Skiing the Kungsleden - Days 30 to 32 - Salka to Abisko

Looking south on day 30 of the Kungsleden

High in the frozen winter mountains, far beyond the realm of man, there is a silence that must be experienced to be truly appreciated. 

Far above the tree line, in this pure white world of mountains plastered with snow and ice, if one listens very hard, there is an almost imperceptible fizzing sound. Is it the sound of crystals of ice forming and settling as they add texture and mass to this wilderness so white it reflects the sky turning the white to blue? Or is it the sound of the world beneath ones skis, between the snow and the frozen ground as life goes on in the myriad tunnels and burrows formed by a thousand small creatures unseen below? 

Don’t ask me, I was too busy singing a wholly incorrect version of the chorus from the Disney movie Frozen.

🎶“Let it snow, let it snow,

I really don’t know the words

Let it snow, let it snow

Turn away and something about a door

Here I stand and here I… erm!!

Let the storm break out.

The cold never bothered me anyway.”🎶

Over and over again, for hours and even days on end. 

The beautiful old wooden skis three teenagers turned up on (plus 1 spare)

It is now 7th April and as I write this I am in a coffee shop in Stockholm already missing the simple life of skiing, eating, sleeping and skiing again. Spoiler alert, we did make it to Abisko having skied a total of 484 kilometres or 300 miles in old money.

Our new German buddies also made it but they didn’t ski the last day. Why? Well, here’s a clue for you. Would you chop wood wearing open toed sandals? No? Nor would I. One of our German buddies on the other hand…

They were ski scootered out to a doctor in Abisko, having been initially looked after by two lovely Polish doctors on a tour in our hut. Diagnosis: split the second toe down the centre. Ouch! Prognosis: She will play the piano again (and ski, walk etc.)

A typical wood chopping cabin. Not a place for open toed sandals on so many levels

Here’s the details from our final three days skiing the Kungsleden.

Day 30 - Salkastugorna - Alesjaurefjällstuga

26.08 km - Time: 9 hrs 51 mins - Moving average: 3.9 kmph - Ascent: 669 m - Descent: 698 m - Arrival time: 16.32 hrs 

Total distance travelled: 448.44 km - Weather: temperatures, around -12°C -  Snow conditions: Excellent 

Day 30 - A Perfect (if long) Day

Note: You may remember that ‘stugorna’ means ‘mountain cabin,’ well a ‘fjällstuga’ is a larger version of the same thing.

It was to be one of our longest days at 26 kilometres so we set out early again. At about 07.00hrs. We left before anyone else and seemed to have the whole world to ourselves as we gently climbed up a wide deep valley between serried ranks of snow plastered mountains. We were heading towards a high mountain pass that we would need to negotiate.

I wonder what song goes through Mrs P’s head while she is skiing? Probably ‘ ‘Eye of the Tiger’ from the Rocky movie.

On the steep ascent to the col (or pass) we were passed (not colled(!?)) by our German Buddies.

Honey, Saskia and Simon/Angus (bacause he looked like our neighbour, Angus) in overtaking mode.

Mrs P: It’s not a race

Me: Yes dear (soto voce: but it sort of is)

Words fail to do justice to the sublime beauty of the landscape and the new vistas that awaited beyond the col. So have some photos instead.

Mrs P and I before the big ascent, changing to full skins

The hut on the col where our German friends stopped for a rest and we overtook

Mrs P: It’s not a race!

Husky dogs out looking for our German friends who are now far behind.

Mrs P: How many times!?

The German trio eventually, as was always going to happen, passed us. Beating us to the Allesjaurefjällstuga (huts) by about an hour. But, as I’ve always said, it’s not a race. We also got caught in a quite unexpected storm during the last hour or so of the trip. From calm, clear and a little breezy to very little visibility and a terrific sidewind all in the space of 5 minutes.

There was also a hint of things to come as I saw the two German girls heading for the sauna, the approach to which was basically a grade 1 ice climb, in, you guessed it, open toed sandals.

