KEBNEKAISE 1998 Pictures and journal from a hike around Sweden's highest mountain massif, via the Tarfala valley.

ow it was time for another hike in the mountains. This time it was I, Claes, and my daughter Catrin that were going to the Kebnekaise area on a hike. Our plans were to walk from Nikkaluokta (Nikka) to Kebnekaise (Keb), and then go clockwise round the massif and then, if suitable, climb the peak. This is my journal from the hike, eagerly supported and corrected by Catrin. Friday, August 7 (Day 1) Nikkaluokta to Darfaloalgi, 10,3 km (6.4 miles) and addition to that 4,2 km (2,6 miles) by boat.   We took the night train from Stockholm to Kiruna railway station, and then the bus to Nikkaluokta.   The road to Nikkaluokta was beautiful with varied nature. When we arrived to Nikkaluokta we ate lunch before we started walking.   The trail in towards the Kebnekaise massif was tough, a great deal of stones and muddy parts. After 6 km (3.7 miles) we came to the lower boat station. (You can go by boat a part of the stretch, if you want, and we wanted that.) The journey was nice, especially when we came up in the river Ladojuohkas delta.   When we arrived at the upper boat station we had 6 km (3.7 miles) to the Tarfala bridge, where we had planned to stay the night. After 4 km (2,5 miles) just as we had passed the little hillock Darfaloalgi and got sight of Kebnekaise and the mountain station at its foot we gave up for the day, we were rather tied, and pitched camp in a glade with a tiny little stream. We put up our Sámi tent and started to make dinner.   Catrin had souring feet and seemed a little tired. I made her cool off her feet in the streaming cold water of the brook. It worked, both her feet and the rest of her was cheered up. Then we made some dessert and sat there in the mountains by a camp fire and relaxed.   The weather has, in spite of all weather reports that have predicted rain, been great, sun all day, just a few drops of rain as we pitched camp. The mosquitoes have tormented us all day through the birch forest from Nikka.

Saturday, August 8 (Day 2) Darfaloalgi to Singitjåkka via Kebnekaise Mountain Station, 9,3 km (5.8 miles).   We woke up just before 8 a clock and made breakfast. We took it easy with the packing and didn't get going until 10:40 am.   Just as we started walking we had the first shower of the hike. 12:15 we took a coffee break near the Tarfala Bridge. There we visited the conveniences institution (the outhouse).   After 1,5 km (0,9 miles) easy walking we came to the Mountain Station. We stayed there quite a long time, looking in the shop, etc. Then we made our lunch. After lunch we bought a high mountain map over the Kebnekaise-massif in the shop and then we had coffee in the restaurant.   It was impossible to see the peaks of Keb because of the clouds.   Then we started walking again towards the Singi cabins. The rain was pouring down and we soon got damp and cold.   Suddenly we saw something that looked like a bird of prey hovering over the fields north of us. Then we saw another one that landed next to us. That one was a young Long-tailed Skua. We crept carefully nearer and kept watch for its mother (they can be quite aggressive). Catrin succeeded in getting just a few meters from the bird before it lifted and flew away.   After crossing a bridge in the valley Ladtjovagge we walked a couple of kilometers further before we pitched camp down by the river. It was still raining so we went inside and cooked dinner. Then we tucked ourselves into our sleeping bags to warm up. We had no evening coffee because both of us fell asleep and didn't wake up before morning.

Sunday, August 9 (Day 3) Singitjåkka to the break-cabin at Kuoperjåkka 13,7 km (8,5 miles).   When we woke up 7:15 am we felt quite rested and we ate our breakfast in the tent. It was dry weather but cloudy. We got going about 9 am after putting on chafe plaster on one of Catrins heels that looked inflamed.   Quite soon we got weary of all the stones on the trail and its idiotic choice of way (up and down every little hillock). Instead we followed the river upstream toward the lakes that I thought was in the water divider. We saw several Long-tailed Skuas and one Arctic Tern.   The lakes were not in the water divider but we had to walk on upward. Finally about 2 km (1,2 miles) from Singi the terrain started to lean down and we got sight toward the cabins, our first destination for the day. At the cabins we ate lunch.   As the second stage of the day we were trying to reach some place near the bridge in the valley Kuopervagge. The stretch was quite easy to walk but at the end of the day I was very tired in my thighs as a result of all up and downhill slopes.   About 8 pm we reached the break-cabin situated half-way between the Singi- and Sälka-cabins. There we found a very good camping ground just below the cabin. There were others camping there too, mostly Germans. I talked a little with the nearest neighbor that was on their way from Abisko to Nikkaluokta.   We hang in some cloth for drying in the cabin. They were well dried since later on two German boys slept there, and they fired up the stove.   The brook beside our tent was as made for a foot bath, and we enjoyed that with pleasure before we went inside for evening coffee and sleep.

