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  1. #1
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    Sweden Kungsleden: unfriendly to hammocks or just a challenge?

    Thought I'd write up a few notes about my recent walk in Lapland for the archives. I read over and over online that you should not do this walk with a hammock, and I wanted to set the record straight on that - it can be done with a hammock, I did it, and I had a great time!

    The Kungsleden is a long-distance walking trail at the very northern end of Sweden, in the Swedish part of Lapland. The trail probably takes about a month to walk in total, but with family and work commitments I was only able to get over for about 10 days. That limited my experience to the northern section of the walk only (Abisko to Vakkotavare).

    The landscape and the weather in Lapland varies tremendously, even hour-to-hour. We experienced beautiful crisp mornings on the mountainside, beach-like weather near a lake, and a howling freezing windstorm next to rivers flowing with ice. Luckily we missed the mosquitos which we'd heard could swarm you all day.

    The weather makes packing a bit of a challenge, but the Kungsleden has a huge safety valve: a network of "huts" each about a day's walk apart. These huts are definitely expensive. Prices in 2018 were 500 SEK ($55) for a bed for the night, and 200 SEK ($22) to pitch your tent or hammock on the site. The camp stores do sell dehydrated meals and staples like rice and pasta, but these supplies are flown in by helicopter and are priced accordingly. An apple costs 15 SEK ($1.60) and a good dehydrated meal costs 95 SEK ($11).

    The huts lack electricity and running water, but otherwise they're really luxurious. In addition to the little grocery stores, they all have dormitory beds, composting toilets, kitchens with propane stoves, and - it is Sweden after all - wood-fired saunas next to cold rivers. There were a few walkers that carried almost no weight and just walked hut-to-hut. The majority of walkers, like us, treated the huts as optional and occasional luxuries. What hiker doesn't love a hot sauna every few days!

    Luckily you cross multiple pristine mountain rivers and streams every single day, this is pure glacial melt water and you can drink it without filtration. So you can keep your pack weight down by leaving out water entirely, and if you're willing to pay a little extra for food you can carry just a few days of supplies at a time.

    The real challenge for the hammock camper is the lack of trees! The lowest sections of the trail run through beautiful birch forests where hanging is easy. But some of the longest walking days go over barren gorse and lichen covered rock without even a bush anywhere in sight. I was only able to find a few things online about hammocks on the Kungsleden, and mostly these were people saying that it would be impossible given the lack of trees.

    IT IS POSSIBLE! In fact, it's a fun challenge.

    Look, there are long sections of the walk - days at a time - when the landscape is entirely rock and gorse without even a bush as far as the eye can see. Here are some photos of the typical terrain, with the typical reindeer (!) ...

    IMG_1259.jpg
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    I knew that I'd have the option of bailing out and staying in huts, so I decided to plunge ahead with my hammock. I took my Warbonnet Blackbird XLC, a Superfly tarp, and both a Yeti 3-season underquilt and a full-length Thermarest sleeping pad. I do own a double-layer BBXLC, but I didn't want the extra weight and I thought I'd be fine with the pad in the single layer hammock.

    The secret weapon of the hammock camper is the ground pitch. I had never done this before and I taught myself using some Youtube videos and some practice in the back yard. I don't carry hiking poles myself, and they are totally critical for the ground pitch. Luckily my hiking buddy does carry them and doesn't use them for her shelter, so I was able to borrow them at night. The Superfly is a great tarp for a ground pitch in severe weather, it held up to the high winds and rain really well. I struggled to figure out how to pitch the tarp extremely close to the ground but still get the doors to seal - the flatter the tarp gets the more the doors open. So the pitch isn't taut or picture-perfect, but it worked and it kept me dry!

    IMG_1157.jpg
    IMG_1159.jpg

    I have to come clean, I hated the ground pitch. I don't sleep well on a Thermarest, I hate crawling around on my knees, and I hate having to sit in awkward positions when cooking or reading. The Superfly is a fantastic weather-proof tarp, and the interior space is absolutely vast compared to a tent. But it's not as aerodynamic as a little one-man hiking tent, so the wind can really beat at it. And I think my Thermarest had a very slow leak, so by morning I was cold until I inflated the pad again. Going to ground is definitely NOT my first choice.

    Hanging the hammock amongst boulders is a different kind of challenge. Sometimes in the midst of an otherwise barren, treeless landscape there were crevices with large rocks, and once in a while I was able to see a gap that might work for a hammock. Here's one example...

    IMG_1119.jpg
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    Basically I just wrapped the tarp and hammock suspension lines around large rocks, and wedged those rocks between boulders. If you get the angles right, weight in the hammock tightens everything up and it holds beautiful. If you get the angles wrong, of course, there is a reasonable chance that a very large rock will come crashing down onto you. Other disadvantages are that rocks absolutely EAT hammocking equipment. Dyneema, Amsteel, Kevlar, Silpoly - space-age materials are no match for the stone age. Wrapping a tree hugger around a rock and rubbing it against another rock will shred it. The taut edge of a tarp rubbed against a boulder will fray immediately.

    So I don't know that the rocks were the smartest place to hang in the end, but I was sheltered from the wind and I much preferred it to the ground. Luckily there were many times when the barren mountain gave way to a few trees. Even in the high mountain pass, there was a section with a ravine down to the river and on that steep river bank there were some strong birch trees that worked beautifully for me. As we descended to the lake, trees became more and more dominant and I would say that the middle and southern sections of the Kungsleden are likely to be easy for hammock camping.

