Abisko hike

This article was written in 2015, and the draft recently rediscovered.

This post will be a summary of my trip in June 2015 to Abisko in northern Sweden. I am writing it because I found a little difficult exactly understanding how much there was to do and how to get to Abisko. Hopefully this should help people who are considering a trip there.

Kiruna Airport

We arrived on the Norwegian flight from Stockholm at lunch-time on friday. Rented a car. It was supposed to be one class above the cheapest since we were planning to drive a lot. We got a very nice Volvo V70! Immediately, we went to Nikkaluokta for a walk around the village. I had heard that it was a good place to start the King's Trail from and wanted to check it out for a future proper hiking trip.

On the way to Nikkaluokta

 After a few hours of walking and lunch, we went back to Kiruna and the supermarket to buy food for the walk we planned on Saturday. We bought some very nice smoked ham, cheese, and mackerels in tomato sauce from the largest supermarket. This supermarket has everything you could want from a supermarket, and is located in a commercial area with a few other large stores.

On the way to Abisko

The drive from Nikkaluokta to Kiruna was about an hour. Then we drove to abisko at 5pm, and arrived around 7pm. The drive was nice with a bit of roadwork on the way which slowed us down. As we arrived at STF Turistation, Midsommar celebrations had started with a nice dinner, but no music until 9pm. We had local birch snaps and watched the sun set behind the mountains and rise again within 40 minutes. It only happened between 12:00 and 12:40 and never got dark! Strange but stunning sight! During the sunset, we visited the surrounding reserve along the river. It got cold very quickly and there were very few mosquitoes, only a few next to the river. Went to bed at 1am, forcing ourselves otherwise we would have followed the sun and stayed up..

Sun "setting" for 40 min.

Saturday we woke up at 9am, had a solid breakfast at the restaurant of the Turistation and left for a hike at 11am equipped with our map purchased in Nikkaluokta ( Fjällkartan 1:100 000) and my trusty Suunto compass. Not having to be back by dark (!), we went all-in to Abiskojaure along the Kungsleden. It is 14km away and the trail begins opposite the hostel. That took us 3 hours at fast pace along the river. It was very well indicated all the way to the camp. At this point we crossed the river, and the little camp north and followed indications to Kårsavaggestugan, a POI in the valley north of Kungsleden, on the other side of a small mountain. The path is well indicated for the first 100 m and then there are no indications all the way to the top of the mountain...

We reached the treeline by following the most obvious trail and simultaneously the snow pack. This climb was steep but quick, then we kept climbing following cairns through the snow patches and the bushy/boggy bits. Our shoes and pants were soaked but that didn't slow us down. We topped the mountain in about two hours, which is 300m per hour.. Not very fast but the snow was deep. We had hard snow on top but occasionally we would sink down to the waist, even up the chest in one instance which could have been avoided. Small animals are plentiful near the summit which culminates at 1150m. After that we had the option of beelining east through the bush towards Abisko, or climbing down towards the north-west, the wrong direction, and walk around the lake in that valley. 

From the top of the mountain which is deserted we could see the lake was mostly frozen over and a lot of snow was present on the banks. So we beelined towards Abisko, staying high above the lake and finally crossed the river flowing from the frozen lake on a welcome dry wooden bridge. From there we followed the main trail towards Abisko. Got lost on the way because we took a trail that had no markings as it was being serviced. So again we crossed through the bushes and trees to meet the summer trail along the north side of the main river towards Abisko and our hostel. We reached the trail after wading through deep marshland. 

The last 30 minutes were easy and we reached the camp satisfied from our 32km walk which lasted 7:55 minutes including two breaks and a short lunch break. At no point was it cold during the walk, even at the top of the small mountain or deep in the snow. The sun was there to keep us nice and warm, and our shoes dried quickly (the advantage of hiking in trail running shoes..). We made it too late for dinner at the hostel, so we went to Abisko village looking for a hunter's lodge where good food was served. Always ask when the kitchen closes before leaving the hostel... For a place so bright so late at night, it felt like dinner was served very early. Fortunately, the bar was open for a long while!

