R G B W

2009 Arjeplog

(Some of the pictures in the article can be enlarged by clicking on them)

During the summer of 2009 it had been three years since the last solo trek and I couldn't wait to get out in the wild again. For some reason it just hadn't happended, and I was really late planning this too but finally got on the way.

Day 1

After about 24 hours on different trains and busses I finally got off at the bus stop right at the Swedish Norwegian border just north of the polar circle. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm, about 25 degrees.

My first obstacle would be the river Junkarälven right at the start. I hadn't planned well enough and was on the winter trail where this river wouldn't even be visible . It looked quite frightening but it was not too deep to ford and I was soon on my way.

The plan had always been to head up the small hill Njallavarddo and pitch the tent there. The place turned out to be quite spectacular, with a perfect panoramic view over the Norwegian snow-covered mountains in the distance. I was really happy to have found such a good spot and finally be back in nature after such a long time. I sent my last couple of text messages while I had contact with the Norwegian cellular networks, enjoyed a late dinner and fell asleep quite excited about things.

Day 2

The second day was forecasted to be nice too, with warm sunny weather. I had one more day for the whole trek than what I had planned with initially so I took it quite easy. I got up late, walked pretty slowly the whole day, and mostly enjoyed the scenery and being alone in the wilderness finally.

Actually at lunch time I started to realize I was actually walking quite a bit slower than I thought I would and suddenly even the revised plan was running the risk of being overshot, with the added trouble of having to book new bus tickets and flights back afterwards. I thought I would aim for the western end of lake Gujjavrre at least and pitch the tent there, and then I would speed up a little the remaining days.

As I was walking in the afternoon sun, sunburned on my forearms and getting quite tired, I passed the bridge over the river Gujkkuljågåtj and headed down into the valley leading to lake Gujjavrre. As I came down into the marsh lands at the bottom of the valley the mosquitos started to pick up in numbers and suddenly there were so many that I started to panic. I soon realized I would never be able to make camp at the lake because the mosquite situation would probably be worse there. So I filled up the water bottles and headed up the valley again to higher grounds where there would be fewer mosquitos. However, they just wouldn't disappear. After a sweating 30 minutes I decided to make camp at the best possible place within eyesight, had a quick dinner, and then hid in the tent until the sun set behind the Norwegian mountains.

Day 3

The third day started with an early breakfast, because I wanted to get an early start as this would probably be a long day. I also knew I had to find a spot above the treeline to get away from the mosuitos so that forced me to re-plan the route slightly.

As soon as I had come out of the tent the mosquitos were there, even more of them than last night. They were all over me, in my ears and in my eyes, despite a mosquito net and gloves. And I would still have 20 of them on my at all times though as I took down the tent. In panic I started to head down fast the slope into the valley. I more or less ran without stopping for one and a half our until I finally came out in a clearing where there was a little bit of wind and the mosquitos would finally disappear.

For the next four hours I followed lake Gujjavrre's northern shore and finally ended up at the mountain hut Gujjavrrestugan where I met some fisherman who had been flown in by helicopter. It had started to rain by now so I ate my lunch inside the hut. Afterwards I took a nice bath in the cold waters of the lake and cleaned up before heading out again, knowing I was up for some pretty hard forrest terrain on the northern slopes of the valley Smuolevagge. Two hikers I had just met told me that part had almost gotten the best of them in yesterday's heat.

It took me a good two hours of hard work through really thick forrest, and it was raining all the time so I was quite soaked when I finally came out of it exhausted and half-eaten by mosquitos. Only the last couple of kilometers left I thought, until I realized I wouldn't be able to pitch the tent on this mosquitos infested slope. So, I took the decision to try to climb straight up the slope until it levelled out, which I did, but by which time I was completely exhausted and out of energy. On the other hand I got the most beautiful spot for the tent and I sat there on the windy mountain marvelling over the beautiful landscape as I was having dinner late at night. I wasn't exactly looking forward to another four days of walking and tenting but I couldn't change my route now.

