2005-12-03

Another winter adventure has to be faced...

While looking for a suitable route I remembered the book "Nordskandinavien" by Peter Bickel which I bought as a preparation for my Hardangervidda tour. In this book Peter Bickel describes his hike on the northern Kungsleden during the winter... Perfect isn't it?

So the northern Kungsleden it shall be and this time Julia will be joining my side.

Most of the necessary equipment is already bought. Only Julia still needs some bits and pieces, and she also still needs to build the Pulka.

But that will all happen in January or Febuary next year when both of us do have more time off from university and work.

Although the northern Kungsleden seems to be the perfect tour for beginner due to its huts at the end of each day and the popularity, we decided to take an extra bit of security along: an Iridium sattelite phone. Here I'd like to say 'Thank You' to www.outdoorseiten.net for the generous support.

Here come the facts:

• 23.02. Flight with Ryanair to Stockholm
• 23.02. - 24.02. Night train (Connex) to Abisko
• 24.02. - 5.03. Hiking on the Kungsleden from Abisko to Vakkotavare
• 6.03. Bus to Gällivare
• 6.03. - 7.03. Night train back to Stockholm
• 8.03. Flight back to Germany

One problem has been the fact that our gear is way too heavy to be taking it all along on the plane. And also declaring the pulkas as sports-equipment isn't that easy with Ryanair. That's why we decided to send the pulkas and parts of our gear to Stockholm beforehand with DPD. 30€ one way for both pulkas seems to be fair enough.

So far so good... let's see how things will continue ;-)

Tilo

2006-02-07

This proved to be more difficult than we thought.

The problem is that we had to be under the "Gurtmaß" of 300cm - the pulka being 150cm long, 50cm in width and 20cm in height.

Building a container of cardboard with those 300cm Gurtmaß was precise work.

We got the cardboard from a big company selling furniture in Tauberbischofsheim and also paid 8€ for it, because the cardboard is extra thick.

In the end we managed to build a container for the pulkas with a Gurtmaß of 298cm. ;-) ... and I am proud to say that this thing is bomb-proof!!

Our two Paris Expedition pulkas fit in it nicely and with all the necessarry gear for the pulkas we had about 12kg alltogether. We checked with DPD and consideringthe fact that my pulka last year on my Hardangervidda tour was something like 40kg we decided to send up some more stuff and take less on the plane.

So all in all we send our two pulkas, our evening food and our Wechsel Summit Zero-G tent. 22kg alltogether for 35€ to Stockholm.

Let's hope that the parcel will arrive in time and undamaged. 

2006-02-10 

What really occupies my mind right now is the fact that my winter-tour on the Kungsleden might not take place. I hurt one of my toes badly while being stupid on a kids-slide and now the nail is coming off....

As it looks now I cannot think about wearing closed shoes let alone even hiking boots or their-like. We will wait until two or three days before our flight leaves for Stockholm to decide if we go on this winter adventure or not.

Just a shame that we already sent the sledges and most of our supplies to Stockholm.

Wish me luck that my toe will not fall apart and heal properly.

I'll let you know once we made this decision.

A couple of days ago the parcel of one of our supporters arrived with our food supply for this tour. We already sent it up to Stockholm along with our pulkas and the Wechsel Summit Zero-G tent.

2006-02-21 

We made the decision!

Our Kungsleden 2006 winter-tour will take place! It was not sure at all after the injury of my toe and some other problems that turned up. We had massive problems with our pulkas and parts of the equipment we sent to Stockholm. Somehow the post there only tries to deliver a parcel once...

... and if they do not find anyone at the address, they just drop the parcel at the next post-office and sometimes even forget to leave a message that the parcel can be picked up. Very annoying all of this. But it went alright in the end. The equipment is now waiting for our arrival at a friend's place in Stockholm.

One other issue that kind of annoyes me is an infection of my left eye which I'm treating with antibiotics at the moment. Somehow this tour is not standing under the best stars, I fear... let's hope that the problems will stop when we start our journey.
Wish us luck ;-)

Thursday, 23.02.06

Oh what a day!

I know that it won’t continue like that but if it could, it’d surely be the last holiday ever.

Our day started at 4 a.m. after two or three hours of sleep. The ride to the airport went alright. But the first problem came up shortly after we checked our luggage in. We were called out for luggage examination and I could already picture myself running though Stockholm hurrying to find a new cooker in time. But after a little sniff on our fuel bottle she told us that it is alright and whished us a pleasant flight. For that I very much deserved a hot chocolate with ream on top ;o) and Julia went for her coffee.

