The Preparation: (took a month of on and off planning) 

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The Kungsleden trail stretches through the remote, wild landscapes above the Arctic Circle. The trail cuts across the high mountains and low valleys and has a variety of alpine terrain and birch forests to offer. The entire trail stretches for a challenging 440 km, but it is possible to choose certain sections of the trail and face them one at a time. This time we picked the northernmost section from Abisko to Nikkaluokta, starting from the very northern end, then running south until Singi, and finally taking a turn to the east from there. In theory, the trail stretches for 105 km.

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Aside from the section of the trail, another issue is to decide on the time you would like to be there. For hikers, the best time is July-August. The landscape becomes a hiker's paradise with the last bit of melting snow and the lush greenery peeping out from beneath. However, before planning your travel dates, do check that it doesn't coincide with the dates of the annual Fjällräven Classic hiking race which brings in thousands of competing hikers and can affect your solitary hike. 

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After finalising the travel plans, came the preparations with clothes, gears and most importantly the food. We were supposed to be in the middle of nowhere for eight days where there is very limited access to food, let alone other amenities of life. And to top that, the weather could take a twist in a minute. Given these conditions, we had to pack. And the toughest challenge was to pack light! 

 

Since there are STF huts along the trail, where you can buy food, we decided not to take food for the entire hiking period. At the same time, we did not plan to totally depend on the availability in STF huts - firstly, they were supposed to be super expensive, secondly, we were not sure how much variety and quantity there would be. For our meals, we mostly took a few packs of packaged pasta and risottos, which can be boiled in water for 7-10 minutes (usually with 2 portions), i.e. enough to sustain the two of us for lunch and dinner for the first 3 days. But for energy which we would need a lot, we packed lots of protein bars and chocolates. Along with that, we had some instant porridge and instant coffee powder (mixed with milk powder) for the breakfasts. For the two us, we had around 4 kilos of food.

 

While packing clothes, we wanted to go as lightweight as possible. We were mainly counting on our one pair each of outdoor trousers. For tops, we had one outdoor shirt each and one polyester t-shirt each. We were confident that we could wash and dry the tops on the go if needed. That's why we had clothes for roughly half the number of days we were going to be outside. However, one thing that we did was pack an additional small trolley with some clean clothes, which we planned to send by post from Abisko mountain station to Nikkaluokta. With information from the internet and also by personally calling Abisko mountain station, we confirmed that it is possible for you to send some luggage to your final destination if you won't be needing them during the hike. 

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With meticulous planning and packing, finally came the day of our travel. One major concern that bugged us was whether we would get our backpacks back in good condition after we checked them in, especially with our experience and anecdotes from acquaintances on how the airport personnel handle baggage. To add to our woes, Helsinki airport does not have the facility of getting your luggage plastic wrapped. So with D's idea, we basically taped the backpacks with packaging tapes, basically "mummified" them, and it worked pretty well actually. Another sophisticated option, of course, would be to buy a big carry-bag for the backpack, which our friend H did.

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Reaching there:

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We flew with Norwegian Airlines to Kiruna Airport in Sweden. We flew from Helsinki to Stockholm, and from there to Kiruna. We had expected a small plane from Stockholm to Kiruna, but surprisingly we had a big plane packed with enthusiastic hikers, mountaineers from all over the world.

 

The bus to Abisko leaves from right in front of the airport in Kiruna. If you don't have an online ticket already, you can buy it from the bus-driver, costs a few Euros extra, and it is possible to pay both by cash as well as a credit card. A one-way adult ticket from the driver costs 200 SEKs. The bus trip to Abisko tourist station lasts 1.5 hours and you get a view of the Kiruna town and the mines that are more or less engulfing the town. Then starts the picturesque view with the mountains and that already preps you for the trip.

 

We reached Abisko mountain station around 16:00, dropped our luggage at the Butik shop (to send the 5-kilo cabin-size trolley to Nikkaluokta cost us 300 SEKs, but we didn't mind that for the smell of fresh clothes that we would love to have at the end of the hike!) We also bought some fuel for our cooking system from the shop. We found that many hikers were renting hiking gears from the shop as well, such as sleeping mattresses, tents, etc.

 

Abisko mountain station has almost 300 beds and if you wish, you could also stay there with all the amenities, and hike around the place. Otherwise, you choose the wilderness of course!

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Please check the section on Useful links for details on bus operators and their timetables.