In Narvik

Sunday we drove to Norway in the morning. The drive through a col, and down along fjords took a couple of hours. Beautiful views from the high road down the fjord and along the coast. We stopped in Narvik hoping to witness the mining heritage, but everything was closed apart from a 180 NOK burger.. Then we drove along the coast to see some fjords towards Ballangen. In Ballangen, where we had read there was a mining museum, there was nothing to do.. Mining museum was closed or abandoned. So we drove back towards Narvik and saw an overgrown bunker along the coast. Then we went back to Narvik where we climbed to the turbine station. At the turbine station, there is a display of water once a day. Water comes down the mountain in a pipe which feeds an electrical turbine, around mid-day pressurized water is released through a nozzle which projects it 75m in the air above the station. Unfortunately, we missed the jet. After reading a few plaques near the station, we went to the ski resort. Took a chairlift to almost the top of the mountain. There we took some photos and relaxed a little. The view is again stunning, with crisp air and a nice sun. Feeling hungry again, and wanting to eat away from our hostel, we went back down and had a decent buffet dinner at Best Western opposite the chairlift. Finally we drove back to Abisko taking our time to stop at the windmills, a war memorial at Bjorkliden in the col marking the border between Norway and Sweden, and Silverfallet, and nice waterfall which looks like a horsetail. Finally went back to the hotel and had more beers next to the river.

Waterfalls

On monday, we drove from the hotel to Kiruna, the drive took 1h25 with some road work slowing us down again in the last third. We refueled the car near the supermarket from the first day and checked in with an hour to spare for our flight.

An island on the way to Narvik.

Abisko was well worth the detour from Stockholm. It is very quiet and almost empty with impressive mountains and endless views. It is certainly a place made for people passionate about hiking, or mountain biking in the wilderness. Be prepared to bring everything you will need apart from stove gas, and food which can be purchased in Kiruna. (Not easily in Abisko!) Once you leave Kiruna, there is not a single shop in sight until Narvik.

BBQ lid update March 2016

After many barbecues, we have finally made and installed the handle.

It's made out of a 1"by 1 1/2" piece of wood cut to length and screwed together as well as to the lid. Simple but effective!

You can see from the photos below that rust has covered the barbecue in the hottest areas over this second winter.

Ideally we would trim the grills so they fit inside the barbecue, but we will not do it to those grills because it will be complicated to solder them back together once trimmed. Also the metal mesh supporting the charcoal away from the bottom of the barbecue is still not strong enough and needs replacing with something sturdier.

Hope you enjoyed the build!

DIY Oil Drum BBQ: part 2

Now that the warm weather is coming back we decided to carry on with the assembly of the BBQ. After browsing online, it seemed that the most convenient thing to do would be to use the second barrel as a support for the main barrel. In order to do so, we cut the top off the second barrel to make a cradle:

We've had a few very successful BBQs so far with friends, however the lid is still incomplete. It is ready to be assembled, but we don't have a handle yet.. We are looking for a nice wood dowel to make the handle, it seems like the best option in terms of heat and durability. In terms of use, we usually use only one side of the BBQ when we are less than 5 people. Despite its large size, we also regularly use it to cook our food for just the two of us instead of the kitchen stove. We also had a BBQ for 15 people where we had to use the whole surface and it got very hot! The food was ready for everyone in a very short amount of time. So far we've made burgers, sausages, fish, buffalo wings, and vegetables and it all came out nice! The large grill allows to move the food around to have different amounts of heat, which is convenient to cook multiple different things together. I imagine the lid will allow us to do some more advanced cooking too.

Finally, a word on the steel's durability. It seems the winter didn't affect the steel too much, it's rusting outside but not loosing its strength at all. The BBQ remained outside the whole time, unsheltered, and only the hinges seem to have rusted. After the first BBQ in autumn, we also noticed that the mesh supporting the charcoal caved in. We did use a lot of charcoal that time, but we feel it should have been able to support that amount of weight. This means we need to replace the struts stiffening the mesh, or put something underneath (a brick) to keep the mesh flat.

DIY Oil Drum BBQ

Life has been quite eventful these past few months for me. Most importantly for this post, I moved house, from a small apartment, to a comfy house. My housemate and I immediately decided it wouldn't be a proper bachelor pad if we didn't have a BBQ. Having mastered the home-made Jack Daniel's Barbecue Sauce, we are now in the process of making a BBQ from an oil drum.

We acquired two authentic oil drums, complete with remaining oil. These are the standard 55 gallon steel drums.

