Reader\'s Digest Australia & New Zealand - June 2018

110 | June• 2018

FROZEN

hegaveamittenedthumbs-upand

mushed of into the snow y woods.

OurAlaskanhuskiesbarkedand

yowled and strained against their

ropes. Another guide yanked the

linesloose,thesledsjerked,andwe

were off, into the heart of Swedish

Lapland.

Whatwehadcomefor,asidefrom

thenorthernlights,wasatasteof

the indigenous, historically nomadic

Sami culture and an understanding

of why the northern Swedes are so

crazyaboutwinter.We’dstayfirst

at a remote lodge accessible in win-

teronlybydogteamorsnowmobile,

thenwe’dtakeatrainsome260kilo-

metressouthtosleepinSami-style

canvas tents. From there we’d move

to the vertiginous Treehotel. We’d be

outsidemostofthetime,andwe’dtry

nottoloseanydigitstothecold.

Mydogswerethesizeofborder

collies. Bred for racing over long

distances at great speed, they were

running so fast that I had to grip

O

UR PLANE NOSED

down through a

layer of ice fog and

shuddered hard,

as if at the sudden

view: a mist-shred-

dedscrapofforest,allbutburiedin

snow.“WelcometotheArctic,”the

pilotsaid,aswebumpeddownona

runway of ice and packed powder.

ItwastheendofJanuary,andwe

had arrived in Kiruna, the northern-

most town in Sweden, 144 kilometres

northoftheArcticCircle.Around

us, snow-clad forest spread away for

nearly390,000squarekilometres.

Squallsshookthecabinaswetaxied.

he storm was out of the north-north-

east,andItriedtopicturewherethat

windhadrecentlybeen–astripof

Finland, a ribbon of Norway, the Bar-

ents Sea, and before that, probably

thepolaricecap.Brrr.

“Tellmeagain,”Isaidtomywife,

Kim.“WhyarewecomingtotheArc-

ticinthewinter?”

“Toseetheauroraborealis,”she

answered cheerfully. She loves the

cold,shesays–itwakesherup.

Minuteslater,wewereescortedout

oftheairportbuildingtowardsapack

of yelping dogs. An apple-cheeked

guidenamedEspenHamnvik,who

wore a fur-trimmed parka, handed

useachacoat,heavysnowpants,a

hat and boots. “There is your sled,

Kim.Pete,thisisyours,”hesaid.

“hereareyourdogs.”Aftershowing

us how to use the brakes on our sleds,

Clockwisefromtopleft:Guests

at Kenth Fjellborg’s Arctic lodge

return from an expedition; the UFO

attheTreehotelisoneofseveral

roomssuspendedabovetheground,

including the Mirrorcube and Bird’s

Nest; the aurora borealis lights the sky

over the sauna cabin at the Aurora

Safari Camp, located just south of

theArcticCircle;LarsEriksson,a

member of Sweden’s indigenous Sami

population, has been working with

reindeer for six decades PHOTOS: FELIX ODELL