wind

Tour of 2018 – Day 29, August 24th 2018

Campsite on the pass west of Abiskojaure, overlooking Abisko and Torneträsk

Woke up early to a beautiful morning and, for the first time in quite a while I had a coffee outside in the sunshine. Wind was cold and picked up a little, nudging me to move inside for the rest of the morning.

The first part of the hike led through beautiful Hoiganvaggi, it’s been a few years since I visited the valley and it was a fond reunion, I really enjoy the place.
The trail is pretty easy to follow, grows faint a few times yet always easy to find again. And, as with most places around here, it doesn’t really matter – just stay south of the river and move along the bottom of the valley and You’re good!

About halfway through the valley, between a couple of lakes, the trail leads over a beautiful, lush meadow and stretches over on the north side of the valley, super easy to find the way, just be aware.

Once on the north side I soon passed the reindeer watchers cabin and soon after that, I decided to make my way up the mountainside, instead of continuing the trail along the lake and do a steeper climb later. The view from the hillside is breathtaking and the climb was rather moderate, though still raise the heart rate considerably.

Once upon the plateau, I chose to stay high and approached the pass, where I planned to spend the night, crossing the mountainside on a very steep tangent. Not an easy hike by any means and, to be frank, nothing I really recommend. It would probably have been faster (and definitely safer) to descent to the lake and climb back up towards the pass on the other side.

Anyway, the weather turned back to normal during the day and just after reaching the intended campsite and putting the tent up, I felt the first raindrops while fetching water in the small lake down below.
The evening served strong wind and quite a lot of rain, the cold really got to me and I observed myself downing more than that days share of snacks after dinner.

Finding coverage there on the pass I check the weather forecast and it is far from pretty, promising about the same weather for the next week or so. I kinda start getting used to the thought of going down to Abisko in the morning.

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

Tour of 2018 – Day 26, August 21st 2018

Camp at Gautelishytta

Another day I woke up early and snuck into the cabin at 7 am when I had heard that the only other guest also was up already.
Picking a break between the rain showers to wipe my tent and bring it inside to dry ensured that I could pack everything the way I want it this morning.

Having an extra cup of coffee, talking to the cabin host, Leif, and taking my time packing my stuff, left me with a departure time at 10 am and I headed northbound on the trail back towards Norway.


Depending on the circumstances my plan was to either do a short day and stay at Gautelis or push on to Caihnavagge. There’s virtually no real good campsite in between these cabins.

The wind was rather mellow for the first hour or so, then it quickly picked up and reached the same strength as yesterday, just considerably colder and accompanied by ice cold rain showers chasing each other until midday. Suddenly the sun started to fight its way through the clouds and the rain stopped for a couple of hours.

The trail is easy to follow and mostly easy to hike, just a few stretches with the rocky ground to consider. This season the streams hold so much less water than normal, allowing rivers, that normally need a change of shoes, to be crossed by just walking over them. On the other hand, the ground was still very wet from all the rain, again making a point for high boot shafts!

The wind continued to be a challenge the entire hike, and to be frank with You, these conditions with cold wind and rain are not just unpleasant. They’re potentially dangerous as it, for one, is very easy to underestimate the cooling effect of the wind (it’s definitely possible to get both frostbites and hypothermia at temperatures well above the freezing point), secondly, the conditions invite to rush, and make poor decisions to get to the goal sooner. Just be aware!

During my descent to Gautelishytta, I got hit by another rain shower, and that, in combination with the sauna at the cabin, made me decide to save the 12km to Caihnavagge for tomorrow instead.

I’m still well on schedule and the next stretch is just not as easy and so I’d rather do that one after a good night’s sleep.
I’ll just hike all the way to either Cunojaure or Unna Allakas tomorrow instead of hitting the pass between here and the next spot this afternoon. Safety first!

 

Side note: The weather starts getting at me, and some of the plans I have for the rest of the tour are just not safe to do under these conditions. So I made the decision to consider breaking the tour early, depending on the weather forecast for next week that I can access on Friday.
Hoping for a positive weather change so I can safely do what I came here for!

 

