Kat-ventures: Hej, Hej Kungsleden

Seven Days of "No Service" - Abisko to Vakkotavare

Saturday, July 8: Abisko to Garddenvarri, 17.6km, 324m ascent

So there we were. A few photos at the start portal and off we went into the very long stretch of birch wood to Abiskojaure hut and beyond to find a wild camping spot just outside the Abisko National Park, where camping is not allowed unless at designated spots.

We soon peeled out of our waterproofs as they were luckily not necessary. Infact, we got pretty warm as we walked through endless birch with the broad but bustling Abiskojakka river nearby and snowy hills left, right and in front. Nice.
Briefly we thought about only wearing t-shirt and shorts, but very quickly we experienced first hand, how annoying Swedish mosquitos are. The extend of our annoyance tightly coupled with their numbers. The Swedish repellent we bought was oily and felt nice on our arms, faces and necks, but didn't stop the buzzing bastards from landing on it. We didn't want to chance it and kept on swatting.
Eventually, our head nets came in handy, when stoping for more than a minute. I had bought mine years and years ago for my Scotland trips and never used it so far. Now I was already very familiar with it after just a couple of hours... on day ONE!

Abiskojakka river

Come and get me mozzies!

Still, we enjoyed the walk, finally got going with our 18kg and 15kg backpacks and food for more than a week. Had a break here and there for some snackage (cheese, nuts, salami, dried fruit) practicing our technique in eating with a mozzie hat on. Rich found an old snow patch and stepped on it joyfully exclamating "I want to step on arctic snow!". Little did he know of what was about to come.

We passed some old and new Sami huts (Sami are semi-normadic native people mostly living off reindeer herding.) and arrived at Abiskojaure hut after 14km. Rich had a look around to get an idea what those huts offered and how well the little shop was stocked so we knew what to expect. I waited outside all layered up, but not having completely covered my hands I collected impressive 12+ mozzie bites in less than 10 minutes. Marvellous.

Old Sami hut. Looks like it's still being used.

Arctic flora...

...and fauna

Garddenvarri ahead. We camped at its lower slopes

We were a bit tired not yet used to carrying our heavy bags and walking all day, but kept on walking to get beyond the National Park boundary. We saw quite a few tents dotting the scenery just after the border sign, but kept on going to reach higher ground on the slopes of Garddenvarri to hopefully find some sort of breeze. No wind, no rain... we were in mozzie heaven.

Crossed a river and headed steeply uphill, found a somewhat flat-ish spot and pitched. Nice view, but could do stuff outside only fully covered.... including having dinner. Had our first pouch of freeze-dried food and went to bed quite early, almost wishing for rain or wind. Fancy that, eh?

Advanced eating technique

Sunday, July 9: Garddenvarri - Alesjaure, 18.38km, 349m ascent

We were greeted by a sunny morning, no trace of yesterday's grey clouds. I was awake much earlier than Rich, fleeing from our greenhouse-tent 8am. With a slight breeze I could actually sit outside for a bit and enjoy the view. I grabbed all our empty water bottles and headed downhill back to the river crossing for fresh water, lugging it back uphill.
Eventually, Rich got up, still feeling tired. We boiled water for our soups and threw some pre-cooked and vacuum packed bacon lardons into it. That was going to be our breakfast for the next 14 days with a choice of different flavours and either bacon or chorizo which we had fried off and vaccumised at home.

Not a bad spot at all

Left camp pretty late at 10:45am heading uphill some more getting a sweat on. Like yesterday the trail was fairly busy, people lugging their heavy packs around. We still enjpyed the scenery very much and greeted every walker.
Stunning views again left right and center heading towards a high plateau/valley with Njuikkostak dominating the scene ahead. We had plenty of breaks, there were hardly any mosquitos. We were above the tree line and there was a slight breeze. Perfect.

Njuikkostak

Those were the easy crossings

Heading towards Alesjaure huts

We walked along the Alisjavri lake all the way to Alesjaure hut having the huts themselves in view long before reaching them. Almost there, just 2km away we came across a river... or rather it came across our path. Too wide to jump (well... roughly 10 meters), no stepping stones, no bridge and too deep to just walk over it. Looking up and downstream there were no obvious crossing opportunities. We had to wade.

Walking along Alisjavri

Lucky us, we had just bought watersports shoes the week before back home for exactly that purpose. Some people tried to wade barefoot, some in flipflops or crocs. None of them looked surefooted at all. In we went with the water well over ankle high sporting quite a current. Surefooted we were. No slipping or stones poking our feet. But oh my gosh was it cold! That was just above freezing level snowmelt water. It was so cold, that my whole body started shivering and shaking almost straight away. I stood on a small dry bit in the middle of the stream for a bit which felt so much warmer just being out of that cold water. Made it through the second part of the stream and was glad to slip back into my warm hiking socks and boots.

