Here I give
you my very personal advices about what I think is nescessary
to know before planning or going hiking in the Scandinavian
mountains. This guide is mainly writter for the beginner,
but I also hope that you with some mountain hikes under
you belt still will find something interesting and usefull.
WHY HIKING IN SCANDINAVIA?
Why go hiking in Scandinavia with its rather small and
modest mountains? I'll give you a few reasons:
* The great nature, with the
small and dune like mountains you can see far away, giving
you a great view with a feeling of a "mountain desert".
You get the impression of being far, far away from
thecivilisation. This can rarely be experienced in the
Alps. This is poetry for me. Steep and high mountain walls
give more of an adventure experience.
*
Some people like to describe the Swedish northern
mountain areas the last true wilderness in Europe. You
will not face villages and roads in each and every valley!
* You can be alone or
meet people. If you choose to hike cross-country in the
less famous areas, you can walk for weeks without meeting
a soul. Or choose the highly frequented trails with the
cabins. Sleep in your tent or in the cabins...
* Here you won't find any
problem to find fresh drinking water. All clear water
is drinkable. No Giardia. No filters needed.
* The fantastic names of the
mountains, valleys, lakes, creaks, glaciers and everything.
Almost all of them are named in laplandish. If you know
what the word means, you know what the place looks like.
Many names are impossible to translate to Swedish or English
because our urban language simply doesn't have the words.
* All areas are fairly
easy to access by bus, train or car.
*
In Sweden we are proud over our Law of Public Access.
By law you can walk and camp freely in the wilderness
like you want. No private landowner can deny you or charge
you for money. No need for permits.
GEARS
To hike in Sweden, you will not need any advanced clothing
or equipment, but it sure makes life easier and more fun!
- What will you need to go hiking in Scandinavia?
The choice of equipment is very individual. A few devoted
people put
an honour in to find their own tricky details that complete
their bought gears with extra finesse. Still, the base
equipment; backpack, sleeping bag, tent and stove is rather
bought from the markets big outbid. Don't cheat on the
quality of the tent. If it breaks in a storm, you have
to walk to civilisation no matter how far it is! Also
you sleep much better in a good tent. Trust me, I've used
both categories.
The best way to dress is to use the three-layer principle;
underwear of wool (or synthetics), a middle layer of fleece
or wool and a shell with a breathable but rain stopping
material. If you walk from cabin to cabin, your pack can
stay rather light if you buy food along the hike and leave
the sleeping bag and stove at home. The pack gets much
heavier and voluminous when you get off trail and choose
your own way. There is a big difference in these two ways
of experience the mountains. The heavy will get you to
suffer more and live more rough. What you loose in comfort,
you will gain in freedom and independency. For me the
possibility to choose my own track along the hike is essential
for getting as much as possible out of the time among
the mountains.
When not hiking from hut to hut, I add a sleeping bag,
mattress, tent, stove, fuel and food. During a 10 days
hike, your pack will probably weight over 20 kilograms.
If less - what have you forgotten?
I recommend gas stoves, using propane-butane mix tubes.
"Why gas? I've heard it works bad in cold and wet
weather!" Nowadays I only use Primus gas stoves.
It's safe, clean, fast, easy and efficient! I've only
had problems once. It was cold and snowy; the gas tube
was quite empty. The tube froze, but after warming it
up under myclothes for some half hour, it worked.
Though in the winter I've only tried gas once, it was
-40 degrees celcius and the gas was useless.
The school of choosing shoes is as I see it four: High
walking rubber boots, leather boots, heavy shoes or running
shoes. I prefer the leather boots because they are easier
to walk in when being high up on the mountains with all
rocks, but also the possibility to use crampons make them
my no1 choice. Here you willalso face another have or
not to have. Gore-Tex or not? Gore-Tex will resist the
wet from the outside of the boot, but they will get wet
from your own foot perspiration. Without Gore-Tex, your
boots may on the other had get wet when water find it's
way through the leather. You will also have to carefully
take care of your shoes and use some sort of lubricant
to have them stay waterproof. I personally favour the
Gore-Tex shoes, after having three pairs of none Gore-Tex
shoes, I was finally convinced to try a pair with Gore-Tex.
I was sold. They are more comfortable and you have no
ice-cold water that trickles inside your boots. If it's
extremely cold, I use a liner inside the boot. My sock
system then is a very thin sock, a plastic bag and finally
a thick sock over it all. That way the boot will stay
dry and the foot perspiration stays into one sock only.
I also use this system on when winter mountaineering.
If you are going to spend most of the time in the lowland,
perhaps searching for cloudberries, rubber boots may be
the best decision. They are high and you can more easily
make comfortable water crossings.
Running shoes? Well nothing for me, but one of my friends
uses it from late spring to early autumn. Of course he
gets wet almost at once. He consider that no problem though.
Be wet - stay wet. Why care
GEARLIST
This is a quite complete list what I use to bring on my
mountain hikes. Ofcourse I often leave the ice-axe and
crampoons at home if not climbing mountains.
FOOD
The main rule is to carry light food that lasts long and
doesn't need long boiling time.
A typical menu for me:
Breakfast;
Musli with dried milk, habber bread with whey-cheese.
Lunch;
Soup and habber bread with whey-cheese. (Often I skip
the lunch and just eat some candy while keep on hiking).
Dinner;
Corn or wheat pasta, habber bread with cheese. (Perhaps
some freeze-dried food.)
Not a big variation for me, but I only eat because I have
to... And why not more freeze-dried food? - It's expensive
and I dislike it!
