For the first time in ages, I get to write to you about a holiday as opposed to a training camp or race. I have just been to the most amazing place in the world, so much so that I am finding it hard to find the words to describe the last 5days. This whole story actually began in Hong Kong about 9months ago when Christian (my boyfriend) and I took one of his friends visiting HK from Germany to the Vodka Bar in Lan Kwai Fong. Part of this bar is an ice room which is -5C and they give you fur to wear while you order shots in ice glasses. We all got talking about the IceHotel in Scandinavia and how cool it would be to visit. We laughed and dreamt but never did I actually think we would get to visit this mystical place…………

Fast forward, 6months and I was trying to think of something cool and exciting for Christian’s Birthday. The last year since meeting Christian, have been a whirlwind tour of the unexpected to say the least. We were both lucky to have found another person with the same go with the flow attitude and it was cool that neither of us put up any obstacles despite the obvious one’s like living thousands of miles apart, speaking different languages and having different interests. We love spending time together (fairly important in a partner!!) and I wanted to do something special, as I knew the next 6months would be crazy for both of us in terms of travel and work. At first, I had heard about a very small hotel in the Italian mountains near to some great downhill and XC ski tracks and thought this would be ideal for a weekend getaway…..unfortunately by the time I called in early December it was fully booked for February. I then started dreaming back to the IceHotel and called them up expecting them to be fully booked too. I was lucky, they had one night free in February which was the day after Christian’s Birthday – PERFECT – I took it. Now I just had to work out how we would get to the Artic Circle in Sweden!!

Our trip started in Zurich and we flew to Stockholm (2.5hrs) and had 7hrs to explore the city before our next flight up to Kiruna (1.5hrs). You can catch the high-speed train to the city center in just 20minutes, so after battling to get our skies + luggage into a locker, we hopped onto the train. Stockholm seemed a very beautiful city with lots of great architecture and the old part of the city is on a small island. We just made it in time to grab lunch before everywhere shut for the afternoon – this is typically European where lunch finishes VERY promptly at 2.30pm!! The first thing that struck me about Sweden was good food and second was their obvious love for coffee, cakes and chocolate. We wondered the narrow, old streets for a while and then turned to the serious job of finding Christian some sensible shoes. He has to be the only person I know who comes on a trip to the Artic with only a pair of Italian shoes and summer jacket!!! After reading the newspaper in a coffee shop and realizing we were about to fly into at least -20C, it was serious shopping time. We finally found a good sports shop and he was soon kitted out like an Eskimo with some huge hunting fur lined boots and a massive thick hunting jacket – now I was the jealous one with my ski jacket and timberlands.

The first thing that blew me away as the plane came down into Kiruna was how magical the snow looked….apart from the fact there was tones of it, it was sparkling like glitter and looked so crispy. I couldn’t wait to get out of the plane and when I did, the air took my breath away – it was SO cold and dry. We were welcomed by -36C, it was funny though as neither of us felt it was that cold although I certainly wasn’t for hanging around outside and I was very happy to make it to our warm bed. Everyone had said Scandinavia is really expensive and while I agree hotels are not cheap (expect to pay €120-150 a night), the quality is high and we thought food, wine etc was reasonably priced and exceptionally good.

I couldn’t believe the alarm clock was ringing already - it was so nice and warm under the duvet but I was super excited about our moose safari and it didn’t take me too long to prize both of us out of bed. In double quick time we were showered, dressed like abominable snowmen and throwing a quick cup of coffee down our necks ready for a day of excitement. The taxi was already waiting as we staggered out of the hotel in darkness ready for our transfer to the IceHotel. The trip took about 15min and as the sun rose, you could see miles and miles of pine forests covered in snow and we even saw a wild reindeer on route. Once we arrived at the IceHotel, we were directed to the warm room where we could store our luggage for our one night stay. You don’t actually get access to your ice room until 7pm as the hotel is open to the public from 10am to 6pm and they don’t recommend you store anything in there as the room is a constant -8C. We asked if we need any warmer clothes for our Moose Safari and we were told we looked plenty warm enough rugged up in all our ski gear. We were taken about 20km the other side of the town towards the mountains to meet our guide for the day and he gave us the good news…..we were the only people on the trip today. Very cool as both of us enjoy being independent and being able to do what we want!! The only problem was that he wondered where our warm suits and helmets were….??? It slowly dawned on me that the staff at the IceHotel had thought we were on the Moose Safari from the minivan with all the other guests. This meant we were missing the important all-in-one warm overalls and helmets – oh well, we hadn’t come this far to miss the trip, so our guide managed to find us some horse riding overalls and fur lined caps…..tally ho, we were ready for the off and the -40C plus temperatures we were likely to meet on the snow mobiles!!

After a quick 5minute demo on how to drive a snow mobile we headed off into the forest – the snow was so deep you didn’t venture off the tracks unless you had special soft snow mobiles. We soon stopped and our guide was pointing into the forest showing us a family of Moose – it took me a while to see them but then you could see three happily lying under some pine trees. After new snow, all the animals tend to remain very still for 24hrs so as not to make new tracks in the snow for predators. Soon we were off again and I couldn’t help but think how easy James Bond made it look racing these things for the forest and I couldn’t imagine keeping it on the track in the forest any faster than my 25kmph!!

