Kungsleden Day 1 - The start (is always hard?)

Overview

Hiking duration: 3:53
KM: 12.08
Elevation gain in Meters: 528
Start: Hemavan
End: Shortly after Viterskalsstugan

Before the start

After we arrived by plane we repacked our stuff directly in front of the mini airport building. Then we went off to get food for the next ~4 days which it will take to reach Ammarnäs. The local ICA had a nice selection of food.

Then we went for a final meal before the start at the „Auroras kök“ and we both choose the Beyond Burger (Vegetarian). Burger and fries were delicious and boosted the mood and energy to the max 😁

To the start

After the last meal we made sure about the trailhead location and then made our way to it. A easy ~30 minute hike on the road.

The start

And there it was, the Kungsleden gate. Right next to it a interesting building.

And so it starts, 440 km through swedish wildness 💪🏻

First 5 km

Directly after the gate the trail starts to climb and this continues for the next 5 km. First the path leads to some spares forests and then it opens up and we are on the fjäll.

There is some light raining and we encounter the first mosquitos 😩

And on

We did multiple short breaks, the weight of the backpack takes its toll 😅

Shortly after we reached the first valley, we will follow it for the next ~12 km.

At the beginning of the valley there was a outdoor toilet, just like that in the middle of nowhere.

After that we just followed the valley and crossed a variety of bridges, some high tech and some others more on the lower end of the tech spectrum 😉

There were more snowfields than anticipated, but most of them were quite solid. No postholing today…

Then we reached Viterskalsstugen which concluded the first (offical) stage. But we continued a bit further till the main „bend“ of the valley and got a view of the other arm, just amazing!

And just on the other side of the river we found a perfect place for the night. This concludes our first day, let‘s see how we sleep with the midnight sun.

So in the end, the start wasn‘t hard 😁

Appendix

I brought some soap and a towel this time and thought that a wash in the nearby river is a great idea. It worked well for my head, chest and arms. But for the feet it ended with wet feets full of grass, sticks and dirt 🙈

Pictures