What's this Habber? - It's bread that is exclusively made
by my family. It's hand made in a special open oven. The
bread can only be baked one at the time. This bread lasts
very long without getting mouldy. For instance, once I
was out for 14 days in the wilderness eating Habber every
day, the bread get a bit hard but tastes good. The receipt
is a family secret and the bread can only be bought in
Kurrokveik that is located seven kilometres south of Arjeplog
in Lapland / Sweden.
Just a few more words about food; some people need to
eat very much when hiking and obviously burning a lot
of calories. That is the normal thing. But for me it's
different. Most often I'm only out for about 10-14 days,
and I know my body well, somehow my whole body stop to
need that obviously well needed extra calories. I don't
feel hungry and eat less than I do at home. I don't loose
any weight or feel weak. I believe is that I live on my
reserves and at the same time the body feel it must save
itself and therefore not need those extra calories. This
however will only work for short hikes; on ultra-long
hikes you will burn your power if trying to eat like this.
SAFETY IN THE MOUNTAINS
There's a rescue service, but no trails or areas are patrolled
- you are on your own! A broken leg and you will have
to crawl to the nearest hut that has an emergency radio.
I once met a climber that had fallen and broken his arm.
He had walked for two days constantly to reach the civilisation,
now near the village, his friends almost carried him.
What had happened if he had been alone? Remember that
every year several people lose their lives in the Scandinavian
mountains. People are also lost - and never found again.
Wrote this as an advice that it's wise not to hike alone.
Nevertheless, I often encourage people to go solohiking!
If you have enough experience, solo hikes in remote areas
will let you to know more about yourself and also experience
the nature in a different perspective. Also the knowledge
that it's all up to
you will sharpen your mind and you will be more alert.
But as said,don't do this unless you know what you are
giving yourself into.
Water
crossings - a cold risky business?
Can be dangerous say signs in the cabins. True, but use
pure sense and there will be no problem. Remember to always
cross a creek on the widest place and always wear shoes
to avoid cuts. The water is mostly freezing cold and you
may lose all feeling from your feet after a few minutes.
Mountain climbs - the highlight
of your tour!
Most Swedish mountain peaks can be reached without the
use of climbing gears. Personally I climb the peaks for
the great views and the alpine experience. This has nothing
to do with sport climbing!
IN
THE WINTER
The winter is no reason to escape the Scandinavian
mountains. If you can face the cold and the extra weight
of winter gears, you might even learn love this place
more than during the summer. The positive thing for the
winter is that with skis on, you will travel faster and
save your energy when descending. Also a lot of people
think the winter is more beautiful with the snow crowning
the landscape. You might also have the chance to experience
wild, colourful aurora borealis playing in the sky. The
negative things are that in Sweden, and especially near
Kebnekaise, you will face a crowd of people on snow-mobiles
passing you during the late season. To avoid them, visit
the national park Sarek in Sweden, or go to Norway where
they more or less are banned!
The high season is around Easter when it's light and often
more warm and stable weather. This is really the spring,
rough, hard winter conditions may occur.
I personally believe late February until mid April is
a great period. It's dark, cold with northern lights in
the sky. You feel that you are out having a rough time.
Personally I have my strongest and nicest memories from
those rough but beautiful trips.
UNCOMFORTABLE
AND MORE RISKS IN THE WINTER
Many, many Scandinavian hikers don't leave for the mountains
in the winter because they believe it's both more uncomfortable
and more risky; and yes, it certainly is! Everything is
more uncomfortable except that skiing is often more easy
than walking. The risk for bad winter storms must be taken
into mind, you may freeze to death if you don't know how
to react in those situations. Avalanches are dangerous,
very dangerous. Most of our avalanches in Scandinavia
are like the Scottish, small but hard and solid flakes
giving away, they are hard and you are likely to be seriously
injured just from the impact. If being buried, you will
probably not live longer
than 15 minutes. No oneexcept your friends is there to
save you. I'll say, use transceivers and know how to use
them if in any doubt of avalanche danger!
To be able to put up your tent in a storm and/or bivouac
is also essential, bivouac sacks or bivouac holes are
lifesavers. Also living in snow holes is a great experience;
you can stay warm and comfortable in the coldest and worst
weather.
WINTER GEARS
If leaving for the mountains in the winter the following
gears need to be changed or added to your summer gears:
Skis or snow-shoes.
Ski sticks.
Warm Ski boots.
Ski wax or skins.
Warm sleeping bag
Bivouac sack.
Winter tent-pegs.
Snow-shovel.
Warm clothes (light-weight down jacket, warm gloves and
cap)
Vacuum (Thermos®) flask for hot drinks.
White-Gas or meth stoves prefer white-gas in cold temperatures.
Dish-cloth to remove moisture from inside the tent.
Sun-glasses.
Sun lotion .
Tranciver (may save your life if going in avalanche possible
terrain).
READ MORE
ABOUT THE SCANDINAVIAN MOUNTAINS
Interested to see more
photos?
Try
this link to my photo gallery called "pictures from
the fjelds".
Perpahs
want to read stories from the Scandinavian mountains?
Read
my article "A tale from Lofoten" about how I
had to emergency bivouac in 2001.
Check
out my short story about how I and my cousin Martin visited
Kebneiase 1999.
Do
you have any questions?
Contact
me through e-mail.
"And most of all I like the highest mountains with
it's lonley world, unlike everything else the eye meet
in common life."
- Axel
Hamberg, year 1896
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