When I considered accepting the wardenship in Kutjaure later this summer/autumn it immediately came to me that since that was going to be a three-week stay only, I could well extend it by taking a roundabout route in getting there. Rather than going to Ritsem and then taking the boat across Áhkájávrre to Vaisaluokta and walking for but one day, I therefore began planning for a start in Sulitjelma on the Norwegian side of the border – a tour that would take me through Padjelanta National Park, completing my split-up coverage of Padjelantaleden (Padjelanta Trail). The main incentive for this idea was, however, the chance of visiting Konsul Perssons stuga at the eastern end of Sårjåsjávrre, since that place has one heck of a reputation, and the pictures I had seen of the area just added to the attraction.

Most of the heavy stuff I would be needing in Kutjaure I had already sent up to Ritsem around Easter for snowmobile transport, but there were still a number of things I was to bring with me. I therefore did my best to trim my pack since I would be carrying everything for eight days, the main consequence of which was that right from the start I decided that this was going to be a cottage tour only. The route in question allows for this beautifully, and even though some of the constituent stages may seem a little short I had resolved not to skip ahead, but instead to make afternoon tours or suchlike if "needed" – or simply to just walk slowly and really enjoy the experience.

I also planned for an extra day at Sårjåsjaure, hoping for good weather to see and possibly explore Sulidälbmá – an impressive massif I would be making close contact with, which had also been a strong reason for my choice of route. As a matter of fact, bus schedules and work periods made this plan the best one time-wise – I'd rather spend an extra day in the fjelds than sitting at a train/bus station in a town – so it all fell into place rather nicely.

What seemed not to fall into place nicely, however, was the weather; after a long period of fairness it was now turning bad, and the ten-day forecast for the area showed nothing(!) but rain. I cursed my luck, but also thought of another time where similar starting conditions had yielded quite a different result. The fjelds can pull some strange surprises – in both directions – so I was actually not too worried on the whole.

My packing list was as follows (underlined items were meant for the subsequent wardenship period exclusively, and were therefore not part of this tour per se):

...plus the 380-g birch walking stick and a couple of deciliters of water in the flask. I left Östersund by train in the afternoon on Friday the 7^th of August, heading for Trondheim. Once there three hours of waiting took by, and then I borded the night train bound for Bodø, having opted for a sleeping compartment to get a good start.

Note 1:
Maps of this border region, both Swedish and Norwegian, show an alarming mixup of Sámi name forms – some are Lule Sámi, some North Sámi, and some display a perplexing combination of orthographies – with no discernable pattern. The area should be uniformly Lule Sámi, and after some digging I found official Norwegian records (even a law) supporting this position, as well as a smaller-scale map that showed the expected forms. I have therefore decided to amend some names to conform to Lule Sámi orthography, and I hope that future maps will come to reflect this as well.

Note 2:
Another map issue is the names of the central peaks of Sulidälbmá. The highest one is called Suliskongen, where the last element means "king", but then the Swedish map (and earlier Norwegian ones, too) has no name for the one immediately northwest of it, while calling the next one to the west Knekten ("jack") and the one to the north of that Dama ("queen"). At a glance this is strange, and as it has turned out it is the nameless peak that should be called Dama, completing the royal family in the proper succession, and the peak previously referred to as Dama is to be called Sluskhatten. I have adopted this usage, which by all accounts is the correct one.

Here, then, is the full account of what transpired during the subsequent eight days. Each section has a header consisting of a short overview of the stage in question, complete with a map showing the route travelled. A ring marks the starting point, a square the lunch break location (if any), and a star the destination. Vertical distances have been calculated from the map and have an accuracy of 20 m. All field breakfasts consisted of oatmeal porridge, tea and a sandwich, and all lunches from day two onwards of two cups of instant soup, a sandwich and water.