OK, here is the post about our hike. Writing this and going through the photos again brings back so many fun memories from along the trail. This time we trekked the most northern part of the King’s Trail or Kungsleden as it’s called in Swedish.
We flew up to Kiruna at 8.25 am and it was a short flight.
From the airport we took a taxi to the Abisko Tourist Station where the trail starts. You can obviously hike it the other way around too, but we chose to start in Abisko. We had planned to eat lunch at the Tourist Station, but it was so packed and crowded with people finishing up the weeklong Fjällräven Classic. We bought a couple of sandwiches in the shop and took off…
You start by passing the Canyons which had this super clear turquoise water.
All along the trail there are meditation spots, and this one had a stone with a quote by Dag Hammarskjöld.
The sun came out and we took a short snack break. Our favorite – knäckebröd (crisp bread) with smoked reindeer spread and some salami.
Seeing the mountain cabin after a days hike is always rewarding. Even though it usually looks pretty close, it’s almost always at least an hours hike away.
This cabin had a store and even though they sold a lot of other stuff, they had a whole refrigerator dedicated to beer hahahaaa…
This mountain cabin is called Abiskojaure and us being Finns, we obviously appreciated them having a sauna! Usually the first hour is a mixed hour with men and women, then women, and lastly men. Almost everyone is naked and you chat about your day on the trail and where people are from. A lot of foreigners… They had a sandy beach and it’s perfect to cool off in between! Not a bad backdrop either…
After the sauna and dinner we pretty much crashed in bed. Great first day. First day’s stage Abisko – Abiskojaure, 15km.
Usually my sister and I are the first ones up. We usually awoke between 05.30 and 06.00. We prefer to just have a cup of coffee and then head out.
We usually hiked about 1,5 – 2 hours and then picked a spot to have breakfast at. I usually ate a porridge. You just need to boil water, pour it in the bag, let it sit for 8 min and then enjoy 🙂 It was pretty windy and sometimes a bit of a drizzle so this big boulder offered some shelter.
It was a long stretch in the valley next to this lake. The wind increased so I had to use my scarf as cover.
On this stage there is an option to take a boat on the final stretch. It cuts your hiking 4km shorter. When we reached the boat dock, it started raining pretty hard and about 6 people sat in the boat house waiting to take the boat. We decided that we’re here to hike, so that’s what we’ll do! We did question our decision a couple of times when it poured down and the wind was almost blowing us off the trail.
Here the rain and wind quieted down and we could snap a couple of beach pics hahhaaa…
Finally reached Alesjaure mountain cabin pretty soaked. But all the rooms usually have a furnace so we lit it and warmed up. Also great for drying your clothes.
This place also had a sauna by the lake- yeayyyyy! They had stairs going down to the stream below so you could go take a dip. Here we met a Japanese woman who never took a sauna before. Us Finn’s obviously gave her the run down and I took her skinny dipping in the stream too 🙂
The 2nd day’s stage was between Abiskojaure – Alesjaure, 21km. Pretty beat and hoped for better weather for the next day!
3rd day Alesjaure – Tjäktja – Sälka, 26km, We decided to do 2 stretches on our 3rd day and skip a night stay at Tjäktja. But first, quality coffee from Verve with a candle light 🙂
Beautiful morning to start our 3rd day…
It was a loooong day. We took breaks, snacked and drank coffee and hot chocolate. Finally saw some reindeers too 🙂
We passed the highest spot on Kungsleden – Tjäktjapasset, 1150 meter above sea level. It was a long stretch of stones and rocks and then a climb to get up there. We took a break at a small hut up on the top (if you look closely you can see a tiny hut in the ‘dip’ between the mountains) before hiking down to this valley that was so much prettier and greener…
I’m not going to lie, we were pretty exhausted and very happy when we finally spotted the Sälka mountain cabin!
To our surprise they had a sauna here too so we just threw in our backpacks and hit the sauna. Felt amazing after the long day.
Normally we book a room with 2 bunk beds. It was busy here so we had a bunk bed in a room with 6 bunk beds. Pretty tight, but everyone is respectful of the space, so it wasn’t a problem…
Per usual we enjoyed our coffee in the empty kitchen/common room by ourselves…
Luckily our 4th day was a shorter hike. From Sälka to Singi, 12km.
Beautiful morning and we found a great spot by the water to enjoy our breakfast at.
