A Bavarian lost in Stockholm struggling with Swedish. Love hiking, being outdoors and my cat. 😻🍁🏔🏕🏳️‍🌈 (queer/bi/pan, he/him, they/them) Meer informatie Stockholms län, Sverige
  • Dag 20

    Enter Sarek

    5 augustus 2022, Zweden ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    After a rather rough night with strong winds rattling the walls of my tent I get up late and wait for the sun to dry my stuff. I round Nuortap Rissavárre on its southern shoulder. Easy walking again. I start wondering what’s all the fuzz about? Spectacular views on the first glimpse on Sarek. I descend to Álgajávrre, messing with some reindeer.
    Down by the lake I see other people entering the boat. They must have come from the northern side of the mountains since I hadn’t noticed them until them. Will they leave without me? Yes. Will they come back to return the other boat from the other side? Yes. They pick me up and I even get a free ride. Splendid! I follow the lower trail along the lakeside. Nice trail, easy walking again. I make good progress. It’s still more strenuous than just following a well established and maintained trail but much much better than expected.

    Álggavágge itself is not particularly exciting to be honest. Or it’s secrets and magic don’t resonate with me. Dark, brown to black, steep mountains left and right. Mostly rocks and no vegetation. Occasionally a glacier here and there dares to peek around the corner.
    I get tired and allow myself to call it day with a good deal left of to walk in this valley. Once inside the tent and time to reflect I realize „what are these mountains I’m looking at?“. So steep and high. Dramatic with a huge glacier right in the middle. Is this Sarek itself already? I check the maps, I start PeakFinder. Yes! I’m looking right at the Sarek massif. Wow! Just wow! I’m seriously overwhelmed by this view. I leave the tent open so I can take another look whenever I feel like it. Weather is perfect and for the first time I realize „no mosquitoes!“.
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  • Dag 19

    Álájávrre

    4 augustus 2022, Zweden ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Heading towards Sarek, passing through Padjelanta. Trail from Stáloluokta starts steep uphill, gets more wet and wet by the minute. Found myself climbing over rocks and steep ridges just to escape the bogs. Found trail again just to decide to leave it behind soon. Found a good route, mostly dry around Unna Liemak. More and more clouds protect me from getting too much sun (should have taken the sunscreen Magrit offered). The route towards Álájávrre (islamophobes might want to avoid this area) was easy to find and follow. Easy walking for most parts along the northern side of the lake. Just when I pitched my tent at the eastern end the sun comes back. Glorious!Meer informatie

  • Dag 17

    Stáloluokta

    2 augustus 2022, Zweden ⋅ 🌧 5 °C

    After that fast hiking lesson with Johan I decided to stay in bed. All my clothes were wet. And he had to run anyway since he had to get a train two days later but still had 90km to go. Hope he made it! I had only 10km to Stáloluokta and I would take a zero there. Stayed in my tent until lunch, hiked those 10km and now after eating a freshly smoked trout and freshly baked bread I’m waiting to go the the sauna! Yay! Screw you, rainy weather!Meer informatie

  • Dag 16

    Nordkalottleden, where the Johans grow

    1 augustus 2022, Noorwegen ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Next morning I continue on Nordkalottleden, headed towards Stáloluokta. A bit unexpected (not sure why) there were many snow fields waiting, some of them anything but just fun to cross since they were quite steep either ending at rocks or lakes. And as I got up early they were also quite icy still. Flashbacks to my PCT journey hit hard. Not my cup of tea. Met some cute Danish couple, a woman and a man, a bit older maybe but not by much. Super friendly and happy. And they told me about the next cabin that was so sweet I should not miss to take a look at. And so I did and while doing that I noticed some other hiker coming the same way, walking fast and determined towards me. I turned away thinking “this guy totally looks like Johan but that’s impossible”. Well guess what? Apparently it’s not impossible. It was Johan! And so we hugged and hiked the rest of the day together. Of course it started to rain cats and dogs and cold it got as well. Because why not. After so many days of sunshine that left my face and calves burnt maybe not the worst but that was a tad bit too much of wet.Meer informatie

  • Dag 15

    Ny Sulitjelma, Nordkalottleden

    31 juli 2022, Noorwegen ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Just 10km to the road and mostly downhill! “Easy!” You’d think. But my legs are tired. That 15 year old that shot past me like this was a racing track didn’t help much either. Reached the road nonetheless. And eventually Ny Sulitjelma, the hut that was newly built next to the old one. Pure luxury! And they have electricity. So I charge my power bank. Checked the hiker box and bingo! All I needed for a half assed resupply including gas even. Heaven! That Dutch guy appeared that I had met on trail before. He hadn’t taken the road but the trail by the side of the mountains instead and such was a bit slower. Immediately he complained “who opened the windows!”. Me of course. Who else? It had almost 30° in there, you could barely breath. “The mosquitoes!” he shouted. “There are none” I replied. “I hate them” was all he said before he closed all the windows again. Well ok. We had a nice conversation nonetheless and then I left, heading into Sulitelma to find a spot to camp just after that insane climb of of that valley.Meer informatie

  • Dag 14

    Balvatnet, Čállanasjavri

    30 juli 2022, Zweden ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    I continued off trail through an area of hundreds of small lakes west of Nuortta Sávllo. And since I was looking at the Swedish map and not the Norwegian that I had on my phone it looked quite straight forward. It wasn’t. Lots of up and downs, lots of zigzagging again. And again. It felt like it took forever until I reached the trail between Junkerdal and Mavas. A good trail. After a bit I had to turn north towards Čállalvashyttan. You’d think a well marked trail would be easy to walk? But we’re in Norway! Exhausting. Wet. But the views, the views! Blåmannsisen and Sulitelma are getting closer with every step. Impressive! Dangerous! Mysterious!
    Pitched my tent with a view on Sulitelma. Can’t get any better.
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  • Dag 13

