Author Archives: Katja

Moulins are deep holes in the glacier, created by meltwater eating its way into a crevasse (a glacier fracture). They are dangerous things, moulins. They can be deep and if you fall in, you might freeze to death before you can be rescued. Mr. P kept at a safe distance.

        The main focus of the Tarfala station is to monitor and do research on Storglaciären. One of our days there was therefore spent walking around on the glacier, looking at ablation measuring equipment, supraglacial streams, crevasses and moulins, trying to keep our balance in crampons. Group photo in front of theContinue reading “a walk on the glacier (20/8)”

We got a geomorphology assignment, to divide ourselves into groups and then describe a landform created by a particular process in the Tarfala valley. My group consisted of me, Sara and Sandra, and our assigned landform type was fluvial. That made our choice of landform pretty simple: we chose one of all the streams inContinue reading “the geomorphologists in action (19/8)”

The water here tastes like snow.

Mr. P, resting against an upheaved boulder after the long climb up Tarfalatjårro, with the glaciers in the background.

Since it wasn’t raining, our geomorphology teachers decided it would be a perfect day to climb the ridge behind the station. Akka was with us. She’s Ninis’s dog, but since Ninis (professor and director of Tarfala Research Station) was going by helicopter to get some samples from Rabot Glacier on the other side of Kebnekaise,Continue reading “climbing the ridge of frost action (18/8)”

Last night was rounded off with a trip to the sauna, just as the night before. This time, I went with a group mostly consisting station staff. Young people, mostly master students, who had all been here for more than a month. They were tough. This night, I got company down to the jokk. TeaContinue reading “sauna by the glacier (18/6)”

My body sore and aching, after a restless sleep due to my body protesting loudly and decidedly all through the night, we woke up in a cloud this morning. The rain was falling heavily, so this first day at the station was mostly spent indoors, listening to lectures and preparing our group projects. In theContinue reading “a day spent in weather (17/8)”

The hike up to Tarfala Research Station was tough. 23 kilometers, mostly uphill on a tilly hiking trail, is not something you do in a jiffy. My feet are sore, in a different, more acute way than the soreness that I got after four weeks of sightseeing in Europe. My toes hurt whenever they accidentallyContinue reading “the way up up up (16/8)”

A train has derailed between Boden and Gällivare, so we were woken up in our sleeping compartment at five in the morning and told to get off in Boden, where busses were waiting for us. I’ve been trying to sleep, while the hills have become higher and the rivers wilder. It’s been raining. I’m soContinue reading “Train derailments”