Helags pt 2

I had my alarm clock set at 2am to check out if the aurora would be happening. But I got a wakeup call earlier than that – Miika had noticed that the aurora were glowing wild so I put on some warm clothes (it was below freezing), picked up the camera and tripod and went outside. And it was a lightshow like I’ve never seen – the aurora was happening over Helags which was south-west from us! Yes that’s right, south-west. How insane is that? This was beyond my wildest dreams, I didn’t think it was possible to see aurora directly overhead at these latitudes! I was wishing that I had my Samyang 14mm lens because 17mm just wasn’t enough to contain all the features.

Aurora over the Helags-massif
Aurora over the Helags-massif

I really am speechless about the aurora tonight. It was one of the best experiences of my life!

256/365
256/365

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Aurora reflected
Aurora reflected

There was some wind so the lake surface was broken, but I wanted to try if I could bring out a reflection anyway. This picture was taken about 20m from my tent, how’s that for a nice campsite?

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At around 2am it seemed like it was getting a bit quiet so I crawled back to my sleeping back. I woke up again in the small hours (I was freezing despite the multiple layers of clothes) before it was getting light and saw that the sky was still glowing green, but it wasn’t as nice as it had been earlier. Still, had I not seen the show before, I would have thought that it was the best I’ve seen. It came as no surprise when I read later that this was the most intensive geomagnetic storm of the year so far.

First light on Helags
First light on Helags

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At sunrise it was still clear skies so the sunrise as such wasn’t as exciting as the one on Thursday, but it was great to see the landscape in the morning light. We had to wait a while before the sun was shining on the small tarn we had scouted yesterday evening (where I took the sunburst picture) but the reflection was worth the wait. We took our pictures and went back to camp to eat breakfast. After packing up the gear, the lake treated us to a calm surface so we got some more reflection pictures of Helags.

Helags reflection
Helags reflection

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Helags
Helags reflected in the small lake next to our campsite

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 On the way back, the sky was getting increasingly boring with thin clouds (and contrails) so most of the trek was really just about putting one foot in front of the other. It was unseasonally warm, so a t-shirt was enough, and my feet were boiling in my Grym-boots. Inevitably, the boots started chafing again and by the time we reached the car, a blister in my right heel was a fact. Still, a small price to pay for the best hike ever!

Helags
I didn’t want to miss any opportunity to shoot reflections!

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