18 years old, 18 days and 430 kilometers soloing the King's Trail

The King's Trail (Kungsleden) is the oldest and most well-known of the Swedish long trails. It consists of 430 kilometers of usually well-marked trail down the spine of the Swedish mountains, most of it above timberline, from Abisko in the north to Hemavan in the south. Jakob Sjölander Johansson, 18 years old, spent 18 days travelling this whole path unsupported.

By Jörgen Johansson 

At the start of the trail, Abisko.

Nahanni - the load

Being a lightweight operator turned out to be more difficult than I had expected on the Nahanni trip. The pack I had brought was too small by far. So I had to buy a new pack in Calgary in a rush a couple of hours before the plane for Whitehorse took off. I shopped around for a Golite pack, but they seemed to be pretty unknown in the stores I phoned. Noone knew of any retailer selling Golite. So I went to Mountain Equipment Coop and bought their lightest big pack. 2,2 kilos for their 85 litre Alpinelite was not too bad, and the price 139 CAD, was not bad neither. I could have done worse. So what did I put into this, by my standards, huge bag?

By Jörgen Johansson

Nahanni V - canyonlands

One reason that the South Nahanni river is a Unesco World Heritage site, is its diversity. Those who have read my blog entries have followed it from being a rambunctios teenager in the Rock Gardens through the vigorous vitality of youth to when it slipped into the comfortable mellowness of middle age after Rabbitkettle. These are of course metaphors that can be used of many rivers. But after the crescendo of Virgina Falls you are hard put to imagine anything but an anticlimax. Nothing could be further from the reality; the South Nahanni shifts gear in an amazing and unique way.

By Jörgen Johansson