Day 12: Abiskokaure – Kårsavagge

After a quick breakfast with some porridge we leave at 9:30 am. I’m very tired today, not the best conditions for the 700-meter climb (from 488 m to 1120 m) on the first five kilometers. 😐
The path first leads us along the lake shore, then uphill through the forest. The path is characterized by many roots and stones, it is (as always ;-)) very muddy and there are high steps in it, which are difficult to overcome with the big backpack.

After about two kilometres we reach the tree line and continue through the mountains. Muddy again, but easy to walk. The higher we climb, the more boulders and big rocks on our way.

After four kilometres Markus assures me that we made it right away. Unfortunately behind the crest is not the hoped for descent but the next, higher crest and the path is still another kilometer uphill. However: If you don’t think it’s possible anymore, reindeer come along! 😍
Five reindeer, quite close to us, two of them fighting each other. They are not disturbed by us and we can watch them for quite some time.

After this experience, the last meters of altitude difference go by in a good mood. We look back again and again, whereby the view of Ábeskojávri and the surrounding mountains becomes more and more impressive. We see parts of the Kungsleden, e.g. almost opposite the second meditation place, where we camped last year, think of “our” Tjäktjapass 💍 and in the south up the view reaches to Norway, at the photo the Dolbbotvaggi.

On the other side we it is now four kilometres downhill into Kårsavagge – a wonderful valley, quite narrow, rich in water and flanked by high mountains. But see for yourself, we brought three panoramas from different heights:

We are progressing well and fast. Partly we walk on the “Almwiesen” like on clouds, then again on stony paths and there are many small river arms to cross. The weather is cool today, sometimes it is drizzling and at the end even some snowflakes fall from the sky. ❄ When we arrive at the bottom, only a very wide but shallow river separates us from the Kårsavagge hut at 680m. Doesn’t look like a big problem now, does it? …

However, most of the stones are under water and extremely slippery. Really slippery! Markus goes ahead, I always try to take the same stones as he does, after all he has already made it over. It’s slow but steady. In the middle I stop for a moment and imagine the people in the hut looking out of the window and enjoying themselves deliciously. Just when Markus says “Now you’ve nearly made it!”, I slip on a stone and bow before the river … in the river. 🙈 I run the last few steps in the water, no matter what. Markus makes it over dry!

So far there is only one guest on the hut and we have the second room (for six people) for us alone. We heat the stove, dry the wet clothes (and shoes), eat soup, drink tea and warm ourselves up.

At 16:30 we get roommates, a group of 5 Swedes comes in, one of them is soaking wet – what might have happened? 😉 They throw a lot of wood into the oven, we eat, even get Jägermeister(!) from the boys, at 21:00 we go to sleep. But we can’t talk about sleep, thanks to a super snorer 💤💤💤 in our room, besides it’s very hot because of the heavily fired oven, the wet clothes provide a good steamy atmosphere and the beds are too short. At some point we give up, unpack our Kindles and read half the night, finally around 3:30 am we fall asleep.