2 hours later in Stockholm-Skavsta.:

After checking our ski-bag at the baggage claim which was severely ripped, we were happy to discover that nothing got damaged or lost – nothing the duct tape couldn’t fix. The journey to Stockholm went as usual and we were more than happy to get our luggage in the lockers at the main station. There are actually lockers that are suitable for skis and flat polkas at the bottom floor of the main station (by the toilets). Off we went on a half an hour journey to a friend of Julia to collect our polkas and some other equipment we sent up before.

Rather surprised and not really amused at all of the amount and weight of extra luggage we sent up (especially food:  20 Ritter Sport chocolate ;o) we commenced our journey back to the train station earning suspicious looks from the citizens of Stockholm.

Although time seemed to be against us, we nevertheless managed to get everything packed and ready and arrived at platform 4 where the Connex train lift in time.

We hoped that once on the train the stress would fall off ourselves… but well just try to put 4 people with skis and backpacks and two people with 40 kg pulkas in one cabin! Well, everything we can do now, sitting all by ourselves in a six berth cabin – is sip on our "Norrlands Guld" and say cheers to the Connex train conductor who had mercy on ourselves (or rather on the other four) who allowed us to move to a cabin that is usually reserved to bulky luggage ;o)

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be rather windy (15 m/s) and quite warm – but there’s no rain forecast and the temperatures are supposed to drop down to -15°C in the next couple of days. So that looks almost perfect to us… Let’s see how far the remaining daylight and our feet will allow us to go…

Bring it on!

Friday, 24.02.06

After a more or less comfortable night in the train to Abisko we arrived at Abisko Tourist Station at 12 p.m. and were greeted by snowfall and a fierce wind – and we still had to reassemble our polkas. After about an hour and caked in snow we started our journey by walking through the Kungsleden gate. Julia’s decision not to use the skis proved not to be the worst… because I, using the skis, did sit down from time to time cursing the many ups and downs. We actually planned to camp at the only campsite in the National Park but our way did not lead directly past it – before we noticed it we already past it by an hour. So by 4:30 p.m. (the light was beginning to fade) we put up our tent next to the way at the border of the National Park. It took us more than an hour to arrange all our stuff and blowing up our Exped downmats did take more time than we expected – let’s see if they will prove to be worth the money ;o)

Melting snow, cooking and sorting out our mess a bit more did fill most of the evening. It seldom stopped snowing during the day and going out of the tent minding some private business turned out to be a nuisance – coming back in looking like a snowman. Temperatures during the day did not drop below -6°C but the strong wind did chill us down. At the moment we have -8C and a beautiful sky full of stars. Let’s hope for better weather tomorrow.

Evening meal: Trekking-Mahlzeiten – Waldpilz-Sojaragout / rather tasteless / 3-4

Sunday, 26.02.06

Yesterday we set off at 12 o’clock having had a sleep-in. The downmats turned out to be very comfortable ;o) Whereas our wish for better weather did not get granted. We arrived at Abiskojaure at 4 p.m. but by that time we both were pretty finished – with those many ups and downs Julia gave up using her skis very early and by time we reached the lake Ábeskojávri Julia had walked most of the way and only then started to use her skis.

There’s not much to tell about the scenery because we’ve been walking in a snowstorm almost all the time and we’ve been more than happy to finally reach Abiskojaure and to be warmly welcomed by a young and friendly hut warden. There were only very few people at the Abiskojaure at that time and we only had to share the hut with two Norwegians travelling with a dogsled. The warden actually accepted our IYA (International Youth Hostelling) cards so we only had to pay 170 SEK each (like the STF members).

Evening meal: Trekking-Mahlzeiten - Kartoffeleintopf mit Röstzwiebeln / once you get used to the consistency quite good / 2

Today we finally managed to have a (rather) early start :o) at 10:30 a.m. and attached the furs to our skis right away because of the ascent on the way to Alesjaure. We also rearranged the weight of the polkas by me carrying almost all of our food which has been on Julia’s pulka the days before. We could have been better off without the furs until we reached the hill but once we started to go up the furs were worth a fortune! Nevertheless the hill pretty much finished us off and the still persisting snowstorm didn’t really help to make it easier for us. I wonder when we will finally see more than white walls around us. After the ascent there was a long way that seemed to be endless (through the Gárddenvággi)…

By the time we reached Rándunjárga (small hut) it was 4 p.m. and the two Norwegians from Abiskojaure were sitting in it, having a break. They soon went on to Alesjaure and they left a warm hut – with the ongoing snowstorm and the fading light – we just couldn’t resist temptation to sleep the night there ;o)

Evening meal: Trekking-Mahlzeiten - Paprika-Sojaragout / with additional spicing up it was quite alright / 2-3

Monday, 27.02.06

When we woke up this morning we walked out of the door of our little hut – and, oh what surprise - the weather was shite again ;o) Again strong wind coming from the south but at least snowfall gave us a break today. Not much to tell from the way to Alesjaure only that we say the "stuga" very soon – we went straight towards the hut on the frozen lake and the way seemed endless with the hut refusing to come any closer. When we finally reached Alesjaure we were once again warmly welcomed by the "stugvärd". We paid the day fee (40 SEK) because we planned to go a bit further today. But when I checked on my heels that felt funny today I was greeted by open blisters on both feet with the left one already bleeding.

