Adventure story & hiking / trekking product test with rookii road

Over the years, me and my friends - Henke Åhlund and Ellen Blücker - have tried various hikes and mountains in Scandinavia, some more challenging than others including Pulpit rock Trolltunga and Galdhøpiggen in Norway, multiple trips to Kebnekaise in Sweden but lately our focus has been on the Sarek National Park in northern Sweden.

Sarek might not feature Sweden's highest peak (Kebnekaise 2096m/ 6877 ft) but it have multiple massive peaks including “The Black Tip” (1819m/ 5967 ft) a part of Sarektjåkkå is the second highest mountain in Sweden and the highest mountain in the Laponian area at 2,089 meters (6,854 ft).

The Laponian area is a large mountainous wildlife area in the Lapland province in northern Sweden, more precisely in Gällivare Municipality, Arjeplog Municipality and Jokkmokk Municipality. It was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996; the bulk of it had enjoyed protected status since the early 20th century.

We tried Sarektjåkkå in 5 days the first time, this time we had about 10 days, and we still had to do time management while being in the mountains. The weather conditions can be gnarly and the mountains always have the last word.

Working with Decathlon as a one-stop partner was the perfect solution, not only did it save us time working with one supplier of gear, it also gave us the right feedback and the team at Decathlon pushed us in the right direction. While we had an idea of the right ropes, harness, shoes, tents, they came with great input on what to think about; weight, weather conditions and combination of the products that would be most suitable.

Summiting the peaks in Sarektjåkkå takes time, and even though we are above the arctic circle, summers can be warm. Therefore, this year we decided to summit at night. Leaving the camp at 10 pm we knew that most of the hikes would be a bit cooler (still having the midnight sun as a guiding light) and this resulted in a better tempo and less energy consuming. Besides this we were better prepared with lightweight gear and a proper food supply. The Quecha hiking shoes we wore were ideal for this expedition as they are water repelant and had a good overall grip. Included in our bags were also the simond makalu crampons. We had a good time putting on these as Henke found me annoying the months before the expedition, going on about how we needed propper crampons and he not seeing them useful. Jokes on him!

It took falling in to a watercourse to get wet, other than that, trekking through a storm, the glaciers and hot gazing sun during the days, we were comfortable and dry all the time with trousers that had zippers, bags that we could fit all the gear; tents, cameras, tripods etc.