Kebnekaise is the highest mountain in Sweden with it's modest 2 .117 meters above the sea level. In 1999, my cousin Martin Jerberyd and I decided it would be nice to travel to the mountains together again, it was four years since we last had hiked togheter. Kebnekaise was a given choice; Martin had never been to the summit, and for me it was 15 years since my previous visit. I wrote this short and partly bad written report when I returned home. It was only published for a month on my site. Now, when I have finished my new version of hiking in Scandinavia, I thought could be given a second chance. Since I wrote this story, I've returned to Kebnekaise once more. It was in march 2000, we reached the summit late in the afternoon and had to descend in darkness. GOING TO KEBNEKAISE My cousin Martin and I left Stockholm by train, we traveled to to the mining city Kiruna, changed to bus and and went to Nikkaloukta, from there we hiked 19 kilometers to the Kebnekaise Mountain Station. Our plan was to climb the Kebnekaise mountain by the easy East Route up and down after having spent a night in our tent near the summit. (this idea was abandoned due to bad weather). Afterwards Martin would leave me and fly home while I continued hiking around in the mountain area. CLIMBING KEBNEKAISE Early on Sunday morning we left our camp that was located halfway up the hiking part of the route. We hurried up to the the Björlings Glacier. I decided what looked like the safest way over and we crossed it with no problems. We had brought no climbing equipment because this is a well trodden way with daily guided parties to the summit in good weather. There were no problem getting up the East Face except for some height scariness from Martin on the only place where fixed ropes where missing. You can call it the micro-mini crux of the climb for non-mountaineers. Up we got to the plateau that leads to the summit. We immediately found the old cabin. There two Israeli guys bid there time. They had ascended through the West Hiking Route in good weather and then It had started snowy heavily and without experience they felt it was best to phone the mountain rescue and ask what to do. They had been told not to move from the cabin and that a helicopter was on the way.. However the snowy and cloudy weather made it impossible... Now Zeev and Arnon was very happy to see us. We told them that we would be back in an hour or so, first we had to summit! We spent some half hour at the highest point in Sweden. Four Russian mountaineers joined us. The weather was acceptable, you could see the glaciers and small mountains in the South-East direction. To the north it was all a gray mass. At my previous visit in 1984 it had been a superb weather with 100 of kilometers visibility in all directions... I was somewhat disappointed. MOUNTAIN GUIDES We descended back to the cabin with the Israeli guys waiting. Zeev and Arnon both lived in the south of Finland and had no real previous mountain experience. Arnon had been hiking just a little bit before this trip... A guided party popped up while we where at the cabin, the question was if they should help them down or if we should guide them down the easy West Route... The guide decided they where not dressed well enough to get down the East Face and off Martin and I went as guides... No prob, we got down in the evening without any problems. Zeev and Arnon where very happy getting down safe and with our nice company, we where joking and talking all the way and they said with our confidence if was so much fun and easy to descend... HIKING SOLO The day after was just a rest day and on the day after that Martin left me and headed for Stockholm. Now I was alone. I had lunch and started hiking, my intention was to get through the Singivaggi valley, passing a demanding Col with a waterfall, however the wind was increasing heavily, and when I got to this small crux I decided to turn around, It was simply not worth the risk in this windy condition with rain that made the rocks really slippery... I turned around and hiked around the Singichokka mountain instead. The next day the wind increased even more, my guess it was blowing at least 20 Meters Per Second. I felt in no hurry and stayed in the tent all day just reading some IIS4.0 study material that I had brought for rainy days. AFTER RAIN SNOW & WIND... ...FOLLOW SUNSHINE The next day I just continued some 5 kilometers, camping fast and attaching the tent properly in the furious wind. Again the following day I was studying and just lying in the tent listening to the wind and having a look from time to time on snow that surrounded my camp. In the evening I continued to Kuopervagge. Miraculously it cleared up a bit for some minutes and from my camp I could see both the North and South summits of Kebnekaise above the clouds with sun on the mountain summits. I guessed that no one was there right now because of the wind... Continuing the next day into the valley I camped at the Guorbijavrri lake. It's one of those green ones at high altitude with glacier waters... Here it was quite difficult to find a good camping place, I just snatched up the tent on the rocks. Well, it was a cool camping spot at least, both literary and actual with the temperature crawling several degrees below zero during the night. The next afternoon I hurried on over the high passes that leads down to the Tarfala cabin. It was a glorious day with much snow on all the summits and I had to walk in deep snow trough the pass. Surly this single day with great weather was worth all the earlier struggles and waiting in the tent! I had lunch in Tarfala and from there made a fast hike down to the Kebnekaise Mountain Station, the place where I had started 5 days ago... SUMMIT AGAIN Since the weather forecast looked better now than for a long time, I decided to have another go at the summit of Kebnekaise. This time I decided to choose the easy West Hiking Route, there was so much snow and ice on the East Wall that the guiding was canceled and I didn't feel like risking anything when traveling solo. I stuffed my pack with only my Gore-Tex clothes and a Mars Bar, off I went... Fast, hurrying on I passed more than 20 people on the way up, but near the top-cabin I caught up with a girl from the south of Sweden, she was alone on her first mountain trip, we had company to the summit... It was not a perfect day, but at least you could see all the way to Sarek and Padjelanta. On the way down Tina and I had company and we got back to the Station just as it started to rain again. We both thought it had been a great day and celebrated by eating an sandwich dinner at the restaurant...

"The mountains have rules. they are harsh rules, but they are there, and if you keep to them you are safe. A mountain is not like men. A mountain is sincere. The weapons to conquer it exist inside you, inside your soul." - Walter Bonatti