(this page is in progress, sorry about it!)
In the second week of April 2021, I snowshoed from Abisko to Nikkaluokta. Here I’ll put a brief description of my trip and some tips I have for travellers. For more info on Kungsleden check the pages for my autumn and summer hikes 🙂
So, first, let me explain why I chose the snowshoes and give you all the pros and cons. The most common way to travel Kungsleden in winter is skiing. I was a bit of a local wonder with my snowshoes 🙂
I can ski and I used to do it as a kid. It’s, however, been a while. Which was one of the reasons – I felt quite worried skiing for several days with a heavy backpack without any previous experience. Second, I had no idea how the trail is in winter. Is the snow deep? Will I get stuck waist-high in it? Are the uphill parts steep in winter? And so on… Snowshoes seemed like a safe option – no matter how deep the snow is you will stay on top. Snowshoes don’t slide. It’s like walking. With weights attached to your ankles 🙂
I started regretting my choice half an hour after leaving Abisko (the starting point of my journey). That’s when the blisters started forming. Then, it were the most painful 5 days of my life. On the second-third day the blisters became so huge that I couldn’t cover them with plaster – I had to bandage my feet. One of the reasons was, I have to say, the fact that I rented the winter boots and they were not the perfect size. However, snowshoeing is really tough. And I have to say, the snow on the train is quite good for skiing, as I know now 🙂 Not too deep, snowmobile trails often make your way much easier. Skies would have been a better choice.
Now, as we are on the topic of equipment. The cool thing about doing the Abisko-Nikkaluokta trail is that you can rent your skies/snowshoes in Abisko and send them back from Nikkaluokta for an additional price,