I can’t find the words to describe how beautiful the scenery was with all the pines coated in snow, small hills, big mountains, glittering snow everywhere and the sun’s reflections off the snow were all surreal. We were soon at the frozen river and were able to pick up our speed to over 50kmph but no faster as we simply couldn’t tolerate the wind chill, which was already up at around -45C. The colors were amazing as you had all shades of pearl dancing off the snow as the sun’s position changed and there wasn’t anyone else as far as the eyes could see. After about 1hr30, we had traveled 20km to our guide’s hunting lodge so we could try to warm-up ready for the journey back. The lodge was a cozy 5C and we huddled around drinking hot, instant Nescafe (the best this stuff has ever tasted!) and exchanging stories. Typically, I then realized I had drunk too much coffee and wasn’t going to make the journey home without a trip to the toilet…or should I say the wild white outdoors!! Dropping your pants in -26C and at least 50cm of soft snow with overalls, ski trousers and two pairs of thermals and not peeing in them is no easy task but I managed in double quick time and was back in the lodge for a final few minutes of warming my extremities.

If we thought the trip out was amazing, the view on the way back as the sky had turned to blue was out of this world. We could see Sweden’s highest mountains in the distance, covered in snow. I took over the driving for a while as the benefit of taking the wind chill on the front if the hand heating on the handlebars – it was bliss. After about 10minutes, we saw a huge male Moose – he stayed looking at us for a while and then set off through the deep snow further into the forest. These truly are amazing creatures. By now I was starting to feel super confident on the snow mobile and despite the fact I could hardly see due to all the hats I was wearing, I was in hot pursuit of our guide until I headed off track and we were soon buried in deep snow…..oops! Thankfully, our guide was obviously an expert extracting these things and within 5minutes we were back on route. We didn’t see any other moose on the way back until we arrived at the farm to find 3 adult and 2 calves stealing the guides hay for his horses – funny we had spent 4hrs searching for them and saw more moose in his yard. I am sure our guide thought we must have been starving ourselves for the last week as he cooked reindeer heart, bread and soup, which we devoured in seconds….I was SO hungry and then we polished off all of his cloudberry cake and coffee and he had been worried about the moose stealing his rations until he met us!! We had a great 30minutes watching the moose eat and play around only 5m away from his kitchen window as he did a quick change ready to drive us back to the IceHotel for more icy fun.

One of the weird things about your stay in an ice room is that you really have no room until it’s sleeping bag time. We arrived back at reception about 3pm and decided the best option was to head to the bar armed with a movie, laptop and headphones and enjoy some red wine to warm us for the chilly night ahead. At 6pm the mixed sauna opened upstairs and we headed up for some further warming. One of the cool things about your stay is that everyone is generally here to experience the ice rooms and varying excursions, so there is a lot of banter and plenty of chat about with the other guests. After a couple of hours of sweating, it was time to lay on some more fat to insulate us through the night and we had yet another great meal at the homestead restaurant which was an icy 15minutes walk away. Part way through the meal, the staff came running in to tell us there was Northern Lights overhead so almost everyone went running outside. This is a phenomenon only seen in the Artic Circle and where the particles from space hit the earth’s atmosphere and give the impression of swirling lights in various greens and purples. It is pretty unreal and almost looks like a nuclear experiment swirling around you. After the chilly walk back to the hotel, we dipped back into the bar to warm up with a Vodka before heading over to the IceHotel for some hot Lingonberry Juice + yet more vodka. I was getting pretty confident of a good night sleep by this point!!

It is so funny getting ready in your little cubicle for your night in ice and trying to decide what to wear……soon we were kitted out in lots of thermals and our XC ski caps and ready to make a run for it with our giant sleeping bag. We made it to our suite…funnily enough we had scored the German designed one – not the most exciting design but the Germans love to go with something reliable, right?? I was straight into the sleeping bag but Christian was still enjoying the warming effects of the vodka and was taking lots of pictures and generally playing the fool, which definitely beat having a TV in the room. Soon we were tucked up and both happily snoring away – this really wasn’t so tough. About 6am, Christian woke up needing the toilet and headed off to the warm room. After 7pm the Ice Hotel is closed to the public and you need a key card to get through the sliding doors after reception. He made it safely to the toilet but realized he had forgotten the key on route back and was stuck in the ice reception area with the warm sleeping bag the other side of the doors. As the cold began to set in, he spotted a gap under the doors and I would love the see the security footage of him dressed head to foot in black thermals, cap and HUGE moon boots wriggling like a snake under the door on the ice!! Many people had said never again but we had a great night and didn’t want to get up the next morning when we were woken up with hot drinks and the risk of missing the 10am breakfast deadline. After breakfast, we spent a hour exploring all the suites and the ice church, which was really impressive – I had no idea that so much was possible with ice.

It was then time to move onto the Ripan Resort on the edge of town right next to the XC World Cup course and ski tracks. We had a small chalet (with under floor heating – Sweden has it all worked out) and over room overlooked the forests and field with reindeer. As a waxing beginner, I definitely made some rookie errors on this trip. First, I thought all condition wax might work and as we soon found out, there is a good reason why there are a whole multitude of waxes available for all conditions!! XC skiing can be tough at the best of times but when your ski’s stick to the snow it gets very interesting especially when trying to go uphill. We both loved the skiing – there are miles and miles of beautifully manicured tracks and lots of signs allowing you to really explore the area. I only wish we had got the waxing right but I am reliably assured waxing for these really cold conditions is super hard. We did manage to get the local sports shop to do a wax for us and our skiing was even more fun the next day as we could glide along. We both desperately want to come back again and do more skiing – even Christian who normally gets exhausted after an hour loved every minute.

The last few days flew by with lots more great food, wine, skiing and relaxing plus I managed a few runs in the snow which was hard work but fun. We were both really sad to leave and vowed to come back again to do more exploring in the summer and winter – Sweden really has a lot to offer.

Check out the Gallery section for FULL PHOTO SLIDE SHOW.

Now back to focusing on some serious training and getting fit for the season.

Happy Training
Cheers Claire