T.R. 2 weeks hammocking in the Arctic winter; Jokkmokk, Abisko. -6c to -40c.

[Teepee]

Reading your thread makes my lapsed national geographic subs completely redundant teepee, you SUCH a fine young man, am proud to Meet with you

Haha! Thanks Sal Watch this space for further subs, Estonia coming next

just brilliant Pete, im in awe of your adventure.

Thanks Steve Glad you liked it.

Awesome trip report. Thank you for taking the time to write it.

Just one question though. What type of thermometer were you guys using to measure the temperature? Maybe you mentioned it but I missed it. The reason I am asking is that the numbers just seem way off. Maybe I am just having a hard time with the C/F conversions, but the lowest temperature recorded in that area during the period of the trip was 27F, which the conversion table tells me is -7C. I'm sure I am doing something wrong. I know it can get way colder in the mountainous, which is usually not recorded in weather reports. How high in elevation did you guys go?

Did any of you guys experience any serious injuries. I know just last week Sir Ranulph Fiennes suffered severe frostbite and had to abandon his Antarctica trip because he took off his glove to fix his ski bindings at -30C.

Anyway, great trip report. I'm glad everyone made it back okay.

Thanks RG, glad you liked it To futher what Ducky said;
Injuries; Cut finger from a twig poking into my knuckle when sawing a log on the 5th day. Most annoying for the whole trip, cuts don't heal in the cold as your probably aware.
I leant on the ice with my knuckles to blow the dogs up and got the onset of frostnip. Never again.
Slipped disc from bending down under the tarp. Its an old injury that I can deal with quickly by going for a walk and moaning like a girl every time I move.
Ice burnt bum cheeks from ice in my pants from the snow bomb. No problem really.

Thermometers; Wayland had a Kestrel 4000, I had a -10c minimum and a -20/-50 indoor outdoor thermometer. There was also a thermometer in the campsite and one on the Jokkmokk newspaper building.
My thermometer stayed in my bag for the first 3 days. I pulled the thermometer out of my bag and the wire snapped clean off at the union with the unit-the plastic was brittle. It showed -29.8c and stayed there very dimly until it warmed up a week later when it warmed up to -6.5c. My bag was obviously holding the cold as it was warmer than that at the time. Not wanting to have rose tinted specs for the temps encountered, I checked and asked with locals who all confirmed the temps were realistic.
Other points of reference were useful. 45% alcohol was frozen solid, My Dry bag shattered, -100c boots and I had Ice inside my socks, Petrol would not burn or evaporate without heat. Thermos flasks froze overnight with boiling water inside.

If you click the Jokkmokks Marknad link, It actually says its was -23c for the market day at midday. Cold sink effects, lengthy polar nights, lack of Urban warming and being licked for 2 days by Siberian air will easily drop the temps by 10c-15c locally.

Brilliant write up Pete. What an experience.

Thanks Bodge

Great stuff Pete. thoroughly enjoyable read !!

Glad you liked it Dave That Rum was useful, I owe you a drink

Really enjoyed reading your report Pete, sounds like a proper adventure, well done mate

Thanks bud, that it was. That area really did feel like the Cairngorms. Hope to see you in the piney woods again sometime.

Looks like a fantastic trip you will never forget, thanks for sharing

Cheers TF All the Pertex 4 DIY kit really performed out there, almost up there with cotton. 'Tis good stuff in the cold.

 

[treadlightly]

Utterly brilliant report. Brings the Arctic into my front room. Thanks.

 

[Will_]

Great write up & pics - what an awesome adventure!

 

[rg598]

Thanks for the reply guys. This is very peculiar. I have no idea where weather stations record their temperatures. All the local and international weather services show temperatures that were much higher for that period, and I looked at at least a dozen of them. They all seem to point to lows of -7C to -9C for that time in February. They all show that a temperature of -50C has never been recorded in Jokkmokk. I believe the lowest temperature ever recorded there was -42C, and it wasn't this year. The coldest recorded temperature for Jokkmokk this February was -18.4C. I'm sure the temperature varies widely there depending on one's exact location. You guys seem to have picked a brutally cold area near the town.

I know that here in the US and Canada when the temperatures drop to the -40C range they shut down services because it is extremely dangerous to go outside. Exposed skin freezes solid in minutes, it is hard to see because the moisture on the surface of your eyes freezes, and it is hard to breathe because of the low moisture in the air. It also becomes extremely hard to process wood because it freezes internally unless it has been ringed the previous year. You can't hold any metal object, a Nalgene bottle of water freezes solid in minutes, etc. But you guys know. Great job for making it through. Few people in this world can cope with such low temperatures, especially for a prolonged period of time. You guys not only did it, but did it in style. Sir Ranulph Fiennes should have been training with you guys. Maybe then he would have been heading out to Antarctica next month instead of the hospital. I hope he recovers soon, and again, spectacular job guys.

