Mikkel drives his snowmobile like a crazy person- we go up what feels like 70 or 80 degree inclines, and he veers his snowmobile on one blade to use gravity to power us up. I asked him, have you ever had an accident before? ‘Many times’. One time, going up, I was a bit startled when he had to shift his body-weight suddenly by suddenly jumping from one side to another. My surprise translated to my grip (just one hand on the handle of his rifle case, attached to the right side of the vehicle). One moment I was on the snowmobile, the next i wasn’t. The roaring of the machine is was loud that I didn’t give more than a halfhearted shout, just waited on the slope of snow to see if he would turn around. He did. Hadn’t even felt that I was gone. He noticed at the top of the hill, with great surprise. Lucky for me- the tundra doesn’t take care of you.
// Later on, he let me drive the snowmobile over a flat patch of the snow. It’s fun, and far more interesting than just hanging on the back for dear life. I went a bit fast over the bumps and grass, but got the hang of it. The best part is going over melting rivers of ice, where the water spouts up like a geyser when we past it. I would have gotten a photo but there was no way to not fall off. The water is either golden from the slanting arctic sun, or seafoam green and turquoise- the change of colouration must come from algae, ice thickness. Mikkel said that now that I can drive, I can go back and, gesturing at the hills with the missing reindeer, “take care of this shit.” (Finnmark, 2019).