Introduction

What is it?
The Kungsleden trail is about 440km in total. This blog includes some general information that might be useful to someone preparing for it. However if you are thinking of doing the entire trail as a through hike then there will be some significant logistical issues to deal with as regards food resupply. We don't tackle those here other than to suppose that breaking the trail up into sections and dealing with each separately would help in this regard. As would a large budget. This blog deals with the northernmost section. 

How long did it take?
We walked from Abisko to Vakkotavare (about 160km) between the 8th and 18th of August 2017. We added a side trip to summit Kebnekaise (Sweden's highest mountain) as an optional (but highly recommended) bonus. I was only given the tip to do this directly from the trail (via a cairned route not the main tourist trail) when I was already on the journey. It made much more sense and made the trek fit nicely into the time we had. While we wished we could have stayed longer in fact we had plenty of time to do what we set out to do. 

What can I expect?
In terms of landscape it is beautiful, pristine, awesome and severe rather than sharp and dramatic. The drama comes with the weather and the ever changing light.

The route is fairly flat with gentle rises and descents. It largely follows a couple of wide U-shaped river valleys. This is a landscape sculpted by glaciers. There are hanging valleys on all sides. 

There is nothing technically difficult in summer conditions. Winter may be another matter entirely. The track is very easy to follow. There are no difficult river crossings (with the water at the levels we encountered - YMMV). There's lots of boardwalk on the boggier sections. 

There is not a great deal of wildlife. We saw quite a few reindeer in herds on a couple of occasions. Not many birds but several people we saw carried binoculars. Maybe they spent the time to see more. To make up for this there are lots of mosquitoes. These are more prevalent in the lower areas where there are trees. Generally in the middle section we weren't much troubled by them. 

How far in one day?
If you are carrying all your food then you'll probably be going slowly and some sections are rocky which is also a bit slower. As a rule of thumb you could say 2.5km per hour is a good "planning speed" for the first four days. After that you might plan on 3-3.5km per hour. So a 15km day might comprise 6 hours walking with say two hours of breaks. That's a 9-5 job. Plenty of time (and essentially unlimited daylight) to set up camp and enjoy the evening. Nearer the end that same day might cover 20km. 

We took 11 hours on the summit day carrying only light daypacks. (5 up, 5 down with an hour near the summit). This was going gently but steadily with few breaks. We did take an hour long break after the summit. It's not really necessary to leave very early. After all it's not going to get dark. Mostly it'll depend on luck as to when in the day it is calm, or clear, or windy, or raining/snowing. 

Why go?
One of the chief delights is the sense of being so far away from the rest of the world. A total lack of phone signal helps a lot here. Going slowly becomes something to savour and enjoy. And it puts off the evil day of arriving at the end. It is immensely refreshing to spend a period where the only people you encounter are also hikers (including canine ones) and where all communication is done face to face. Your ability to set up camp and cook in testing conditions will inevitably mature during the course of the trek, and thus your comfort zone expands.

In summary
It's tougher than it looks on paper, but also more deeply rewarding. If you feel like "stop the world, I want to get off", then this is as good a place to get off as any.