    Årjep Sávllo

    29 juli 2022, Zweden ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    Ok, tough day. First I have to walk half around lake Ikkesjávvre until the cabin and then ford the creek there. I decided to stay left of that little creek that runs down the mountain and that went better than I had thought. I gained altitude quickly and soon this whole adventure felt a lot more doable, despite the heavy backpack. For reasons I got more and more left instead of walking towards the middle of this ditch and so I ended up just below a couple of snow fields. Those seemed to steep to climb without micro-spikes so I decided to zig-zag my way up by walking below them. Looked like rock. Bad idea. Very bad idea. Soon if found myself right in the middle of slushy ground that easily gulped my whole foot within the blink of an eye. I don’t remember how exactly but since I’m writing these lines I must have made it through that mess one way or the other (probably dancing).
    Soon I reached the basin from where I could either go over a pass or saddle between the two peaks or try it my way by elegantly walking the side of the smaller peak. I had no idea whether that was feasible. Even less so if that wasn’t just one big piece of ice and snow. The alternative though was indeed just a huge wall of snow. So in a certain way the choice wasn’t that hard to make after all and I kept walking towards one large snow field that seemed to be inhabited by a rogue reindeer (see video). That guy kept following me doing weird dances. Well. When I reached the side of this peak my heart made a jump. Not only was the view on a completely still Ikkesjávrre breathtaking but my chosen path seemed to be easy-peasy, nice waking with no obstacles.
    But then the way down. For some odd reason I thought staying left of that other creek running down the other side of this mountain was the thing to do. Since well it would be shorter and I’d be quicker where I needed to go. Unfortunately this side was much steeper and I ended up at scarp after scarp that I either had to find a way around, or, if that wasn’t possible, had to climb down. And of course it was always wet rocks. No fun and not my cup of tea. But yet again, here I am writing those lines. So hours later I reached the bottom of these mountains, pitched my tent tired and exhausted and took a bath in that very same, ice cold creek which wrong side I was following down.
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  • Dag 12

    Seldutvágge contd, Ikkesjávvre

    28 juli 2022, Zweden ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    Yes, yes, this is a veeeery long valley. And as such those blazing the trail seem to have lost interest half way. At a plateau higher up that would make for a first class camp site the bright red marking stop and so did the trail that was well visible until then. Did they all get helicoptered out from there? I was still able to follow what was left of an obviously very old trail since there was not too much elsewhere to go. Tired and exhausted I made it to the end where it meets a much more popular trail and less then five minutes later I met the first hikers, after two days not seeing anyone besides a bunch of fishermen at a distance that obviously had taken the helicopter there. And smart outdoor men as they were (all in camouflage) they pitched their tents right in the middle of a dead or dying birch forest. Good luck to them!
    I hiked until the first astonishing views of Ikkesjávvre (a lake) and pitched my tent at a fabulous spot. “Tomorrow’s gonna be a tough day!” I kept telling myself until I fell asleep (like immediately as always).
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  • Dag 11

    Seldutvágge pt1

    27 juli 2022, Zweden ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    Spent a day in Jäkkvik (a zero) to relax and resupply. It’s been raining cats and dogs and then I saw that angry hiker sorting their soaked gear. Is that Magrit? She said she would take it slow, then it can’t be her. Didn’t dare to say hello to find out since they seemed to be too unhappy for small talk. Figured we would see us later anyway. That didn’t happen until the next morning and indeed, I immediately recognized her, Magrit! So funny. She couldn’t take it slow after all. She got hooked on walking fast. She was set on quitting the trail after all that rain but when I showed her the current weather forecast she quickly changed her mind. Good for her!
    I bought a ticket for the bus back to Camp Polcirkeln the afternoon and went to ICA, where the bus stop is, good ahead of time. Just there was no bus. When I asked the staff about the bus they confirmed “no bus today!” - wtf! So I tried to get a hitch. And we already know what the chances are. But a Finnish family stopped pretty soon after I stood there, towing a large caravan. “Get in!” they shouted. They even wanted to turn around so I wouldn’t have to walk. Silly! They seemed to be very religious which probably was the main reason they stopped. So bless them and praise god. Otherwise I’d still be standing there I guess.

    An hour later as planned I started walking the road to Vuoggatjålme and another 40 minutes later I set foot on actual trail. Convinced to navigate by map only. Felt great! Seldutvágge southern part is a protected naturreserve as “fjällursjog”, means pristine, ancient forest, just as I love it. Young and old trees, all kinds of, wild, fresh, lush and energizing. Found a great spot to camp, kissed a reindeer good night and fell asleep happy.
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  • Dag 9

    Polcirkeln

    25 juli 2022, Zweden ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    When we reached Camp Polcirkeln just as planned, it quickly dawned on us it wouldn’t be the cosy place we imagined it to be especially since tons of rain was forecasted. So we wanted to make it to the hostel in Jäkkvik instead, just to learn that the next bus would be in two days. Asking the cute cashier at the shop how to get from here he tried to arrange something but to no avail. “Don’t dream of Norwegians hitchhiking you, not gonna happen. And there are only Norwegians”. 🤷‍♂️
    We tried nonetheless. No chance. But then Julia spotted something “where are all these people coming from?” she asked curiously. It was a tour coach! When we got closer I quickly realized “they are Germans!” And they were on the way back home. Bingo! A few moments later Julia had managed to talk herself into their hearts and they happily invited us to take a seat.
    Julia and Lily decided to go all the way to Arjeplog with them while I got off at Jäkkvik to take a zero. Happy times. Not so happy that Julia and Lily are leaving but happy I can stay at a nice hostel for a couple of days.
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