Kebnekaise 2009
Since Fredrik blogged about his trip to France, I cannot resists to blog about my trip to the North of Sweden - the Kebnekaise region to be precise. Even though Anna and I only stayed for 5 days in the Fjällen, it was extremely relaxing. Away from all these things which make our live supposedly so much easier, it was time to reconnect with nature and just enjoy piece and quietness. Being completely offline was just a bliss. It is amazing how simple life can be - walk, cook, sleep. Repeat! Below you can see some of the pictures (Anna posted some more pictures here).
The core data. Don't forget, I am still a number person :)
We walked in from Nikkalukta and put up our tent a couple of kilometers outside the Kebnekaise Fjällstation to avoid the crowd there. From there we took several walks including a climb of the Kebnekaise summit via the western route. It took us over 11 hours and taught us that on Swedish hiking descriptions the recommended times (in this case 12 hours) are quite accurate. In other parts of the world, for example Australia, we used to be able to just half the estimated walking time. Or are we just getting old? For the real data nerds I tracked the whole trip using my GPS. The route contains the track from Nikkalukta to the Fjällstation as well as the western route up to Kebnekaise. I marked our camp spots and some other points of interests. You can download the gpx file here. As far as I could find out I am there first to release the western route track in a GPS consumable format :)
Regarding the packing we stuck with the packing list found on kebnekaise.nu and I must say it served us well. Well done!
A word about the food. We decided against all these freeze tried hiking foods. They may have a purpose if you climb the Mount Everest, but when walking in the Swedish Fjällen they are just stupid and face it - most of them taste crap. Instead we packed some packages of rice and noodles, some tuna cans most importantly some fresh stuff like aubergines, zucchini and capsicum. Boil some rice, add some chopped veggies and tuna and off you go. Depending on the time of the year you can even pep up your food with some picked mushrooms or berries (we saw a quite a lot of cloudberries, but unfortunately they were not ripe yet).
I also would like to congratulation the team of the Kebnekaise Fjällstation. It is one of the best run STF hostels I have seen so far. I think other hostel owners should plan a trip up there themselves and learn!
--Hardy
| Total walking distance | 63.2 km |
| Total walking time | 17:59 h |
| Resting time | 08:22 h |
| Walking average | 3.5 km/h |
We walked in from Nikkalukta and put up our tent a couple of kilometers outside the Kebnekaise Fjällstation to avoid the crowd there. From there we took several walks including a climb of the Kebnekaise summit via the western route. It took us over 11 hours and taught us that on Swedish hiking descriptions the recommended times (in this case 12 hours) are quite accurate. In other parts of the world, for example Australia, we used to be able to just half the estimated walking time. Or are we just getting old? For the real data nerds I tracked the whole trip using my GPS. The route contains the track from Nikkalukta to the Fjällstation as well as the western route up to Kebnekaise. I marked our camp spots and some other points of interests. You can download the gpx file here. As far as I could find out I am there first to release the western route track in a GPS consumable format :)
Regarding the packing we stuck with the packing list found on kebnekaise.nu and I must say it served us well. Well done!
A word about the food. We decided against all these freeze tried hiking foods. They may have a purpose if you climb the Mount Everest, but when walking in the Swedish Fjällen they are just stupid and face it - most of them taste crap. Instead we packed some packages of rice and noodles, some tuna cans most importantly some fresh stuff like aubergines, zucchini and capsicum. Boil some rice, add some chopped veggies and tuna and off you go. Depending on the time of the year you can even pep up your food with some picked mushrooms or berries (we saw a quite a lot of cloudberries, but unfortunately they were not ripe yet).
I also would like to congratulation the team of the Kebnekaise Fjällstation. It is one of the best run STF hostels I have seen so far. I think other hostel owners should plan a trip up there themselves and learn!
--Hardy
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