Camp near Storsteynshytta

Woke up early and just stayed in my sleeping bag as I didn’t want to disturb the guests inside the cabin. Turned out I should have followed my first instinct and packed everything up – minutes after 6 am it started to rain heavily.

Not until 8 the rain lightened enough to get from the camp to the cabin without getting totally drenched. I grabbed everything except the tent and went for breakfast.

As the cabin was rather cold and damp I made a fire in the stove, very appreciated by all the other guests!

After a couple of mugs of coffee with coconut oil, I went back to the camp and took the tent down. One of the groups had left their room already and I could hang my tent to dry, two hours later it was good to pack!

Still, I lingered in the cabin, waiting for the host to be ready for an interview, finally, I left at around 1 pm.

Getting into another rain shower on the first stretch, I dropped into the cabin at Cunojaure to have a cup of coffee away from the rain. Between chatting with two Austrian guys and a Swedish couple I met already on the trail to Unna Allakas yesterday, I stayed until 4:30 pm.

In the meantime, I had decided to go check out Storsteynshytta, as my original plan of going up towards Smaileriehpas felt a little cocky due to the weather. Pitching my tent in the clouds isn’t one of my favorites…

The hike up to that cabin was only around 12km and I’d easily been there before 8 pm if it hadn’t been for the last river crossing. Right below the glacier, the meltwater stream spread out into a kind of delta, leaving islands of sediment between the arms of the river. I made it about 1/3 of the way before I had to change into my Crocks and pack my trousers into the backpack. Water was more than knee deep and painfully cold, worse, the sediment wasn’t stable… I sank into the bottom and almost lost one of my Crocks, the last arm I did barefoot, carrying the wading shoes in one hand.

Once through the river, I didn’t stop to change yet continued up the hill all the way to the cabin in a successful attempt to get warm.

The cabin itself turned out to be a disappointment, though, there is a nice one that is privately owned, the NTO cabin didn’t have a stove to make fire and the ceiling was so low I couldn’t stand up. After a quick glance, I went and pitched my tent instead!

Soon I had dinner ready, followed by a couple of mugs of tea, and soon after 10 pm, I went to bed.

Even if the hike was neither long nor hard this day, the last 3km involved quite some elevation and the river crossing was tiring and I’ll have no issues sleeping well tonight!