Hi.
A friend and I intend to follow in the tracks of the old ice hunters and make an expedition on the north Baltic Sea in March. Our goal is to travel by kite from Sweden to Finland. If all goes well, we'll post some pictures during the trip: http://www.kiteonice.com

cool...send pics..be safe

Good luck.

We'll try to post pics on www.facebook.com/kiteonice

This is how the sea looked exactly one year ago, February 23, 2013:

That's awesome. How are you fairing this year?

Winter seem to have skipped Europe this year in favour of America. Not very cold this year. Well, north Sweden had -40 centigrades in December. Then there were a couple of weeks in January with temperatures down to -40 in the north. The north Baltic Sea got some of that cold, so there is ice, even though it is less than normal.

grants

for exciting trips is something I've been thinking about, recently. did you find sponsors or get any grants for your expedition Vindman?

There are no sponsors, no grants, for this excursion. So if the ice conditions are bad, we'll just get off the ice and navigate to the nearest pub.

Always good to have a back up plan.:D

The weather is still quite warm for the season, so let's see if the backup plan is needed or not.

The status a couple of days ago for the ice roads in the Luleå archipelago:
http://www.lulea.se/samhalle--gator/nyhetsarkiv/nyheter/2014...
"The ice roads to Sandön and Junkön are reopened after being closed due to floodwater. Now all ice roads are open. Maximum vehicle weight: 4 tonnes."

Day 1 finished. Some journalists from a newspaper and 24norrbotten.se interviewed us at the start. Good wind, good ice. The stretch Piteå - Luleå was completed in four hours. Camping in the Luleå archipelago, near the icebreaker route to Luleå.

www.kiteonice.com/map

Pics!:D

from fb:


I wonder if you had to paddle at all?

We paddle just a little. Mostly we use ice axes (in the kayak) to cross the icebreaker routes. It is quite mild weather, so the icebreaker routes do not freeze. There are ice blocks floating around. So the kayaks are needed. And they serve as gear pulks (sleds) as well.

Today a fisherman on small island offered us to sleep in a hut close to his house. He also gave us a couple of cans of his own produced surströmming. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surströmming

Some kiting pictures uploaded: www.facebook.com/kiteonice

Route: www.kiteonice.com/map

Very Cool.