The first time I saw the aurora borealis, or northern lights, was when I was 18 years old and on a road trip with some friends along the icy Dempster highway in Canada's Yukon territory. Huddled down in the back of an old flat-bed Chevy pick-up truck, I was more concerned about the cold than the lights, only managing the odd peek through the small eyehole I created in my parka's hood. Years later, I shivered through the light display in jeans and a thin jacket, caught out while working as a carpenter in Fort McMurray, in northern Alberta. So it seems strange that when offered the chance to see them again, this time in Sweden, I would end up naked.
The setting for my northern exposure was an extraordinary hotel built from flat-pack huts three kilometres out on the metre-and-a-half-thick ice of Lake Tornetrask. Opened last week, it is possibly the most novel way to see the northern lights and is sure to give the nearby Ice Hotel a run for its money. Located close to the remote community of Abisko, 250km north of the Arctic circle, the Abisko Ark Hotel is a cross between camping and pottering in a garden shed.
"This area is an untapped secret known only to Swedes," said Putte Eby, the brains behind the hotel. "But with enlightened management that will change. We want to open the area up. My guess is, in about five years we won't have many Swedish guests; they will mostly be foreign."
The idea behind the Ark Hotel comes from a local tradition: men have been building these huts for decades, dragging them out on the ice every winter and fishing from a hole in the floor and ice below. And this isn't Putte's first inspired idea. Two years ago he saved a disused ski lift on nearby Nuolja Mountain and created the Aurora Skystation at its summit. At 900m above sea level, it is another great vantage point for the northern lights.
The three-kilometre trip to the Ark Hotel is completed on a sledge dragged by a snowmobile. With icy-cold air blasting in my face, the tip of my nose was numb by the time we unloaded. Still, comfort in such a harsh environment is central to the Ark Hotel ethos. Guests are expected to bring essentials such as thermal underwear, fleeces and woolly hats, but the hotel provides thick outerwear and heavy snowmobile boots.
From a distance the huts look anything but substantial. With a pitched roof, a small window and narrow door, they squat on the snow-covered ice like dark blemishes. But they are more than a match for the elements, constructed of double-skinned pine and plywood with a thick layer of insulation in between, and kept warm with propane heaters.
Each is about six metres square and sleeps three comfortably on single beds. The best part is that by each bed is a resealable hole in the wooden floor, allowing guests to fish from the comfort of their down-filled sleeping bags.
Once we stowed our gear it was time to take a closer look at our surroundings. Putte couldn't have picked a better spot. Well away from the shore, we seemed to be alone in the world. The lights from the nearest town were obscured by a small island and the only sound was the wind or an occasional snowmobile. Directly across Lake Tornetrask lie the mountains of the Other Side, the simple name given to that region. The view to the south is of a large gap in the distant hills called Lapporten, the gateway to Lapland.
Accompanying us was Lars Bergqvist, our guide and chef. His job was to knock together a fabulous meal of smoked reindeer kebabs and salad, and keep the sauna stoked for the evening's display.
"No hotel in Sweden is complete without a sauna," he declared. "And you can't really enjoy the aurora without first getting hot and sweaty."
Once dinner was out of the way, it was a waiting game. As experienced Aurora watchers know, the lights can be annoyingly elusive. Lars predicted that they wouldn't appear until about 9pm, so we whiled away the hours sipping hot chocolate and cognac. Then, just as the last of the moose-meat sausage and crackers disappeared, we had our first glimpse of the lights. It was as if they were dancing just above our heads. They squirmed like a giant green snake across the horizon then shifted gear into a sheet of sparkling light, only to disappear for a few minutes before reappearing twice as bright.
It was at this point, after leaving the sauna, that we decided to confront the aurora borealis in all of nature's glory. Digging deep to find our inner hairy Viking, we cast aside our towels and attacked the lights, screaming at the top of our lungs. It took a few minutes for the minus 20C temperature to kick in and send us scuttling back to the sauna and the comfort of a bottle of single malt.
As the finishing touches are put to the hotel, a traditional Sami tipi will be installed, allowing guests to eat and chill in the warmth of a wood-fired stove. At night, they will be able to clamber into a hot tub to view the aurora. At the end of the season, the hotel can be packed away and dragged off the melting ice.
This area is known as the Abisko Blue Hole, a microclimate where the surrounding mountains keep heavy clouds at bay, making the skies clearer than in other parts of northern Sweden. It's the Blue Hole that makes Abisko one of the best places to view the northern lights.
Going naked under the stars is nothing new, of course. The story goes that the Japanese believe that making love under the lights will bring them academically gifted offspring. As for Lars, he's seen it all before and is a hard man to impress. He's not sure about the Japanese myth, but three Brits sliding naked across a frozen lake bleating at a green streak in the sky has surely set a standard for future guests.
· The Ark Hotel (+46 980 402 00; abisko.nu) costs £230pppn, including outdoor clothing and boots, fishing licences, guide, three-course evening meal, breakfast and lunch, and transfers from Abisko. Scandinavian Airlines (0871 521 2772; flysas.co.uk) flies from Heathrow and Bristol to Kiruna via Stockholm, from £233 return.