lemonad

This post was actually meant to go out before we headed out but I just didn’t have time to publish it. Too much time spent weighing the options in terms of equipment (pun intended, see below :)

As we got hooked on fjällen last year, Karin and I early on decided to go backpacking in the north of Sweden again. This time, we met up with my dad and brother at Arlanda airport and flew together up to Kiruna where we took a taxi to Abisko Fjällstation and ate an excellent as well as extensive vegetarian buffet there (Karin felt very lucky!)

Next morning, after a steady breakfast, we started hiking and for two days followed Kungsleden until reaching the Alesjaure cabins. At that point, we headed off along one of the unmarked trails along the Unna Visttasvággi valley in order to reach the Visttas cabin. From there, we headed up another valley to the Nallo cabin. After which we split up for a while. Jens and Olle headed to down to the Sälka cabins to rest a day while Karin and I took a detour to the remote and alpine Unna Räita cabin.

After Unna Räita, we went down to Sälka where the cabin host argued strongly against going up Koupervaggi and ending up at the Tarfala cabins. In retrospect, we should’ve trusted our guide book but at that point we didn’t know and decided to go by what he said. So we followed Kungsleden and the trail to the Kebnekaise cabins where we split up once again. Jens and Olle were going up to the top of Kebnekaise and Karin and I headed towards Tarfala.

Going to Tarfala turned out to be a really good choice. From there we headed “straight” towards Nikkaluokta by starting with going up a steep mountain side consisting of only loose rocks but we were lucky and met up with a crew from the research station who led us up an easier path than the regular one. The top of that pass is absolutely beautiful. One one side, you have views of steep, snow-covered mountain tops and glaciers. One the other side, you’ll have all the gentle sloping hills you can wish for.

The last couple of days we spent on these beautiful hills sloping towards Nikkaluokta. No path, just immense open spaces in front of us.

All in all, camping around the 1000m mark has become our definitive preference — alpine but not too alpine.

Our packing list for this year improved a bit (but far from the amount the checkbook says ;). Our most appreciated new piece of gear were our NeoAir 120cm sleeping pads. Crazy light and really, really comfortable when you fill them with just enough air.

Backpacking light? Not really.

Our tentative plan (which did change)

Wearing:

Carrying:

Living and sleeping:

Clothes:

For the feet:

Eat and cook:

Dry-bags, etc.:

Miscellaneous:

Books, maps, etc.:

Camera equipment:

Food:

Hygiene:

All in all, 15981 grams carried including backpack. When we started from Abisko we noticed Karin was carrying as much as me so we gradually moved stuff over to my backpack during the hike.

Karin’s packlist

Click the above to see the Flickr notes on what Karin is bringing.