where dreams come to die

Now this is frustrating and I’ve been putting posting this off for more than a month or so. I don’t like to write about failures, but nevertheless here it is.

My big summer hike this year failed after only 5 days on the trail. Reason is very simple – it wasn’t much fun.

I was watching the forecasts for a week before departure and it showed the snow melting with promising progress and I was confident when leaving home. When the plane came over the mountains in Hemavan I got worried, because there was still plenty of snow. But I hoped for the best.

Day 1

Starting off at the skiing slopes in Hemavan I was already walking on snow and slush. But still I was thinking that it must be because they have gathered more snow for skiing and it did ease up higher. I decide to skip Sytertoppen because of the snow and made a short break in Viterskalsstugan, which was still close.

Continuing along the now constant 😦 snowfield I spotted an animal track. The prints looked similar to bears, but were too close together so I believe that they were wolverine’s. The trail came down from one side of the valley and went up to the other side.

Despite the snow it was quite easy going as I didn’t have to posthole much and even the sun shone for a bit. Before Syterstugan I had this bizarre moment when all I could see was some of the waymarks in front and behind me an everything else was just white. When it cleared again I could see a valley mostly covered in snow. Not very promising and quite disheartening.

There is a series of suspension bridges making way over the smaller islands over southern part of Tärnasjon, but that was last of the fun for the day. The last kilometers to Tärnasjonstugan were slow slogging over rotten snow. No fun at all and as the clock was nearing midnight I was getting quite tired. Finally reached the hut not a moment too soon. Eating and getting to sleep ended my day at around 01:00.

Time / distance travelled: 11h / 38km

Day 2:

Not a too early start and I was on my towards Servestugan. It didn’t get any easier, but still easy enough. Tried to find easier going by following already melted spots of ground. Reindeers were about with their young calves, but the ground and landscape were rather uneventful.

Near Vuomajavvrie it got really bad as I had to cross some rivers consisting mostly of slushy, cold and knee-deep remnants of snow. It can’t really be described, but needs to be experienced. At that point I praise my sneakers. Although they got wet along with the socks, the water was out in an instant. Try the same with some leather hiking boots and you’re f*cked for a week. I tried creating something waterproof around my socks in the last emergency hut of a old trashbag, but as I had to cut it into pieces, it didn’t work out as planned. But it was rather good until I had to go in knee-deep.

There I met a herder or smth like that, driving around and checking out how the reindeer are doing. After expressing his surprise over seeing someone hiking in these conditions and so early in the season he showed me a deer, who had just given birth. The calf didn’t even stand up yet. After we departed and he sped off I heard a loud yell and the engine noise stopped. Checking out the situation I saw the snowmobile sitting deeply in that very same slush I mentioned before. Nothing I could do though. Uphill were more wolverine tracks,  shitty weather and frustrating moments when I had to posthole like crazy. At some point I even had to yell some. But the last few km were pleasant at least. Downhill and almost clear path. Still, I lost my sunglasses and had to backtrack for about 10 minutes before I found them. And at 21:25 I was in Aigertstugan.

Time / distance travelled: 12,5h / 33km

Day 3

Going down on the northern slope it was still pretty wet, but soon got interesting as there was a winding trail among the trees, crossing some very high and fast rivers. As I got lower the terrain became more and more comfortable with tall trees and a clear path. This was actually why I came here. I enjoy big vistas over high mountains, but forests are the real deal.

Reached Ammarnäs. Bought a new waterbottle, orange and sunscreen – no idea why I didn’t take the latter from home. There was two ways to continue. Along the bottom of the valley – no snow and no vistas; or climb under ski-lifts to Stuorajabba – could  be snow and definately be views over the valleys and nearby mountain. So uphill I go. To my great dismay I soon arrive on a plateau with low vegetation and plenty of snow. Trying to get by easier I go through the bushes.. and lose my map for a while. Backtrack, find it, relieved, continue.  Occasionally it gets easier as I get out  from between the bushes, but the highest point is covered with soft snow for as far as eye can see. Feeling not too happy to follow the trail to make a huge U-turn over snow just for the sake of it I decide to cut some. As I can already see the next hut in the bottom of the valley I head straight towards it. I find a small stream and following it becomes the highlight of the day. When smaller streams can be just hopped over I come to one that needs to be waded through. It’s narrow and deep and quite fast, but I manage.

The big Vindelälven river that ends up as a lake near Ammarnäs is very fast and swollen and look as quite the fun when in a raft or playboat or packraft (IF you skill level is high enough, other-ways you might as well step in front of a full speed train as it saves you the expense of getting to Sweden). By the time I reach the hut I have again lost my water-bottle (this ain’t the end of it). I briefly chat with a woman already in there and after hearing of my problem offers me a small platy bottle (this I didn’t lose) and I make my plans to go on to reach a renvaktarstuga (this was actually a hut for reindeer herders, but unlike the previous one I encountered it was closed and didn’t have an emergency shelter nearby).

That was about 8km and turned out to be quite easy, except for the last km which took like and hour of post-holing. Even the latter wasn’t that bad because the snow was soft making it an easy effort to push through. What makes it suck is that you never know if you are going to fall through the snow or not. Even if the snow is hard and carries well you can’t walk with your normal speed, ’cause if you hit that soft spot while going fast you might end up faceplanting.

