We were living in Sweden at that time, and wanted to hike up in the north. So many of our friends talked about it, especially those who took part in the 1977 Annapurna trek. With no experience of the mountains up there, we chose a hike with a trail to follow (most of the areas have no trails). Surain's parents Jack and Elaine were visiting and buying a Volvo, so we all drove up together. North of The Arctic Circle in Norway they headed south again, while we hopped on a bus to Sulitielma.

The hike starts there and climbs rapidly to the Continental Divide, which we crossed in a permanent snowfield. It descends to a lake and then crosses over to Sweden. The wonderful scenery and the open ground enthralled us - it is all above timberline, which is about 550 meters (1,700 feet) here. Passing through Lake Virihaure, Surain pronounced that it was the most beautiful spot she had seen.

This was an obvious choice for scattering her ashes, signifying our love for Sweden.

On this hike I was fortunate to have with me Sarah McConkey, Surain's niece. Despite the fact that this was her first major hike, she did admirably - handling steep snowfields and take-off-boots river crossings with equal ease. We followed the same trail that Surain and I had in 1983, found the spot that Surain had said it was the most beautiful she had see, and scattered her ashes there. But even before that, we found another spot overlooking Lake Virihaure. It was a place where mountains and lakes and grassland came together in perfect harmony, so we scattered ashes here as well. As we sat in private mediation, we could reflect on the life Surain had lead and how many people she had affected with it.

Though it was light all the time Surain and I hiked this in 1983, it was too late in the season to see the midnight sun. But this year it was not, so we devoted quite some effort to find campsites that might be lit by the sun at midnight. Both camp #1 and camp #4 could have, but it was cloudy. But our efforts were crowned with success at camp #5, an incredible camp sight that I have yet to equal. At midnight we sat in the tent looking at the etherical sun. This was only the second time I had seen it, the first time being last year with Surain.

Ghislaine loves Lappland and the mountains as much as I do, but she had never seen it in what I call "the real way" - by hiking it. We had talked about doing this, and finally got our act together and headed up to Staloluokta at lake Virihaure in the Padjelanta National Park. The rock on the picture is the same rock, under which Sarah and I spread Surain's ashes, and the view of lake Virihaure is the one that Surain had loved so much.