Sarek Nationwide Park – Planning For the Hike

This travelogue is about three mates embarking on a 20-day wilderness hike in one of the stunning alpine areas in northern Sweden: Sarek Nationwide Park.

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 mean diameter of about 50 kilometers.

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

Mountaineering in Sarek Nationwide Park

Sarek is a well-liked space for hikers and mountaineers. Inexperienced persons in these disciplines are suggested to accompany a information since there aren’t any marked trails or lodging and solely two bridges apart from these within the neighborhood of its borders. The realm is amongst those who receives the heaviest rainfall in Sweden, making mountain climbing depending on climate situations. It is usually intersected by turbulent streams which are 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 durations 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 answer to doing it.

Questions of consolation

Each Mine and Hendrik have relied closely on my system and what I believe is required for such an endeavor. This may be an important place to begin as it’s going to 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 change 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 eating regimen? 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 simply’ll be caught in a confined house with folks for a very long time, in case of extreme climate.

Questions of consolation would even be issues like: Are you comfy with carrying the identical t-shirt for two weeks? Most individuals who’ve by no means executed something like this may’t reply these questions. Coming from town we’re cradled in luxurious and are used to having issues like shelter, meals, sizzling water and clear garments on demand. On the market all the pieces is completely different. It’s good to make many selections: Easy issues like when is one of the best time to clean my garments.

There are days once I go away the shelter within the morning, considering to myself: That is washing day! In fact, you’ll wish 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 could have plenty of issues going by way of their minds whereas planning the journey. This may result in turning into overly cautious and may trigger you to carry plenty of gear with you that you simply don’t really want. Outside resellers will attempt to generate income along with your fears. They’ll attempt to promote you the heaviest obligation and most costly gear. Nature will certainly devour you, for those who don’t have tremendous heavy obligation, rugged gear to your journey. Many of the heavy gear is overbuilt and easily not wanted, even for off path adventures.

The place can we begin?

Creating the route

Normally the very first thing to resolve is the place to discover. Since we’ll be utilizing a GPS gadget for any journey like this, it’s going to often begin with making a route. There are a lot of completely different programs to make use of. I’ve been utilizing units for a very long time, which is why we will likely be sticking with it as I would be the fundamental navigator on this journey.

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

‘Hope for one of the best, plan for the worst’

When creating routes for mountain climbing in a selected 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 offers you a greater understanding of the world and it’s additionally good observe. It’s factor to have multiple exit technique. In Sarek there is just one emergency shelter with a radio cellphone 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. Should you plan to hike in Sweden loads you may wish to think about getting a membership. With it, you’ll be capable to use all of the services on the mountain cabins and you’ll 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 need to use. A number of cabins even have a small store and if situated close to Sami settlements you can too purchase smoked fish or dried reindeer meat. A number of the cabins even have an emergency cellphone and a helicopter touchdown pad in case you wish to fly in or out.

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

Plan for emergency conditions

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 take into consideration that I would come throughout an individual in want of assist. With fashionable GPS units there are methods of sharing information wirelessly between two units. If I meet one other particular person, I would be capable to assist by sharing my information. It’s enjoyable to plan routes utilizing satellite tv for pc photographs and topological maps after which see how the route performs out once you’re truly 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. This can allow me to understand how far-off the following campsite is in case I have to get out of the rain on my subsequent journey. River crossings are additionally factor to tag when you’ve discovered a great place to cross. There are a lot of tutorials on-line about tips on how to create routes and navigate them utilizing the GPS system of your alternative.

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

This can assist loads in deciding what sort of clothing, shelter and sleep system to take with you. What sort of backpack to make use of will likely be determined on the very finish, once you truly know precisely what you will be taking with you.