Day 4

I woke up to better weather, although now my boots were quite soaked. I had breakfast and got going around 9 o'clock. With the wet clothes hanged to dry on the back of my backpack I headed down into the valley, over the bridge crossing the river Smuolejåhkå, and following the valley on the southern side. The views were quite spectacular, much more grand than the map had had me suspect. I walked for about 10 km on dry relatively easy terrain, altough at times quite rocky, until I came to a bridge where I stopped for lunch.

My feet had started to hurt a little from a blister I had developed, but it turned out to be easily fixed with a bit of tape. After lunch I continued walking south west through the valley, this time on extremely dry terrain that reminded me almost of a rocky dessert. But then every once in a while the trail would lead me right across left-over snow patches, which turned out to be a really interesting contrast.

After about an hour I left the trail and headed south around the southern slopes of the hill Värdditjåhkåtj to take a shortcut into the next valley going south east towards the hut Laisstugan. It took me a good hour to reach the top of that hill, but when I got up there I was rewarded with the most magnificent panoramic view of the surrounding area. I could see the mountain Nasafjället where silver mining had taken place during the 17th century, the snow-covered peaks inside of Norway, and the slopes of the valley I was heading into continuing for miles and miles. This was definitely one of the highlights of this trip, and I knew I had only three days left.

I spent that evening baking pancakes on the outdoor stove and enjoyed it with a cold beer that I had brought with me. As I was sitting there eating a silhouette suddenly appeared at the top of the nearby hill, and then one more, and one more. I was quite taken by surprise until I realized that it was raindeers. Slowly they headed down the mountain side, stopping every 50 meters to have a look at me before they disappeared into the valley.

Day 5

The fifth day would turn out to be one of the harder days of the trip. It was very windy that night and when I woke up it was overcast with some dark clouds at the end of the valley where I was heading. Very soon it also started to drizzle.

I got the tent down and started to walk, but it turned out to be quite a challenge to be able to follow the trail and I lost it quite a few times. The valley end, which didn't look far away at first, seemed to never get any closer and after what seemed forever I finally reached the valley floor only to find that I was several kilometers from where the valley made a turn and I would see into the next valley.

Just as I was getting ready for lunch it started to rain and my mood took a turn for the worse. I made lunch in the rain but I didn't want to stay put too long because I was starting to get cold. So after a short stop I was on my way again, this time heading for the hut Laisstugan 7-8 kilometers away, where I was sure I could have a break from the rain.

The valley I was walking through must have been quite nice in good weather but given the circumstances I just wanted to get the trek over with and I would have been happy to end it right there if I could have. It seemed to take forever, but finally after a few hours I reached a bridge over the river Aksjojåhkå which meant I only had another kilometer to go. The last part was really easy and soon I saw the most beautiful and almost deserted mountain hut in the forrest just behind the river.

When I came inside it was empty, and the log book on the table told me that the last person had visited it more than a week before me, and before that yet another week to the next visitor. At that moment, as the rain and the wind kept at it outside, I probably felt the most lonely I have ever felt during a mountain trek. But on the other hand I was inside and dry and I only had two days of walking back to civilization.

I actually spent 3 hours in the hut, waiting for the rain to stop. I had a coffee, some leftover pancakes and a shot of whiskey. It took a lot of will power before I made the decision to head out despite the rain. I simply didn't think I would be able to make it back in two days if I didn't manage to cover some more distance today.

So off I went, and actually it didn't take more than one and a half hour before I met the first people in a week on the trail. They were heading down to the hut and was planning to do some fishing in the river for a few days. Continuing to walk, one hour later I pitched the tent on the lower slopes of the massif Gåbrek, and finally were able to get out of my soaked boots.

Day 6

It was raining that whole night, and I had to take down the tent in rain the next morning and take on all my wet clothes including my cold socks and boots. I had a really hard day in front of me, and it was probably going to be another day of wind, rain and fog.

Soon after breakfast I crossed a few small rivers and by this time you could have poored water out of my boots, but I decided that I would never get them dry again and the water around my feet actually felt quite warm after a litle while. I started heading up the first of two ascents during the day, and I soon walked right into the clouds. I had been sweating so much that I was getting really cold, but I had to continue to walk because that was the only thing keeping me warm.

