Level 2: Sweden's Least Visited National Park
We're heading to Töfsingdalen for a 5 day andventure through the primeval forest hidden away from ski tracks and people
It's time for our first Level 2: Winter Expedition, 10-16 March. We head into a new area each tour, as unknown to us as it is to you. This particular one has been on Thomas's bucket list for years. What's so special about it then? Well, it's Sweden's least visited national park and the highest altitude protected nature reserve that we have. The story of Töfsingdalen includes words like dead ice, primeval forest, standing deadwood, bears and lynx ...
Why does nobody go there?
It borders the very well-visited nature reserve Grövelsjön and the southern parts of the famous King's Trail pass by near. It's actually at the Grövelsjön mountain station that we'll begin our journey to Töfsingdalen.
There are a couple of reasons why it remains so desolate of people. First of all, it's inaccessible. Not just the fact that there is nowhere close to park, but the terrain is really rough, at least in summertime. So called dead ice covered the area. Well after the massive ice sheet of the last ice age retreated, ice remained in some higher altitude valleys and melted slowly in place. What was left behind were tonnes of large stone blocks that had been lodged in the ice. They scatter the landscape and make hiking difficult and even dangerous.
Second. It's protected nature and there are no trails, no huts, no signs, no nothing. You're on your own to navigate the landscape and whatever you sleep in you need to bring yourself.
Why do we wanna go there?
Winter camping expeditions aren't exactly a common activity, and what is rough terrain in summer, needn't be in wintertime. The snow makes it relatively easy to pass the gigantic fields of stone blocks that scare so many off.
We'll enter an extremely unusual and beautiful habitat type – the primeval forest. That means forest that has been completely untouched by human foresting activity, forever! The term is often used incorrectly instead of old-growth forest, which is a lot more common.
Here we'll find a sparse forest that runs through the natural cycle of life where trees sprout, grow and die completely without human influence. Incredibly old and twisted pine trees, when covered in snow they create fantasmic troll-like shapes. Silvery standing deadwood, whole dead trees that are still standing upright. Often covered in the endangered fluorescent yellow-green wolf lichen.
Of course a habitat like this is also home to all kinds of rare insects, plants and mushrooms. We won't see them in winter tho. What we may see, however, are traces of shy animals who thrive in a landscape without humans. We're talking bears and lynx!
And there is no better time than late winter to find tracks from these fascinating animals. The bears are just waking up from hibernation and chances to see paw prints in the snow or scratch marks on trees are pretty high. What would really make our trip would be paw prints from the illusive lynx, something none of us have had the privilege to experience!
Don't know if you can tell, we're so excited about the trip!! Five days of winter camping and skiing in a true and beautiful rugged wilderness. We still have a couple of spots left if you're down for a last-minute. Prerequisites are either our Level 1 winter adventure, or if you've done some other skitouring and winter camping. Email Helena for more info!