Blog

It is still cloudy as we leave the cozy hut this morning, but nonetheless an agreable walk towards the bus stop. As we leave Jukkasjärvi, the clouds finally dissipate, and the sun shine brightly! It’s very promising.

Happy with this prospect, we find ourselves with a new spring in our boots. We left our bags at the airbnb in Kiruna and went for a cheap all-you-can-eat buffet, well worth its price.

Kiruna is located at the foot of a single mountain, the Luossabacken. This mountain top (only 200 m higher than the city) is our goal for tonight. We walked towards the North-West around the base of the mountain, and started to climb it from the other side, but only after taking a wrong path, and attempting to reach the correct one by walking through hip-high snow. Fun times.

The ascent was quite vertical, but short enough that we managed to keep a solid rythm. By 16:30, we reached the summit, and were in awe. There are mountains all around us at 360 °, but far in the distance. We are in the middle of a gigantic plain, covered in snow, dotted with pine trees, that is already started to turn orange-pink from the beautiful sunset.

We said goodbye to the sun, who settled precisely between two peaks, cheering him with a drink and food. The started the waiting game. It was 5 PM, and aurora forecasts had 90 % chances starting at 7 PM. To avoid the cold (it was about – 7 °C), we walked up and down the upper stretch of the mountain a couple of times.

On our second walk, while at the turning point, I tried to take a picture of the path with my phone’s night mode… And the result alarmed us. There was a green line in the background sky.

We raised our heads towards the sky.

Here it is.

It has started.

We are finally seeing the Northern Lights!

We rushed back to the top. The aurora borealis was getting more intense as the final sunlight was disappearing behind the horizon. Watching this green spectral apparition made me reach the frayed ends of sanity. I was going nuts with excitment (but kept my composure in front of Alex of course).

Just so you know, what you see in reality is far from being as clear and intense as on the photos you’ve seen on the internet. Photo sensors are extremely good at capturing the Northern lights, better than the human eye. Still, it was a wonderful moment, to watch this ever-changing green line dancing over our heads. With more darkness, we managed to perceive its « flatness »: auroras are like fence. It looks like a flat floating shape that is on its side. At some point it looked like going away from us, and we could clearly see that aspect.

After over an hour of amazement, our feet were getting quite cold (it was – 11 °C by now), so we walked a bit while admiring the spectacle, but it suddenly decreased significantly in intensity. We stayed a bit more and decided to go back to the appartment. We walked down the side of the ski slopes (there were still a few people skiing in the night, with headlamps!). It was a much faster path, although steep.

I am extremely happy that we changed out plans for the better, and super satisfied with what we saw. Also my winter gear was perfect, only my toes got cold despite having three pairs of socks.

It’s not every day that you realize a long-time dream. What a perfect, perfect day.