Notes for Nordkalottleden/Nordkalottruta/Kalottireitti

Primus compatible gas canisters generally available in STF huts with stores. Other hikers sometimes leave their unexhausted canisters in the huts, check for those if you are running short. Norwegian sections of the trail are generally the ones where you may have to be more aware about running out since there are no kiosks for resupplying.

Assuming three uses per day, 30 gram spending a day would give 15 days of use for 450 gram canister.

Full stove takes around 60ml. Expect 100-120ml+ spending a day. 1 litre would give 8 to 10 days of use, if properly windshielded and moderate use.

Remove soot from kettle bottom as it increases time needed to reach boiling point.

Consider carrying the stove separately from pots to avoid contamination.

Expect 12-15 minutes to reach boiling point depending water temperature and wind.

"I've used the Trangia burners for years.Depending on your stove type, a good average to boil 500mls of water from cold on a cold day requires 20ml. meths. I've found their model 25 to be the best,although I generally use my own make of stove.I do like the ability to seal the burner after use when not all the meths. have been burned off."

Below from http://www.diamondspirit.net/adunk/trangia.html

"To determine the fuel efficiency of the Trangia burner, I placed measured amounts of metho in it, lit it, and timed how long it burned for. The results are graphed below:

I then weighed 250 ml of metho, and got a result of 175g. So, a litre of metho weighs about 700g. By my calculations (using the above results and the results from section 1), a litre of metho is enough to boil between 20 and 30 litres of water.

So, if you're on an extended bushwalk, how much fuel will you need to carry ? Lets say you're sharing meals with a friend and you cook a meal each night (2 pots of food + a hot drink), and a cup of coffee for breakfast. (NB: A cup is 250 ml). Lets assume that's equivalent to boiling 3 litres of water per day. Lets also assume you can boil a litre of water with 40ml of fuel (My tests showed this amount of fuel will give you enough time to boil a litre of water. Trangia's documentation is more conservative, stating that 50ml is required). The fuel consumption per day will be about 40ml * 3 = 120 ml. So with 1 litre of fuel between 2 people, you should be able to go away on an 8 day trip.

If you're more conservative, lets say you'll need to boil 4 litres of water a day, and you're going to use 50ml to boil each litre. That means you'll consume 200ml of metho a day, and if you have 1 litre of metho you can go away for 5 days.

Interestingly, if you run the burner with the simmer ring always in place the stove is remarkably fuel efficient. We found this out by accident on a trip many years ago when we borrowed a friend's Trangia but we didn't ask him how to use it. We ended up running the stove for many night's meals with the simmer ring on all the time. Sure, it took a long time to cook dinner, but we used only half the fuel our friend recommended we'd need!

Conclusions: Trangia stoves consume about 32g of fuel to boil a litre of water. On an extended camping trip, you will need to carry about a litre of methylated spirits between 2 people for each week you wish to camp out. A litre of metho weighs about 700g."

I believe the conclusion underestimates fuel consumption. For one person, 1 litre would give 6 days for three meals and three cups of tea (300ml of boiled water) a day.

Flight (Norwegian airline, Oslo - Alta) arriving at 12:40 local time. Airport bus to downtown at 12:55/13:30 (bus 261/061). Alta tourist info in center (perhaps to leave backpack for shopping).

Pick up Norwegian crowns to pay for using DNT huts.

Bus 202 to Kautokeino, 15:00 airport/15:15 from Storbakken along Altaveien (before centrum), arrives at 17:10.

Suggested arrival to trailhead: bus from Alta, Norway (airport)

Section length approx. 190km (about 25km more if doing Halti mountain sidetour).

Kautokeino has grocery, hotel, campground, cottages. Buy food for at least 9 days (assumes 21km/day).

Arrival to trailhead: bus from Rovaniemi, Finland (airport)

Town info:

Kilpisjärvi

• Shopping centre with groceries, a range of outdoor gear, post office, hotel, hostel/campground (North side)
• Buy food for about 9 days
• Most services in Southern side of town. Customs building for key pickup in the North side, 5km towards Norwegian border. Trail begins slightly South from customs, so can take the key when resuming the hike.
• Kilpisjärven Retkeilykeskus, has all the basic services, close to trail but far away from the centre. They lend bicycles to alleviate this.
• Hotel Kilpis, 70€ for two person room
• Haltinmaa Cottages, 48€ for small two person room with shared bath. In 2017, no laundry service, bedsheets cost 10€ extra.

Innset

• Hiker friendly accommodation according to website (info from 2008) "As you approach the dam from both South and North you’ll find wooden boards with public information. One of the signs there belong to a guest house. I was told (by another hiker I met) the place is friendly and reasonably priced. You’ll find a phone number and they say they’ll come to pick you up and put you back on the trail when you leave but there’s no public telephone so you’d have to use your own."

Björkliden. West from Abisko, near trail, http://www.bjorkliden.com

• As of 2017, groceries available only in the highend Hotel Fjället, bjorkliden.com, +46 980 641 00
• Davvi Dallu, +46 980 410 84, http://vandrarhembjorkliden.com/, around 480SEK for private room, about half for shared one. Bedsheets cost extra, but they allowed using sleeping pad.
• Train station (Narvik - Kiruna)

Abisko, west side

• Northern starting point of Kungsleden (which Nordkalottleden follows for several days)
• Arrival to trailhead: train from Narvik, Norway (airport)
• Abisko STF Turiststation, info, shop, lodging, modern facilities; expensive in peak season (450SEK for bunk bed, around 100SEK for tent)
• Bus station
• Pick up Swedish crowns here for use in huts and kiosks. I carried 400SEK which was enough to use their drying rooms and to buy snacks along the way, but not much more.

Abisko, east side

• Grocery store (Godisfabriken), open 10:00 to 20:00 every day
• Abisko Guesthouse, near Godisfabriken, 48€/night on peak season according to booking.com
• Abisko Fjällturer, rooms, bunkbeds http://www.abisko.net
• Railway Station

Approx. 400km of route remaining in total (less for Norwegian end). Small Sami settlements along the way. Some huts on the Swedish side of mountains sell groceries, rough info available in Abisko tourist info or hotel and in this note. Supply package for about 14 days might be advisable with non-critical resupplies from huts.

Possible finishing point Nikkaluokta, trail departs from Nordkalottleden/Kungsleden shortly after the Sälka and crosses Kebnekaise on the Southern side.

Alesjaure, 35km from Abisko. Quoting another hiker:

"big store with all a hiker might need for a full ressuply [sic]"

Sälka Fjällstuga, https://www.svenskaturistforeningen.se/anlaggningar/stf-salka-fjallstuga/, 2-3 days from Abisko, approx. 56km. Quoting another hiker:

"nice shop, good enough for a full but limited in choices ressuply. Pasta, rice, powder milk, powder instant potatos, tea, coffe, breakfast cereal, nuts, energy bars, cheese plus many other things I wouldn’t take with me like canned stuff (meat and/or vegetable meals, pineapple, etc.). I spent night 2 out of Abisko in Salka. Had a huge dinner with stuff from the shop and got some additional pasta, milk and instant potatos to complement what I already had."

Trail conjuncts with Padjelantaleden for a considerable part, which is an easy and well maintained trail and very popular with novice/short distance hikers.

Resupply points at:

• Arasluokta
• Staloluokta
• Pieskehaure (unconfirmed), approx 42km from Staloluokta
• Tarrekaisestugan