Mental note: Hand, shoot and kill my shoes after this tour by throwing them over a cliff!

After we lifted up our spirits by "hunting" in the "stuga shop" and consuming the prey afterwards ;o) we decided to end this days by staying in Alesjaure and taking a relaxing, warm "bastu" (sauna).

Evening meal: Knorr Spaghetteria "Spinaci" / 1

Tuesday, 28.02.06

Taking a day off to give my feet some time to recover.

What a shame today we had perfect weather – blue sky, no wind, lots of sun… and beautiful Northern lights during the night…

Wednesday, 01.03.06

Temperatures dropped below -30°C during the night and although the weather was as fine as yesterday :o) the thermometer at Julia’s pulka still showed -30°C when we headed off to Tjäktja. Quite an experience walking at those temperatures!

With every bit of skin covered for protection against the cold and the fine weather we made good way and were rewarded with beautiful views at the surrounding mountains. Only the last part of the way and beginning of the Tjäktja pass was challenging our good mood. The "nice" thing about furs for your skis is that you can forget about putting them on your skis when the temperatures are so low and your skis are that cold… We fought our way up to Tjäktja and especially Julia refused to take her skis of and considered the hill to be her personal enemy… which we defeated in the end and reached Tjäktja hut… exhausted but satisfied. Once again our plan was to move on a bit further but having a look at my feet we knew it would be better to stay and take proper care of them.

Evening meal: Trekking-Mahlzeit - Kaiserschmarrn / with additional sugar on top / 1-2

Thursday, 02.03.06

After completely plastering my feet with tape and "Duoderm" we reached Tjäktja pass 1 ½ hours after we set off. The last ascent to Tjäktja pass is short but nasty and Julia was unlucky enough to loose one of her furs shortly before the ascent. Rewarded by a breathtaking view and downhill skiing (more or less ;o) we headed towards Sälka. We only took our furs off after the steepest parts of the decent were behind us.

Walking through the valley in bright sunshine was marvellous and the scenery truly looked like from a painting. We followed the trail with the Winterleden markings towards Sälka. Parts of it were pretty icy giving us an rather unexpected slip down the hillside from time to time. Once in Sälka the "stugvärd" told us that there is a regular transfer from Kebnekaise fjällstation to Nikkaluokta (200 SEK each) three times a day (www.nikkaluokta.com  Skoter/bandvagnstransport till Kebnekaise).

Evening meal: Trekking-Mahlzeiten - Nudeln in Soja-Bolognese /  1

Friday, 03.03.06

Once again we started in a cold but beautiful and cloudless morning. We chose to follow the tracks down by the river, which were easy-going and straight forward. Shortly before Singi we turned east to shortcut the way to Kebnekaise by following the summer-track over a hill – bad idea! Although the hill is not high the way up seems to stretch endlessly and especially near the top the way turned out to be very icy and it took us quite a while to reach the highest point. There we actually planned to camp but there was no place where we could set up our tent properly because of the icy ground. So while cursing ourselves we went along the summer-track down to the valley and shortly after joining the Winterleden again we found a suitable spot for our tent. Looking back it would have been better to avoid the hill by going around it over Singi.

Right know the temperatures dropped down to -25°C with falling tendency.

Evening meal: Trekking-Mahlzeiten – Gartengemüse-Sojarisotto /  1-2

Saturday, 04.03.06

-28°C made us seriously consider to stay in our warm sleeping-bags until next spring ;o) Once  we overcame our wish for survival we crawled out of our bags, skipped breakfast and were packed and ready to go in not time :o) Shortly after leaving the valley it became clear to us that we can safely store the skis on top of our pulkas because the frozen river looked treacherous and the Winterleden had only bits and pieces of snow there. Most of the time did we have to cross huge fields of ice and very often bare, stony ground. Ever tried to pull a fully loaded pulka over a boulder field? No?! Then go for it – it’s something you’ll remember for a long, long time! (And so will our pulkas). But nevertheless we managed to reach Kebnekaise fjällstation at one point, booked a room as well as a ticket on the "Nikkaluokta Alltransport" (snow-scooter) to Nikkaluokta the next day (200 SEK each incl. pulkas and skis!).

So that’s it! Sitting here at Kebnekaise, with a beer in our hands, our Kungsleden 2006 Wintertour ends.