Tuesday 10/4

Vistas – Nikkaluokta
Horizontal distance: | 30 km |
Vertical distance: | -140 m |
Time: | 6 h 45 min |
Food breaks: | 45 min, 30 min |
Dinner: | – |
Night accommodation: | – |
Stage classification: | Medium |
Map points: | Vistas, Lisa's cabin, Nikkaluokta |
The streak of good sleep continued, and I was the first to get up around 06:15, starting a fire in the heater. Outside there were some high, thin clouds, mainly concentrated around the southeast, and it was cold and still with birds chirping in the trees. During breakfast the sky started to clear from the northwest, and soon the sun came out and everything was fair again. The two men arose shortly after one another, and by the sounds coming from the other room the group was also up and about. The warden came in with the weather forecast – a southeasterly wind would bring snow in the afternoon, and the following night would see hard westerly wind and much drifting snow – and as I prepared to leave the couple got up too; everyone but me would be going to Nallo today, and the alpine dudes left just before I did.
At 08:15 I was on my way, skiing onto Visttasjohka without delay. Going was easy at first, with ample snow covering the ice, although in open areas a headwind which was light but chilling was free to do its work. After a while the tracks from yesterday (and before) turned up through the adjacent thickets, but soon returned to the stream; despite being rather hard they were good and easy to ski in/along. The various people who had covered the distance the day before had told me that it was very icy most of the way, and now patches of naked ice had started to appear along with regions of open water, but neither posed any trouble. I often skied along the eastern bank, where there was usually enough snow, but shortly before the bridge beyond the mouth of Unna Reaiddávággi the tracks went up on the western side instead, stretching over low hills where snow conditions were good.
Some icy meres followed, and then it was back to Visttasjohka, where there were a few places where the ice was growing thin; it was no danger as of yet, but it would only take a few days of significant warmth to break the last layers. Later on the stream makes two long 90° turns after one another, and there the tracks cut across land, making skiing easy again. Since this left me out of visual contact with said stream I was a bit unsure whether or not I had passed Lisa's cabin on its southern side, but I simply couldn't imagine that all those people who had made the tracks – including a number of snowmobiles – would seek to evade it, and when I at length was brought back to the icy course I spotted the little buidling at once.
This cabin has a unique place in Swedish fjeld history, being one of few private places of (temporary) residence deep within lands reserved for Sámi use. A nurse named Lisa Zetterström from Hörby in southern Sweden harbored a deep longing for the Lapland fjelds, and in 1932 she applied for and was awarded permission by His Majesty the King (by proxy) to erect a building in Visttasvággi. For much of her life she spent extended periods in this cabin, but eventually, sometime in the 1950s, she left it for good. A fitting end to this paragraph might be something like "and it has been untouched ever since", but that is not the case – while one of the requirements in the aforesaid permission was that the cabin be locked when Lisa herself was not present, after she stopped coming to it it has been kept open, and to this day it is accessible to anyone, with a plea that proper respect be shown Lisa's legacy by those who enter and use her second home.
As I sat down next to the cabin before 10:15 for a first food break scattered veils were stretching themselves across the sky from behind, gradually diminishing the sunlight, and the wind was on the increase too. Several times I heard the unmistakable sounds of both a snowmobile and barking dogs from down the valley, but nothing ever came of it, so to speak.
When I got going again I found the tracks during the first bit to be very good, winding through the forest back down to the stream eventually. Once again there was headwind in open areas, but now it had grown strong enough to have a slight effect on my motion. Before long the stream split into two arms, and I followed some ski tracks down the western one, beside which I saw a parked snowmobile some distance ahead. After a while the snow cover became too thin for comfort, and there was much open water, so I went up on the narrow tongue of land separating the two arms. The eastern one was also open, but where they joined up again the ice was strong enough to support me, and skiing on the much widened stream was good from there on.
I met a snowmobile, and just thereafter the track went up the western bank, bypassing another bend, and going over the mires was enjoyable; there I encountered what looked like a family of four plus a dog with very light packs – I don't know what their plans were. It was steadily getting cloudier, and the chilling effect of the wind was now large enough to merit a cap change. Back on Visttasjohka I met another two skiers with another dog and then it was mires again. More snowmobiles came along, and all around the lake Njerrem there were small camps of them. It was rather windy, and when I reached a large boulder at the southern end of the lake before 13 I decided to have another break on its lee side.
While I was sitting there having a light meal a snowmobile-with-sleigh from Nikkaluokta Alltransport – the company running transports to Kebnekaise – passed by, going south; snowmobile travel is unrestricted in Visttasvággi up to Vássajohka, but most people who purchase transfer go no further than Lisa's. It was now entirely overcast with a fairly low ceiling, and the wind was on the increase, but the boulder provided adequate shelter.
Back on the track the wind was actually not so bad, and at times a very weak sun could be detected above Govggenjunni. On a mire south of Saarivuopio the snow cover grew very thin, and the same was true on the ice of Pajuvuopio, at the end of which a single skier also heading south stood resting. Wind strengths returned to high levels on the next mire, and back out on the broad Visttasjohka there was only a symbolic layer of powder atop the ice – it was, however, enough to ski on without hassle.
A couple of snowmobiles passed me by, but when they continued on the stream after Vidnárjávri I (and the tracks) turned up onto another mire on the western side. The wind had entered a changing pattern, and it felt pretty warm from time to time, but when I was drawing near to the westernmost bays of Báittasjávri it was back to hard, and now there was also a bit of snow in the air. I turned up into the village after the first few houses, and was there assaulted by a wind several notches stronger coming out of the southwest, and snow was drifting all over the place. I passed by the helicopter pad and came down to the visitors' center from behind at 15:00.
I took it easy inside, bumping into Ingvar (the semi-resident Kebnekaise electrician) and Jouni (one of the station's janitors), and a bit later Tobbe and his girlfriend Mia also came in; they were going on a short vacation of sorts to Abisko and possibly Norway. I checked with the reception to see if there was a late snowmobile transport booked for Kebnekaise, but since there wasn't I had two options: 1) spend the night and hitch a hike with the early transport the next day, or 2) try to get in touch with Jouni to see if he could bring me back with him on his snowmobile. The latter scenario resolved itself when the man in question walked in the front door a short time later, and he did indeed have room for a passenger – with rucksack and skis and all.
I went for a quick visit in the small shop, put on several more layers of clothing, and then helped Jouni pack the sleigh with goods – he was actually glad to get some extra weight on the snowmobile, for increased traction. When we left around 16:45 the wind was not quite as hard as before, and there was a bit of weak sunlight – a small patch of blue could even be seen in the sky, but unfortunately in the wrong direction. We ran into problems straight off the bat, when a short but steep and somewhat icy slope proved too much for the load we were carrying, and it took several attempts with increasing acceleration time before we beat it.
After that we overtook the snowcat that was bringing firewood to the station, and we came across five skiers on the way to Láddjujávri. Also in Láddjuvággi there was shortage of snow, as we were all well aware, and in several places it was only the snowmobile track that was passable, having received complementary masses of snow applied by hand. Out on the lake it was very windy, but visibility was improving in front of us; it never got much better, however. My feet had started to feel cold, so I was glad to get up from my immobile position when we pulled in at Kebnekaise at 17:45.