Sarek Nationwide Park 20-Day Wilderness Hike

This travelogue is about three buddies embarking on a 20-day wilderness hike in one of the vital 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 among the oldest nationwide parks in Europe. It’s adjoining to 2 different nationwide parks, specifically 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 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.

Sarek Nationwide Park mountaineering

Sarek is a well-liked space for hikers and mountaineers. Newcomers in these disciplines are suggested to accompany a information since there are not any marked trails or lodging and solely two bridges other than these within the neighborhood of its borders. The realm is amongst people who receives the heaviest rainfall in Sweden, making mountaineering depending on climate circumstances. It’s also intersected by turbulent streams which can 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 durations of time. I personally 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 any one step resolution to doing it.

See additionally: Mountain climbing Gear Information

Getting ready to go mountaineering 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 may be an awesome place to begin as it should save hundreds of time and cash which might in any other case be spent on searching for the precise tools to do the job. Nevertheless it doesn’t change utilizing the system and understanding it’s in addition to your individual limits. 

Everyone seems to be completely different in lots of facets:

Are you match? How chilly a sleeper are you? What’s your weight-reduction plan? How does your digestion tract react to excessive caloric path meals? Do you want to wash in frosty waters? Are you snug to share a tent with others? Sharing a tent may imply that you just’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 snug of carrying the identical t-shirt for two weeks? Most individuals who’ve by no means performed 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 the perfect time to scrub my garments. There are days once I depart the shelter within the morning, pondering to myself: That is washing day! In fact, you’ll wish to wash your garments when the solar is out to dry them rapidly.

Overcoming doubts and fears

Individuals who have by no means gone on an extended, untethered wilderness journey may have a lot of issues going via their minds whereas planning the journey. This may result in develop into overly cautious and may lead you to deliver a lot of gear with you that you just don’t really need. Out of doors resellers will attempt to generate income together with your fears. They are going to attempt to promote you the heaviest obligation and costliest gear. Nature will certainly devour you, in the event you 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 will 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 often begin with making a route. There are a lot of completely different techniques to make use of. I’ve been utilizing Garmin gadgets for a very long time, which is why we will probably be sticking with it as I would be the important navigator on this journey. 

I’ve explored Sarek many instances. In good climate, I gained’t want any navigation gadget as a result of I do know the place I’m going however in opposed circumstances with mountaineering within the clouds or thick fog there may be no visibility. It’s factor to have, even when you realize the realm properly. For this journey, we selected to make use of Garmin inReach due to its stay monitoring operate. It might 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 mountaineering 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 realm and it’s additionally good apply. It’s factor to have a couple of 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 properly maintained and have some infrastructure by way of STF cabins and emergency shelters. STF stands for Svenska Turistförenigen and is the Swedish Vacationer Affiliation.

In case you plan to hike in Sweden quite a bit you may wish to think about getting a membership. With it, you’ll be capable of use all of the amenities 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, in the event you plan to remain the night time to dry out gear. Most cabins have a properly geared kitchen with gasoline burners and even cookware, which you should utilize. Numerous cabins even have a small store and if situated close to Sami settlements you may also 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 wish 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’ll be able to examine the timetables on fiskflyg.se. They can even do customized drop-offs however will not be 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 mountaineering in. When planning a route, I don’t solely plan for myself but additionally take note of 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 be capable of 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 if 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.

This can allow me to know the way far-off the subsequent 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 spot to cross. There are a lot of tutorials on-line about methods 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 thought of what you might be getting your self into. You’ll be able to 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 circumstances you’ll encounter usually. 

This can assist quite a bit in deciding what sort of clothes, shelter and sleep system to take with you. What sort of backpack to make use of will probably be determined on the very finish, if you really know precisely what you’ll be taking with you.