Every now and then us Kiruna space students don't have lectures on Friday afternoons - now one of these days came and the weather forecast was not too bad. Finally all of us had all the necessary equipment and we were dying to finally do a real hiking trip with camping!

So after the morning lectures (I have to admit I skipped them, with the backpack waiting to be packed), we jumped on the bus to Nikkaluokta and began our trip. In the beginning, we weren't actually quite sure where to go - the aim was just to walk to Kebnekaise Fjällstation and decide there on how to continue.

When we got off the bus, we had about four hours of daylight left, so we weren't under any time pressure and could begin with an easy speed on the nicely walkable path into the Kebnekaise massif. The track was easily visible while we were in the forest, but when we got into the swampy areas around Laddjujavri not so much anymore. In a group of five, hiking speeds of course tend to differ quite a lot, so the faster ones took the lead peeking at the smartphone GPS every now and then while the rest followed. The weather was not so awesome, it was snowing lightly nearly all the time - but still better than rain.

Around 8 pm we reached the end of the small lake and it got darker and harder to keep the group together, so we decided to set up tent between some trees near a swampy patch of land. While the others had an easy time pitching the self-standing igloo tents, I had to dig in my snowpegs and (for additional stability) snowshoes to put up my one person Vela-tunnel. All set up, we had our first winter outdoor cooking session with a nice small fire for warmth and a comfortable mood.

Unfortunately it was quite cloudy, but nevertheless some aurora shined through and illuminated the sky above our tents!

The next morning, the snowfall had finally stopped an there were even some patches of blue sky. Packing after the first night always takes a bit more time, but nevertheless we didn't set off that late. The track of the summer path was getting less and less visible, so after some time of stupidly following the power line, we cut down the hill to the well-worn snowmobile track and the completely frozen Laddjujohka river. Walking on a completely frozen river has definitely been an interesting experience for all of us, on top of that the sun came out and made the mountains shine bright - what an awesome view. Even Kebnekaise was visible for a short time until the clouds closed above our heads again.

Around noon, we could see the Kebnekaise Fjällstation and found a part where the river ice was open - the water was expectedly ice-cold, but we definitely were in need of water and were happy to fill our bottles. The rest of the way to the mountain station is quite boring, we just followed the snowmobile tracks - nevertheless, the views of the mountains are awesome there.

At the Fjällstation, we had a look at the weather forecast - not so bright for tomorrow. Some rain and mostly cloudy. But we quickly decided to give Kebnekaise a go anyway. Soon we were on track again, aiming to get a part of the long ascent to the summit done today already.

Following some ski tracks, we quickly arrived at the entrance of Kitteldalen, together with the sun which had fought its way through the clouds. The ascent was pretty tiring, especially at the end of an already not-so-short day; but eventually we could motivate each other to reach the plateau at the top of the valley which the map had promised. We arrived pretty exhausted, set up camp and took some pictures, but it was really cold and windy. Cooking was reduced to the bare necessities so we could crawl into our sleeping bags as quickly as possible and get some sleep for tomorrow.

As the night was pretty cold and my 3-season sleeping bag with my summer bag inside was barely warm enough; I didn't sleep more than maybe half the night. We had agreed on getting up at 4.30 in the morning to have lots of time for the summit tour, but when I had a look outside the tent it was snowing heavily. Also, the wind from the evening had built up to a respectable storm by now and the tent was pushed around quite a bit. And it was still cold, really cold. So I just decided to turn around and sleep for a bit more.

Around 8, the wind was still getting stronger and I started fearing for the stability of my tent (hadn't put all the guylines up in the evening), so I slipped into my (frozen) boots and got out. Boy, that was a strong wind! At least it blew away the clouds and the weather seemed to turn better. After waking up the rest of the group, I spent about half an hour anchoring my tent best as I could while everyone got ready. Combining all available hands of the hiking group, we managed to take down the other tent and put everything we didn't need for the summit trip in the hopefully safely anchored second tent. We planned to pick up the stuff on the way down and continue further into the valley in the evening.

Just behind the tent, the first slope up into the pass between Vierranvarri and Duolbagorni waited for us, powdery snow from last night on a layer of ice and the slope about 50-60° steep - everything but perfect conditions for snowshoes. Additionally, heavy wind gusts blew piles of snow around, but we fought hard and made it all the way up to the top of Vierranvarri.

On the way down into Kaffedalen, we simply slid all the way down on our asses. Very time-saving actually. On the other side, the ascent to Toppstugan (that pile of ice with some wood planks) went on endlessly, and after that even more endlessly to the top of Kebnekaise. There were nearly no people up here, and the weather was really good - we did have quite some luck there.

It wasn't even that cold up here (well, most of our water supplies were frozen nevertheless), so we had an extended break before going/sliding down again, mostly through clouds until we reached the tent in Kitteldalen (notice my hiking mates descending in the background of the tent). In Kitteldalen, it was still freezing cold, so we packed our stuff as fast as possible and finished the day with a brisk walk to the mountain station, where we arrived just at nightfall.

As we were all kind of done, we just stayed there during the night and took the snowmobile back to Nikkaluokta next morning - it was Monday already, time to get back to university. Only a short bus ride later we were back home, enjoying an awesome lunch and licking our "wounds" :)

- photos partly by Laura and Rusty -