Utedass (Outside Toilet)

If you have a large screen you can probably read the word "Utedass", on the left of the door. So this is an outside toilet, though in one way the toilet is actually indoors, even if it's a very small indoors.
We took a x-country ski trip up to a "cottage" on the mountain above the tree-line. Cottage isn't really the right word because it serves food to about 100 visitors. The traditional dish for the "cottage" is a waffle with cream and cloudberry jam, but nowadays their younger visitors get through a good few toasted sandwiches and hot dogs. All the water is fetched up to the place on snow mobiles, and electricity is limited to the battery-fed wifi, charged through a small wind turbine and solar cells. Cooking is done on wood fired ranges and the "toasted" sandwiches are actually fried.
The wifi is vital because hardly anyone  carries money these days in Sweden, so if you have a business, even up on the open mountain, there has to be a way for people to pay with their phones!
Anyway, no water means limited toilet facilities, in fact limited to this small hut where there is a bench with a hole. A polystyrene seat ensures you don't freeze to the bench!
When you talk about "utedass" to older Swedes they get a bit nostalgic. Anna-Lena remembered when she went to primary school and the girls' toilet was a long bench with a row of five holes.
When you use a toilet like this out in the forest, or in the mountains, one of the joys is to sit there with the door open, admiring the view while you poo! Today there were a lot of visitors to the waffle cafe so there was a queue, making such luxuries impossible!!
I mentioned x-country skis, and the original plan was for Björn and I to ski up to the cafe while Anna-Lena and Jan went up with the "vessla", a tracked vehicle that tows a trailer, and a rope with handles. You can sit inside the vehicle, on the trailer behind, or you can be towed up with the rope, using your skis. Anyway, in the end Björn and I also took the easy way up.  After our waffles  we skied down while Jan and A-L took the vessla down as well. (The track down was rather icy and not easy to ski in X-country skis.)
It was a fun day with sun, a few snow showers, wind on the tops, and a temperature of around -5°C.
We got back to the flat and had our usual sauna.
Another good day.
Homeward bound tomorrow.

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