We go out almost as soon as the lifts open at nine and ski until late afternoon. After an hour’s break around four o’clock, the kids want to ski some more. Most lifts close at half past four, but some ski runs are lit and stay open until six. Those include a nice little stub of a run right next to our cottage. It is literally a minute away. (For future reference: we stayed in one of the cottages at Sjungarbacken.)

This late in the evening there are hardly any skiers here and no queues whatsoever to the platter lift. Up and down, up and down, with no downtime in between. It’s an easy “blue” run, suitable for the whole family – and it has a little snow park! The kids love the snow parks here at Kläppen and could probably spend half of every day going over the humps, over and over again.

Skiing and snowboarding in Kläppen.

The temperature is a few degrees above zero, and clouds come and go. Quite balmy compared to last year’s Arctic weather. The snow is rather mushy as a result, especially on the sunnier slopes. Some green runs that are nice and leisurely in the morning turn into messes of mushy piles of snow later in the day, quite hard to navigate.

On our way to Kläppen. It’s become a tradition to stop in Rättvik for fika at Fricks Café. Ingrid has a tradition on top of tradition and always buys a candy cane merengue there.

Packing for this year’s sportlov ski trip.

I have an extensive packing list, with sub-lists for all situations: summer or winter, skiing or walking, hotel or self-catering. Kitchen utensils are the most important part of the self-catering list. The place where we stay is nearly certain to have some kind of pots and pans and spoons and a cutting board. Maybe even a bowl, although that’s not a given. But it’s almost certain that the knives and scissors will be dull, and whisks are definitely not guaranteed. (The whisk is good for making scrambled eggs, and the deciliter measuring cup is for porridge.)

Ingrid doesn’t blog, but she has an “a sentence a day” diary.

Morning light over railroad tracks towards the big city.

My commute is almost too convenient. A ten-minute walk to the train station, two stations by train, two by metro, up the stairs and in through the front door and up the stairs again and I’m in the office. I barely have time to notice the weather, even.

My hiking trousers are wearing out after just three or four years of occasional use. Disappointing. Some of my old ones are still going strong after fifteen years (but unfortunately don’t fit me well any more).

It’s been so unseasonably warm outside that I actually cycled to work today. All the snow has melted, and the temperature didn’t even dip below zero overnight, so there’s no risk of ice in the bike lanes.

There was ice under the Traneberg bridge though.

Adrian got a spring haircut. Eric got a regular haircut.

Packed ice on the unsanded paths of convenience, muddy ground in between. But the ground itself has mostly thawed now. It was different a few days ago, when the ground was still frozen hard and the snow melt water had nowhere to escape – there were deep, icy puddles everywhere.