This blog was written in the Swedish mountains on a mobile phone using Termux and a foldable bluetooth keyboard from Jorno.

Table of contents Link to heading

2020-07-25 Nikkaluokta - Vistasdalen Link to heading

We took the night train from Stockholm at 18:08 on the 24th, but had to change to a normal train at 05:40 due to the Norwegian border being closed due to covid-19. So, 06:00 we took another train from Boden to Kiruna, and then from Kiruna we took the Nikkaluokta express at 10:20. Once in Nikkaluokta we had booked a boat ride through Sarrito take us around 12 km up in Vistasdalen. Thanks to this we did not have to walk through some of the mosquito infested forest in the Vistas Valley.

After getting of the boat, at 12:30, we hiked 11.5 km up to the first of the three bridges in the valley. The weather was changing a lot between heavy rain, cloudy and even some sunlight, leading to us putting on and taking off rain clothes ridiculous amount of times.

Cloudy weather

Due to a snow-rich winter and a cold spring the water levels were higher than usual. Several streams that I could easily pass without getting wet two years ago had to be waded through this year. It also seems to be a good cloud berry year, I do not think I have ever seen so many cloud berries. Most of them were not ripe yet though.

The first of the wades of the day

2020-07-26 Vistasdalen - Vistasdalen Link to heading

It was raining for most of the night and did not stop until around 9 in the morning, so we stayed in the tent and made breakfast in the apse. Due to this we did not finish packing everything up until 11. The trail was very wet, there was a lot of mosquitoes and we had to wade across two streams to get to Vistas. Still, there was no rain, and we even got quite a lot of sunlight.

The last wading before Vistas. It looked harder that it was.

We set camp for the night around 4 km after Vistas, in a forest-free (but unfortunately not mosquito-free) slope. There was not a lot of good tent sites available, so we settled for one with a small slope. After setting up the tent I went for a very quick and very cold swim to wash off all the sweat. It then started raining again so we made dinner inside the tent.

In total we hiked 15.3 km, which took us around 9 hours, including breaks. Wet/muddy trails definitely decreases your average pace.

Rainbow in the evening rain. Siehtagas in the background to the right.

2020-07-27 Vistasdalen - Alesjaurestugorna Link to heading

We slept in and got going around 11. We hiked up until around 1 km before the cabins and reached a river we had to wade across. Instead of wading we decided to set camp next to the river. The weather was sunny or cloudy the whole day, with no rain in sight.

We left the tree line behind after a few kilometre and got to see the beautiful view of Vistasdalen and the surrounding mountains.

View of Vistasdalen

Another view of Vistasdalen, with a waterfall

2020-07-28 Alesjaurestugorna - Abiskojaurestugorna Link to heading

We started around 10 am and stopped by Alesjaure to check the weather and throw away garbage. The hike to Abiskojaure is quite far, around 20 km, but it is relatively flat and has a good path. We hiked 19 km in total (including 1 km from our camp site to Alesjaure) and set camp right before the bridge over Siellajohka, we arrived around 7 pm. We wanted to set camp earlier, but could not find a good place close to a water stream.

View of Alisjavri

We saw waaaay more hikers this day compared to when we hiked in Vistasdalen. The weather was cloudy and quite windy for parts of it. Even though there were no trees for most of the hike there were lots of mosquito when the wind was not blowing.

View of Radujavri

2020-07-29 Abiskojaurestugorna - Nisson Link to heading

We got going around 10am and first hiked to Abiskojsure to check the weather. It was suppose to be 11 - 18 °C and no rain. As most days we got some raindrops, but it was mostly cloudy all day.

Sign right before the bridge before the beginning of Abisko Naturreservat

Our initial plan for the day was to hike from Abiskojaure to Kårsavggestugan, but we had less time left than we had planned for so we decided to go straight for Abisko instead. Since it is not allowed to camp except for in a few designated places in the wildlife preserve between Abiskojaure and Abisko we intended to hike up along Nissonjohka and camp outside the preserve. However, Carolines back started hurting so we stopped down by the designated camp site next to Nissonjohka. In total we hiked 14 km to get there, in about 6 hours including breaks.

When we arrived at the campsite, at 4pm, it was only about 3 tents. Before we went to bed it was around 15.

2020-07-30 Nisson - Abisko Östra Link to heading

After breakfast we hiked the last 4.7 km down to Abisko tourist station, where we had pre-booked an hotel room for our last night. As we arrived before we could check in we left our backpacks at the hotel and went for a light hike nearby the hotel, down to the water and to some viewing points. Abiskojåkka and the delta it has created was quite impressive!

Abiskojåkka rushing towards Torneträsk

We bought t-shirts and underwear in the gift shop to have some fresh clothes for the trip home. In the evening we had a three-course dinner booked at the tourist station. The food was pretty good but the service was not especially impressive.

2020-07-31 Nuolja Summit Link to heading

The hotel breakfast was better than the dinner before, it was nice to finally have some bread again instead of the same porridge every day. After checking out of the hotel we left our backpacks in the luggage room and went for a day hike to the nearby Nuolja mountain. There is a ski lift that can be used to get to the summit but we instead hiked it, it was a fairly good path so only took around 1.5 h of active hiking to reach the summit. The weather was good but it was quite windy at the top, it was good that we brought windproof jackets up there.

Flowers on the way up to Nuolja

Abisko Östra and Torneträsk

Once we were down at the tourist station again we freshened up and bought dinner + breakfast in the tourist station shop. There had been some sort of train trouble for the last couple of days so we had to take a replacement bus from Abisko to Kiruna, and then a train to Boden, and then the night train to Stockholm. In the end we reached Stockholm on time.