Håkan Stenlund

Perhaps the smallest restaurant in the world. In Kaalasjärvi between Kiruna and Nikkaluokta, in the middle of a straight part of the road that feels awfully long, a sign indicates the turnoff for Arct...

You know there is about to be some serious cooking going on when the chef arrives armed with both a wheelbarrow and a spade. Tommi Tuominen from the restaurant Finnjävel in Helsinki stands next to the...

One afternoon in october, I’m stopping at what was once the model community of Laver, in the Municipality of Älvsbyn. In the middle of the forest stand what remains of an industrial project that was a...

Fishing stories Fishing on ice – whether it be on the first, brittle ice of the season or on the metre-thick ice armour of late winter – appeals to a certain kind of person. To make the fishing trip a...

Resistance art On display at the 59th La Biennale di Venezia, as part of the exhibition “Il Latte dei Sogni – Milk of dreams”, are works by Britta Marakatt-Labba. The classical sculpture Brickhouse, b...

Losing touch with life itself Seasons are important. Patience Gray writes in her now classic cookbook Honey from a Weed that “Good cooking is the result of a balance struck between frugality and liber...

The short version The following was overheard in the restaurant at Niehku Mountain Villa in Riksgränsen, as a group having dinner walked over to get some cheese and have a chat with the chefs in the k...

A quiet sigh Theodor Ringborg hangs up his phone, and perhaps I hear a quiet sigh. He has just spoken to a journalist wanting to know “when he will put his shovel in the ground [referring to Konsthall...

Five in the morning, on a clear day in July. The view from Vákkudakvárátja, just above the STF cabin in Vákkudavarre, towards Áhkká, is glorious indeed. Still, the word glorious is not enough to descr...

Memories and hearsay Somewhere beyond Bastuträsk the train rolls resolutely into the destination known as Swedish Lapland. In Lillvattnet, alias Jörn, famous Swedish writer Sara Lidman’s Jernbaneepos ...

Sweden’s highest point The first time I climbed Giebmegáisi was in another time, another life. It was in the 90s, and during winter. My friends and I from the Mountain Guide Programme in Storuman asce...

The tie that binds If you believe in the motto of Svenska Bastuakademien, The Swedish Sauna Academy, only truth prevails in the sauna. Then perhaps you have asked yourself this question: Can one find ...

Ten years later In 2023, Riksgränsen Banked Slalom celebrated its 10 year anniversary. It all started like the legendary banked slalom in Mount Baker, and has today grown into one of the finest closin...

Like coming home Artists Tjåsa Gusfors and Ulrika Tallving pause from building a suite at Icehotel No. 33. Outside, it’s -20 degrees Celsius, a light westerly wind is blowing and early traces of the N...

The first impression On a sunny day in mid-June, we enter the brand-new room Biosphere at Treehotel. World-famous architect Bjarke Ingels leads the way. It’s his first meeting with the new room too. H...

Sounds and sayings travel far on the island. Over my morning coffee, I hear two gentlemen having a conversation in the marina below. It’s still, and the sun has been up since midnight. That’s if it ev...

Hotel manager David Åberg and restaurateur Carina Brydling are sitting in the magnificent staircase of Sara Kulturhus in Skellefteå. The newly build cultural center that’s part of the entrance to The ...

What would a museum tell you, if it got the chance? Like in the film Night at the Museum where Ben Stiller plays night security guard Larry Daley, and the Museum of Natural History comes to life durin...

They say homesickness is a primordial force. Many of us have at some point along the way suddenly found ourselves longing for home, and one of our oldest stories is about the prodigal son who returns ...

Good vibes In may, in the lobby of Hotell Riksgränsen, the competitors are waiting with bated breath. The winner of this year’s SBMC will soon be announced. Celebrating 30 years this year, the extreme...

On a beautiful day in early summer, beautiful as only early summer can be in the Torne Valley, I park my car by a red house in the village Vitsaniemi in the Torne Valley. Gunhild Stensmyr steps out of...

She stands in the middle of a field of stinging nettles, smiling. Gloves, thick trousers and rubber boots all help, of course. Eva Gunnare, one of Swedish Lapland’s most exciting food ambassadors, is ...

This December morning is still a bit grey, and chilly as a scent of coffee starts to fill Conny Lundström’s kitchen in Kalvträsk. The winter sun seems to be in no hurry to make an appearance. Wildlife...

We left a little too late from Björkliden on our hike to Låktatjåkko mountain station. Guidebooks and information usually say it is nine kilometres. But take it with a pinch of salt because it can be ...

On a Tuesday evening in June, I turn off route E45 just south of Avaviken. A short gravel road leads to a parking lot I have long intended to park in. I grab my rucksack and hike the steep path up to ...

The year was 1944. The world was at war, and allied forces had just carried out Operation Neptune, D Day. At home in Jävre, electrician Elof Söderberg wandered about, wondering what to do with his rec...

“At least it gives you rosy cheeks”, Frida Lind Oja says, laughing. She says that her minimum temperature for the ski track is minus 20, sometimes a bit colder. She also says she is grateful that she ...