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

Tour of 2018 – Day 25, August 20th 2018

Camp at the Hukejaure cabin
The day started like yesterday ended, rain and wind. During most of the night, the rough wind shook the tent and there were several long and heavy rain showers, making it hard to sleep well. So grateful for the separate gear shed that let me keep all the wet stuff out of the inner tent.
In the early morning hours both wind and rain calmed down and I slept really good for a few hours until around 8 am when the next wave of weather hit the tent hard.
Around 10 am the rain lessened and I decided to break camp and do my best to get the tent and gear shed reasonably dry.
Half an hour later I started the hike and it turned out that if I’d stayed an hour longer, I could have packed everything more or less dry.
Besides a few short showers the rain cleared up completely during midday and only the strong wind remained. Part of the hike was a constant fight against the wind and every time the landscape blocked the gushes for some time was a real relief.
I moved on a pretty direct route towards Ruskajavri, staying north of Ruskajogas, following some pretty clear reindeer tracks all the way over the pass leading into the valley.
Once down by the lake, I stayed close to the shore, trying to be as low as possible to avoid as much wind as I could.
The hike along the lake is beautiful and I, once again, felt a longing to camp at quite a few spots along the stretch!
Just a little bit north of the lake I crossed the river feeding into it and continued along the western mountainside, after some time passing the small lake where I camped last year.
Passing Raktasjavri on it’s south and west side I soon crossed Raktasjohka and cut over the southwest side of Raktas before coming down on the trail leading from Sitasjaure to Hukejaure and following that the rest of the way to the cabin.
Because of all the rain that fell the last few days and weeks, the ground was soaked with water and the wetlands were wet for real. Once again I cannot emphasize enough the value of using boots with high shafts and putting in the effort of keeping them watertight!
If You’ve been following this blog for some time, You already know that this is one of my favorite cabins to visit and I always enjoy coming here. This time I also got to see the same cabin host as three years ago, always nice to meet again and catch up.
After putting the tent to dry in the wind (time to make some use of it at last…) I had some tea inside and warmed up a little, before chopping wood and fetching water for the sauna. I also fried some mushrooms I’d found along the trail on the way here!
The weather has been still unsteady with some decent rain showers, yet also some sun coming out between the clouds. All in all a lot better than yesterday and I definitely hope for it to clear up even more overnight. Anyway, camping at a cabin guarantees that I can dry everything in the morning regardless of the weather, and that’s always awesome!

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

Tour of 2018 – Day 24, August 19th 2018

Camp just north of Viddjajavri
Wow, I’m so grateful to be dry and warm, this day was really rough weather wise.
Started out being quite nice, I had to wipe the tent twice in the morning due to a short rain shower, yet then I could start the hike just shy of 9:30 wearing my ordinary hiking pants. About an hour later I changed into rain gear and that was it for the day.
During a short coffee break in Kaitumjaure cabin, I learned that the forecast promised random rain showers throughout the day. That didn’t sound too bad and I continued in the direction of Hukejaure, leaving Kungsleden behind and finding my trusted reindeer tracks on the mountainside.
Shortly after I left the cabin the rain started falling again and then only stopped for briefer periods of time.
Additionally, the wind was really strong and actually pushed me around at times, which is alright when hiking on solid ground, though it gets a little sketchy when on loose and wet rocks.
I hiked north pretty high up on the mountainside parallel to Kungsleden until passing a group of beautiful small lakes on my right and then turning westward into Sanarvaggi. Now the wind hit me straight head-on, making it impossible for even the best rain gear to keep me dry. It was a relief to reach  Viddjajavri and turn northbound again along the shore.
My original plan was to reach Ruskajavri and camp at one of the sites I spotted last year, though when I was on the north end of Viddjajavri I saw a suitable spot of grass while the rain had lessened to almost nothing at all.
Unfortunately, it picked up again soon after I started to raise the tent and I had to accept getting the inside wet before managing to get the rain fly in place. Because of my wet backpack and rain gear, I also pitched the gear shed, hoping to manage to dry the inside of the tent and keep it dry after that.
After a few cups of hot tea, dinner, and coffee while covering myself with the sleeping bag, everything looks and feels a lot lighter. Though the rain continues outside and the wind still shakes the tent at times.
We’ll see what tomorrow brings, whatever comes up I know I go to Hukejaure.

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

Tour of 2018 – Day 4, July 30th 2018

Camp at Vassajavri
Turned out none of us slept any good at that last camp, personally, I woke up repeatedly and in the first half of the night never went deep enough to notice I actually slept at all… Only a look at the clock told me how much time had past.
It rained rather heavily around 1:30 am and this again interrupted everybody’s sleep.
Still, I woke up at 5:40 and felt rested enough to start my day with some reading and a couple of coffee with coconut oil!
We had agreed on waking at 7 and I made sure everyone was up, from that on until we could finally dry our tents and get packed up, we got another two rain showers.
The first half of the hike up to the security cabin at Mårma was very pleasant, easy walk, nice temperatures, and a welcome breeze!
Then we started catching some rain again, light showers at first, yet then some heavier rain that not only made us wet but also made the rocks pretty slippery and slowed us down quite a bit. Nearing the cabin the rain stopped, still, we decided to have lunch inside to escape the cold wind!
Side note: The cabin at Mårma is in a horrible state, it’s doubtable if it would even do much good in an emergency situation. There’s no firewood in the shed, people have used the stairs to the outhouse and parts of the floor of the shed for firewood.
Trash has been accumulating for God knows how long and nobody seems to take responsibility for the place.
Upon coming home I’ll send an email to the organizations who are supposed to care for the cabins and ask who’s actually in charge.
During our break, the sky started to look friendlier and we decided to give it a go!
I must say that the girls did great, totally overthrew my wildest expectations and behaved like seasoned hikers on the whole stretch. Tons of respect and a big shoutout for them, I’ve never heard of anyone doing a tour like this on their first time in Lapland, or even the second or third for all that matters.
And they handled every part of it equally well, ascent, descent, river crossing, etc.
I’ll take these two on a hike anytime!!!

Finally, we chose to stay up here in the ‘Lost Valley’ instead of continuing to the planned destination. We’d been delayed several times during the day for different reasons, it was already 7 pm when we got here and the evening sun was so inviting!
I treated myself to a (very short) swim inVassajavri, super cold and very refreshing, before making camp and cooking dinner.
By 9 pm we were all inside our respective tent and looking at an early night.
Hopefully, all of us get some good sleep and wake up rested tomorrow!

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