Friday 30/3 – Saturday 7/4

Friday 30/3

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I had no more than come inside the door before receiving a formal request to jump in that same evening, since there was a small epidemic among the staff, which made the restaurant miss (at least) two workers. As I was unpacking the wind subsided and things cleared, and I took the opportunity to rest/sleep for a bit. When I was going to work in the evening it was fair outside, but rather windy. In the restaurant we had our asses full, but both Hans and Marita plus an intern helped out, and later Malin came in too. Before too long pretty much every seat was taken, and even though we had to work hard things seemed to flow well.

I met both the couple I had stayed with in Singi a few days past and the STF group, the latter of which we had to hold out on for a while waiting for adjacent seats to become available. Malin and I remained to the end with Hans and Marita, and by then there were very hard gales outside. Afterwards we sat in the staff canteen and talked with Linnéa, Maria and a guest of hers, and when they had finished things H&M joined us as well. It was midnight when I returned to my room, and then the wind had again decreased.

Saturday 31/3

When I walked over to the main building to have breakfast, I bumped into the STFers who were about to leave for their final stage, and I said good-bye to them. The clouds were low and not much later they started giving precipitation, and the wind was rather strong, whipping up loose snow from the ground. I spent the afternoon cleaning and doing copious quantities of laundry, and the outside conditions worsened even more. At dinner I found Ida, one of the Singi wardens, who was visiting. The evening was spent in a large company in the common room in Skarta while the unrelenting wind howled outside.

Sunday 1/4

The weather was very hard during the night, to the point of shaking the building occasionally, and it was still bad when morning came. The mandatory April Fool's joke consisted of a cake – courtesy of Linda's birthday – that had been placed under the lid of the container usually having porridge inside. More cleaning today combined with stairs-making and dispersal of sand against the slippery slopes, but efter lunch it started to rain and thaw profusely, turning the previous ice into slush, and the wind had increased again. This new development remained in effect for the rest of the day (and evening), and it also had an expected consequence: Hans and Marita were taking some time off and intended to go to Abisko, but they turned around for fear of simply not getting back should this weather continue.

Monday 2/4

I slept in, and then opened my eyes to a full blizzard; I couldn't see a thing but whirling snow. At least it wasn't raining, though. The wind was very hard, of course, and getting between the houses was more difficult than ever. Snow kept drifting at a very large scale, but before lunch it stopped as the wind died down a great deal, and visibility was mostly restored. In the afternoon there was more snowfall, but after I had watched a movie in Videovagge it had ceased again, leaving low, dense clouds and only weak winds.

I worked in the restaurant in the evening, and this time the number of visitors was at a much more manageable level; we were on top of things all the time, and I got to chat quite a bit with the guests. Since they had had their vacation so rudely aborted, Hans and Marita were given special treatment – they had notified us that they were coming to eat in the restaurant later that evening, so we had a specially set table and a bottle of fancy wine ready, to their somewhat embarrassed surprise. Things seemed to be looking up outside, but when I walked home the hard wind had come back, and the ground was very slippery everywhere.

Tuesday 3/4

This day began with snowfall, moderate wind and coldness, but as the forenoon progressed it started to clear. Two tracked vehicles came from Nikkaluokta fully loaded with beer, replenishing the stock for the coming summer, and we were quite a few who lined up to unload them, so it was quickly taken care of. After lunch it was back to snow, wind and general whiteness, which felt just dreary, but later in the afternoon it cleared for real and the evening was rather fair.

Wednesday 4/4

The forecast for the day warned of storm, but in the morning it was absolutely still. Conditions steadily deteriorated, however, and by the time Sofia and I were moving between the auxiliary buildings to clean things were bad indeed. A bit later, when we were doing the laundry, it was even worse, with wet and heavy snow and roaring wind, which reduced visibility to nil. As the temperature fell during the rest of the day, the snow and wind slowly lessened as well, but when I went to bed everything was all white again. This was really what one of the men in the Sälka sauna during an earlier tour would have called a kojdag – a "day for staying in the hut".

Thursday 5/4

Conditions were still bad in the morning, but there was a glimpse of light to the east. After Sofia and I had finished with the service building we took it upon ourselves to shovel away the snow that had accumulated in front of various emergency exits and windows. The wind had stopped by then, and even though the amount of white stuff was staggering in places it was actually rather enjoyable – who doesn't like playing in the snow?

After lunch the weather really did clear and it was sunny and fair. We proceeded to clear the entrance to the barn, as the low storage building containing flour for the bakery is lovingly referred to. Quite a few people arrived with the afternoon transport, since this was the start of the Easter holiday, and most of them stayed outside in the sun. I spent some time against the Skarta wall, but eventually the sun passed into a large veil of cloud. It was also becoming chillier and not long thereafter it started snowing and blowing again. There was another Twin Peaks session in the evening, and outside the freshly fallen snow had started drifting around.

Clearing

Clear

Sun pit by Anna A and Eva

The barbeque hut to be used at Easter

Friday 6/4

The morning included strong wind with some very strong gales and drift, but there were only a few clouds in the sky. An easy cleaning shift followed, during which outside conditions improved, but the wind was still of the hard variety. I discussed possible tours with Petter, as my longed-for extended leave was now about to start. After much deliberation I resolved to defer any departure to the following day, but Petter was practically itching to get away.

In the afternoon there was a movie to be seen, and it was windier with snowfall; the west looked particularly nasty. At dinner Petter came with a concrete suggestion for the morrow, which involved taking the pass between Darfálvággi and Guobirvággi, and I accepted without much hesitation. With this settled I packed for a longer tour after all – even though chances of reaching Alesjaure (as previously referred to) had seemed slim earlier during the week the latest forecasts showed some promise.

In the evening Linnéa and Maria, with some help from Sofia and Nina, held a public musical performance in the common room, to much applause and acclaim. After that the Twin Peaks Cabal had another one of its secret gatherings, and as I was going to bed the sky (not the monolith) was full of stars and it was almost still, which of course boded well.

Linnéa and Maria singing...

...and playing in front of the guests

Saturday 7/4

Departure day, and the sky was overcast but light, with light snowfall and light wind. I took care of the last food-related things, and as we were going to pass through regions of appreciable incline I also acquired a transceiver and an avalanche probe, for safety reasons. The clouds were shifting, giving intermittent snow and glimpses of the sun, and it didn't seem so bad when we set out.

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