Sarek National Park 20-Day Wilderness Hike

This travelogue is about three pals embarking on a 20-day wilderness hike in some of the 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. 

Essentially the most famous options of the nationwide park are six of Sweden’s 13 peaks over 2,000 meters situated throughout the park’s boundaries. Amongst these is the second highest mountain in Sweden, Sarektjåkkå, while the massif Áhkká is situated simply outdoors 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 climbing

Sarek is a well-liked space for hikers and mountaineers. Rookies in these disciplines are suggested to accompany a information since there aren’t any marked trails or lodging and solely two bridges except for these within the neighborhood of its borders. The realm is amongst people who receives the heaviest rainfall in Sweden, making climbing depending on climate circumstances. It is usually 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 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 is no such thing as a one step answer to doing it.

See additionally: Hiking Gear Guide

Getting ready to go climbing in Sarek Nationwide Park

Each Mine and Hendrik have relied closely on my system and what I believe is required for such an endeavor. This may be a terrific place to begin as it should save masses of time and cash which might in any other case be spent on on the lookout for the best tools to do the job. Nevertheless it doesn’t exchange utilizing the system and understanding it’s in addition to your individual limits. 

Everyone seems to be completely different in lots of features:

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 might imply that you simply’ll be caught in a confined house with individuals for a very long time, in case of extreme climate.

Questions of consolation would even be issues like:

Are you snug of sporting the identical t-shirt for two weeks? Most individuals who’ve by no means performed something like this will’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 every part is completely different.

It’s essential make many decisions: Easy issues like when is one of the best 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 numerous issues going by means of their minds whereas planning the journey. This may result in grow to be overly cautious and may lead you to deliver numerous gear with you that you simply don’t really need. Outside resellers will attempt to generate profits along with your fears. They may attempt to promote you the heaviest obligation and costliest gear. Nature will certainly devour you, when you don’t have tremendous heavy obligation, rugged gear to 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

Often the very first thing to determine is the place to discover. Since we’ll be utilizing a GPS machine for any journey like this, it should often begin with making a route. There are various completely different methods to make use of. I’ve been utilizing Garmin units for a very long time, which is why we can be sticking with it as I would be the primary navigator on this journey. 

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

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

When creating routes for climbing in a selected space, I’ve made it a behavior to create many facet routes, shortcuts and detours to select from. You by no means know what’s going to occur and having deliberate completely different routes offers you a greater understanding of the world and it’s additionally good apply. It’s a great 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 outdoors 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 the event you plan to hike in Sweden lots you may wish to contemplate getting a membership. With it, you’ll be capable of 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, when 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. A lot of cabins even have a small store and if situated close to Sami settlements you may as well purchase smoked fish or dried reindeer meat. A few 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 possibly can verify the timetables on fiskflyg.se. They will even do customized drop-offs however are usually 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’re climbing in. When planning a route, I don’t solely plan for myself but additionally take note of that I’d come throughout an individual in want of assist. With trendy GPS units there are methods of sharing information wirelessly between two units. If I meet one other individual, I’d be capable of 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 whenever you’re truly within the terrain. The extra you do that, the extra you’ll discover ways 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 understand how far-off the subsequent campsite is in case I have to get out of the rain on my subsequent journey. River crossings are additionally a great factor to tag when you’ve discovered a great place to cross. There are various tutorials on-line about create routes and navigate them utilizing the GPS system of your selection.

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’re getting your self into. You possibly can 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 generally. 

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, whenever you truly know precisely what you’re going to be taking with you.