Valley Nordkapp Experience: A cold night

Thursday 7 January 2016

A cold night

January 6, the previous night was about -15°C cold (5°F) and I decided to test my new sleeping bag from Robert's Outdoor Equipment. I packed my backpack for the trip and took with me all I needed for a night out in cold winter conditions. Sleeping bag, silk liner, a tarp, sleeping pad (Exped Downmat), a bivvy bag, my Hilleberg tarp, coffee pot, my camera and GoPro and some smaller stuff.
The backpack was a bit on the heavy side but I needed some extras as I was not sure about the place I was going to sleep.

I took the car to Kroppefjäll, a nature reservation as far away from any houses as it's possible in this area of Sweden. Specially known for having wolfs there (more about that later). There is a nice parking place where I started the hike and it was about 10 cm of snow (4 inches) and partly hard to see the trail. It is not as well marked as it should be or you are not supposed to use it in the winter?!

I had planed to walk the 6 km in two hours but the snow and generally hard terrain made it almost four hours. It was dark when I arrived at the shelter at the small peninsula at the small forest lake. And then very cold! I had also gotten a bit wet from sweat and snow so I was freezing a bit. To have a fire was my first priority and finding dry wood in the snow and darkness was rather hard but after 40 minutes I had a nice fire burning. The kettle on the fire and some chorizo for barbecue. Very nice!

Warmer and a bit tired I fixed my bed for the night but still a bit wet it took an hour before I was warm in my sleeping bag. Very cold out and my guess was that it was about -15°C.

I did sleep on and off during the night (12 hours in the sleeping bag as the daylight did't start until 8 am.) but after the first hour I was not cold anymore, actually I had to open the sleeping bag a couple of times to cool off! And some time during the night it was slowly getting warmer so in the morning I think it was about -8° C.
It was easier to find wood for the fire in daylight and I soon had my breakfast, packed my backpack and on the way again. I decided to walk the same way back as the day before. Easier to find the trail, just follow my tracks, and that part of the trail has a more varied landscape.

After about 2 km I saw some tracks on the trail. The tracks were made shortly after I had walked there the day before. Very big and no other footprints from humans. Lynx or wolf? Both are living in the area. It had followed my tracks for about 1,5 km (1 mile). I think it was a wolf, a young one, that had been following me. Pity I didn't see it.

After three hours I'm back at my car, warm and tired and very satisfied with being out a couple of days and had the chance to really test my new sleeping bag.