Day 31 - Alesjaurefjällstuga to Abiskojaurestugorna

20.88 km - Time: 6 hrs 56 mins - Moving average: 4.6 kmph - Ascent: 114 m - Descent: 461 m - Arrival time: 14.02 hrs 

Total distance travelled: 469.32 km - Weather: temperatures, around 0°C to +3 Snow conditions: Fair. Some sticky. 

Day 31 - Saying Farewell to the Thin Places. 

We set off early for this quite long day. Partly because it was a long day, partly because I had seen the weather forecast and was thinking that the snow may get sticky (which it did, but it only bothered us for about 15 mins) but mostly because we always set off early. We had just got used to it. Five am alarm, tiptoe around the hut, sneak off by 07.00.

The sizeable Sami settlement near the Allesjaurefjällsuga (uninhabited at this time of year)

We had a lovely ski along the lake for a couple of hours before being overtaken by yet more Germans. This time a couple on snow shoes. Much better than our skis when the going got sticky.

It’s a good job it’s not a race - us being passed by two Germans on snow shoes

I have skied this section of the Kungsleden before, back in 2022 with the inimitable Trond when we skied the Norge på langs together. It is a beautiful area but I also remembered that, as we dropped lower, we would lose sight of the big mountains that had been our constant companions for the last 4 days. These are the ‘thin places’ where the barriers between the real and the spiritual (or Heaven and earth, if that is your bag) are at their thinnest (if you believe in that sort of thing). It certainly feels like a thin place to us.

Farewell big mountains. Farewell thin places. We shall miss them.

Mrs P, wondering if it is lunchtime yet.

After a descent through a narrow valley, where we passed lots of people on the way up, and then a steep section we finally returned to the lower level birch forest. Not long after and quite suddenly we arrived at the Abiskojaure cabins (stugorna).

This was to be the busiest hut we stayed in. Multiple cabins each with a small communal kitchen area and around 12 beds in three storey bunks. Pity those on the top bunk in a hot room that someone has decided to make even hotter by lighting a large fire because they want to dry their hair!

It was here that one of our German buddies decided to chop wood (and toes) in open toed sandals. She was though definitely a member of the Stoics Society as she seemed to find the whole debacle mildly amusing and barely grimaced despite having cut her toe down to the bone.

Abiskojaure stugorna (cabins - or at least some of them.) The one on the left is the sauna

Just some of the skis piled up outside at Abiskojaure

Day 32 - Abiskojaurestugorna to Abisko and the end of the tour

14.78 km - Time: 5 hrs 43 mins - Moving average: 4.5 kmph - Ascent: 144 m - Descent: 258 m - Arrival time: 12.24 hrs 

Total distance travelled: 484.1 km - Weather: temperatures, around 0°C to +5°C Snow conditions: From ice to What snow?

Day 32 - The final day

It was a very windy morning, which for us would be a following wind. I didn’t envy those heading in the opposite direction. First off we had our last frozen lake of the trip to negotiate. The following wind was huge, around 30-40 kmph, so we took off our skins, spread our arms and were literally blown the 3.5 kilometre length of the lake. Two Norwegians following us had a better idea and pulled out their emergency shelter and turned it into a sail. The last we saw of them was a red dot disappearing rapidly into the distance and a voice shouting “This is such fun!”

The last we heard they were somewhere around the North Pole.

We had heard that the snow quality deteriorated as we dropped lower and the rumours were correct.

Time to remove the skis

Me, taking a photo of the green stuff.

Soon there were just ribbons of hard packed ice and we gave up trying to ski. Our final 6 km into Abisko would be on foot.

And suddenly, we were there. After 32 days and 484.1 (very important, that point one), or 300 miles, we had made it to Abisko and the end of our tour.

The end of the line

The ubiquitous selfie

Bjørn, our constant companion

Time for a rest. We spent three days chilling out at the Abisko Tourist Centre and even spent a day skiing above the village without pulks.

Nature was good to us too providing an aurora display on all three nights of our stay.

Did someone let the genie out of the bottle?

A huge thanks to the many lovely people we met along the way and to you dear reader for following the blog.

We return to the UK soon, but are spending a few days as tourists in Stockholm first.

Then all we have to do is decide what to do next.