So the hut was closed, but I found shelter from the wind I decided to crash outside. Although the sun was going down it didn’t look like the weather would get worse. And then I discovered that I was missing my tarp. Must have left it into Aigertstugan, but it was bad news in any case.  The thermometer showed +5 so I had all my clothes on for sleeping. I called it a day at around 22:00

Time / distance travelled: 11h / 38km

Day 4

I usually try to avoid sleeping high in the mountains, but it was too early in that last hut. But it got even colder during the so-called night and started to snow. By the time I decided to get up my socks and trailrunners were frozen. The snow had a bit of crust, but not enough to carry. In fact it made the going even harder as I couldn’t push through with my knees, but had to lift my leg out of the hole with every step. Not good at all. And then came the crux of the day.

I had to cross a stream of slush that was balls deep with frozen crust. I couldn’t just wade through like the day before, but had to posthole gaining about 40cm with every step. Really-really bad. Changed my socks immediately after that so my toes wouldn’t go black. Onward from there is was just slogging, moderately difficult, but I felt tired and the distance on the map went past like snail. When there were occasional signposts I couldn’t believe that I had covered only so few kilometers. The ground itself would be OK in summer conditions – slightly rolling and would offer good views if the weather is good. But in my case if was more like shitty winter, rain and mist. It was totally wasted when I reached Snjulttjie day hut so I fired up the stove and slept for few hours. By that time I had fought and won a quite easy battle in my head  that this is not the way to do it. It was just not fun and I decided to bail out in Adolfström. I would get there next morning, but had still a long way to go.  It eased up a bit when descending to the valley where Bäverholmen and Adolfström are but mostly it was still slogging through all the wet snow. Before starting the descent I came by a very old shelter and foundation for a house. All the other building I had been built on higher from the ground on posts. No idea why someone went through the effort of  making a foundation like that.

It was very low in the valley when the landscape turned to my liking again. I  was walking along the river with patches of swamp on the other side. The trail was twisting along the waters edge, occasionally coming so close to the swollen river that the waves reached the path. It was clear that the trail wasn’t going to last very long in these conditions. Small hills covered in high pines were separating the river and swamps. Some walkways were established to provide dry crossing.  I had picked a laavu with fireplace by the lake for the night and the same path was the highlight of the day. This was the ground I like when hiking – a chance to see something new in the end of every small ascent or bend.

The fireplace turned out like those we have in Estonia – garbage lyin around, inscriptions on the laavu walls and so on. But the lakeside itself was pleasant, night was clam and bugs were absent. Quick wash, collected driftwood for fire, eat and sleep. Tomorrow was going to be easy.

Time / distance travelled: 11,5h / 30+km

Day 5

Didn’t get up that early, ’cause I had planned this to be the last day. When reaching Adolfström about an hour later, I realized that it would have been a good idea after all, because I missed the only bus out for the day. After consulting with a very friendly local elderly couple I made a plan to continue ’till Jäckvikk after all. Main reason was that it was a bigger place and had a bus going to eastern coast in the afternoon next day.

Although uphill, the beginning was pleasant again – small road, bigger trees, no snow. But as warned the snow returned at around 700m and continued until descending into the valley next day. As it was the last day I KCCO’d.  Again some high rivers, small and pleasant Pieljekaisenstugan, where I took time to read the logbook. Funnyly I founf some happy comments from lightweight hikers and some not so happy by the one’s who trugged along with a heavy packback and were going to quit at the first possible place. Ironic to laugh about it as I too was going to quit, but not at least because I was physically unable to continue. Left some extra food to the hut. After the hut was to be the hardest part ’cause it was the highest, but oddly it turned out to have not so much snow after all and was easy considering the conditions. I had planned to stay in a dayhut, about 8km from Jäckvikk,  for the night. Oddly I had discovered this hut in the last hut, because on my map I had drawn a path over it. The area around Jäckvikk seems to be very popular, ’cause the hut was huge. I could fit the living roome and dinner roome from my house in there easily. As it was huge it took some time to warm the place up. I spent the rest of the day tiding up my gear, making food and otherways preparing for extraction. And then it was waiting – which I hate.

Time / distance travelled: 8h / 20+km

Day 6

Late start, but I still was in the village way too early and because it was Sunday almost everything was closed. Right after starting from the hut I managed to lose the trail and therefore continued straight down towards the lake. No problems getting down, although had to find a safer crossing over one river. Thanks to the helpful owners of Kyrkans Fjällgård I got to use computer to plot my route home and shower, before getting onto a bus.

Time / distance travelled: 2h / 8km

And there it was – my “big” hike for the summer, finished before it even began. Only thing remainig was to get home an it took me around 48 hours of busses, trains and ferries and it was the most strenuous part of the whole thing.

But that was just the physical part I didn’t manage to accomplish. I also feel no I know that I failed in some personalt goals that I set and some promises to myself that I couldn’t keep. But those remain my own…

This leaves me to do some hiking in Estonia when the weather gets a bit colder.. but next year….