Lake Shore

About this walk

This is a gentle walk from the STF Tourist Station through birch woodland to the shore of Lake Torneträsk, where you will find a picnic area and sauna. This audio experience is 1.2 kilometers, and it takes up to 20 minutes to reach the lake shore.

• Distance: 1.2km

• Starts: STF Tourist Station/Naturum

• Ends: Lake Torneträsk

Tour highlights

Some of the things you’ll learn about on this tour.

Lake Torneträsk

Every week during the winter, Thomas Westin from the Abisko Scientific Research Station walks out onto the lake and drills several holes in the ice to measure the ice thickness. The amount of time the lake freezes over is getting shorter and shorter. Even when it is frozen thick, there will be some cracks and the ice will expand and contract, making the lake rumble, groan, and creak. Listen to these ethereal sounds during this tour.

Image: Oliver Wright

Moose

Abisko has some of the lowest snowfall each winter in the region, which makes it a great place to look for moose when you’re out hiking through the national park. They find it easier to come down from the mountains here and to walk through the birch forests. In the winter, moose will eat the thin branches and buds of birch and willow, as well as the bark from trees. When you’re out hiking, look out for birch and willow with cropped branches. There’s a good chance that it’ll have been eaten by a hungry moose!

Snow depth science

Here in Abisko, records show that extreme high temperature events have increased since 1913. In 2022, a week-long heatwave at the end of June melted much of the high elevation snowpack in the mountains leading to very high spring run-off conditions in the local rivers.

It might be hard to imagine this landscape without its snowy white blanket, and even in the summer, areas of snow often persist in the mountains. These snowfields are essential as refuges that reindeer use to cool down and to escape bugs like mosquitos.

Image: Josefine Walz