Strange Vacations - at the borders of sarek deep winter void

Описание: Video from an early winter hike starting in Kvikkjokk, going up north on Gamajåhkå, Tjuoldajåhkå, Buojdesjåhkå, crossing Buojdes lake before descending on Padjalentaleden and returning back to Kvikkjokk. This route might not be travelled frequently because it is bit less spectacular. It was my first time going in January and I expected the worst possible conditions however it turned out to be surprisingly friendly. I had soft and deep snow conditions in Februaries on previous trips which had me sinking in badly. So this time I turned to big freestyle ski (sort of copying the concept of OAC Skinbased "gliding snowshoes" but with the usual Rottefella NNN-BC manual bindings) and a narrower but longer pulka (Fjellpulken 168cm instead of a short but wider Acapulka). The idea was to have less of a sinking in effect because of larger overall surface areas and also have the pulka fit into my wide ski tracks and therefore less of a drag from the “submarine” effect were the pulka moves more under the powder than above. I think this worked well and I will continue using this combination on trips early in the year and away from solid trails. For this tour all these efforts turned out unnecessary though. Snow conditions were as good as possible, hardly any sinking in, and it was practically wind still all the time - something I have never experienced before. Temperatures where between minus 20 and 30 degrees Celsius. Daylight hours were longer than I expected. Although the sun is only about 3 hours above the horizon I would say there are about 6 hours of usable daylight altogether. Sorry for the lack of any narration or explanation in the video! ;)

Anybody interested in going on this route: it was more on the easy side of things. The road to Kvikkjokk is well maintained in winter and this cute village is very accessible. There is even a daily bus (except on Sundays). I found the Kungsleden parking area cleared from snow on Monday morning January 15th. There was no other car there however it looked like there was some activity on the weekend and fresh snowmobile tracks led to the first hunting huts on the shores of Gamajåhkå. After I passed those huts there was no sign of other people in the area. There was a two meter waterfall squeezed between two giant rocks which forced me up a steep embarkment (Tjuoldajåhkå not so far below Tjårok). Days later I saw two about 200 meters wide slab avalanches in the lower third of Skieevvun. High up on the west side of this mountain was an area which looked like a potential avalanche to me. This made me stick to my original plan to keep well south of Buojdesjåhkå and high up. There I came across some steep and icy areas covered with a thin layer of snow all so slippy I had to switch to snow shoes with crampons. On Padjelantaleden it was not always obvious to me when to take the river and when I would be better off to take the marked summer trail. I should have researched this better because it was my impression I made some wrong decisions. When I reached Såmmarlappastuga I was surprised someone was there three days before me coming from Kvikkjokk on Padjelantaleden and returning the same way. The first sporadic snow mobile tracks I saw near Njunjes. It seemed like some people live around there in winter. Of course I missed the fact these people take the summer trail with their snow mobiles so I took the river only to find myself fighting my way around waterfalls and half frozen rocky rapids. Once I made the cut through the forest to get on Padjelentaleden it was easy to get to Kvikkjokk.