Monday, August 10 (Day 4) Kuopervagge, 8,9 km (5,5 miles).   Today we are going up the valley Kuopervagge. After packing and fetching our dry cloth we started walking towards the bridge over the river Guobirjohka, our first destination for the day.   We kept good speed and soon we crossed the bridge and turned to the right towards the valley Kuopervagge. As a sentinel in the middle of the valley the magnificent mountain ridge Drakryggen (the Dragon ridge) was standing.   At first the trail was good and flat as a change from the stony Kings trail but the higher we came the worse the terrain became. The trail disappeared in the stony ground and cairns showed conceivable ways that in most cases stopped in the middle of some boulder heap.   After a while we got a fantastic view up over the Rabot's glacier on the south side of Drakryggen and we should have been able to see the peak of Kebnekaise if it wasn't for the lid of clouds, fooled on that view once again!   The weather that had been sunny now stared to worsen with drizzle from the clouds coming in over the mountain Tuolpanjunnjetjåkka's ridge in the north.   The boulder terrain only got bigger and bigger. When we got to the place where the rivers from Rabot's glacier and the lakes in Kuopervagge joined we crossed over to the Drakryggen side of the valley. It looked easier to walk. But also on this side it was mostly boulders and big stones to jump on, tough! Furthermore we started to become thirsty and on this side there were no brooks at all and the river was down in a deep ravine. We struggled on towards the place where the river was coming up from the ravine.   When we finally got there we stopped for lunch. When we continued we brought water with us for safety's sake. Now we were at the Drakryggen's west precipice and carried on up the valley.   There is not much to add about the rest of the stage. We jumped past the beautiful small lakes and finally we reached the end of the valley. There we came straight on a place where someone had cleared up a place from stones so that there only was sand left. After further clearing (the Sámi tent has quite a big bottom area) we succeeded in putting up the tent with the help of stones on the tent stakes.   Just before we should start making dinner we saw two persons coming down from the pass from the valley Kaskavagge. I became a little curios since I had had contact with another hiker from Linköping, Peter Caputa, via internet (I found his homepage when I was looking for information about Kebnekaise). We had mailed each other since he and his comrade, Krister Sundström, should go up here to Kebnekaise the day before us and walk the "yo-yo trail" to Tarfala. This means that our trails should coincide from Kuopervagge and down to the Tarfala Bridge. We had agreed to keep lookout for each other during the hike.   After dinner I looked out to see where the other hikers went. They had moved up to the other side of the lake. No way was I going to jump away that far in this terrain, so I let it rest. After a while I looked out again. Then they had moved down to our side of the lake, obviously they didn't find any good camping ground on the other side. Furthermore they were pitching a red tunnel tent of exactly the type that I knew that Peter should have.   I jumped into my boots and walked over to their camping ground. It was Peter and Krister! How big is the chance that we should meet, since we were walking the same direction? We talked a good while. They were going to stay an extra night in Kuopervagge but we maybe should meet again later on if they should run us up.

Tuesday, August 11 (Day 5) Kuopervagge to Tarfala, 5,5 km (3.4 miles).   We woke up at 8 a clock and took it rather easy since we "only" should go over the mountain pass to Tarfala this day. After breakfast followed a common clearing of all the gear since everything was soiled with the sand that was where we had the tent. Then we looked at some reindeers that had wandered into the valley.   The weather was great and the mountain pass towards Tarfala was clear. Just before 11 am we got going and waved goodbye to Peter and Krister that just came out of their tent.   The way to the slope was easy to walk, but the steep slope consisted only of boulders and big stones. We plodded slowly but secure up towards the first landmark on our way up, a glacier moraine wall. We rested often (fitness, what's that?). We couldn't find any good path, there were cairns here and there but they didn't lead anywhere. It was first higher up that it was better cairned.   On the way up we often stopped and looked at the Snow Buntings that flew around the boulders.   After the first steep we came to a between plateau where there were two small lakes at the end of the pass-glacier. The sun was shining now (we had some showers on the way up) so we decided to take a lunch break there, looking at the beautiful view over the glacier. While eating we were passed by four young hikers, also on their way through the pass.   Now the terrain became better and was easier to walk. The path was well cairned, up towards the pass threshold, and easy to find. The weather on the other hand worsened with clouds coming in from Tafala reducing the visibility. Again and again we thought that we where at the pass threshold but it continued upwards. Finally we got to the threshold, marked with a lot of cairns. The visibility was very bad and it took us a while to find the right way down on the other side since we couldn't find the lake Svartsjön (the Black lake) Sweden's highest situated lake, that were supposed to be in the pass. Suddenly it cleared up a little and we got sight of the lake just below us.   Now we had to walk at the edge of the little glacier, which lies above the lake, to the mountain ridge beside the Kebnepakte glacier. We passed the glacier and the ridge and arrived to the vertiginous view down over all the fissures of the glacier and the Tarfala Lake deep beneath us.   We had to walk a stretch on the snow field at the edge of the glacier, down under a precipice, to the lateral moraine of the glacier that should take us down to the lake.   After trudging a couple of hundred meters down the snow field we once again got "solid" ground under our feet. Catrin thought it was awful to go on the quite steep snow slope but tough as she is she did it anyway. The moraine ridge was very steep in places but nearly all the way there was a clear path of sand and gravel twisting downwards. We often stopped, partly because it was tough for the knees to go down the steep path and partly to watch the fissures, cracks and the great formations in the ice.   Below the mountain ridge the terrain got worse. We had to walk across several moraine ridges and, in between that, snow fields, as we were going round the lake to the cabins on the other side. The last part of the way to the Tarfala cabins was boulder terrain.   At the cabins we decided that we deserved some luxury after two days of severe conditions and tough walking. So we took in at the cabins to sleep indoors. Since we lived indoors we once again had the opportunity to dry our clothes, convenient. The weather was not what I had been hoping for, it was quite cloudy, so I couldn't see the view that I had been longing for: The Kebnepakte glacier with the snout dropping down in the Tarfala Lake, under a blue sky and sunshine.   Before I went to bed I walked around a bit near the cabins and enjoyed the mountain night by the Tarfala Lake, smooth as a millpond.

