For the Love of Lappland

Why drive 2200 kilometers north, passing incalculable rivers and lakes on the way, to get to Swedish Lappland? Copenhagen-based photographer and filmmaker, Frederik Lorentzen, didn’t have any answers until he finally made the trip himself. Now, he feels the love for Lappland in his whole body and soul.

By: FREDERIK LORENTZEN

It seemed crazy: We were going to drive 2200 kilometers north from our hometown, Copenhagen, to spend the summer in the arctic realm. If we’d turned the car around, headed south instead, and driven through Germany and France we could’ve spent our summer in Spain or Italy. Instead we chose Sweden, Denmark’s neighboring country. It seemed neither exotic nor extraordinarily exciting, but we had some flyfishing to do, and we’d heard the possibilities up north were numerous.

I still vividly remember how crazy it was when we started passing all these fishy-looking rivers and lakes. My face was pressed against the window and every time I saw a fish rising from afar, as we’d drive by yet another lake or river, I would be shouting it out loud. The first leg of the trip must have felt like an excruciatingly long ride for my friend. However, once it was my turn to drive, the roles completely changed. He got just as excited and loud when he was finally able to liberate himself from the steering wheel, just sit there, and look out the windows.

Since my first trip to Lappland, I have been there many times - and even though I now know quite a few different places, it seems like I could explore the area for the rest of my life and still only have seen the tip of the iceberg.

For the first however-many-years, I never thought of traveling to Lappland during the fly fishing off-season, but at one point I was offered a photo-assignment taking hunting pictures during the autumn and this was when I first saw the real beauty of the Lappland wilderness and landscapes. The yellow and red colours of the trees, and the first Northern lights bedazzled me, and I got eager to learn how the rest of the year would be up there.

Three months later, in the beginning of January, I was back. Everything was different: The open landscapes were all covered in snow, and I wasn’t actually expecting to like it that much. I thought the short days and endless darkness would be depressing. Instead I found myself overly excited in the hours that had light and when it was dark it wasn´t nearly as dark as I had thought. The snow somehow lit everything up.

We were drinking coffee around a campfire and watching the Northern lights, and I suddenly realized that I was addicted to winter in Lappland. I might actually just be addicted to Lappland. It´s hard to envision a time of year that isn’t worth a visit to Lappland. I would go anytime, and I´m just waiting for an invitation or an excuse to go again soon.

The salmon fishing in Lappland has become a great part of the fishing I love. There are huge areas to explore without the boundaries or limiting formalities such as beats or rotations. I guess these were the realities of our forefathers and the pioneers of salmon fishing. They had unlimited access to vast areas and were only restricted by personal, logistical and physical limits. Most of the salmon rivers in Lappland are huge, but you still get that feeling of fishing pools, lies and seams that hold fish. Every cast counts and there’s an omnipresent feeling that, at any time, the line might become taught - and sometimes it does!

For more information, please visit: http://arcticheli.se