Lake Navar, Norra Mora Vildmark and Fulufjället

Our off-grid cabin by Lake Navar is surrounded by rolling hills and tall spruce forests for miles and miles. It’s remote, and a place we’ve made our winter home for years.

Life here is simple but wonderfully cosy. Lanterns, crackling fires and rooms filled with furniture, curious objects and little treasures collected over the years. We sleep in shared twin rooms, plus one four-bed room that we rarely fill to capacity. There’s an outhouse about 15 metres from the sleeping quarters.

Our cabin host keeps the fires burning while we’re out skiing, often a previous guest who loved life at the cabin so much they decided to come back.

The cabin is our base for exploring the surrounding wilderness. It’s an ideal place to get acquainted with Nordic ski touring and practise the skills we’ll need for our winter camping expedition.

And at the end of each day, there’s great food, a warm cabin and a wood-fired sauna by the frozen lake. Those feeling adventurous can take a dip through a hole in the ice, but there is also warm water in the sauna if you don't feel like it.

Close to Lake Navar lies Norra Mora Vildmark, a vast nature reserve where we can always find new places to explore. It’s a beautiful and rather unusual landscape, with islands of ancient pine trees surrounded by wide expanses of frozen wetlands, and stretches of dense spruce forest in between.

In summer, the mires are wet and difficult to cross. But once winter arrives and the ground freezes, the landscape opens up completely. We can explore places that would be difficult to reach during the warmer months.

There’s something quite special about the contrast between the open mires and the forests. One moment you’re skiing across a wide expanse of snow with open views, the next you’re winding your way between enormous old spruce trees. And apart from our own tracks, there’s often very little sign of anyone having passed through.

The terrain is mostly flat or gently rolling, without any demanding climbs or descents. That makes it one of our favourite places to introduce beginners to Nordic ski touring. We can concentrate on finding our rhythm while enjoying the surroundings, rather than worrying about the next hill.

A day tour here is usually around four to five hours, with plenty of time for a proper lunch and some fika.

About two hours from Lake Navar, close to the Norwegian border, lies Fulufjället National Park. And here the landscape changes dramatically.

Fulufjället is a vast mountain plateau, rising above the surrounding forests into a world of open, windswept plains and gently rolling hills. Once you’re above the treeline, there’s snow stretching as far as you can see. It feels more like the remote mountains of northern Scandinavia than what you might expect to find in Dalarna.

What makes Fulufjället particularly special for us is that we can experience this extraordinary mountain landscape without needing advanced skiing skills. The ascent onto the plateau is around three kilometres, mostly gradual, with just one short, steeper stretch. It's a bit of work, for sure, but completely doable as a beginner with a couple of days of ski touring behind you and a moderate level of fitness.

Once we’re up there, the terrain is almost flat, and we can explore the wide-open landscape in any direction.

Up on the plateau, there’s nothing to shelter us from the weather. The wind can sweep across, building snowdrifts and reshaping the surface of the snow. The landscape can look completely different from one day to the next, and there’s something fascinating about seeing the weather at work on such an open expanse.

And then there's the light. The low winter sun casts long shadows across the snow, and the landscape takes on all sorts of colours as the light changes. In January, daylight is short, but the long periods of blue twilight are absolutely beautiful. February brings longer days and beautiful pastel skies, while March offers stronger sunlight, sparkling snow and plenty of daylight for exploring.

After spending days skiing among the forests and mires around Lake Navar, suddenly having an uninterrupted horizon in almost every direction is amazing.

For our Winter Adventure, we spend two nights camping on Fulufjället. We pull our equipment in pulks and choose a suitable place to pitch our tents, building a little camp in the snow.

Without trees or buildings around, the camp becomes its own little world. Tents dotted across the snow, a communal yurt where we cook and eat together, and nothing but the mountain landscape beyond.

When darkness falls, we’re properly out there. On clear nights, the stars are spectacular, and depending on the conditions, we might even get to see the northern lights.

It’s a wonderful place to experience winter camping for the first time. The landscape feels remote and adventurous, but the gentle terrain means we can concentrate on enjoying ourselves rather than negotiating difficult skiing.