Beisfjord to Kaisepakte, Abisko or Katterjåkk

[tiantian]

Hey. Couple of years ago we hiked from Nikkaluokta to Katterat. It was our first tour in the high north and so far also the best we had (we visited Rondane and Saltfjellet in the meantime).
We just have 11 days including travel time, so it will leave us just 8 1/2 hiking days. We thought about fly into Narvik and hiking from Beisfjord to Kaisepakte, Abisko or Katterjåkk, depending on how fast we are and how the weather will be. Then getting on a train or bus back to Narvik
Will it be doable in 8 1/2 days? Just from the distance I would say "no problem", but may we are missing something. Any recommendation for the trek from your side?

If we arrive 17:30 at Harstadt Airport, will we make it to Narvik and get some Rödsprit at Intersport or G-Sport before they close? Then we would wait for the 21:15 bus to Beisfjord. How far is it from the bus stop to the Fjell where we could sleep first night?

Or may we will find someone nice like last year who buy the Rödsprit upfront, pick us up from Narvik bus station and bring us to Beisfjord if we visit the Airport Duty Free for him? Then we wouldn't have any stress during the first day.

Does this plan make any sense?

Best Regards, Sebastian

 

[undvall]

Probably ok....but....

Hello,

I have, I´m sad to say, never hiked the Norway- part of your hike so I have very litte real input to give regarding that part. But as long as you plan to follow one of the trails at least up to above the tree line it should be (quite) easy walking.

One thing that you probably should consider this year however is the amount of snow. It has been snowing a lot in this area last winter and on top of that the spring has been very cold so far. The snow melting has not even started jet! You can check the amount of snow left on this site: http://www.senorge.no/index.html?p=senorgeny&st=snow

Just "tap" on Sno and then Snoddybde. And as you will see there 2-4 meters of snow there you plan to hike right now.

But if we assume that you have passed Norway and end up in Unna Allakas, which should be doable in 3-4 days provided that the snow has meelted, then there is a lot of nice options.

You can of course just hike straight up to Abisko. That is a nice and most of the time very easy hike.

If you want to / have time to continue east the hike throu Bessesvaggi to Kaisepakte is one nice option for sure. But the middle part, on the slopes of Bahkkabahokcohkka, are quite difficult with a lot of willows.

Another very nice hike in this area is Alesjaure and onwards down to Vistasvagge and from there straight north over Mårmapasset and then Ballinvaggi down to Abisko.

/ Stefan

 

[tiantian]

Thank you Stefan. We have the option to start early august or early september, but we prefer early august. With this we would run into the Fjällräven Classic which is held from 11 to 18 august, so could be smart to avoid the trail between Alesjaure and Abisko.
Your Vistasvagge, Mårmapasset and Ballinvaggi to Abisko route seems like a nice option and we would just join the masses on the last few km and as there seems to be no official trail, it shouldn't be crowded.
And we don't like willows
I know about the snow problem this year, but hope it will be not a big problem in august anymore.

 

[LottaH]

We hiked down to Beisfjord from Hunddalen many years ago, and it is quite far to the timberline, at least if you loose the trail like we did. I don't remember many houses in the forrest, so I think you can stop quite soon, and you should probably stop before it starts to go uphill if you don't want to go far. Further up above the timber line I remember a nice place by a small lake, but also areas with rock that were swept clean by water that escaped from lakes behind glaciers during the ice age, and which haven't been covered with earth since.
Check on Google maps, it looks like stopping to sleep in the forrest will not be a problem.
/Lotta

 

[tiantian]

Thank you. So we can just hope that there there is not to much snow in august left.