Mostly free to climb around the country throughout the pandemic, my wife, Anna Backlund, and I did two new routes in northern Scandinavia. On February 22, we climbed five-pitch line on the far left side of the northeast face of Kaisepakte (a.k.a. Gaisevarri, 1,205m, 68°15'34.77"N, 19°19'10.11"E), which rises above the E10 Highway, southeast of Abisko. Eleven kilometers from Abisko, just after the highway leaves the shore of Torneträsk, there is a parking lot. The approach from here can be quite demanding, and for us, with the huge amount of snow that fell during the winter, it was a full workout to reach the base. The face is notable for a big ice section, around WI4+, which used to stay in climbable condition from early October until mid-June. Climate change has seen to that, but it is still a long ice climbing season in this area.

Our route, Arête la Niehku (Dream Arête, WI5 M6), is an eye-catching line with steep dry-tooling, thin ice, snowy ledges, and an interesting cornice to finish. I've seen this line so many times but never took the time to try it. The line forms more or less every year, though getting the timing right can be difficult: The ice falls off quite easily, and protection can be tricky in the compact rock. There are a couple of possible lines toward the right side of the face, which in thicker ice conditions could provide interesting climbing. A few days later, I went back with Jan Axelsson and made the second ascent.

In the first week of April, Anna and I climbed an excellent new ice route in the lower part of the Latjovagge (Laddjujohka) valley, about halfway up the 20km walk to the Svenska Turist Foreningen Fjallstation, which is the main hut on the southeast side of Kebnekaise (2,096m), Sweden’s highest mountain. We named our four-pitch route Cascade de Quarantine (WI6). Due to climate change, far more ice in this area forms now than it did 10 years ago.

— Krister Jonsson, Sweden