My heart sank when I got up. The wind was really bad, even worse than yesterday. I couldn’t breath into the wind and the wind meter at the station indicated median winds of 13-17 m/s. That’s no joke! We really didn’t feel like repeating yesterday’s experience, even if this time it would be a shorter trip (only 12 km to Ljungdalen and only half of it on the exposed tundra) and we would be heading towards civilisation. But when those snow crystals beat into my face, it really didn’t feel like an invitation for skiing. Then we heard a group of guys talk about getting a snow cat to Ljungdalen. They had a couple of persons who had gotten frostbites so they couldn’t expose themselves to the weather. We decided to hitch a ride, which turned out to be the worst decision we made during the whole trip. You see, once we got out of the bowl where the Helags mountain station is situated (who decided on that stupid location?), the weather wasn’t actually half bad at all! Yes it was still overcast so the light was so-and-so, but the visibility was really good, temperature was mild and the wind looked like it was exactly what the forecast said, 6-14 m/s instead of the 13-17 m/s that we experienced at the station.

I was so disappointed I almost felt like crying. I mean, photographically speaking it wasn’t anything unique, there will always be days like that. But I had a lot of energy and skiing left in me, my feet were working great (no blisters!) and I really, really, really just wanted to be out and have this last exercise before going home. But alas, it was not to be, and it took me a while to swallow my disappointment and start looking ahead at future adventures instead.

When I got home, I noticed that I had some bruises or spots on my face. I had some concerns during yesterday’s ordeal that I would get frostbites, but it didn’t feel terribly cold at any point because my breathing kept warming up my face (which then resulted in getting ice in my eyelashes). But these spots are brownish, and frostbites should be white, so if they really are frostbites then they must have happened before yesterday, maybe already on Saturday when I had some issues with the face mask. Anyway, nothing I can do about them now, I just have to wait and see what becomes of them.

It has been a very educational trip. I had some great tips from Staffan during the preparations but in the end, there’s no better teacher than experience. The next time I do this, I will be more careful about covering my face and I will know what kind of clothes I need in which weather. On the other hand, the next time I do this, I sure hope the weather will be better!