 

[PeterH]

Excellent mate,
now I can prove to the doubters I really ~do~ know a seriously hardcore hammocker

 

[shaggystu]

....All the local and international weather services show temperatures that were much higher for that period, and I looked at at least a dozen of them......

That's the first result that google threw back at me, I presume it got colder overnight.

I think I've got the right location for the right dates there, could be wrong though

-7c on the same date in my village

I guess it was colder in the arctic

Ok, so those links don't work, ignore this post ...........links swapped for screenshots, hopefully this will work.....screenshots swapped for better screenshots, maybe this will work

Cheers

Stuart

 

[Teepee]

Utterly brilliant report. Brings the Arctic into my front room. Thanks.

Thanks Treadlightly, glad you enjoyed it

Great write up & pics - what an awesome adventure!

Cheers Will Can't wait to get back.

Thanks for the reply guys. This is very peculiar. I have no idea where weather stations record their temperatures. All the local and international weather services show temperatures that were much higher for that period, and I looked at at least a dozen of them. They all seem to point to lows of -7C to -9C for that time in February. They all show that a temperature of -50C has never been recorded in Jokkmokk. I believe the lowest temperature ever recorded there was -42C, and it wasn't this year. The coldest recorded temperature for Jokkmokk this February was -18.4C. I'm sure the temperature varies widely there depending on one's exact location. You guys seem to have picked a brutally cold area near the town.

I know that here in the US and Canada when the temperatures drop to the -40C range they shut down services because it is extremely dangerous to go outside. Exposed skin freezes solid in minutes, it is hard to see because the moisture on the surface of your eyes freezes, and it is hard to breathe because of the low moisture in the air. It also becomes extremely hard to process wood because it freezes internally unless it has been ringed the previous year. You can't hold any metal object, a Nalgene bottle of water freezes solid in minutes, etc. But you guys know. Great job for making it through. Few people in this world can cope with such low temperatures, especially for a prolonged period of time. You guys not only did it, but did it in style. Sir Ranulph Fiennes should have been training with you guys. Maybe then he would have been heading out to Antarctica next month instead of the hospital. I hope he recovers soon, and again, spectacular job guys.

For further reading see here RG

The average low is -19c odd in January. The average temp around -15. Remember, thats in the town centre. Temps outside built up areas are lower. The warmth as we walked into town noticable and flying over Sweden at night, all the settlements were covered in cloud/mist and so insulated. The Jokkmokks Marknad website said it was -23 at the market in the daytime.

-23c was forecast on the weather (YR.NO)before we left and a siberian wind set in. If you allow for a 5c drop out of town, a little lower temps than forecast a week previous, coldsink effect and a 10c drop that you can often get in snowfields,-35c or lower seems in range.
The owners of the guest house said they thought that was about right for that week and he is a Sailor/icebreaker that watches the weather professionally, taking groups across the pack ice on hovercraft.



One thing about this far north is just how quickly temps can drop, you can feel it plummet.

 

[Teepee]

Excellent mate,
now I can prove to the doubters I really ~do~ know a seriously hardcore hammocker

Haha! Cheers Peter Glad you liked it mate.

 

[rg598]

For further reading see here RG

The average low is -19c odd in January. The average temp around -15. Remember, thats in the town centre. Temps outside built up areas are lower. The warmth as we walked into town noticable and flying over Sweden at night, all the settlements were covered in cloud/mist and so insulated. The Jokkmokks Marknad website said it was -23 at the market in the daytime.

-23c was forecast on the weather (YR.NO)before we left and a siberian wind set in. If you allow for a 5c drop out of town, a little lower temps than forecast a week previous, coldsink effect and a 10c drop that you can often get in snowfields,-35c or lower seems in range.
The owners of the guest house said they thought that was about right for that week and he is a Sailor/icebreaker that watches the weather professionally, taking groups across the pack ice on hovercraft.



One thing about this far north is just how quickly temps can drop, you can feel it plummet.

Yeah, that is one of the websites I saw. I particularly liked the girl. Average lows for Jokkmokk in February are shown as -19C in general, and average low of -13C for this February (as far as I can tell). Like I mentioned, the lowest temperature recorded this February was -18.4C, which seems in line with that. For the days of the trip report the low temps are listed as -7C or -9C depending on the source. If you guys experienced -40C to -50C, then you were in a much colder area. That's a huge difference, and I'm glad you guys made it out okay. We are talking about Antarctic plateau temperatures here. It's an impressive achievement.

Anyway, no point in hammering this any further. Who knows how they record those temperatures. A weather man is the only job where you can be wrong 2/3 of the time and still have a job.

 

[Teepee]

Yeah, that is one of the websites I saw. I particularly liked the girl. Average lows for Jokkmokk in February are shown as -19C in general, and average low of -13C for this February (as far as I can tell). Like I mentioned, the lowest temperature recorded this February was -18.4C, which seems in line with that. For the days of the trip report the low temps are listed as -7C or -9C depending on the source. If you guys experienced -40C to -50C, then you were in a much colder area. That's a huge difference, and I'm glad you guys made it out okay. We are talking about Antarctic plateau temperatures here. It's an impressive achievement.