Sand between my toes I step out of the cold Bothnian Bay, surrounded by kilometre-long stretches of sand, the open sea and one of Sweden’s most remarkable campsite stories: Pite Havsbad. Spring has be...

Abisko, May 15, 2020. Nothing is as it should this winter, except mountain guide Stefan Palm’s raccoon look. Despite the fact that it has snowed five metres, or more, in the Riksgränsen mountains, and...

There are so many things involved in mountain fishing. If you interview mountain fishers, they speak of friendship, nature and tranquillity. Only rarely do they approach the heart of the matter: if th...

Sauna Academy “In sauna there is truth”, at least that is what the Swedish Sauna Academy claims with its slogan: In sauna veritas. But if you grew up with sauna talk at home as well as at the public b...

Mountain biker and World Cup medallist Steffi Marth is sat in the Lobby Bar at Niehku Mountain Villa in Riksgränsen, smiling. She has been biking in the Arctic environment of the Kiruna mountains for ...

No one knows exactly when the island Malören rose from the sea. Given the speed of post-glacial rebound in the Bothnian Bay archipelago, it should have been a thousand years ago, give and take a few h...

When she turned 18, her father registered a company in her name. That’s just how things are in the Nutti family. “While I was growing up, I noticed that people were always working. For me, work is a n...

The needle powerfully penetrates the white cloth, almost like a skier moving across untouched, white snow where poles and skis sink into the newly fallen snow to slowly create a pattern. The skier – o...

“Kalix Löjrom makes you happy”, it is as easy as that. Simon Laiti is busy in his food studio at Hemmagastronomi in Luleå. He is creating a three-course Kalix Löjrom testing menu for a dinner party an...

At Nutti Sámi Siida in Jukkasjärvi, a reindeer named Bulmmot eats from my hand. I have a handful of fodder pellets, and Bulmmot seems to like them about as much as I like a bag of candy. Bulmmot is No...

On February 2, 1925, the Norwegian Gunnar Kaasen entered the town Nome as a hero with his dog sled team and his lead dog Balto. He delivers ten kilos of vaccine to a town affected by the deadly epidem...

On a beautiful Tuesday night, we take the chairlift from the village of Abisko towards the top of mount Njullá. It’s cold and crisp, the full moon is out, and the stars are abundant. We see a faint gr...

Bertil Harström, a fly fisherman and architect, has already turned 70. This afternoon he takes a stroll outside Arctic Bath, a cold bath-house on the Lule River outside Harads. The concept was born al...

Northern light photographer Mia Stålnacke has a squirrel on her balcony, and she’s named it Galileo. It’s no coincidence. Galileo Galilei gave the northern lights their Latin name, aurora borealis, an...

Kaamos If you translate it directly, Kaamos means – darkness. But those who live in the polar regions know that’s not the case. It’s how the snow magically reflects blue light; Kaamos is the word used...

Filleting fish by a lake called Sårgåjávrre stand Lennart Pittja and chef Johan Eriksson. The morning’s catch will be just enough for the evening meal. A fire has been lit in the old smoking hut. This...

A steady, refreshing breeze blows through the forest at Arctic Retreat. Sometimes the wind grabs hold of the trees around the log cabin, where I am staying. The trees sway gently in time with Nature. ...

There are many talented guides and operators offering tours where you get to take photos of the northern lights. Peter Rosén, Chad and Linnea Blakely, both in Abisko, and Sámi photographers Ylva Sarri...

1. Location The famous photographer Sven Hörnell from Riksgränsen, in the Kiruna mountains, once said, when asked if it was expensive to use so much film: “Film is never expensive, it’s the moment tha...

It is a clear, but slightly chilly early summer morning in the forest. The night mist lingers like minute clouds in the deep valley of the Laisälven river. The rays of the sun have yet to reach all th...

— What is this?! Have you seen anything cooler than this, Zach? American photographer Andy Anderson calls out to his son and it echos through the Stone Valley. But his son doesn’t answer; he seems abs...

Don’t let’s anticipate here, but I can tell you that the whole idea of going island hopping in the Bothnian Bay archipelago wasn’t exactly my son’s idea. It was mine. It was based on that ancient prov...

Mikael Vinka has a passion for the history of his ancestors. Even as a child the older generation saw that he loved listening to the tales they told and that he would pass on the stories and the knowl...

But that doesn’t happen very often. Most fish are ridiculously small, hardly worth mentioning. Honestly, who wants to hear the story about when you caught a couple of char that was big enough to fill ...

Nalovardo, June, at the peak. Without stopping at the turning area by the top cabin, I pedal on along the road that leads to the peak cairn: a kind of mountain stage, or Strava segment, that I have ma...

Lenin was here. And then he went home and started a revolution. There is a blue plaque in the waiting room at Haparanda train station that tells us how Lenin, the old comrade, stopped here in Haparand...

The inland ice is actually the reason why I have sand between my toes. Walking along kilometre-long sandy beaches in the Bothnian Bay archipelago or hiking in the mountains, it’s hard to imagine that ...

