Abisko

Abisko's story begins with the building of the Malmbanan, the iron-ore railway between Kiruna and Narvik, between 1899 and 1902. The tunnel through the mountain Nuolja was one of the largest tasks of the project, and many tunnel workers lived here for years, with a temporary hydroelectric plant on the Abiskojåkka river supplying power for the work. Those who died building the line are remembered at the Tornehamn cemetery. When the railway was finished, the Swedish Tourist Association bought one of the houses by the river and began to take in visitors, and tourism has shaped the village ever since.

In 1909, the year Sweden passed its first nature conservation laws, a group of scientists including the geologist Fredrik Svenonius secured the creation of Abisko National Park. Research became the village's second pillar: the Abisko Scientific Research Station, now run by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat, studies the ecology, geology and climate of the subarctic. During the Second World War, in 1944, British bombers on their way to attack the German battleship Tirpitz used Torneträsk as a rendezvous point, in violation of Swedish neutrality.

The E10 road between Kiruna and Narvik reached the area in the early 1980s, making Abisko accessible by car as well as by train. Today it is a village of fewer than a hundred people that receives far more visitors, drawn by the northern lights in winter and the trails in summer.

The village's Northern Sami name, Ábeskovvu, means roughly "the forest by the big water", and the big water is the river Abiskojåkka rather than the lake. The landscape's other names are Sami too: Lapporten is Čuonjávággi, the Goose Valley, and Torneträsk is Duortnosjávri. Near the tourist station a sameviste shows the storage buildings and dwellings once used by the Sámi of the area.

Life in Abisko revolves around the outdoors. The Kungsleden, probably Sweden's best-known hiking trail, begins here, and the Nordkalottleden and the European long-distance path E1 pass through, so in summer the village fills with walkers setting off or finishing. In winter people come to cross-country ski, snowshoe and watch for the aurora; Abisko lies within the auroral belt, and its dry climate and low cloud give good chances of a clear sky.

Science gives the village an international feel. About 500 researchers from around the world come to the research station each year, and Umeå University's Climate Impacts Research Centre works there on the effects of a warming climate. One of those effects is visible on the ground: the low-altitude permafrost around the village is disappearing because of global warming and increased snowfall. In the evening, the pub at the tourist station and a restaurant and bar by Abisko Östra are the places to go for a drink.

About 85 people lived in Abisko in 2005. The village is part of Kiruna Municipality, and Kiruna, about 100 kilometres away by road, is the nearest town for most services.

Work depends on tourism, the research station, the railway and the road. The tourist station, which provides lodging, food and other services for hikers and is one of a chain of similar facilities along the Kungsleden, is at the centre of the visitor trade, and the chairlift up Nuolja runs both in summer and late into the night in the aurora season. Trains between Kiruna and Narvik stop at both of the village's stations, and the ore trains of the Malmbanan run past.

The year is set by light and snow. The midnight sun lights summer hikes, while winter brings weeks of short days, lake ice that often lasts from December into June, and visitors staying up for the northern lights. Shopping is limited to a small shop at the tourist station that stocks hikers' daily needs and outdoor equipment, and a village shop with a petrol station.

Abisko is too small to have a food culture of its own, and it eats the way the mountains of the north eat: reindeer, berries, and whatever hikers carry. The restaurant at the tourist station serves food inspired by the surrounding nature, with dishes such as reindeer meat with cloudberry jam. Cloudberries, hjortron in Swedish and snattren in parts of northern Sweden, are gathered on the bogs; in Sweden the berries and their jam are used as a topping for ice cream, pancakes and waffles.

The best-known traditional reindeer dish of Sápmi is sautéed reindeer, renskav in Swedish: thin slices of reindeer, usually cut while still frozen, fried in fat and seasoned with salt and black pepper, then served with mashed potatoes and lingonberries, traditionally raw lingonberries mashed with sugar.

Up on Nuolja, the Aurora Sky Station has its own café beside its lookout for the northern lights. On the trails, cooking is a matter of self-catering: hikers stock up at the shop before setting off, and some of the mountain cabins along the Kungsleden, such as Abiskojaure, have small shops of their own. In the evenings, the pub at the tourist station and the restaurant and bar by the petrol station near Abisko Östra serve drinks and food.