Thursday 20/3

I followed the tracks up beside the ravine, with the usual transition from cold shadow to comfortable sunlight. At the first crest I turned up the slope on the tracks made by the Šielmmáčohkka climbers the day before, making an arrow labeled "Tjäktja" in the snow so that the Unna Räita people that were to come this way before long wouldn't follow my fresh tracks the wrong way. As for my own route, I found it to be perhaps a bit steeper than necessary, but still just on the reasonably safe side. When I started to ascend Nállu proper I observed a group of people coming out of Šielmmávággi, holding an unnecessarily high course as they immediately broke off towards Sälka. Me, I went straight up the slope, which consisted of wind-packed snow. When I reached the stonier portion of the slope I took off my skis and rucksack and put them by something which looked like a small cairn, and then continued upwards on foot.

In the tracks

Panorama southwards

Tracks going up Šielmmávággi

Sun above Reaiddáčohkka

The Bossos pass...

...and the intermediate peaks...

...before Šielmmáčohkka proper

The continued ascent was slightly troublesome at times, with portions where the crust was almost as hard as ice. Further up I came onto some old footsteps leading up onto the actual ridge, which felt really narrow, and I kept well to the side where I could see or infer the presence of rocks so as to avoid stepping through an overhang. A short bit before the actual summit the ridge changed into a convex shape which meant that I could no longer see how the snow lay, and even though the footsteps continued right in the middle I decided to play it safe and stop where I was.

The greatest views would in any case be from the south via west to north, which the remaining part of the ridge would not obstruct; off to the east the massive rise of Reaiddáčohkka would stand as an impenetrable wall, and what could be seen through the valley in that direction I would still be able to see later on from Nállojávrrit. And, to borrow a Norwegian saying: det er ikke skam å snu. The aforementioned great views were indeed great, and there was not a cloud in the sky to mar them (a 1-MB video clip panning from the almost-summit can be downloaded here). After spinning around a number of times I backtracked the same way past the narrow portion, and then went down a bit more directly to my things, where I sat down to eat at noon.

Šielmmávággi quite far below

Peering into Norway

Panorama over southwestern Stuor Reaiddávággi,
Čeakčabákti and Čeakčačohkka

The cottage beneath my feet

Panorama over Čeakčačohkka, Šielmmávággi and the Bossos pass

Panorama of Šielmmáčohkka by itself

One of the Reaiddáčohkka glaciers

Closeup of the North Peak of Giebmegáisi

The remaining bit to the summit

Another vertiginous cottage view

Peaks of Sarek

The sun was very warming and it was calm, so I never bothered putting on any extra clothing. As I sat there some clouds started amassing around the Sarek peaks far off to the south, but in my parts it was blue all around. I observed various skiers coming out of Unna Reaiddávággi, going in different directions, and closer at hand two people were ascending along the ravine; these I assumed to be the two who had spent the previous night in Unna Räita, and were now headed for Tjäktja. My interest was piqued when they stood apparently talking things over for a long time just where I had turned up the slope, and I was dismayed to see that in the end they actually did so as well, following my tracks despite my best efforts to prevent such an occurrence.

When I got going again myself I skied sideways to a rock-free snowfield which provided a fairly good run down to my previous tracks, where I turned north and followed the bend of Nállu, turning down the slope out onto the middle lake. I proceeded upwards a bit on the other side, passing the base of Šielmmáčohkka, and then I went down to the lowest lake before turning back west. I gained and then held some altitude north of the lakes, coming onto a rather fresh set of wolverine tracks which I followed towards the Bossos pass between peaks 1884 and 1792; I could see that it had actually climbed over said pass, but I stopped well below it and started rounding lake 1235 on its western side.

Another view of the Bossos pass

Mini-panorama of Šielmmáčohkka

Duopmačohkka on the other side of Visttasvággi

Going back

The sharp western forerunner of 1884

Clouds over Sarek

The pass close at hand

Panorama over the westernmost of Nállojávrrit

Just then I spotted a single skier coming over the ridge at speed, purposefully heading towards Šielmmáčohkka; one of the group of five who had gone to Unna Räita in the morning had previously announced his intention to climb said fjeld, so I assumed this was he. I went a bit eastwards out onto the crest of the ridge, where I was disheartened to discover that my binoculars had broken and could no longer focus. Putting that aside, however, the descent down towards lake 1078 was just amazing, and having completed it I ran into the astray-going pair, who were now at last on the right track, and I took the opportunity of reaffirming the correctness directly. I then skied over to The Slope and down the same, returning to the cottage at 14:30.

Kugghjulskammen

Šielmmáčohkka again

Passing Nállu

Home sweet home

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