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Sarek information?

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 OwenM 03 Sep 2016
I've just come back after two weeks in Sarek, northern Sweden. I'm really taken with the area so much so that I've just booked to go again next year. The climbing potential is amazing but there doesn't seem to be much if anything written in English. I have Pete Lennon's Scandinavian Mountains which is very old now and also very sketchy. I also have James Baxter's books but again so very sketchy. Does anyone have anything else - guidebooks, websites etc - that gives some more detailed information on climbing in this area?
cb294 03 Sep 2016
In reply to OwenM:

I go to Sarek every couple of years, but unfortunately not for rock climbing, just trekking and a few glacier peaks with the family. AFAIK there is no definitive climbing guide, but there are route descriptions in the yearbook of the Swedish Alpine Club. If you are just after a hiking guide with a few summit recommendations, nothing beats the guide by Clas Grundsten.

CB
OP OwenM 04 Sep 2016
In reply to OwenM:

Thanks CB any idea where I can get a copy of Clas Grundsten's book?
 HeMa 04 Sep 2016
In reply to OwenM:

27crags and Sverigeföraren might have something...

Also, next time stop at the bigger Turistation and ask there. I'm sure they'll now the score.
 MattJ753 04 Sep 2016
In reply to OwenM:

It amazes me how little known this place is from a UK perspective...and how little info is available in English!

It's an awesome place, and when I was there walking around, it looked to me like it has great potential for climbing/mountaineering...and it's not that hard to get to really. Well, compared to London-Scotland or London-Chamonix for example.
cb294 05 Sep 2016
In reply to OwenM:

Just had a look, unfortunately it does not seem to be available in English. I have a German copy of the guidebook and a Swedish copy of his general fjell craft book.

CB
 DanielJ 05 Sep 2016
In reply to MattJ753:
Sarek is famous in Sweden for trekking and wild camping. Its not a common climbing destination, to say the least. Ive never met or know anyone whos been there climbing. To my knowledge there is no guidebok.

Ive been in Sarek a couple of times, both in winter and in summer. I could see how it would be a pretty spectacular place in winter/spring for alpine ridges and that sort of thing. It really has a nice feeling of solitude to it. During our two weeks inside the NP, Feb/March, we didn't meet anyone but the warden.
Google Sarektraversen, that seems to be the popular option, meaning it at least gets done a couple of times/decade... The run from Akkha is high class randonne, well over 1000m vertical. Ski touring in Spring is super, endless opportunities. Combine it with the low key ice festival at Stora sjöfallet in late february and you'll have a excellent fortnight.

The swedish mountains are in general loose and
of poor rock quality. Pieripakte and Saitaris has some ridges people have climbed. Skierfe has a pretty steep face with probably better rock quality, it's also been climbed at 6-, 200m.
 ring ouzel 05 Sep 2016
In reply to OwenM:

It also has brown bears, wood sandpipers and red spotted bluethroats - all of which we saw, and wolves, which we didnt manage to see. Oh and dont stand still too long or a lemming will come out of its wee burrow and fall asleep on your foot. Honestly!
 DanielJ 05 Sep 2016
In reply to ring ouzel: and Wolverines!
Not to mention the giant mooses down in Rapadalen, they are pretty easy to spot.

Consider yourself lucky if you saw wolf, the reindeer herding Sami doesn't really like them and most likely shoot them at first sight.

cb294 05 Sep 2016
In reply to ring ouzel:

Plus, even in medium lemming years, the valleys are full of flocks of long tailed skuas performing their aerial manouevers or just sitting on every other hill looking arrogantly stylish!

This year we had red necked phalaropes, arctic redpolls, red throated pipits, arctic terns, one snowy owl (although that was on the Padjelanta side of the river), merlins, lapland longspurs, .....

Sarek is great for birdwatching, but for some reasons I find the local songbirds suprisingly shy, even though they are unlikely to be hunted. For many the flight distance is so great that it is hard identifying them with binoculars. Maybe this is normal close to the breeding territories. Next time I therefore plan to take my spotting scope and tripod and spend a couple days birdwatching around the upper Guohperjahkka.

Best bet for wolves is supposedly the area between Ahkka and the lake (according to a local biologist we met a few years ago), but we did not have any success there either. There are very few wolves left in Sweden anyway, there are more again in Germany.

CB

OP OwenM 05 Sep 2016
In reply to OwenM:

Thanks for all the replies, I've ordered Clas Grundsten's book from Sweden that should be fun translating. I did see some differently looking sandpipers so they could have been wood sandpipers, I have to look them up. I saw golden eagles and moose. I didn't see any sign of the bears but I did find wolf tracks not far from where I'd camped in the Rapa valley. They weren't there the night before so they must have tip-toed by me in the night. Saw lots of small mouse like droppings but no live lemmings, don't they do mass suicides every so often?
I looked at the ridge on Saitaris it look amazing but I'm not sure how you'd get onto it as the lower section looked to be all bottomless scree. I was there for two weeks on my own so quite a heavy sack as it was I'm not sure how much climbing kit I could carry in anyway. That may well be the limiting factor, but I've got until next July to research into it.
cb294 06 Sep 2016
In reply to OwenM:

AFAIK the best way to access Saitaris is from the main ridge of the Bardde chain.

CB
 annak 06 Sep 2016
In reply to OwenM:

> Thanks for all the replies, I've ordered Clas Grundsten's book from Sweden that should be fun translating.

I have in front of me a Norwegian guidebook with a small climbing-terms dictionary in the back, which has been much more helpful to me than google for such things! Swedish and Norwegian are really close, I can email you those couple of pages if it would help
 annak 06 Sep 2016
In reply to OwenM:

Tried to email you (both directly and via ukc) but I get bounced with

554 Message rejected for policy reasons

Do you have another email address?
Anna
OP OwenM 06 Sep 2016
In reply to annak:

I've emailed you my address via UKC, did you get it?
 annak 06 Sep 2016
In reply to OwenM:

Yes, but when I tried to reply it bounced.
OP OwenM 06 Sep 2016
In reply to annak:

oDOTrDOTmATbtinternet.com
 annak 06 Sep 2016
In reply to OwenM:

That's the address I tried. This was the reply:



I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can delete your own text from the attached returned message.

The mail system
host mx.bt.lon5.cpcloud.co.uk[65.20.0.49] said: 554
Message rejected for policy reasons (3.2.2.1) - Please report any problems
to BT via the postmaster@btinternet.com mailbox and include your sending ip
address with an example header of your email (in reply to end of DATA
command)
OP OwenM 06 Sep 2016
In reply to annak:

I've no idea what's going on there, thanks for trying anyway.
 annak 06 Sep 2016
In reply to OwenM:

Very odd. Anyway, I stuck six photos here, are you able to download them?

http://m.imgur.com/a/LYh4v
OP OwenM 06 Sep 2016
In reply to annak:

Thanks Annak got them.
 annak 07 Sep 2016
In reply to OwenM:

Great!

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