Even found some Cloudberries. I think I wrote about them before too. They only grow up in the north and are called ‘skogens guld’, the gold of the forest. They are so tasty and the jam made of these is expensive. Later we also found a spot with a lot of blueberries 🙂
Made it to Singi. No sauna here, but a lot of nice people that we met along the trail, so we spent the evening chatting while eating dinner and snacking,
The 5th day was also an easier day from Singi to Kebnekaise, 15km. Started our day with spotting some reindeers. Otherwise it was a pretty cold and foggy day.
We finally came down to a valley and the weather cleared up some. We found a spot and took a snack break. Pretty much had to throw our stuff back in the backpacks because 5 min after the picture was taken it rained. The weather changes fast up there…
The last stretched was mixed with some rain, wind and finally when reaching the Kebnekaise mountain cabin the sun decided to make an appearance.
Kebnekaise mountain cabin is a big place. Understandably since a lot of people come here to climb Kebnekaise. We booked dinner at the restaurant and had some wine and beer. It was a nice treat after eating freeze-dried food for five days 🙂 The risotto was delicious and I think I ate about half of a loaf of bread too hahahaa…
Checked the forecast for the next day. Some days you can’t go to the top of Kebnekaise since the weather is not permitting it. But luckily on that Tuesday when we planned to go up it looked good!
So finally on our 6th day it was time to do Kebnekaise, Sweden’s highest mountain. We were ready to head out at 6am. Wanted to have plenty of time. A few others headed out too. Beautiful morning! We opted for the southern peak via the western trail. If you do the northern peak, you needed to do it with a guide.
We had to start taking clothes off and soon as the climb started. It’s “only” 8 km to the top, but it’s almost all uphill you climb on loose rocks and boulders which makes it feel a lot longer.
Up, up and up. A lot of short breaks and pauses. After this mountain there was a steep descent down to ‘Kaffedalen’.
The weather rapidly changed and a thick fog came in. From ‘Kaffedalen’ it started to climb again. This is actually from where you start climbing Kebnekaise. The first mountain and climb is just a taste of what’s to come 🙂 We were so focused on climbing and making it up so we forgot to take pics going up here until we reached the old ‘topp stugan’ or the old safety/summit cabin. You can see how dense the fog was. We decided to pop our Champagne here 🙂
A Finnish lady entered the cabin so we got to chat some Finnish. She said it was another 20-30 min to the top, then another 50m with snow where you needed spikes for your shoes to be able to go. It was foggy up there too and no view she said. We decided this was high enough and started our descend. This was what we saw when we started our return.
But as we got further down it cleared up a bit. This here is ‘Kaffedalen’ and you’re officially down from Kebnekaise. From there you go uphill and it was pretty slow going at this point hahahaa…
But we were in good spirits and took one last break with apple crumble pie and hot chocolate to have energy for the last stretch.
It took us 5h to climb up and 7h to come down and back. It was a hard day and we’re happy we did it! We hit the sauna and showers after and then had dinner before crashing in bed. A tip might be to start the trail the other way around than we did, and be more rested before climbing Kebnekaise.
7th and last day. Hiking to Nikkaluokta, 19km. There was also an option to take a boat on this stretch too that would shorten your hike by 6km. We wanted to enjoy our last day outdoors so we hiked.
Guess how happy we wore when we found out that there was a cafe where the boat picked up and dropped off hikers? We went inside and I had a waffle with whipped cream and cloudberry jam. SOOOOO GOOOOD! The place is called Enoks and they also have reindeer and elk burgers which looked super tasty too.
The last part of the trail was super easy walking. It felt like fall was coming up in the north. It was beautiful and we finally arrived to Nikkaluokta.
From there we took the bus back to Kiruna airport and then a short flight back to Stockholm. I guess I was pretty tired hahahaaa…
A total of 128 km hikes with Kebnekaise included. My backpack weighted 10kg when we started. Most of it was food. The stores at the mountain cabins sell food, but I’m picky and want to eat good, so I brought all my food with me. I will remember this adventure with my sister forever. Thanks for the company and memories sis!
OK, that was that about the hike. And now to Vegas 🙂 I have been here for a week and one day today. Love it here so far. Hopefully I can get a post up during the week about the past week here. Hunter is very happy too 🙂 Met some friendly neighbors and signing up at a gym next week. Tomorrow I’m having coffee with a friend I knew in LA long time ago, but she also lives in Vegas now. Oh, and my birthday is on Friday too wohooo! Oh, I’ve been a week without smoking too 🙂
How was your week? Or/and got something fun happening this upcoming week?
Kisses, Puma