In the process of creating the gallery of this year’s Lapland hike I decided that I wanted to use a new style with larger pictures and more background information. In addition, the selection of photos will be more rigorous and I will merge some of the old galleries with similar topics. So far, some galleries are available in the new format, more will follow.
Summer started late in Lapland this year since the amount of snow fallen during winter was very high. In fact, I was told that this much snow hasn’t been around for decades. Obviously, this had some impact on my (and everyone else’s) hiking plans. Especially in early summer this lead to very difficult conditions. I started out in August, but there was still much snow left in the higher areas and the water levels of streams and rivers were high.
This summer I’ve been hiking in northern Sweden again. I explored the mountain area to the north of Sarek around Sweden’s tallest peak Kebnekaise. Contrary to Sarek there are marked hiking trails in the area – among them the famous Kungsleden. Cabins are available as well but the region is not overcrowded at all. There are lots of remote areas with no or only infrequently hiked trails.
In spring I travelled to Brittany (France). The major attraction for me as landscape photographer was the coastline. Also the cities (like Saint-Malo) are beautiful and worth a visit. While I was positively surprised by the cities which I expected to be “tourist traps” as the area is a major travel destination, the landscape left me a bit disappointed. It is often scarred from the sheer quantity of visitors and the coast is made accessible by at least one parking area every single kilometer. Well, I am exaggerating a bit.