Autumn is already coming in Kiruna, the birches start throwing off their leaves - means that every opportunity should be used for hiking :)
So just a few days after my visit to Trollsjön, I started off to another short hike with two friends of mine.

The weather forecast wasn't good at all for the Abisko area, but better for Nikkaluokta - therefore we decided on trying to get to the Tarfala ice cave, a big icy hole molten into one of the smaller glaciers by the stream of melting water. The season should be absolutely perfect for a visit, with the snow levels having reached their absolute minimum for this year. Around Riksgränsen and Abisko the forecast even promised fresh snow to come on this weekend, so better hurry up before everything is white again!

Of course it's not so simple to get to the ice cave, the return trip clocking in at about 50 kilometers already. To make it a bit more interesting than just walking the Nikkaluokta - Kebnekaise Fjällstation leg twice on the same worn-out trail, we planned to go along the Cievrrajohka river up into the wide plain, continue there until Cievrrajavri lake and pass over to Tarfala between the Darfalcohkka and Darfalcorru mountains. From there down the valley and passing the ice cave, finishing the loop on the usual Hammarskjöldsleden back to Nikkaluokta.

As we were starting it was still raining lightly, producing a lot of puddles along the trail and making the walk quite messy. Soon we branched off to the right to ascend into the mountains, so the terrain became more rocky and less popular. Above the tree line the headwind started to hit quite hard - with a bit of rain every now and then hiking was not really pleasuresome. After passing some lakes the path disappeared and we made our way over the neverending slippery rocks, fingers and face freezing like it was deep winter. As soon as we had passed the snowy Cievrracohkka mountain to our left, we therefore decided to descend in South-Western direction back down into the valley to get out of this unpleasant and tiring headwind.

The plateau which we had to cross seemed neverending and the wind continued blowing relentlessly, so we were happy to finally reach the beginning of the descent to the Fjällstation. Just below the corner, the rain stopped and the wind decreased considerably, so we enjoyed our first big meal of the day just as the sun disappeared behind the Kebnekaise massif. Soon after we found a flat spot (even with a nice view) and set up camp for the night, tired and happy to crawl in our sleeping bags.

The next day started cold and windy but with a mostly clear sky, so we continued eagerly anticipating the visit to the ice cave. As soon as we met the Darfljohka river down in the valley, we put up one of the tents again and deposited most of our gear inside, since we didn't need it for the there-and-back journey into the Tarfala valley. As we started the ascent, we quickly came into clouds again, occasionally bringing rain and even snow/ice clumps every now and then. Still, we continued quickly up until we could see the ice cave and... yeah it was still full of snow. Seems like it was a cold summer this year, not even a reasonably-sized hole in the pile in front of the entrance.

Still we planned to have a look, maybe it would be possible to enter it - but the river at the bottom of the valley, swollen by the recent rainfalls, defeated us. Crossing with dry feet being absolutely impossible, we didn't want to dare crossing the strong current barefooted; especially since the ice cave didn't seem so promising anyway.

Discouraged by our defeat, we decided to just go back to the tent, pick up our stuff and continue towards Nikkaluokta - with the aim of reaching the morning bus back to Kiruna on the next day. The weather became better all the way until the sun felt actually warm in our faces. So our hike to the Laddjujavri lake was spiced with many relaxing breaks, to catch up all the stops we skipped so far due to the bad weather during the last 1.5 days.

Shortly before sundown we found a nice camping spot, again with a good view into the mountains. A small campfire (with admittedly sort of wet and smoky wood) helped cheering us up and allowed us staying outside for a bit longer in the cold weather. At some point a cow elk even came by to have a look at our camp, only to wander off into the swamps quite soon.

The next and last day of our trip was an uneventful 8 kilometer hike back to Nikkaluokta, where we arrived quite exhausted and looking forward to our beds at home. Oh, we saw reindeer on the way... nothing very special in this area though.