Easter on sea ice

[vindman]

Hi,

As a training for Varanger Arctic Kite Enduro, I am spending the Easter vacation on sea ice:

www.vindman.se

I will post more photos the next few days.

Cheers,
Anders

[windjammer]

hope you have a nice time will look forward to seeing the pictures

[vindman]

Thanks Windjammer. Everything works out fine. It is kind of foggy weather, so I have to trust the GPS most of the time. It is weird to travel by kite for hours without seeing anything but snow and cloudy fog. I'm using the Big Yak most of the time, since it is not too windy. That kite is excellent for this kind of light-wind cruising. Sometimes I have to change to smaller kites.

I have uploaded some more pictures on www.vindman.se.

[berg7win]

Hi Vindman.
would like to do a skitraverse with kites taking along pulkas.
Duration aprox. 5 days.
What area would you recommend?
Would that be posible in beginning of november?

[vindman]

The Jämtland mountains has everything you need for a kite expedition. Huge expanses of rolling terrain, as well as some high mountains in a few places (like Sylarna and Helags). However the beginning of November is not very safe with regards to snow. The snow cover is sometimes thin in the beginning of November, even though you usually can find places to kite in the beginning of November. The last week of November should be perfectly safe in Jämtland.

Another interesting alternative later in the season is the sea ice in the northernmost part of the Baltic Sea. I grew up in Luleå on the northern coast and I have a cottage in the archipelago there. It is a very interesting area with many islands in the archipelago. I was travelling to fisherman ports where the fishing boats were taken up from the water (they cannot sail on the winter due to the ice). The fishermen use snowmobiles and they put their net under the ice in winter. Since it is out on the sea, the wind is steady and much cleaner than inland. It is a very special "north pole feeling" to travel on sea ice. It is a unique place in Europe. When I was there it was not too windy, so I was mostly using Ozone Yakuza 14m and Ozone Access 10m. But even with little wind it is easy to travel long distances with a big kite since the wind is so clean. It is much more difficult inland with light wind.

On this web page the Swedish Coast Guard is patrolling the sea during winter, with snowmobiles:
http://www.kustbevakningen.se/kbvtem...e.aspx?id=1100

It is possible to go on ice breaker safari:
http://en.pite-havsbad.se/aktiviteter/isbrytarsafari/

Cheers,
Vindman