IMAGE: FELIPE MENZELLA


NORDICS


twigs and stray branches, we curve around to approach the base when Maja shouts: “Ha! Aurora!” With three claps she veers left off the path, disappearing knee-deep into powder, and points up. I’d been scrutinising moonlit slivers of cloud, willing them to be the lights, but there’s now no doubting this twist of aurora. Like steam, the wisp lengthens then deepens to a Ghostbusters green. I follow Maja, who forges ahead pointing out animal tracks in the snow: elongated rabbit paws; cloven hooves of moose; and the frozen filigree made by tiny birds. This region of northern Sweden is historically inhabited


by the Indigenous Sámi people, reindeer herders for whom the land is sacred. Before we ascend Stor Nabben, Maja points to a distant mountain range, snow-stained and fearsome, but peaceful in the darkness. She indicates a semi-circle-shaped valley, which looks as though the Sámi gods took a clean bite out of the range. “This is Lapporten,” she says. “Between those mountains


Above: Aurora Borealis light up the skies over Abisko


are two small lakes and the story goes that there’s a portal to the other dimension.” Halfway to Lapporten is Paddus, the holy mountain of the Sámi people. In the past, Sámi


men travelled there annually to pray to the gods. “Hiking there, you don’t feel alone, as if someone is watching,” says Maja. “Sometimes you see shadows running around, but it’s not a feeling of fear, just the presence of something.” Reaching the summit is easy enough and we find a bench


and a small letterbox where visitors can write their names on a notepad tucked inside a little bag. Maja produces a flask of hot, freshly made lingonberry juice. The sweet liquid feels furry against my throat as we sip the drink and look down on Abisko, where the lights from lodges glow like tiny orbs. Shivering, I trudge about to stay warm as new aurora emerge. Like a screensaver, its green body shapeshifts from thin threads to falling rain, performing for about 10 minutes until the clouds drift in and knit together a blanket so thick that even the moon vanishes. The show over, we throw one last glance at the skies and descend once more into the magic of Abisko’s woods.


HOW TO DO IT A two to three-hour trek costs SEK590 (£48) per person, including all clothing and gear. abiskoguesthouse.com


WINTER SPORTS 2022/23 41


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