Day 4: Sälka – Nallo

After the exhausting hike yesterday we slowly start into the day, whereas Heidi and Markus unfold clearly more activity. We wake up halfway as they heat up the Swedish stove. While we are still snuggling up in our sleeping bags, Heidi is already grabbing the yoga mat, Markus his Nikon and they are gone. We get up when the fire crackles pleasantly and the room has already warmed up a bit. When I’m much later in front of the hut, the last remains of the morning fog just disappear – I guess Markus took the cooler pictures here.

By the way, this is the Säkerhetsstuga in Sälka, i.e. the emergency hut which is also accessible when there is no warden in Sälka. Nine wide beds, which can be used by two people if necessary, a Swedish stove and a gas plate – the typical Swedish hut equipment. Water is taken from the river, sewage is carried to a septic tank and the wood is sawn and chopped manually. And in the morning one leaves the hut more beautiful than one had found it, with replenished wood and water supply, so that tired / frozen / drenched hikers can warm up and regenerate immediately and only later have to worry about supplies!

Later we have breakfast together with Heidi and Markus, pack our backpacks, clean the hut together and refill everything properly. Unfortunately our ways separate today, Heidi and Markus go directly via Tjäktja and Alesjaure to Abisko (our way from last year in the opposite direction), we continue to Nallostugan. Meanwhile it is about 11 o’clock, we exchange our contact details, take a farewell photo and then we start!

Today’s hike is quite short with only 10 kilometres, but it has some altitude difference. After the lush green at the beginning it gets quite stony and the first block fields are waiting for us. The sun laughs from the sky and the Tjäktjavagge has a pleasant 16°C. Immediately after Sälka we cross small rivers over plank bridges and then the ascent begins. We quickly gain altitude. Sälka in the valley gets smaller and smaller, the Sälka group and the named glacier more and more beautiful.

Sälka is about 840 m above sea level. We quickly climb the first 250 m into the higher valley Stuor Reaiddávággi. The higher we get, the more we see of the mountain landscape and as announced before, the path becomes much stonier, but then climbs only slightly. We reach the highest point at the lake with about 1060 m.

After two hours we take a little break and eat dried beef again. We enjoy the view, the mountain scenery up here is enormous and the different forms of the individual mountains fascinate us. Unfortunately the break is not too long, here at an altitude of more than 1000 m it is quite fresh, despite the sun a cold wind blows through the valley.

In the distance two hikers with a dog appear, the dog also carries his own backpack, i.e. actually a pannier left/right of the body. When we meet, a typical hiker conversation in English about the current route in both directions and whether there are any special incidents or problems begins. At some point we realize that we can also speak German and when we talk about the tours we have done in the Fjäll and the Boarek plateau, we are actually identified – our counterpart is “Andrea2” from the Outdoorforum with her husband. What a nice surprise! The dog is of course Benny. Andrea tells us that the Stugvärd in Vistas is also a member of the forum and also tells us about a moose which stood only 10 meters beside the path and which they saw totally late. They were a little worried about the dog and moved on quickly. Unfortunately the conversation remains short, it’s just too cold up here and Benny doesn’t look too happy standing in the wind – there’s still hope that we’ll meet again at a more suitable place.
The travelogue of Andrea can be found here, the three of them went a cool route]

We see a lonely hiker on the other side of the river and wonder which route he might take. Anyway, he makes fast progress, while on our side the block field gets worse and worse. Meanwhile we are descending, to our left the river rushes down and in the distance the Nallostugan appears on the other side of the river. The hut is really ingeniously situated, a tiny hut in front of the massive rock of the Nallo. The Nallo is 1585 m high, the Nallostugan is at about 820 m.

Note: Even if you walk an easy, straight path through a high valley where you can’t get lost – always check if you have to cross a river and especially where!

Yes, there we have the misery. Of course there was a ford, much further up, where the river is wide and flows quite evenly. And the hiker on the other side is right on the track, from which it can be directly deduced that we are wrong. We don’t want to hike back again, so we descend further through the block field and then look for a place where the river is a bit wider again and does not flow too fast to ford there. We are too lazy to put on our ford shoes, so we look for flat spots, jump from stone to stone and at the end we stand on the other side – with our shoes slightly wet, inside. 🙁

Note: We carry ford shoes all the way through the mountains and should use them for the hiking shoes to stay dry!

The following picture shows the place where we crossed, not that wild actually, but the stones are slippery.

From here it’s not far to Nallostugan, behind which the mighty mountain Nallo rises up threateningly. On the next picture you can see Elisabeth and on her backpack the contented dry ford shoes dangle happily. 😀

Arrived at the hut at 5 pm, we are supplied with sweet lemonade by the warden and get a bunk of 4 for two, except us there is are only a Swede from central Sweden in the hut, another young Swede only takes a break here, but still goes to Unna Räitastugan today, because he wants to go over the pyramid pass tomorrow. Unfortunately there is no sauna here, so cat washing in the ice-cold river is due. Afterwards, a typical hut evening follows consisting of dinner (this time Blåband Pasta), tea, chocolate, cappuccino, we chat with our roommate and read a little more. The following photo of the evening atmosphere in Nallo was taken at 8 pm.

The next post is not called “day 5”, but has the name “night 4” and you can imagine that there is only one reason: Northern lights!