Mountain hiking 1965

Porjus-Stora Sjöfallet-Vakkottavaare-Teusajaure-Kaitumjaure-Singi-Kebnekajse

Heidi Brack

Lisa Schellenberg

Margrit Hefti

Verena Heusser

Annemarie Holenstein

Margrit Hauri

Heidi Keller

Juerg Spörri

Nelly Trüb

Regina Vogeli

Hans Wärtli

Frau Margret Wärtli

Tomas Kronberg

In the early 1960s, Tomas had grown up and developed an interest in nature, now began a period of outdoor life and mountain hikes. Maria was small and Ann-Marie had to take care of her. She did that gladly and used to travel to her parents in Falkenberg. Tomas and I wanted to be out in nature, and therefore a mountain hike became relevant the summer of 1963.

We walked the classic Kungsleden route: Saltoluokta – Vakkottavaare - Teusajaure - Kaitumjaure Sälka –Alesjaure – Singi - Kebnekajse, a hike of about a week. There is a separate diary about our struggles during this hike, which in themselves were not so great, but it gave a taste for more.

At Nordiska Instrument there also worked another mountain enthusiast, the Swiss Hans Wehrli, and sometime in the spring of 1965 we came into conversation about the mountains. Wehrli knew that I was interested in mountain hikes and had some experience from having hiked one summer with part of the family. He asked me if I wanted to become a guide for some Swiss teachers on a hike. Reisebüro Kuoni in Switzerland arranged each year a number of trips, among others to Lapland, and they needed guides. Wehrli himself had been involved in this several times, but now he was going to his home regions for vacation and did not have time to take the assignment himself. He asked me if I was willing to take on a group and walk with them from Saltoluokta to Kebnekajse. Ann-Marie wanted to be with her parents and siblings in Falkenberg, so it suited excellently that I did something else. Tomas was now big enough that he too could come with me, so I accepted the offer. The salary would be paid in Swiss francs - tax-free.

We met our hikers in Gällivare and continued to Porjus. In one of the compartments sat a man with a field flask in his arms and half asleep. He said he had kidney pain and needed to drink much. His name was Werner Mülli.

In Porjus we boarded a small boat that took us up to Stora Sjöfallet. We viewed the sights and continued on to "km 57". Our backpacks were loaded onto a small narrow-gauge railway trolley, and we ourselves walked the 1.5 km up to the next boat landing. We also had time to both eat the packed lunch we had brought and view Stora Sjöfallet. The journey continued with the boat Akka along Lake Akkajaure up to Saltoluokta Tourist Station on Lake Akkajaure's southern shore.

Monday the 26th of July 1965, Tomas and I started the hike together with a number of Swiss men and women from the group "Kebnekajse B" from Saltoluokta. While group "A" went on ahead, we stayed behind and did a small test hike to Lulep Kerkau, a mountain south of Saltoluokta - 1172 m above sea level. It was a company of 12 ladies and 3 gentlemen, of whom the oldest was a bit over 60 years. I became a bit thoughtful about the age distribution; the climb from Vakkottavaare is quite steep, and I wondered how I would manage all the group's members with reasonably maintained cohesion. It worked out quite well. The older couple, Mr. and Mrs. Professor Wärtli, had to set off with an earlier boat departure, so that they could walk up the Vakkotavare climb at their own pace, while the rest of the company washed dishes and prepared the cabins. We were to meet on the plateau, where they would wait for the remaining part of the group to catch up. It turned out to be a good solution for all, and when we met again, the professor treated each one to a small shot of kirsch (Swiss brandy) from his small supply of "medicaments".

Group "Kebnekajse A" was led by a work colleague of mine, the engineer Lars Erik Johansson. At the first overnight stop, he abandoned the group for a female hiker, and that caused certain troubles for that group at the overnight places; most Swiss at that time were not particularly proficient in English.

In Vakkottavaare we learned that there would be a reindeer separation in the Teusajaure area, and one of the participants in my group, Lisa Schellenberg – she very much wanted to be there to get pictures of something so rare for her. She was an eager photographer with many pictures in Swiss newspapers and tourist brochures. She had only a Rolleiflex with a fixed lens, and now she got to take my Hasselblad with 150 mm lens. I sent Tomas with her as interpreter and guide; the other group went one day ahead of us, and we could not continue to Teusajaure with the whole group; it would become far too cramped in the small cabin.

The next day we met Tomas and Lisa Schellenberg. Unfortunately, there was no reindeer separation – reindeer are unpredictable creatures and do not always let themselves be controlled by humans. The Sami had simply not gathered all the reindeer to be able to carry out the work.

About the stretches Teusajaure-Kaitumjaure-Singi-Kebnekajse there is not much to tell. Once in Kebnekajse we took a rest day, and then selected parts of the group had an opportunity to climb the Kebnekaise summit. We were lucky and could see an eleventh part of the country from the top. That is an area as large as all of Switzerland, I could point out to my fellow hikers. I have been up on the summit 4 times, but this was the only time that I was lucky with the view.

For group "Kebnekajse B" it became a very successful hike; we were lucky with the weather, and also the other arrangements went smoothly throughout the entire hike. No complaints came that one might have expected - the Swiss are quite fussy - instead I received a very nice Swiss watch as a Christmas gift from the participants - a self-winding "Tissot" with an engraved dedication - (Kebnekaise B). That watch served me for many years to come, until it was time to move into modernity and buy a digital City watch with analog hands.