redsherpa.com

The central Swedish city of Östersund is famous for two things. They lost the vote for hosting the Olympic Games three times and they house, Storsjöodjuret, the famous cousin of “Nessie” from Loch Ness. 

The members of the International Olympic Committee, IOC, are legendary for their Spartan living while evaluating the bidding cities, NOT!  But thanks to good old Swedish ethics, no one even thought about obvious things like cash bribes and escort girls when the IOC members arrived to Ostersund’s airport. Wow, I can imagine the faces on the committee when instead of champagne parties, five star hotels and free Rolexes, they were taken on tours around the city to actually look at future sporting facilities and infrastructure. It took the city hall twenty years and three candidates to understand how things work south of the Arctic Circle. However, I still don’t know about any escort girls in Östersund so I have a feeling it will be a while before they will be able to light up the Olympic fire.

The Storsjöodjuret, on the other hand, has been spotted hundreds of times over the last couple centuries, and the numerous theories about what people have really seen pollute the waters still. Attempts to catch the creature have been made several times. 1897 a wealthy lady hired a Norwegian whale hunter to hunt it down with an electric light as bait and a big harpoon. For some reason they weren’t very successful so in 1901 another effort was sponsored by a big newspaper in Stockholm. They used a huge trap that looked like it was made for a five ton Grizzly. It was baited with a dead pig and guaranteed success. Well, the theory after that failed attempt was that the Storsjöodjuret was feeding on fish and didn’t like the rotten little piglet. 1985 the County Administration decided to protect the monster and its eggs from future hunting and pursue. Still, no one still knows what kind of animal lurks down in the dark and cold water of Storsjön, but the lake is big and deep and many people think it is the remainder of an extinct dinosaur family that hides in the lake.

Full of excitement, some friends and I climbed the mountain above the city to get a better view and hopefully spot the sea monster. We sat there for at least two, maybe three minutes with our binoculars before we got bored. I’m not saying we were impatient, but someone found a shovel, while another one of us went down for a sled and came back with a case of beer, a barbecue, and some girls. Before we knew it, we kind of lost the interest for crypto-zoology and forgot about the whole thing. It was a beautiful day in May and apart from my cracked caudal vertebra and my brothers broken wrist, we had one of the best days of riding ever.

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