Icefishing and freeskiing in the untouched wilderness Pt:3

The last chance

The third morning came and we got up even earlier than the day before. Some of us were eager to catch more fish but Jacob had another thing on his mind. He wanted to get to the top he set out to climb the day before, when he got lost in the woods. After a couple of hours of fishing with just a couple of graylings on the ice, caught by Otto, Jacob got up and said "screw this, I'm going to reach that top!"

 He left his fishing gear on the ice and started moving towards the woods. Me and Otto kept fishing, drilling hole after hole in the ice but not a single fish seemed to be interested in our lures. 

Jacob disappeared in to the thick wall of pine trees never too be seen again... Well at least not for a couple of hours.

"Can you still hear me?"

About thirty minutes after Jacob had disappeared into the woods he called on the radio just to check if he could still reach us. We confirmed that we could hear him loud and clear so he proceeded to climb. 

The climb was rough. The terrain was very uneven and the sun was blazing Jacob in his face. But that did not bother him at all. He was so happy to finally be on his way to something he had been wanting do to for a long long time. Thirty more minutes had passed and he called again. This time he said that he could see us down on the ice. We were not able too see him though. We were two black blobs on the big white ice, very easy to spot from above, while he was above the treeline with boulders and patches of gravel around him, impossible to spot.

However he kept on going and the third time he called us he had reached the top! 

Ettan lös

He had finally reached the top. He was very tired so he sat down to catch his breath. He took a couple of pictures with his phone, put a large Ettan lös under his lip and then just enjoyed the view. In every direction there where snow covered mountains peaking up from the woods who seemed to keep going on forever. He could see several small frozen lakes and rivers all around and started dreaming of future hikes and fishing trips. However he was interrupted in his moment of bliss when a voice from the walkie talkie said, "It's time for lunch. get your ass down to the cabin".

Now came the part that he had been looking forward to the most. The downhill freeskiing through the woods. Jumping over snow covered tree stumps and  dropping from smaller ledges. He put his skis back on and started going down. That was the first time we saw him on his trip. It looked like a grain of sand was going down the mountain side turning left and right. He was much further away than what we had thought he was. When he disappeared behind the trees again we went back to cabin to make some lunch. After 30 minutes Jacob arrived at the cabin, but it was barely he made it back at all. He was totally drained on energy. He had not had anything to eat or drink since 7:00 in the morning. Now it was 12:00 and he had been skiing up hill for a couple of hours, draining all of his reserves. He almost fainted in the couch and started eating his food lying down on his back. He was exhausted. We decided to take it easy for the rest of the day. 

Epilogue

We poured ourselves some drinks, made some hot dogs over an open fire and just enjoyed the surrounding silence for the rest of the day. We would have made coffee but we had to save the last coffee for the breakfast the day after because, as I wrote earlier, just bought one pack so we had to ration it.. I'm never going to stop hearing about that. When the evening came we sat down in the cabin, had a couple of beers, played some card games and had a great time, the king of great time you only have with the best of friends. The following day we cleaned out the cabin and started our day long journey back home. In the car I went over the weekend we just had in head. The wonderful weather, the beautiful fishes, the wonderful fluffy snow and all the laughs with my best friends. But one thing in particular is stuck on my mind. Do you remember the picture from part:2? the large picture just below the headline? In that picture you see some open water. That particular place is one of my favorite places to lay out a dry fly and follow it down the bend as it get's pulled down by a beautiful trout. After the weekend we had all I could think about was that I wanted to come back, when the snow is gone and the caddis is flying over the surface. Because I  think that ice fishing is fun but fly fishing is my passion. So now it's time to prepare for this summers adventures and I'm also looking forward to share them with you! 2018 here we come!

(And all the pictures from the trip, Jacob's photos from his trip to the top, all the fish we caught and some other pretty pictures will be posted on the picture page for your viewing pleasure!)

Skitfiske på er!