AbstractFreeze‐thaw activity was studied at two mountain sites in Swedish Lappland, a debris‐mantled slope with small rockwalls at 1200 m altitude and a solifluction slope at 1050 m altitude. During the snow‐free period, there was a low intensity of short‐term frost cycles at the rockwall site, implying that current frost shattering of bedrock is mainly due to the annual freeze cycle. At the solifluction site, during a period with net surficial soil movements of up to 3 cm, short‐term frost cycles were absent below 0.1 m depth in the ground, suggesting a dominance of pure solifluction over frost creep. A considerable variability in near‐ground temperatures implies thatin situmeasurements, rather than meteorological screen data, are essential in assessments of frost action in high mount