Climbing 1420 meters on Åreskutans Topp

On September 1st, the Åre campers took a tram up the mountain. The tram was very crowded and swung in the air. At one point it even stopped and everyone got a little nervous. Once we reached the drop off everyone got off and began the climb. The farther we got up, the foggier it got. At the top of the mountain there was so much fog you couldn’t see 10 feet in front of you. Everyone had to stay together else things could’ve gotten ugly real quick. It was real nice though because despite the intense vertical, my friends made me laugh a lot and took my mind off things. Time passed quickly.

At the top of the mountain we had a group photo and ate waffles at this lovely cabin that happened to be there. Some people had finished eating early so they went outside. One of the exchange students had a speaker and he started playing common exchange student favorite songs. Everyone started dancing and it was funny. There was this old man watching us dance and at the chorus of one of the songs he jumped in and started dancing too. He danced much better than the rest of us and everyone cheered him on. His wife looked on and seemed annoyed with him. If only she realized how cool her husband is for dancing with a bunch of young’ins.

After resting and eating inside we all hiked back down together. Instead of taking a tram down like we had coming up, we all hiked down together. It was awesome. The terrain was rocky and loose. Halfway down it started to rain and was quite slippery. The terrain changed a lot. At first it was steep and rocky with no plants, but the father we got down the more plants started to appear. There was this giant rock that is called the Rum Rock by Swedes because when people hiked the mountain, they’d stop for a drink. Apparently a lot of people got drunk there. There was a sign with that information. A ways past the Rum Rock a lot of flowers showed up. Big ponds appeared too. At some point the trail was entirely moss. It was so pretty to hike through the greenery.

A lot of dirt bikers went down the mountain. They went pretty fast. I was worried they were going to crash. Luckily I didn’t see anyone get hurt. After hiking quite a ways down the mountain, we came across a ski lift. Everyone took that down. It was refreshing to rest. The day tired me out, but given a choice I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.