Hiking the Kings trail

The Kungsleden is often referred to as a "classic" hike and although I haven't done many, I would think that it deserves it's title. In a very remote area of Sweden, well within the Arctic circle, the King's trail is a 450km hike in a pristine area of wide valleys surrounded by mountains. The track either follows large lakes and rivers or crosses between mountains into different valleys. Although there is no such thing as perfectly flat, this hike does not involve great amounts of climbing or descending. There are huts every 15 or 20 km allowing for a less self-sufficient experience than we had. The track is very well maintained and marked making it easy to follow in any season. On foot in summer and skis in winter. It is not technically difficult but it is long (by the way, we only did the first section which is about 100km) and we chose to carry as much as possible which included all sleeping gear, cooking equipment and food. We didn't need to carry water as it is abundant all along. The only downsides are that it can be quite difficult to spend time outside the tent when not walking because the weather is either too cold and wet or if mild, the millions of mosquitoes are out to devour you in minutes. But more importantly, it is incredibly beautiful, untouched and wild. As a first multi-day hike, I couldn't imagine anything more perfect.


Crossing the Arctic circle on the train


The start of the Kungsleden at Abisko Turist Station


Stopping for lunch on the first day. We didn't know it yet but that would be the best weather we would get all week.


Passing a Sami settlement in the background. It was remarkably similar to a Ger camp.


Our camping site the same night


This picture was taken quite late in the evening


Tea break along the way.


Crossing one of the few bridges along the way.


The trail is set up with many board walks like that making it easy to go through difficult terrain and very wet areas.


The weather looked like this most of the time with lots of fog, enourmous clouds and quite cold.


Another camping spot.


These are the kind of valleys we would follow. We crossed between mountains to change valleys along the way.


It doesn't look like it but the night before this photo, we had the coldest night of all and the only thing that made it bearable was setting up our tent in this little depression in the ground which gave us a bit of shelter from the bone-numbing wind.




Another chilly evening, cooking outside in the cold and mosquitoes and running inside the tent to eat.


Reaching the end at Nikkaluokta, 100km south east of Abisko, feeling happy and stinky in equal proportions!