Rapadalen, and turning back
- Planned
- 6 days
- Walked
- 2.5 days
- Ascent
- 640 m
- Season walked
- July
- Trail
- None
Sarek has no marked paths and no huts. That is the appeal and also the problem.
The plan was a loop through Rapadalen with a river crossing on day three. We got to the crossing and stood there for forty minutes doing the arithmetic that everyone does: the water was higher than the guidebook, faster than it looked from the bank, and there were two of us rather than three.
The decision
We turned around. It cost us three days of walking we had looked forward to for a year, and I have not once regretted it. The alternative was a crossing where a slip means losing a pack in water at four degrees, two days from anyone.
Notes for next time
Go in late August when the snowmelt has finished. Take the third person. And plan the route so the difficult crossing happens on day one, when abandoning the trip is cheap, rather than day three, when you have already invested enough to argue with yourself.
The walk out was in perfect weather, which felt like being mocked.