07:00 Camp at Darfaljavri
I woke up about half an hour ago and lingered in the sleeping bag for a little while, the morning is cold enough that I felt some resistance leaving the cozy warmth and get out into the day.
The many days with rain and lacking the opportunity to really dry my stuff thoroughly has left about everything just slightly moist. Not bad enough to impact the functionality of the sleeping bag etc, yet still easily detectable.
I hope that I can get that sorted during my rest day in Vistas!
Yes, I’m gonna have a rest day – tomorrow I’ll get down to Vistas or close by and Wednesday I just hang out at that cabin before hitting the last part of the tour.
I figure that I could really use a slow day before hitting Mårma and starting my way out of the mountains for this time.
There are definitely some mixed feelings about ending the tour, on one hand I look forward to sleep in my bed, have my cats and friends around me again and get back to work. On the other hand I feel a slight anxiousness to go back to ‘the real world’, being out in nature just feels so much more real than dealing with ‘civilization’.
I’m contemplating some strategies to cope with everyday life and still keep the peace, serenity and contentment that comes from being disconnected from just that modern everyday life. I’ll let you know what works!
Anyway, it stopped raining sometimes during the night and I already wiped my tent so hopefully I can pack it up decently dry when I’m ready to get started on today’s tour.
Though the sky is overcast it looks like we’re gonna have a dry morning, the forest predicted better weather today than the last few days.
I’m planning to do all three passes today yet have never done any of them from this side before for some reason. So I really don’t know how hard they are and don’t want to be too cocky, this is a pretty tough day tour and, though I’m very confident I can do it, I’m not gonna feel bad if I have to stop and camp in Kaskasavagge.
20:30 Camp at Unna Reitas cabin
What a day – not only did I make all three passes, I did them in just under 7 hours with two breaks of 60 and 30 min.
I’m gonna be candid with you, though, it was hard – more mentally than physically. I’m just tired from being focused on slippery and unstable rocks and stones for hours at a time and my eyes and brain need a break…
To be frank I’m totally not sure I would have made it if it wasn’t for being in nutritional ketosis and having the PhatFibre to rely on for energy when needed. After a good three weeks out here the boast of energy supplied by the MCT powder has become absolutely invaluable for me. It´s such a superior substrate than hitting myself with simple sugars on a regular basis and the raise in energy levels is so much more sustainable.
I’m really convinced about this product and can highly recommend it for endurance purposes that require extraordinary stamina and resilience.
Anyway, I started at 08:35 this morning and soon had to stop and add an additional layer of clothing. The wind was just brutally cold, blowing down from the glaciers.
First part up towards Guobirvagge is a long, rather slow climb and I have to admit that my legs really disliked this start of the morning. Higher up it got steeper and I could use a snow field for quite a stretch. Reaching the highest point of the first pass my legs had become warmed up, yet my hands and feet were still freezing in the wind and low temperatures.
The decent into the valley was rather easy and I decided to take a break and have a PF coffee before continuing. During the break a group of five men from Switzerland caught up with me and we chatted for a while before they continued.
I took it easy and left after an hour long break, feeling rather energetic. Actually a lot better than when approaching the first climb of the morning.
Climb went well and the only issue were clouds gathering and wetting the rocks, making them slippery and slowing my progress. The decent offered ample opportunity to use snow fields and was swift and fun.
After the descent into Kaskasavagge I caught up with the Swiss group again and joined them for their break. Naturally we then continued together and I really enjoyed having company through the last climb, I started feeling mentally really tired and chatting with the nice people kept me focused.
After taking some pictures at the top we started the decent and it didn’t take long before all six of us were sliding down the large snow field using our boots as make shift skis – rather risky, of course, yet all went well and we had a blast. Needless to say it cut the time it took getting down considerably!
We all decided to camp at the cabin in Unna Reitas and spent a nice evening chatting, having dinner and drinking tea.
Tomorrow I’ll do the 18km down to Vistas via Nallo, were I’d like to stop and get another cabin host video. Once at Vistas it’s relaxing time, I plan to stay the night and most of the following day. Only aiming for the first lake on the way to Mårma sometime before evening – I need some time to unwind and regroup my focus and concentration before I hit the pass at Mårma!
The journey continues, please leave a comment to tell me what You think and share this with friends and loved ones who might benefit or be interested!
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Peace // Claes
Met some people on the trail who treated me to some really nice salami (I think it was Italian), and this was the only piece of food I ate between breakfast and the dinner later.
Right now it’s again too rainy to go out and make a video for you, so I hope I can do my ‘Day 24 video’ tomorrow morning. The clouds quickly squeeze away the last daylight from around here.
Temperatures outside still clearly indicate that summer is at its end and we’re in the season of fall here in the mountains.
After reaching the end of Sinnivaggi and starting the climb up the whole action got considerably rougher and the clouds started closing up. Still I decided to go for the summit as I saw a chance of the weather lightening up. Turning sharply uphill to converge with the western trail towards the summit of Kebnekaise carrying me whole backpack admittedly turned out to be brutally challenging. The tour is partly very steep and rather slippery as the stones have been ground into gravel by many feet passing. I motored on slowly and, at times, felt like I’d never reach the end – a feeling greatly enhanced by the clouds closing in even more, lowering the visibility to just 10-15m. It’s just inherently frustrating to not being able to see where one is heading – until making a mental decision not to care any more and just go on. And that’s exactly what I had to do… I knew that sooner or later I’d reach the summit and until I did, I’d just keep putting one foot in front of the other.
The night here in Kaskasavagge was cold and comfortable, what a difference when not having to make an effort to just keep the equipment dry.
I’m setting out to start the day going over the pass to Goubirvaggi, then follow that valley westwards back to Tjäktjavaggi and enter Sinnivagge. A few km up that valley I know a really good camp site that I intend to use the coming night.
The actual trail along Sinnjijohka is on the south side of the stream, yet that’s a well worn out trail and I prefer to hike on the north side instead. The first ascent into the valley is physically much more demanding as one needs to climb up to avoid a steep field of rocks. After that it levels out and follows the stream up to the grass field in Sinnivagge.
Using the trail kept me roughly away from the wet bushes and scrubs, thereby helping to avoid soaking the boots within the first few km.After about 7km I left the trail and started working my way up the mountain side and turn into the western part of Unna Reiddasvagge. The ground was almost inconceivably drenched were there were no rocks and the rocks themselves were wet and slippery. Approaching the opening of the valley I suddenly found myself at about the same elevation as the clouds and really thought it’s have to hike in fog for the rest of that part.