    IMG_1191.jpg

    If you're thinking about hiking in northern Europe, I'd say Lapland is an excellent choice. You can camp anywhere you like (outside of the national park, where it's designated campsites only), and you can leave the trail to walk anywhere you like. The Kungsleden is a cushy walk - you've got the huts, the path is extremely well-signed and maintained, and you'll meet a fair number of people. There are other trails through the region that are much more remote, and if I went again I might choose that option.

    Despite my mixed success on the ground, I would *absolutely* take my hammock out there again. It's fun trying to figure out how to make the system work in a challenging environment. Here are some thoughts on equipment:

    - The Superfly was the best tarp for the job, without question. I needed a big tarp with excellent protection from shifting wind and rain. I did struggle to get the ground pitch right - I wanted it low to the ground for warmth and wind protection, but as it got lower the doors were too far apart to close. So I had to play with it a lot. That was fine on the sunny calm evenings, but it was pretty frustrating on cold, windy, rainy evenings.

    - I have the version 1.0 BBXLC with a bug net, but I don't have a top cover. I don't know if that would have helped, I was a bit cold some nights and cutting out a bit more wind might have done the trick. If I had to do it over, I'd have bought that hammock with a top cover.

    - The Thermarest had the same issues as all ground pads I've used. It was too narrow at my shoulders, too wide at my feet, too thin under my hips and too thick under my legs, etc. I struggled to keep the Thermarest lined up with the hammock and my ground sheet (a large piece of Tyvek). The Thermarest is slippery, and whether I had it inside the hammock and top-quilt, or outside between the hammock and the ground sheet, I had to constantly fuss to keep everything lined up in the ground pitch. I don't think my double-layered hammock would have solved this problem, because often the issue was that my body would come off an edge of the Thermarest.

    - I tried combining the Thermarest and my Yeti underquilt for extra warmth in the trees. I don't think this worked. The pad pushed the Yeti out away from my body and I ended up warmer when I just got rid of the pad and used the Yeti alone.

    Ok, that's a SUPER long post. Thank you for reading this far, please do let me know if you have some suggestions for how I could do this better next time!
    Last edited by aranpura; 09-17-2018 at 06:36.

  2. #2
    ObdewlaX's Avatar
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    Nice report & pics. It certainly looks like you were able to adapt to your surroundings while on your hike. Judging for your pics, the weather cooperated for the most part?

    I had to go to the ground once on one of my first trips out with my Hennessy Hammock. I was able to pitch it for use on the ground but the bottom entry made it nearly impossible to get in & out of without a lot of drama & effort. Less than ideal for sure.

    Thanks for posting!

  3. #3
    OlTrailDog's Avatar
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    Thanks for the report. I'm glad you had a wonderful trip. Very interesting country. There is certainly a wonderful spectrum of camping paradises available.

    However, this it instances like this that I chose not to be a hammock purist. There are areas like this, high alpine country, and a number of others that just are not feasible for hammock camping. Or perhaps it can be done with more challenge than I would want when I can simply stake out my tent and be cozy in minutes.

  4. #4
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    To be fair, the pictures make the weather look better than it was @ObdewlaX. I just didn’t get out the camera during all of the rain and cold and grey. I still enjoyed the walk in that weather, but what I liked was keeping my head down and covering the distance more quickly. When the sun came out I stopped to look around more.

    And @OlTrailDog you certainly have a point. My tents are older and heavier 2- and 3-man jobs, and my hiking buddy had just bought a new ultralight solo tent. So my decision was between carrying a big tent to use solo, buying la new 1-man tent which I wouldn’t use much, or making the hammock work. I’m glad I took the hammock, but if I’d had a lightweight solo tent available I’d probably have taken that instead.

  5. #5
    OlTrailDog's Avatar
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    The great thing is it didn't deter you from heading out on an awesome trip!

  6. #6
    Senior Member hutzelbein's Avatar
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    Thanks for the report! Recently, I have been thinking more often that it should be possible to do some long-distance hiking with a hammock in Europe, too! It sucks having to fly +8 hours to get somewhere nice but far away from all that man-made noise.

    Since you said that the weather was frequently rainy and grey - when did you go?

    And could you have hung every night with more effort? Or is going to ground inevitable?

    With a method like hanging from 2 hiking poles in one end, would it have been possible to hang every night?

    Thanks!

  7. #7
    Senior Member ofuros's Avatar
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    Adjusting to the environment surrounding you...even if it means going to ground or hanging off rocks where there are no trees, well done mate. Good looking trip.
    Mountain views are good for the soul....& getting to them is good for my waistline.

    https://ofuros.exposure.co/

  8. #8
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    Hammocks on the Kungsleden.

    I am happy to see that someone has tried it! I am in the process switching from tent to hammock, and the Kungsleden is one of my worries! I did the same part of the trail in 2019, but with a tent. It is interesting, as I do remember a lot, and I do remember a lot of treeless areas, but looking back at my pictures makes me realise that I might have been able to hang at least 3 of the 7 nights. I am pretty sure that the next step - more south, is going to be easier though - more trees.

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