Wednesday, August 12 (Day 6) Tarfala to the Tarfala bridge, 6,5 km (4 miles).   Once again we took it rather easy in the morning, eating breakfast in peace and quiet and packed our things from the drying room. The weather was still bad in Tarfala so we decided to carry on walking instead of staying another night here.   At 11.30 am we left the cabins and started the walk down to the Tarfala Bridge. Catrin set up a fast pace with long quick steps! People we had met had told us that the trail was full of stones on the way down, but after our experience from Kuopervagge this was like a highway.   The way down was very beautiful with beautiful plants, the swift river beside us and the glacier Storglaciären that we passed. On 2,5 hour we had taken us the 6,5 km (4 miles) down to the bridge.   We found a very good camping ground west of the bridge above the ravine. When we had pitched the Sámi tent and changed into dry cloth we had lunch. After lunch I went to collect some wood. There was a good access to wood and soon we had a little fire going, to warm us up.   After a while the weather got worse and it started raining so we went inside and had a game of Poker.   While making dinner the first bloodshed of the hike happened, I cut myself in a finger while chopping pepperoni. So the first aid kit was found useful this hike too.   After dinner we continued playing cards, but this time "vändtia", a Finnish game with rules quite similar to Skip-Bo, but played with an ordinary deck of cards. I had never played it before but that didn't stop me from winning most of the games (beginners luck said Catrin).

Saturday, August 15 (Day 9) The Tarfala Bridge to Nikkaluokta , 12,7 km + 4,2 km (2,6 miles) by boat.   Now the fun was over! And we started the journey home. We pulled down the Sámi tent that now had been at the same place for three nights and started to walk the trail towards Nikkaluokta. Oddly enough the trail had "changed" since we walked here in the opposite direction; it was easier to walk and the stones had become smaller and fewer! ;-)   When we passed our first camping ground below Darfaloalgi we turned around and waved goodbye to the Mountain Station. Then we walked on towards the upper boat station.   When we approached the boat station we found the path down to it, we thought, and turned in on it. It certainly went there but an entirely different route, down by one of the rivers side flows, pleasant to see another view.   When we arrived at the jetty it was a good half hour till the boat should come, so there was lot of time to talk to the other hikers waiting there.   Then the boat came and all jumped onboard. During the journey the driver took up orders for Reindeer burgers through cell phone. Catrin and I decided that it should be good for lunch.   The boat trip was nice and we soon arrived to the lower boat station. We went directly to "Lap Dånalds", as the hamburger bar was called, and fetched our lunch and then we went in to the café Lap-Cot and bought something to drink and sat down and ate, it tasted very good.   We shouldered our burdens and set off on the last stage down to Nikkaluokta. We walked in a rapid pace with only a couple of water breaks.   Approaching Nikka we started to look for a camping ground, but we didn't find any good one with good supply of water. Then we decided to camp at the tourist facility instead and with that have access to a shower before the journey home. It cost 20 kr (about 2$) per person to tent there.   We looked around in the shop in the facility before we put up the tent. Then we had dinner.   It had started to rain and blow. So we went inside the tent, sad to say, a lot of mosquitoes did the same and amused themselves with annoying us. Good night??

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