It's been a while since Jorgen's first article here on BPL singing the praises of combining the best attributes of pack with those of a traditional pulk for lightweight winter backcountry travel:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/myog_rulk.html

Well, the Incredible Rulk got rebooted and last month Jorgen invited me to join him on a week long ski tour of Finnmarksvidda, a huge mountain plateau inside the Arctic Circle in northern Norway. We endured Arctic storms, falling in a river, whiteouts and changes to our original plans but the experience was profound and I learnt a lot about myself and coping with winter conditions. We carried and towed our gear on our Incredible Rulks.

My trip reports start here:

http://thunderinthenight.blogspot.com/2011/04/thunder-on-tundra-day-1-2.html

while Jorgen's version of events can be found on his blog here:

http://www.fjaderlatt.se/2011/04/finnmarksvidda-day-1-slow-going.html

There are subsequent day reports, gear discussions and lists on both blogs so have a look at how we're backpacking light in Scandinavia during winter.

Joe

Founding member - Nordic Lightpacking

Thanks for the fabulous trip report!

Searching for a word that can sum up my reaction, this might do it ... YOUSA!

Jorgen knows how to turn a phrase, my favorite snipet (one of several good ones) ... "So, somewhere after an hour of skiing ... we passed over the edge of the detailed map. Little did we know that there would be dragons."

Jim,

Jorgen is one of the most quotable people I know! He has a famous quote for every situation and then weighs in with a few of his own.

I'm glad you enjoyed the trip reports. We'll be back next year for the re-match!