Frozen Sea in Luleå, Sweden

The Luleå archipelago (Swedish: Luleå Skärgård or Lule Skärgård) is a group of Swedish islands in the north part of the Bay of Bothnia. They lie offshore from the city of Luleå and the mouth of the Lule River. A few of the islands have small permanent populations, but most are used only for recreation in the summer months. They are icebound during the winter.

Location

The north of the bay of Bothnia contains a large archipelago area. The islands in the Swedish sector make up the Norrbotten archipelago. They are divided into the Piteå, Luleå, Kalix and Haparanda archipelagos. The Luleå archipelago lies in the Luleå Municipality, part of the Norrbotten county. The port of Luleå is one of the largest in Sweden in terms of tonnage, shipping iron ore and steel.

There are more than 1,312 islands in the Luleå archipelago if small or very small rocky islets are included. Many of the islands are uninhabited, in a natural state, and are quite small with little or nothing in the way of facilities for visitors.Due to post-glacial rebound the land is rising at from 0.8 to 1 centimetre (0.31 to 0.39 in) annually, so the shoreline can retreat by as much as 100 metres (330 ft) in one person's lifetime. As a result, the islands are growing in size but the waters and harbors are becoming shallower. Because of this process in 1649 the entire city of Luleå was forced to move to its present location since the channel to its previous location had become too shallow.

Climate

The archipelago is only 100 kilometres (62 mi) south of the Arctic Circle, so there is daylight for 24 hours in the summer, and full moon all day in the winter. In the summer many of the islands can be reached by tour boat. In the winter they can be reached by ice road, snowmobile, skiing or skating.

The waters around the archipelago are brackish, with less the 10% of the salt content of the Atlantic. The sea freezes in January and remain frozen until March-April. Ice roadsare cleared to four inhabited islands. In total there are 60 kilometres (37 mi) of ice roads. The longest ice road in Sweden at 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) runs from Hindersöstallarna on the mainland to the islands of Hindersön, Stor-Brändön, and Långön. Normally the road is open from January to April. Vehicle weight restrictions apply.

Environment

The Luleå archipelago was described by the Swedish bishop Olaus Magnus in 1555. He praised the fair islands, with constant daylight in the summer, well-covered in trees, bushes and grass, with warm but refreshing air, set in a sea that was rich in fish. The islands are rich in wild berries including lingonberries, blueberries, raspberries, Arctic raspberries, cloudberries, wild strawberries and seabuckthorn. They have a large and varied bird population. The outer islands are considered more vulnerable, with more sensitive vegetation.

A number of islands are in whole or part included in the Natura 2000 ecological network of the European Union, including sixteen nature reserves that cover 16,340 hectares (40,400 acres) of which 1,392 hectares (3,440 acres) is land. There is one 5 hectares (12 acres)biotope protected area. There are eight bird sanctuaries covering 1,670 hectares (4,100 acres) of which 366 hectares (900 acres) is land. These are off-limits to visitors during the months of May, June and July, when the birds are breeding. Most of the protected nature reserves and bird sanctuaries are in the outer zone.

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Trango Towers, Pakistan

The Trango Towers is family of world tallest rock towers situated in Gilgit-Baltistan, an autonomous territory in the North ofPakistan. Every year, a number of expeditions from all over the world visit Karakoram to climb the most challenging granite cliffs. They are located in the north of Baltoro Glacier, in Baltistan, a region of the Gilgit-Baltistan territory in northern Pakistan. They are part of the Baltoro Muztagh, a sub-range of the Karakoram range. The Towers offer some of the largest cliffs and most challenging rock climbing in the world. The highest point in the group is the summit of Great Trango Tower at 6,286 m (20,608 ft). The east face of the Great Trango Tower features the world's greatest nearly vertical drop.

Structure of the Group

All of the Trango Towers lie on a ridge, trending northwest-southeast, between the Trango Glacier on the west and the Dunge Glacier on the east. Great Trango itself is a large massif, with four identifiable summits: Main (6,286 m), South or Southwest (circa 6,250 m), East (6,231 m), and West (6,223 m). It is a complex combination of steep snow/ice gullies, steeper rock faces, and vertical to overhanging headwalls, topped by a snowy ridge system.

Just northwest of Great Trango is the Trango Tower (6,239 m), often called "Nameless Tower". This is a very large, pointed, rather symmetrical spire which juts 1000 m out of the ridgeline. North of Trango Tower is a smaller rock spire known as "Trango Monk." To the north of this feature, the ridge becomes less rocky and loses the large granite walls that distinguish the Trango Towers group and make them so attractive to climbers; however the summits do get higher. These summits are not usually considered part of the Trango Towers group, though they share the Trango name. Trango II (6,327 m) lies northwest of the Monk, and the highest summit on the ridge, Trango Ri (6,363 m), lies northwest of Trango II.

Just southeast of Great Trango (really a part of its southeast ridge) is the Trango Pulpit (6,050m), whose walls present similar climbing challenges to those of Great Trango itself. Further to the south is Trango Castle (5,753 m), the last large peak along the ridge before the Baltoro Glacier.

Climbing history

Overall, the Trango Towers group has seen some of the most difficult and significant climbs ever accomplished, due to the combination of altitude, total height of the routes, and the steepness of the rock. All of the routes are highly technical climbs.

Trango towers have only been climbed once by Pakistani rock climbers in history. Imran Junaidi and Usman Tariq successfully reached to the summit of Trango Tower in July 2014 and opened a new route with difficulty 5.10d, A0. They are also the first locals to attempt Trango Tower, in September 2013, but were forced by heavy snowfall to descend from camp 2. Two days later, however, the team climbed a virgin line at Trango Braak, reporting difficulty of 5.10, A1.

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Fox Glacier, South Island, New Zealand

The Fox Glacier (Te Moeka o Tuawe in Māori) is a 13 km (8.1 mi) long glacier located in Westland Tai Poutini National Parkon the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. It was named in 1872 after a visit by the then Prime Minister of New Zealand, Sir William Fox.

Geography

Fed by four alpine glaciers, Fox Glacier falls 2,600 m (8,500 ft) on its 13 km journey from the Southern Alps down to the coast, with it having the distinction of being one of the few glaciers to end among lush rainforest only 300 metres (980 ft) above sea level. Although retreating throughout most of the last 100 years, it has been advancing between 1985 and 2009. In 2006 the average rate of advance was about a metre a week. In January 2009, the terminal face of the glacier was still advancing and had vertical or overhanging faces which were continually collapsing. Since then there has been a significant retreat, with the 2009 high level clearly visible as vegetation line on the southern slope above what is left of the lower glacier today.

 

The outflow of the glacier forms the Fox River. During the last ice age, its ice reached beyond the present coastline, and the glacier left behind many moraines during its retreat. Lake Matheson formed as a kettle lake within one of these.

Tourism

Like nearby Franz Josef Glacier, it is one of the most accessible glaciers in the world, with its terminal face an easy walk from Fox Glacier village/Weheka. It is a major tourist attraction and about 1000 people daily visit it during high tourist season. Though people are told not to, some go beyond the barriers and climb without guides onto the glacier, whose rapid advance creates dangers of sudden ice and rockfalls.

Fox Glacier township/Weheka, 6 km away from the glacier, functions mainly as a service centre for tourists, though it also services the local farming community, which had been its main focus until the 1990s (though tourism started as early as the late 1920s). The approximate township site had been gazetted as early as 1866. Bruce Bay is 46 km to the south-west of the township, and Franz Josef is 23 km north-east. State Highway 6 runs through the town.

The population was 375 in the 2006 Census, an increase of 117 from 2001.

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