Ski Touring and Winter Week Activities

Nordic ski touring is a big part of our week. We spend two full days exploring Norra Mora Vildmark, but we also use our skis for other adventures, like an evening trip to a tipi on a frozen lake. And for those who fancy a bit more of a challenge, there’s an optional ski tour to Anjosvarden later in the week.

Touring skis are wide and sturdy, designed for travelling through forests and across open snow rather than following prepared tracks. The technique is much closer to walking than to downhill skiing, and we take things slowly, giving everyone time to get comfortable.

You don’t need previous skiing experience or particularly good fitness, just a willingness to spend a few active hours outside.

Close to our cabin lies Norra Mora Vildmark, a vast nature reserve of old-growth forests and open mires. In summer, much of the area is wet marshland and difficult to cross. But once winter arrives and the ground freezes, the landscape opens up completely. We can explore places that are practically inaccessible during the warmer months.

The frozen mires become wide expanses of snow, with islands of old pine trees and stretches of dense spruce forest in between. The terrain is mostly flat or gently rolling. Ideal for beginners.

We start gently, with a day tour of around five to six kilometres over several hours. Later in the week, we head deeper into the reserve for a longer outing of around seven to nine kilometres.

We make our own tracks through the snow, stopping along the way to cook lunch outdoors. And at the end of each day, we’re back at our cabin by Lake Navar, with dinner and the sauna waiting.

One day, we take things a little slower and stay close to the cabin. We carve ice lanterns from blocks cut out of Lake Navar, try our luck at ice fishing and prepare food over the fire. Later, we head off on skis for a rather special dinner on a nearby frozen lake.

This started as a little experiment. We gathered some chisels, an old-fashioned iron, a copper teapot and a few other bits and pieces, cut big blocks of ice from the lake and started playing around. We all became completely absorbed!

Chiselling away at the ice, using heated tools and trying different patterns to see how the light passes through. We make our own ice lanterns, and there’s no particular artistic talent required. Just a few tools, some imagination and a bit of patience.

There’s something oddly hypnotic about ice fishing. Drilling a hole through the frozen lake, lowering your line into the dark water below and waiting. Sometimes chatting with the person beside you, sometimes just sitting quietly with a hot drink. Lake Navar has Arctic char and trout, and we use small blinking lures beneath the ice to attract the fish.

Meanwhile, there’s food being prepared over the fire, and if you're not into ice fishing, you can spend more time on your ice lantern or join the cooking instead. We bake traditional kavelgris flatbreads on a muurikka and smoke fish over alder and spruce in a smokebox.