114 | June• 2018
FROZEN
came out of his weatherboard house
in traditional dress of dark blue felt
trimmed with strips of yellow, green
and red – sun, earth, ire – and rein-
deer-fur boots. He had a flowing
white beard. “It’s Santa Claus!” Kim
whispered.
We walked in chill sunlight into a
field among Lars’s reindeer, where
he fed them handfuls of spongy
moss. “My family has been here for
seven generations,” he said. “In 1958
I started with the reindeer.” When the
animals migrated up to the forests in
the west, his family would move be-
hind the herd on skis and camp for
weeks at a time.
“Wefollownatureandhowwe
feel–slow,slow,nostress.”Now,
he said, the 3000 Sami families that
stillherdreindeermovethemwith
all-terrainvehiclesandtrucks;they
havetotakeotherjobstopayforthe
machines and fuel, and there is too
muchstress.“Notgoodforthedeer.”
He took us into a log cabin for
lunch, and Kim asked him if anyone
stilljoiks,orpracticestheSamising-
ingshehadheardabout.Larsinhaled
deeply,thenhesang.Adeep,strong
descant with the broken melody of a
forestwind.Hestoppedandsmiled.
“Wow,”Kimmurmured.“Whatdoes
it mean?”
“Having friends,” he said. “he sun
is out.”OUR LAST NIGHTwas at Treehotel,
on par with the Icehotel in terms ofhourandahalf,steppingoutside
each time to scan for northern lights
–andseeingonlyicystars.
hecampwasperchedonawide
river covered with snow. One morn-
ing we took out snowmobiles. The
sun, just over the treetops, was
brilliant,anditturnedthedistant
rime-frosted ridges to gold. On the
islands, the trees were sheathed in
ice. I accelerated over the unbroken,
glitteringsnow.Behindme,aplume
of powder sprayed six metres into the
sunlight, where it blazed with gold.
That night, Fredrik Broman, the
camp’sproprietor,ireduphissauna:
abigtentwithawoodstove,onaloat,
frozenintotheriver.Outsidewere
blocksofclearvirginice.Isweated
away happily, before f lipping back
thedoorandtumblingoutintothe
sub-zerodarknessinagushofsteam.
But still no lights. Four nights down,
two to go. We’d been ice ishing with
Kenth, snowshoeing with Fredrik and
todayweweregoingtoseealegend-
ary Sami named Lars Eriksson. He
TRAVEL TIPSFjellborg Arctic Lodge, located on
the shores of frozen Lake Väkkärä,
fjellborgarcticlodge.com;
The Icehotel, icehotel.com;
Aurora Safari Camp, aurorasafari-
camp.com;Treehotel, treehotel.se