Vålådalen
2023_09 - 6 days
A surprising high. Töfsingdalen last year was a victory for me, finally reaching the almost hidden national park after I broke my leg on the edge of it 5 years before. A victory for me, but a suffering for Ingeborg. She had so much trouble with her feet and backpack that it looked like our hiking adventures were coming to an end. With that in mind, I planned to hike the 3-day Jamtland's Triangle, but stretch it into 6 short days. and that would probably be our last hike. It all went differently. We reached the Jamtland's Triangle trailhead, but it turned out to be a pretty overwhelmed hiking tourist circus. However, a few hours to the east lies Vålådalen, where the much less known 'Vålådalen Square' is an existing route. I bought an extra map, got some advice from a park ranger, and off we went. My confidence initially wasn't too high, but Ingeborg's experiment with softer boots and a new backpack worked out perfectly. We ended up having one of the most rewarding 6 day hikes we ever had. We had all kinds of weather, good and foul, all kinds of terrain, all kind of landscapes. It was glorious, we didn't have any trouble at all, it looks like we are back on the hiking map!
Trip Report
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Image Gallery
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The Movie
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The Route
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Day 1We hiked through the forest to the small Sami camp of Gronvallen. The weather had been good for weeks, but today that might change. I didn't feel very confident, and was both relieved and worried that we were on our way. However, the great thing about backpacking is that you can stop at any time and build your camp. All we need is some water and a flat enough patch of ground, both in abundance in our hiking area (one of the reasons we hike in Sweden so much). It wasn't a long day, and once we made our so familiar camp our confidence grew. We were on our way! 
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Day 2We climbed out of the forest onto the 'fjell'. This is the rocky, mossy, boggy tundra where the reindeer herds roam. And we indeed rain into our first reindeer. It is exposed area, wind and rain can hit hard. The views started to be amazing, but there was also a storm approaching. We reached the staffed Lunndorrstugan mountain hut just before lunch time, and just before the rain started. It would get worse and last the whole night. We decided to make it a short day and wait out the storm in the hut. It was surprisingly expensive, hotel prices, without even running water. And we had to share a room with another couple. But we were glad to have shelter, it would have been a hard camp. It was a good experience, we had never stayed in a mountain hut before, and now we know why we prefer our tent ;-) 
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Day 3An amazing day in the backcountry of the fjells. We did suffer some of the conseqences of the storm. The bogs were deep, our shoes got soaked and we had to cross some rivers where I had to wade through it barefoot a number of times. But as we gently climbed out of the bogs the scenery got brilliant. There are no fixed campsites, so I aimed for a spot where a footbridge crosses a bigger river, and found a beautiful campsite. 
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Day 4Another glorious day in the backcountry. We continued along the river, rising with it, and stunning views all around us. At the Valastugan mountain hut we crossed into another valley. "Always windy there" a park ranger had warned us. The weather turned foul, storm and rain again. But on day 4 our spirits and confidence were very high. We were laughing hard and enjoying ourselves as the wind tried to rip our rain gear. I had seen one 'green patch' on the map, if we were lucky we would find some shelter for our tent there, if unlucky, we had to walk on for another hour until we reached the forest. We were lucky and camped in what seemed to be the only secluded spot on the entire fjell. We had a blast 
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Day 5We woke up to a beautiful sunny day with amazing views all around us. We followed the rest of the valley and started to descend again to the woods that would eventually lead back to our starting point in Valadalen. But not today! Tundra changed to taiga again, colorful yellow dwarf birch became mossy pine. And just like on day 3 I had aimed for a campsite near a footbridge over a river. This was our last campsite, and perhaps the most beautiful of them all. 
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Day 6It was hard to leave this amazing campsite near the river. It had been a long time since we had reached a 'day 6'. We felt strong and confident, this had been much easier than we had feared. Full of joy. This was our last day of this hike, but we also concluded that this was not our last hike after all. We'll be back! 
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