Anyway, no point in hammering this any further. Who knows how they record those temperatures. A weather man is the only job where you can be wrong 2/3 of the time and still have a job.

I don't think there is any way we got -40 - -50c, thats pie in the sky. -40c may have been touched-I'm not sure, I have no points of previous reference for that.

I've no idea where your temps come from, it was -40 in Jokkmokk at the market last year and several people had to be taken to hospital with frostbite . Its one of the coldest places in Sweden outside of the Northern mountains.

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

The average low is about -19 but the absolute low is generally anywhere down to -42 and those temps have been reached in recent years. Also remember that generally weather data is collected at around 6-8 ft off the ground but what we call the grass temp here is taken lower to the floor and substantially lower. put yourself on a low lying lake and the difference will be tremendous. ive recorded 7 degree temperature swings in my back garden between fence height and floor level. as i mostly kip on or near the floor thats the temp i generally record.

 

[Teepee]

I'm glad this was raised RG, its confirmed our temps encountered somewhat. Flicking through World Weather Online's historical Data shows this;

A few days of hovering around -27 odd. Combine that with our out of town location lower down the valley and as BareThrills pointed out, the bulb temp and cooling from the vast snowfields; I'll leave you and anyone else to draw their own conclusions.

Typical though, it looks like the towns thermometer broke too

 

[DUCky]

I just checked my little backpacking thermometer by sticking it in the freezer, reading room temperature and in a glass of water and comparing the data with my Thermapen digital thermometer and it is actually pretty reliable and true/readable to within ~1-2 degrees.

I took this picture of said thermometer after the sun came up following our night out by the river (which I felt was the coldest night I spent out). It read a bit warmer than -30C (note it is angled away from the camera). This was on the 10th of february at around 08:16, so my morning temp after the sun came up was same as or even lower than the lowest temp recorded in Jokkmokk. It is of course possible that the temp didn't plummit during the night, but it is unlikely. I suggest we organise another expedition to Jokkmokk for everyone to go check out the temps themselves (pack an extra sweater! )

 

[DUCky]

Maybe I am just having a hard time with the C/F conversions, but the lowest temperature recorded in that area during the period of the trip was 27F

Could the site you checked have problems displaying negative numbers? -27F seems about right, which is around -32,7 C

 

[Stingray]

A highly enjoyable read.Thankyou.

 

[rg598]

Could the site you checked have problems displaying negative numbers? -27F seems about right, which is around -32,7 C

It's possible. That's why I was asking about the measurements. The numbers were just way off, and I didn't know why. Here are some screen shots. The first one is off by the most, showing a low of -7C. It appears to be in centigrade.

The second one is a bit less off and is from the website linked to by shaggystu, showing -17C as the lowest temperature.

The third one is the average from the website Teepee linked to, showing average low of -18C.

The fourth one is the actual temp graph that Teepee provided. The lowest temp seems to be on Feb 8 of about -28C.

The fifth picture is from another site showing a low temp of -21C during the night.

Anyway, these are the numbers I was able to get after looking at a bunch of sites. They seem to be all over the place. Clearly record keeping is not the Swede's strong point. Ultimately it doesn't matter too much. I think I've managed to derail this thread enough. It wasn't my intention.

 

[shaggystu]

Well if nothing else I think we've all learnt that weather data taken from the internet really can't be trusted, suffice to say it was pretty damn cold all over the place earlier this month

Cheers,

Stuart

 

[rg598]

Well if nothing else I think we've all learnt that weather data taken from the internet really can't be trusted, suffice to say it was pretty damn cold all over the place earlier this month

Cheers,

Stuart

Indeed. Seems to be a total crap shoot.

Now, onto actual trip related stuff, did you guys have problems with your axes when collecting firewood. Mine usually start to chip very badly at temperatures around -20C, partly because the wood is frozen and partly because the metal is brittle. How did yours do?

 

[Teepee]

Indeed. Seems to be a total crap shoot.

Now, onto actual trip related stuff, did you guys have problems with your axes when collecting firewood. Mine usually start to chip very badly at temperatures around -20C, partly because the wood is frozen and partly because the metal is brittle. How did yours do?

It didn't get much use TBH. Lots of saw work and no opportunity to cut green birch meant it was really a backup. The little use it did get didn't trouble it though.

I learnt Teak oil, whilst great at UK temps on tool handles, is lethal at low temps and had to wrap the handle in gaffer tape

 

[rg598]

Is that because the handle froze? I use vegetable oil, which doesn't set but when it's cold it turns into something like a wax. I've also been favoring the saw in colder weather. I've been having trouble with axes. Aside from chipping, when you warm them up enough to function, they start accumulating ice on the head, which is a nightmare to remove. That's not even in extreme cold. In my area it almost never gets below -20C. I'm sure there are some tricks to use them under such conditions, but I haven't found them.