At the huts we just popped into the loo and then went on to find a wild camp spot. All we had to do was cross a bridge and chose one of the obviously spots used for just that purpose. Found one all to ourselves and pitched with the peaceful and broad Aliseatnu river nearby around 6pm. Had another pouch of "Adventure Food" and I did a beer and biscuit run to the nearby hut. No matter the cost, we had earned this today. £3 for some light short cake type biscuits and £6.5 for a can of mediocre lager. For us it was just perfect. We chilled in the evening sun for a bit (which would stay exactly like that all the way to about 5 in the morning) and went to bed around 9pm which would become our usual bedtime.

Superb day with superb weather!!!

First Swedish beer

Amazing wild camp spot again!

Monday, July 10: Alesjaure - Georgeoaivi, 21km, 464m ascent

Again the sun warmed the tent up in the morning and I fled outside whilst Rich was still fast asleep. Being so close to water I seized the opportunity to wash some underwear, use the loos at the nearby huts and after another soup and chorizo breakfast we left camp at 9:30am. The plan was to get either close to Tjaktja hut or over Tjaktja pass and camp somewhere in the valley on the other side.

Good morning Sweden

Walking was fairly easy with rocks, some boggy bits and planks. Stunning scenery again with sun and clouds, snowy mountains left right and centre! Just as epic as yesterday. We walked over some bigger snow patches and passed the sorry remains of Bossus glacier before the valley opened up to more jaw dropping views ahead.

More and more snow.

More arctic flora.

What's left of Bossus glacier

Numerous snowmelt streams made it easy to keep our water topped up and we were glad that the two ropey river crossings along the way could be managed without wading again. Brrrr.

We had a few breaks here and there with no mozzies thanks to a bit of wind. The sun vanished more and more behind darker clouds and just at the foot of the ascent to Tjaktja hut, a light drizzle quickly turned into proper rain. Full waterrproofs, head down and go.
The ascent was at times gruelling with more and more snow to cross, parts of it very squishy, others slippery with our more aimed at summer hiking boots.

Lots and lots of water

Great scenery again

At the foot of Tjaktja pass

Wet and slightly miserable we made it to the huts by 3pm only to be greeted by the host with a big smile on his face and a warm "Welcome to Tjaktja!". We got hot applejuice for free, but as non-members of the Swedish Tourist Association were not allowed to warm up inside the hut. Boo. The hot juice was amazing though and we rested for a bit trying to stay as much under the small bit of overhanging roof as possible, spotting reindeer for the first time on a nearby hill. That was one thing ticked of my virtual things-to-see-on-Kungsleden list.

Tjaktja hut

The host told us that they were watching the ascent (and the huts were in a prime position to do so) to see how many people were coming. He also mentioned that they had had a very cold spring and there was much more snow now than usual in early July. For us there was no other way but forward though, so we said our goodbyes and headed back onto the trail.

The rain kept changing between medium drizzle and no rain as we made our way over the high plain towards the last steep bit of the pass. We didn't really give it much heed as we were busy navigating over all that snow. Apart from very few patches of dark rock, the whole plain was covered in snow. Some of it with some tracks and more or less walkable, but most of it squishy and sloshy with melt water running underneath. We zigg-zagged, glad for at least a clear view ahead, trying to stay on the shit parts rather than the shit-shit ones, where every step was a gamble.
We broke through to mid calf length at few times, dipping our boots and legs into icy cold water. Twice my backpack kept moving forward as my leg was trapped and I fell onto my arms, glad I was wearing gloves. It wasn't fun at all. It was tiring, it was wet and it was frustrating, but with a grim determination we kept going.

Snow. And lots of it.

Finally, the shelter!

Looking back to what we had just crossed

This is what I love about those outdoor experiences. You can't just stop and go home. You can't quit. You have to keep going. Head down, one step in front of the other. It teaches you determination, focus and grit.

After one last push, we finally reached the shelter hut on top of the pass at 5:30pm after more than two hours of hard work. My boots had given in and everything was just wet. Luckily the woodburner in the hut was going so we could warm up a bit. Had some biscuits and Haribos and a well earned rest, enviuosly watching a young German couple cooking up some pasta.

Eventually, we got back into still wet clothes and made our way down the other side into yet another stunning valley. The rain had stopped for good, but with still a lot of snow, we kept the waterproofs on.
We had to go down a fair bit to find a decent spot opposite the impressive face of Georgeoaivi. I had seen it from afar only to find out that there already was a tent when we got close enough. The patch of green was big enough to pitch a fair bit away from the others though. We quickly set up camp, slipped into dry clothes, cooked dinner (well, boiled water for the pouch) and after a well earned sip of whiskey fell asleep very quickly.