The Hindu Business Line : Lapp it up!

Can you get time, space, tranquillity, silence, clean air, clean water, snow, the midnight sun and the northern lights all at one place? Yes, if you go to the Swedish Lappland, the last remaining expanse of wilderness in northern Europe. With sea, coastline, forests, mountains and unspoilt rivers, this region has eight distinct seasons, with spring, summer, autumn and winter each having its own ‘pre-seasons’. Thanks to the Gulf Stream the climate is good to peo ple, animals and nature, with warm, sun-drenched summers and snowy winters when the air is cold but dry.

A province in northernmost Sweden, the Lappland covers about a quarter of the Scandinavian country’s surface area. Originally, Lappland extended far eastward, but in 1809 Russia annexed the eastern part of the Swedish realm, and created the Grand Duchy of Finland, which in effect split the Lappland into a Swedish and a Finnish part, both of which still exist today. During the middle ages, Norrbotten/Lappland was a no man’s land. The area was sparsely populated by the indigenous Sami people. In the southern part of Lappland, Swedish and Norwegian settlers lived alongside the Samis. From the middle ages on, Swedish kings tried hard to colonise and Christianise the area. But it took time; even today, Finnish and Sami minorities live in the area, sustaining their culture and customs.

During the industrialisation of Sweden, natural resources (hydroelectricity, timber and minerals) from Lappland and surrounding provinces played a key role. Mining, forestry and hydroelectric power remain the backbone of the local economy. But with relatively high unemployment, many have migrated to the larger coastal cities or to southern Sweden.

The Lappland is known most for the dramatic and spectacular untamed wilderness. The poetry and drama of the Arctic landscape are truly grand and best experienced rather than described. The best photographs and the most profound prose barely capture the magnificence of the setting that often seems surreal: Temperatures 20 below zero at “midday” with the moon in full splendour.

Extremes of light

The extreme northern latitude, above the Arctic Circle, gives Lappland some equally surreal, but spectacular, light phenomena. In summer, the regions north of the Arctic Circle experience up to two months of Midnight Sun — that is, the centre of the sun can be seen when it is located due north. This phenomenon blurs the idea of ‘day’ and ‘night’, with the latter being just a dimmer version of the former. This is said to be great for trekking, the traveller not having to worry about light.

In winter, the region experiences the opposite phenomenon, called Polar Night. That is, the sun never rises above the horizon during a 24-hour period. At midday, if the sun is just below the horizon, there might be a few hours of very dim light. So winter is the time to experience the Northern Lights that illuminate the velvet-black polar skies.

Blue-green, sometimes red or violet, the dancing Northern Lights are formed when electrically charged particles, known as plasma, travelling through space are driven by solar wind at enormous speed into the atmosphere, where they collide with atoms and molecules. The particles are captured by the Earth’s magnetic field and directed towards the poles. This is why the Northern Lights are seen in the regions around the Arctic Circle. The phenomenon occurs year round but can only be seen in the black winter skies.

In ancient times the visual drama of the Northern Lights generated many myths and legends. Aurora Borealis, or northern dawn, is the Latin name for it. Guovsahas, the Sami name, is also derived from the light of dawn. In Finnish they are called “revontulet”, or “fox fires”, an expression that refers to a legend that the Northern Lights were sparks in the furs of giant foxes. Modern-day observers have described the breathtaking scenery as “a wounded dragon fighting for its life”. Even what was dismissed as ordinary by the locals was truly one of the most spectacular sights ever seen by me.

A Sports Arena

If in summer the Lappland offers hiking, mountain biking, climbing, canoeing, river rafting and fly-fishing at the many attractive rivers, rapids and lakes; in winter, besides trekking in the wilderness, the ice and snow turn the region into a vast arena for skiing, snow-boarding, extreme heli-skiing, snow-mobile safari and ice-fall climbing.

