Most nations have their own weird traditions:
The Finns have their sauna. As often as they can, the Finns will gather in a red hot torture chamber together with their family and friends. Once inside the the sauna, they start beating eachother with sticks while pouring down way too much vodka, only interupted by ice bathing and the occasional fight/intercourse. Many of them die.
The Swedes have their strange, deeply pagan midsummer rituals called “Mittsommar”. In late June every year, the Swedes gather in the thousands to eat rotten, toxic herring, drink way too much booze and dance like monkeys around an alien-looking pole, chanting heathen songs with creepy voices. Many of them die.
But when it comes to weird traditions, we Norwegians take the grand prize.
Since we live in a country that is frozen rock solid like eleven months a year, you would think that the first sign of spring would send us all rushing down towards the ocean, trying to squeeze as much warmth as possible out of the pale spring sun.
But no. Every easter, in a desperate attempt to get as much winter as possible, millions of us Norwegians ski for hours in violent blizzards to reach our small, primitive cabins with no electricity or running water, high up in the mountains. Many of us die. When/if we make it there alive, the cabins first have to be excavated from tons of snow and then heated for several days before they become inhabitable. We Norwegians think that this is cozy.
Well, there are some upsides to this weird behaviour, too. One of them is the combination of cross country skiing and ice fishing. When the weather is decent, nothing beats the freedom of skiing above the tree line. Everything is white and beautiful, and with skis on your feet you can dance freely around on this winter wonderland, covering great distances without much of an effort. And there are lots of exciting mountains lakes to try. Sadly, they are all covered with 1 1/2 meters of ice, but what can you do? Ice fishing beats the hell out of no fishing at all. And it´s a good way of exploring the potential of new, unfished waters before the real fishing season starts.
Here are some pics from my easter vacation up north. Enjoy!
The char is a beauty! Looks like it’s in good condition even in the winter. I guess that’s because of the abundant gammarus.
Hehehe…! Nice fish!
What can you do besides skiing during easter when the rivers in the area you stayed were unfishably high and brown due to heavy snow melting? I therefor drove 20 minutes to Grotli and went skiing in the mountains there. After 45 minutes I
came to an open outlet from a small lake, and there, of course, trout were rising for stone flies. So next easter; never go skiing without your flyrod.