Blueings

Day 1: Hemavan - Viterskalsstugan (12 km)

Back-blipped once I was back from the trail, with a power outlet and stable internet access.

It’s more than a year ago that I decided I wanted to walk on Sweden’s perhaps greatest walk: Kungsleden, or the “King’s trail”. The full span is 400 km and stretches all the way from Hemavan in the “south”, up to Abisko well north of the Arctic Circle. Specifically, I knew I wanted to walk the less-popular southern part between Hemavan and Ammarnäs. The northern section is a bit too popular for my taste, and those in between require tenting as there are no mountain cabins on the route.

The first day of most great hikes involves a lot of elevation, in order to escape civilisation and arrive up in the mountains. But once I reached some altitude, the views from up there were absolutely stunning.

First extra: Hikers in the distance provide some lovely scale to the enormous landscape.

Second extra: the twice-weekly helicopter transport, stopping at cabins as needed.

Third extra: heavy rains heading into the Viterskalet valley; fortunately, I happened to walk between the rain showers and only got wet from the inside after I put on my rain gear.