South of Padjelanta – Across the mountains form Norway to Sweden - Trip Impressions
Hi there,
I recently came back from my last and to date most epic but also toughest solo trip ever and wanted to share some impressions with the packrafting community. The trip had everything from glaciers, high mountains, swamps, birch forests, rapids, waking up in the clouds, all 4 seasons of weather in a day, wildlife to almost endless fields of blue- and cloudberries. I came up with the idea for this trip about 2 years ago after I had purchased my Packraft and completed a first trip. Researching the route and especially finding a time window however took it´s time.
I started at Lomivatnet (near Sulitjelma, Norway) crossed the Sulitjelma mountains along Salajiegna– and Stuorrajiegna Glacier, went up into Miehttjevagge, Paddled the lake System around Ravejavvre, hiked down to Tarraätno which I paddled down to Kvikkjokk (Sweden). I used 4 days along the way to do side hikes up the mountains including summiting Fierro and Sibbatjahkka (17^(th) century silver mine near the peak). In total I spend 16 days in the mountains. This area is really off the beaten track so I wasn´t surprised to not meet or see anybody else on the first 12 days of my trip until I reached Sammalapparstugan on Padjelantaleden. The small shop of the hut was also my only resupply option along the trip. I had planned to paddle Lomivatnet but due to the strong headwinds I decided to hike around it. Apart from this I paddled all the lakes and some rapids along my route. I portaged anything that looked like class 4 and above as well as all the waterfalls.
I have no information of anybody else ever going this route with a Packraft. For the paddling part I only found 2 youtube videos and some superficial reports of (partial) descends of the Tarraätno river by Packraft or Whitewater kayaks. However, they all chartered a helicopter to fly in and it only covered the last ~3 days of my trip. For the hiking parts I found a bit more information but the hiker’s / mountaineer’s routes were very different from mine as they hike mostly across the mountains and head for the few places you can ford the rivers. Hence, I put the route together the old school way by drawing lines on maps, scrapping information together with google translate, and studying satellite imagery. In the end I had a preferred route and a lot of options to shorten or lengthen it depending on weather or other circumstances. The time window for this trip turned out to be extremely short. The mountain lakes in the area are known to be still frozen till mid/late July with some satellite photos showing them half frozen even early in august in some years. Snowfall is also not uncommon in summer. Luckily, I was blessed with mostly good weather and only saw fresh snow cover at higher altitudes on my last days on the trip and not while being at those altitudes a few days before.
I used around 15km of marked trails near the start and end of the tour, the remainder was off trail. I could have finished the route a few days faster but with the exploratory nature of the trip and the unpredictable weather in the region I was happy to have some slack time along the trip. In the end I was not there to win a race but to enjoy the incredible nature up there.