The design we are going for is a horizontal barbecue with a hinged lid. It isn't cut in half, as we would like to open and close it for optimal cooking heat.

First things first, we gathered a few tools and bits and pieces:

 - an angle grinder with two thin blades

 - heavy duty door hinge

 - metal tubing and mesh for the coal grid

 - a nice stainless steel mesh for the meat (and veggies of our veggie friends..)

 - a large handle for the lid

 - brackets and screws to attach everything

First: Cut the barrel!

The first step consists in marking up and cutting the lid. We chose to keep the sides whole to save weight on the hinges, and for a stronger structure of the BBQ. That step used up two small angle-grinder discs. Beforehand, the drum needs to be rinsed with washing up liquid, and a lot of water.

The next step was to fit the brackets for the grids. The charcoal rests on a grid lifted off the bottom. This should improve air circulation, and protect the steel from the heat. That grid is made up of really cheap mesh (1 inch pitch), reinforced with 4 steel rods (6mm diameter) to prevent it from sagging too much. The other grid is a nice stainless steel grid cut to dimensions. We chose to go for 2 separate grids so that we can lift one and add some more coal while cooking. 

A very important parameter is the distance between the charcoal and the meat. At the moment, we took a wild guess after looking at other barbecues. The distance is about 20 cm. We cut up the grid accordingly of course, but we are not outruling the posssibility to move the coal or the meat up and down. But we'll look into that after the first test...

Afterwards, we started the fitting of hinges on the lid. These need to be properly aligned for a smooth motion. They are heavy door hinges attached with 6mm bolts. Probably over-kill, but it should last a while.

The build was paused during the winter since we had no use for it.We did have an inaugural BBQ in this state. A second post will describe the rest of the assembly! 

Beginning of welds

I had ordered the tubes in January (26 meters of it for extra mishaps), and started gathering all the tools that I need for soldering. So far, I find that I need:
- a Dremel (135 watt, with a good cutting disc, and a good metal brush)
- a lot of flux
- a lot of 40% silver solder rods
- a blow torch (I am using Mapp gas which in my opinion is too powerful for such small welds..)
- a good workbench. I am using a sheet of steel placed on bathroom tiles, placed a workbench. The insulation provided by the bathroom tiles is excellent so far!
- a set of diamond files (possibly different diameters of round ones)

Welding the tail section's top.

The assembly process has begun, and hopefully it'll start taking shape within the next few weeks!

Status just before Christmas

I have not made much progress since the last post because of work getting in the way.. However, I have decided that I will be using 3, 4, 5 and 6 mm Stainless Steel tubes. So I have grouped the different sizes found on Schleicher's plans (ranging from 12 to 30mm) and replaced by the corresponding size. This is very approximative, however I have received advice, and read on forums, and it seems like it will be strong enough.

Rendering of the tubes in the current assembly

After adding all the tubes (custom frame objects in Inventor), the image above shows you the result! It's about 1.84m in length and it weighs around 555g as is. Expect a little more when adding the reinforcements for the landing gear, the wooden top, as well as the supporting structure for the wings. I am unsure how much soldering silver I will need, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were near 100g. And of course a lot more weight will come from wooden sections, covering, and electronics... By the way, this fuselage will require at least 22 meters of tubing!

Side view of the fuselage

Top view of the fuselage

Inventor indicates that the center of gravity stands 126mm from the cockpit's aft end tube. I am curious to know how this will change as we go! This will deeply affect the amount of lead in the nose, and the overall mass.

I was tempted to modify the geometry slightly in order to optimize Schleicher's design for a smaller scale, but the more I look at it, the less I feel I need to. Two sections I do not expect to reproduce are the landing gear, and the wing's attachment.

Next up: Making a wing/fuselage junction, refining the landing gear, and ordering the material!

Main tubes are defined!

Here we are! Using Schleicher's detailed drawings, I was able to reconstruct most of the main tubes in the fuselage. Some interpretation from the NNZC's photo album is still necessary though.

Initial 2D drawings assembled in 3D.

For this, I first redrew the 2D views from Schleicher, then used Inventor's projection tool to locate intersections in 3D

After linking and projecting the 2D views in 3D.

Quite time consuming (almost 8h), but the next step will be looking into more detailed plans to spot the missing smaller tubes. One essential bit I am missing is the landing gear, and the wing box.

Stay tuned...