Tvärt avslut i Sarek...

Back from a major mountain hike and climb in a most unusual and unexpected way, a few days ahead of plan... Out in the wilderness of Sarek, way up north in Sweden, hiking with Anna, I suddenly got blurred vision and then became blind on my left eye. After a short while a hole with vision opened up in the middle of the blindness, and then, slowly, my vision got back to normal - but not me. I was seriously shaken, and gave Anna fast instructions and assurances in case of my untimely death on the open spaces we just then roamed. We tried calling 991 (112 in Sweden) - but no connection. Only possible solution was hiking to the nearest mountain hut with emergency radio connection; Kisuris. That was only 4 kilometers away, so we moved towards it, and managed to get there. I called on the radio, and got in touch with Mountain Rescue, run by police personnel, who called a helicopter doctor, who decided I had to be brought in. This was nothing I asked for or suggested, it was the physician's decision based on my symtoms. However, there was no ambulance helicopter available, so they decided on a police helicopter, stationed in Boden, about 350 kilometers away from Kisuris. Since the police officers had to have a physician with them, they quickly engaged one (Robert) from the ground ambulance station, and he hopped the helicopter, and they lifted from Boden town. After some time, after having flown 350 kilometers, the helicopter arrived above Kisuris, and the guy on the radio link from Rescue gave me a call and told me they were looking for a place to land. Then they came over to the hut where I was instructed to wait, and Robert, the physician, started examining me and shoot me up with some drugs to get the blood pressure down etcetera, and checked heart rate and other parameters. Then we got in the helicopter. Anna had to take a pilot's seat up front, while one of the pilots hooked himself up with the backpacks in the middle, and the ambulance physician sat with me in the back. They then flew Anna to our car in Ritsem, where she got off with our backpacks, and the helicopter fueled. Then began a most wonderful flight 170 kilometers low, low across forests, power dams and bogs, under the low clouds, swaying here and there, getting to the hospital of Gällivare in the best way under the bad weather circumstances. The police helicopter was like a space ship, so filled with latest technology. I was impressed. The guys, the two pilots and the ambulance physician, were extremely light-hearted and kind, and, dare i say, top notch professionals. They delivered me to the emergency room at the hospital, and within minutes my brain was scanned and my heart checked, and then continued two days of examinations by wonderful hospital personnel. I had suffered what may have been a serious incident, but from which I got away un-scarred and with all my abilities intact, but I have come to love the system that we have in this country that allows incredibly expensive rescue missions for anyone, when you're in danger. I get really soft when I ponder that. A longer story about the mountain hike and this strange finish will be published later, with lots of pictures.