But the most exciting winter sport is dog-sledging. Though a mode of transport in the Lappland, for the visitor it is quite an experience to handle the huskies that are at all times, quite literally, straining at the leash to run. The power of a dog becomes quickly apparent when one is told to lead it to, and hook it onto, a long chain where the dogs are first lined up before being harnessed to the sled. Once on way, the power of five dogs pulling a sled is experienced best when one is trying to apply the ‘brake’. The dogs also make their dissatisfaction known, on ‘braking’, by turning to give what can be called a dirty look. Strangely, though the dogs run well as a team, there is apparently no love lost between them; according to the handlers, fights break out frequently among the dogs and if not quickly quelled can leave an animal or two severely injured if not dead. But they love man, and for all their fierce looks, they are docile and crave people’s company.

Drawing travellers all year round, the Lappland has spawned a thriving tourism industry with Kiruna as the main staging point. While there are a whole set of wilderness tour operators, this author had the privilege of going into the wilds with Henrik Taube, a pioneer sledger and husky breeder.

Four times winner of Nordic Marathon dog-sledge competition, a 250-km race, and twice ranked third in the 540-km Artic canoe race, few people know better the Lappland rivers and rapids. Well-known in the cross-country skiing and sleighing circuit, Taube is disarmingly sarcastic, and a source as much of mirth as of knowledge about everything Arctic. He breeds his huskies but spends more time training them to tolerate the amateur sled drivers. That he commands respect and adoration is obvious from the dogs and his staff of three at the wilderness Camp Vakkakoski that Taube himself built as a base for all his tours and adventures. Equally fascinating is Stig, a Sami who works with Taube at the wilderness camp. Said to own reindeer in their thousands, Stig is proud about his people, who have inhabited the northern regions of Fenno-Scandinavia and Russia for at least 2,500 years. Known variously as Sámi, Saami, Lapps, and Laplanders, their current exact number is difficult to estimate with the cultural assimilation that has happened over time. However, the population is estimated at about 85,000. Roughly half of all Sami live in Norway, with the rest spread over Sweden, Finland and Russia.

Traditionally, the Sami subsisted by fishing, trapping animals for fur, sheep herding, etc. But the best-known livelihood is reindeer herding. Some 10 Sami languages are spoken from Norway to Russia, although depending on the country they live in, the Sami speak Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish or Russian. The most spoken of the Sami languages counts with some 30,000 speakers. The Sami language has some 400 words for reindeer, and one Sami word has become known worldwide: Tundra.

Kiruna

The gateway to the Swedish Lappland is Kiruna, the country’s northernmost city. The name Kiruna comes from the Sami language Giron and means ptarmigan, a white bird native to northern areas. This bird is also depicted on the city arms, together with the sign for iron. Iron symbolises the mining industry, which has been of great importance for the town.

Kiruna became a Swedish city in 1948, and was at one time listed as the largest city in the world by area, even if most of its territory was rural. After the Swedish municipality reform in the 1970s, the term “city” was discontinued. Today only the built-up area is considered a de facto city.

Iron ore extraction is a key industry of the area, though in recent years attempts have been made to reduce the area’s dependence on mining with initiatives to promote science, R&D and government-related activities.

Initiatives have included the proposed relocation of the Swedish Space Corporation and the establishment of the Environment and Space Research Institute. The ESTRACK Kiruna Station of ESA, the European Space Agency, is located in the municipality. So is Esrange, the European Space and Sounding Rocket Range, as well as an EISCAT station.

In 2004, it was decided to relocate the centre of the municipality that was threatened by mining-related subsidence. On January 8, 2007, the new location was decided. Kiruna will gradually move northwest to the foot of the Luossavaara mountain, by the Luossajärvi lake.

The first actual work on moving the town was done in November 2007, when work on the new main sewage pipe started. The relocation will be completed over the coming decade.

Fact file

Getting there: The nearest airport, railhead and bus-station: Kiruna. There are regular air services from Stockholm and elsewhere from Europe. There is a daily train connection from Stockholm ( http://www.scanrail.com). The journey takes 17 hours. By bus it takes longer.

Accommodation: There are a number of hotels, big and small, including the Ice Hotel, in and around Kiruna ( http://www.kiruna.se/start_en.html). The Ice Hotel ( info@icehotel.com) arranges wilderness trips as do several independent operators such as Henrik Taube ( info@taubeactivity.com).

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