaining the necessary calories.
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Nice view.
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And down we come...
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Our camp.
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We had a go at baking some bread on our frying pan.
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It turned out really good.
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Next day of skiing, skins on.
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The snow was hard to ski up, so the skiers headed down early.
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As I was walking on rocks again I took my board to the top.
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My ride down on soft untouched snow. Sweet!
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Breaking up camp.
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Everything packed, back to the mountain lodge.
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The sledge flipped over once.
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Chris being creative with the camera while I'm trying to survive with these evil sticks on my feet.
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On our final day Chris went skiing on evil sticks (even known as touring skiis) and met these guys.
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Jörgen and I went ice climbing.
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Jörgen on his first lead climb on ice. Well done :)
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Me ice bouldering.
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Ice bouldering and trying out a pair of Nomic ice axes. I prefer my Quarks.
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Jörgen, now a lead ice climber :)
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And that concludes our trip... But I do want to come back during the summer to climb that ridge up the mountain to the right called the 'Silhouette route'.
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