At times I could see probably 40 meters in front of me, and kept loosing the trail over and over again. Every time I stopped to search for it I got colder and colder. It was really wet now and I was basically just walking straight through the water not caring about my boots anymore. I just wanted to get down into the valley on the other side and out of these clouds. After loosing the trail and wondering around looking for it for about an hour I finally found it again and started walking quicker towards the bridge at the valley floor.

Soon I arrived at the river but I couldn't find any bridge which the map had indicated there would be, and the river looked quite impossible to ford. Finally after some looking at the map and walking upstreams I found it and could pass safely over the water. I had lunch in the depression formed by the river, protected by the wind. Nevertheless when I was done, and that was a really quick lunch, I was shaking because I was so cold. I practically had to start running to work up some heat again.

Luckily the trail turned out to be much easier to follow over the next ascent that would take me over the mountain and down into the valley where the river Ruonekjåhkå was flowing. On the other hand those 10 kilometers turned out to be a lot longer and a lot harder than I could ever have imagined. Again I came into the clouds, and just kept walking, with the hood over my head to protect me from the wind and the rain, and just focused on getting the distance covered in as short time as possible.

Fait would have it that I would loose the trail once more, this time on the way down the slopes towards the tree line, where I had planned to set up camp. Without finding the trail I would never be able to find my way home the next day. I probably walked around on the slope for another extra hour until I finally found it a few hundred meters before entering the forrest.

When I finally did enter the forrest I was expecting to find a small hut where I could spend the night, protected by the rain, but what I found instead was more alarming. All the rain the last couple of days had completely flooded a river flower into Ruonekjåhkå, and I realized immediately that the trek would end right there for me! There was no way I could have passed it, and to even try would have been foolish. I tried to think clear, and realized that my only option was to go back to Laisstugan, one and a half days back, and call for a helicopter on the emergency phone there. If that didn't work I would have to walk the whole distance back the way I came, which would be another three days, and I only had food for a day and a half left. I walked around for some time to keep the warmth up and went through my options but couldn't come up with anything good.

Suddenly I realized I had my mobile phone with me, which might allow me to call 112. When I took it out of the back it was completely wet, but it worked and I was soon talking to the mountain rescue service. They eventually connected me to the police, who didn't think this was an emergency until I was completely out of food. So, I hanged up, and thought through my options, but finally ended up calling 112 again and after being connected to a helicopter company I managed to ask them to pick me up where I was the day after at 10 o'clock.

Cold and wet I pitched the tent just above the tree line, and jumped inside to dry and warm. That's when I realized that all my clothes were wet, except for one or two things. Even the sleeping bag was damp, but I turned out to have just enough of semi-dry clothes to get me through the night. After a warm meal I tried to get some sleep.

Day 7

That night was probably the longest night of my life. I think I woke up once every hour, and every time the rain was still pouring down, and the wind had picked up speed. The clouds were just above me, and I was wondering if the helicopter would be able to fly in this weather, and started planning what I would do if he didn't find me.

In the early hours of the morning I finally had to start reading a book I had brought with me but hadn't touched before, to give me some kind of distraction. Then, about an hour before the helicopter was to arrive it stopped raining, and when I walked outside I could see that the clouds had lifted a little. I had breakfast, and then took down the tent and was ready at the appointed time.

I was standing there for maybe 20 minutes before I could see a small black dot in the distance flying over the mountain on the other side of the valley. Then it disappeared and about ten minutes later it came back, this time straight for me, and after a little bit of waving it finally saw me and touched down 10 meters infront of me. The helicopter took me to a mountain resort where I could rent a small hut with electricity and was able to dry all my things. One hour later it started raining again and dark clouds came back where they had been before.

That evening I spent probably a good hour and a half in the warm sauna, with a cold beer, and went through the last couple of day's events in my head. The day before had probably been the worst of my life, but when I sat there in the sauna looking out through the window at the rain and the fog over the mountains in the distance I was probably the most happy I have ever been in my entire life.

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Text and photographs copyleft Olle Eriksson unless otherwise noted. All rights reversed.

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