In the old days, you could be arrested for loitering. Ambling along in the world without plans was seen as very suspicious behaviour. These days it’s different, and spending a day doing nothing is mor...

It’s April in the Mausjaur Sámi district in Arvidsjaur. It’s warm, and the snow is melting. The summer has more or less come crashing into the life of the forest Sámi this year. Streams open up, and s...

Sweden’s most famous hiking trail, Kungsleden, initially went from A to A. From Abisko to Ammarnäs, or vice versa. It was not until 1975 that the trail was extended to go past the King’s fishing spot ...

Kaffeost In Tornedalen, the coffee cheese is called kahvijuusto, and in Swedish, we call it kaffeost. It could be a fresh cheese that in many ways resembles the Italian mozzarella. But in northern Swe...

I call Mattias Fredriksson on a Saturday. He’s out taking biking pictures with Janne Tjärnström, a Kiruna native. We agree that I’ll call Mattias the next day, so that’s what I do: “Hi Håkan, the weat...

Eric Gallardo drives fast. The chicane on what’s a perfect copy of the formula-1 track, Paul Ricard, on the metre-thick ice of Lake Uddjaur comes up very quickly. Unlike Eric Gallardo’s own knuckles o...

“And through another winter they wandered on the obliterated trails of men who had gone before. Once, they came upon a path blazed through the forest, an ancient path, and the Lost Cabin seemed very n...

Red log cabins in a kind of organised chaos around one of northern Sweden’s most beautiful churches – this might not be a completely accurate picture of World Heritage Gammelstad, but that’s what it f...

In the middle of the village square, in Arjeplog, a stone’s throw from Silvermuseet, you’ll find Arjeplogs Vilt & Kafé. Step inside to try a coffee experience with a difference – and at the same time,...

It is not by chance that the reindeer on Svalbard are short-legged, while the reindeer of the woodland Sámi villages in Sápmi have longer legs. Long legs are a disadvantage on mountain slopes swept by...

Padjalanta/Badjelánnda means the higher land in Lulesámi. It’s Sweden’s largest national park, right next to the Norwegian border. The Padjelanta National Park is a part of the World Heritage Site Lap...

Chad Blakley’s interest in photography began at an early age. As a teenager, he worked for a local newspaper in a small town outside New Orleans, Louisiana. During his college years, he started a smal...

Most things in life aren’t as obvious as they might seem. On one side of lake Torneträsk, we find Vádvečohkka (Vadvetjåkka) National Park, one of Sweden’s wettest areas. On the other side of the same ...

It’s hard to know what goes through the head of someone who’s about to travel 200 km on skis. Probably a lot of things. There are a lot of skiers too. Every year, around 30,000 skiers participate in V...

“Kukkola is a village in Karl Gustav’s parish in Haparanda municipality, next to the Torne River, just over ten kilometres north of Haparanda along Highway 99″, I read about Kukkola on Wikipedia. But ...

It was the best skiing of the season. From the top of the chairlift and down to the forest line, the snow was deep as a ski boot and completely virgin. But how would you define ‘the best skiing of the...

Riksbyggen’s sauna Solar Egg has been on a tour and become globally famous. The sauna was created by the artist duo Bigert & Bergström and exhibited for the first time in spring-winter 2017 at Luossav...

I’ve been here plenty of times — in summer as well as in winter — and I guess that’s why I’m already thinking about the waffles. I’m trying to decide whether to go for cloudberry or raspberry jam. Sti...

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A slow walk through the birch forest that surrounds the path between breakfast at the Treehotel restaurant and my room, the Mirrorcube, soon reveals the grandeur of the hotel. The beautiful birch fore...

You’ve got to expect the normal market knick-knacks, of course. There are the helium balloons, t-shirts with novelty prints and sweets that will make your blood sugar level hit the roof. But you’ll al...

“Thank you for this weekend”. “Thank you. It’s always fun to experience something that’s better than it really is”. Outside Hotel Riksgränsen two friends thank each other for the nice company during t...

West of the classic mountain hotel in the Kiruna mountain world, and near the Norwegian border, at the old locomotive depot in Riksgränsen, is Niehku Mountain Villa. Niehku that translates into ‘dream...

At the end of November, the sun barely makes it above the horizon at Kebnekaise mountain station. You would have to get up on top of the mountain to enjoy the first and last rays of sunshine. But even...

Five kilometres from where the public road ends in Kangos, outside of Pajala, is where you find Pinetree Lodge in Särkimukka. Four people live there: Johan, Sara, and their two children. And one hundr...

When extreme swimmer Christof Wandratsch became the first person to cross lake Boden and broke the world record across the English channel, he found himself looking for new challenges. He found winter...

The Dutch filmmaker Marco Lubbers had a dream: To go speedskating under the northern lights. And he also wanted to make a film about it. For that, he travelled to Swedish Lapland. Marco Lubbers is a f...

Sámi design comes in many shapes. Some of Sweden’s coolest designers have taken the Sámi expression further – to put some excitement into everyday life. ...

One of nature’s most beautiful displays takes place during a couple of weeks every summer. A mayfly called Ephemera vulgata hatches, and every single fish in the lake go crazy when presented with such...