Sarek National Park 20-Day Wilderness Hike

This travelogue is about three associates embarking on a 20-day wilderness hike in probably the most lovely alpine areas in northern Sweden: Sarek Nationwide Park.

The Sarek Nationwide Park is a nationwide park in Jokkmokk Municipality, Lapland in northern Sweden. Established in 1909–1910, the park is without doubt one of the oldest nationwide parks in Europe. It’s adjoining to 2 different nationwide parks, particularly Stora Sjöfallet and Padjelanta. The form of Sarek Nationwide Park is roughly round with a median diameter of about 50 kilometers. 

Probably the most famous options of the nationwide park are six of Sweden’s 13 peaks over 2,000 meters positioned throughout the park’s boundaries. Amongst these is the second highest mountain in Sweden, Sarektjåkkå, while the massif Áhkká is positioned simply exterior the park. The park has about 200 peaks over 1,800 meters, 82 of which have names. Because of the lengthy trek, the mountains within the district are seldom climbed. There are roughly 100 glaciers in Sarek.

Sarek Nationwide Park mountain climbing

Sarek is a well-liked space for hikers and mountaineers. Newbies in these disciplines are suggested to accompany a information since there are not any marked trails or lodging and solely two bridges except for these within the neighborhood of its borders. The world is amongst those who receives the heaviest rainfall in Sweden, making mountain climbing depending on climate situations. Additionally it is intersected by turbulent streams which might be hazardous to cross with out correct coaching.

Mine, Hendrik and Björn are teaming up for this superior journey. Each Mine and Hendrik have by no means explored the wilderness earlier than. They’ve by no means been out of their consolation zone for longer intervals of time. I actually have been exploring for a few years now and have optimized my system and balanced consolation and weight to my wants. Optimizing your setup is a factor that occurs over a few years of utilizing it. Everyone seems to be completely different so there isn’t a one step resolution to doing it.

See additionally: Hiking Gear Guide

Making ready to go mountain climbing in Sarek Nationwide Park

Each Mine and Hendrik have relied closely on my system and what I feel is required for such an endeavor. This is perhaps an amazing place to begin as it should save hundreds of time and money which might in any other case be spent on in search of the fitting gear to do the job. However it doesn’t substitute utilizing the system and figuring out it’s in addition to your individual limits. 

Everyone seems to be completely different in lots of elements:

Are you match? How chilly a sleeper are you? What’s your weight loss plan? How does your digestion tract react to excessive caloric path meals? Do you want to wash in frosty waters? Are you comfy to share a tent with others? Sharing a tent might imply that you just’ll be caught in a confined area with individuals for a very long time, in case of extreme climate.

Questions of consolation would even be issues like:

Are you comfy of sporting the identical t-shirt for two weeks? Most individuals who’ve by no means executed something like this could’t reply these questions. Coming from the town we’re cradled in luxurious and are used to having issues like shelter, meals, scorching water and clear garments on demand. On the market the whole lot is completely different.

It’s essential make many decisions: Easy issues like when is the perfect time to clean my garments. There are days after I depart the shelter within the morning, pondering to myself: That is washing day! After all, you’ll need to wash your garments when the solar is out to dry them shortly.

Overcoming doubts and fears

Individuals who have by no means gone on a protracted, untethered wilderness journey may have numerous issues going via their minds whereas planning the journey. This will result in develop into overly cautious and would possibly lead you to convey numerous gear with you that you just don’t really need. Out of doors resellers will attempt to earn money together with your fears. They are going to attempt to promote you the heaviest obligation and costliest gear. Nature will certainly devour you, for those who don’t have tremendous heavy obligation, rugged gear on your journey. A lot of the heavy gear is overbuilt and easily not wanted, even for off path adventures.

The place can we begin?

Creating the route for a 21-day hike in Sarek Nationwide Park

Normally the very first thing to determine is the place to discover. Since we’ll be utilizing a GPS gadget for any journey like this, it should normally begin with making a route. There are lots of completely different programs to make use of. I’ve been utilizing Garmin gadgets for a very long time, which is why we can be sticking with it as I would be the most important navigator on this journey. 

I’ve explored Sarek many instances. In good climate, I received’t want any navigation gadget as a result of I do know the place I’m going however in opposed situations with mountain climbing within the clouds or thick fog there is perhaps no visibility. It’s a very good factor to have, even when you recognize the world effectively. For this journey, we selected to make use of Garmin inReach due to its stay monitoring operate. It will probably additionally function an emergency signaling gadget in case somebody must be rescued.

‘Hope for the perfect, plan for the worst’

When creating routes for mountain climbing in a particular space, I’ve made it a behavior to create many aspect routes, shortcuts and detours to select from. You by no means know what is going to occur and having deliberate completely different routes will provide you with a greater understanding of the world and it’s additionally good observe. It’s a very good factor to have multiple exit technique. In Sarek, there is just one emergency shelter with a radio telephone within the middle of the park. 

There are two main trails proper exterior Sarek’s borders:

Kungsleden and Padjelantaleden are each effectively maintained and have some infrastructure when it comes to STF cabins and emergency shelters. STF stands for Svenska Turistförenigen and is the Swedish Vacationer Affiliation.

In case you plan to hike in Sweden lots you would possibly need to take into account getting a membership. With it, you’ll have the ability to use all of the amenities on the mountain cabins and you may keep there freed from cost between 9:00 and 17:00. You’ll additionally get a reduction on rooms, for those who plan to remain the night time to dry out gear. Most cabins have a effectively geared kitchen with fuel burners and even cookware, which you should use. Numerous cabins even have a small store and if positioned close to Sami settlements you may as well purchase smoked fish or dried reindeer meat. A number of the cabins even have an emergency telephone and a helicopter touchdown pad in case you need to fly in or out.

What to do in an emergency

Helicopter transports are organized by ‘Fiskflyg’. Transports value 1450SEK (Swedish Crowns) which equals about 140€, together with 20kg of luggage. You may test the timetables on fiskflyg.se. They may even do customized drop-offs however should not allowed to fly into Sarek. Solely in emergency conditions are helicopters allowed to fly right here.

It’s a good suggestion to create waypoints to all of the emergency shelters and telephones across the space you might be mountain climbing in. When planning a route, I don’t solely plan for myself but in addition consider that I would come throughout an individual in want of assist. With fashionable GPS gadgets there are methods of sharing knowledge wirelessly between two gadgets. If I meet one other individual, I would have the ability to assist by sharing my knowledge. It’s enjoyable to plan routes utilizing satellite tv for pc photographs and topological maps after which see how the route performs out while you’re really within the terrain. The extra you do that, the extra you’ll learn to interpret satellite tv for pc photographs and also you’ll get higher at it with each journey you propose. I’ve additionally made it a behavior of marking good campsites.

It will allow me to know the way far-off the following campsite is in case I must get out of the rain on my subsequent journey. River crossings are additionally a very good factor to tag when you’ve discovered a great place to cross. There are lots of tutorials on-line about easy methods to create routes and navigate them utilizing the GPS system of your alternative.

As quickly as you’ve determined the place you need to hike and have deliberate a route utilizing topological maps in addition to satellite tv for pc photographs you’ll have a tough thought of what you might be getting your self into. You may analyze climate patterns of the earlier years within the space to get an thought about how chilly it will get at night time and what temperatures and climate situations you’ll encounter usually. 

It will assist lots in deciding what sort of clothes, shelter and sleep system to take with you. What sort of backpack to make use of can be determined on the very finish, while you really know precisely what you’ll be taking with you.