Kungsleden Day 2 – Jagge Hut to Skierffe Saddle

Distance: 23.2km / Elevation Gain: 793m / Elevation Loss: 521m

It wasn’t the best sleep I’d ever had in a tent, having graciously given up my flat side of for Maurice’s sloped side, I spent most of the night desperately trying to stay on my mat! It rained quite heavily during the night, but by the time we emerged from the tent the sun was shining and the weather continued to defy all our expectations of what autumn in the Arctic Circle should have been … it was positively hot.

We packed up, left camp just after 9am and skipped off over the fells. Once again the views were absolutely sublime and I was concerned that I was soon going to run out of superlatives. We made good progress and we’re soon down off of the fell and back into the alpine birch forest, which looked even more impressive in the bright sunlight.

A little after noon we arrived at the southern edge of Lake Lájtáurre and faced our first significant challenge of the trip … a mandatory boat crossing! It was possible to pay a ferryman and go by motor boat but where’s the fun in that? The weather was perfect, the lake looked like a millpond and there were two rowing boats on our side! It’s probably worth explaining that trail rules dictate that there must always be at least one rowing boat on each side, so if there’s only one when you arrive you have to row across and then row back towing the extra boat and then row yourself back again! So two boats was a significant bonus, particularly when you consider that the distance across the lake is almost 3km. Thus it came to pass that we found ourselves in a little boat with oars!

The whole rowing malarkey was much harder than it looked and we ended up paddling canoe style, singing the theme tune to Hawaii-50 as we zigzagged our way across the milky blue water. Halfway we stopped for a rest … the silence was heavenly, with just the whisper of water passing beneath our little boat. It took us just under an hour to cover the 3km and we celebrated our successful crossing with lunch in the sunshine.

From the northern side of the lake the trail climbed up to Akste Hut where we loaded up on water and began the long uphill detour to Skierffe. At 1,179m, the summit of Skierffe is a popular 16km deviation off trail if weather conditions allow. So far our luck was holding but as we climbed higher the clouds started to roll in, the wind began to pick up and the temperature dropped. It was tough going and the trail splintered into many options. Needless to say we took the wrong option and ended up in a boggy mess. Thankfully a very nice man saved the day by guiding us back to a drier trail.

The weather deteriorated further as we pressed on and we were forced to abort our summit attempt. We decided instead to make camp in the saddle, just 1.5km short of the peak. Hopefully we would be able to dash up and back in the morning.

It started to rain as we fought to pitch the tent in the wind. Thankfully we managed to get it pitched, inside and warmed up before the weather really set in. A hearty hot dinner of chicken couscous, followed by apple custard pudding lifted the spirits. We bedded down for a windy night, grateful to be safe and warm in the best tent in the world … thank you Hilleberg!