Route Kittelfjäll-Fatmomakke. Chapter 2. Towards Fatmomakke

Route: Kittelfjäll - Fatmomakke in the Swedish mountains of Lapland - We follow the backpacker Josef Arnfjell on this adventures in the Swedish mountains.

Route Kittelfjäll-Fatmomakke

Chapter 2

Towards Fatmomakke

We’re passing beatiful valleys where the magical light are giving further dimensions to the already fabulous tour. Despite that we’re in the middle of September, the first snow have made it’s entrance on the upper parts of the mountain.

      

      

When we’re passing the “bare mountain line” it’s quite obvious for everyone that the temperature is sinking. During this tour the temperature was varying between 0 degrees at the highest altitude and 15 degrees celsius in the valleys (32-60 F). The increasing wind is also adding it’s cooling effect and just before we’re passing the line, we put on our shelljackets. On the highest spots the snow is about one inch thick (2,5 cm), but most likely it will thaw away before the snow will come more permanentely in Oct-Nov. Marsfjället (the Mars mountain) are enthroning majestic and as a hiker you’re aloud to feel small and insignificant in the shadow of the Mars mountain.

      

The Empetrum hermaphroditum (the berry) and the Eriophorum scheuchzeri is two of the plants that like the barren and the wind pierced mountain.

      

The lemmings, lemmus lemmus, is another species that is adapted to the poor environment. Some years they completely explode in numbers, which lead to the legendary lemming migration where the small rodents are abandoning the mountains and coming down to the civilisation. The unafraid lemmings are not stopping for anything on their way, but are passing both water and roads without getting afraid of neither drowned or smashed friends of species.

      

The way down from the Mars mountain leave a feeling of emptiness in the stomach and it’s with longing we’re breathing the last of the mountainair as we’re putting up our last camp right next to Marsfjällskåtan (the Saami hut of the Mars mountain).

      

During the last stage of the tour we’re passing some larger streams, where a passage over would have been a risky projekt without the bridges that have been built over them.











The tour gets a fitting end in the old Saami churchvillage Fatmomakke. To this place did the Saami people go a few times of the year to celebrate the big christian festivals, but also for baptism, wedding and funerals. A large amount of Saami huts are placed in this village, somtimes next to more regular cabins, but mostly by them selves or in smaller groups. There is also a regular church and a large “praying hut”, as you can see on the bottom picture to the right.

      

      

To get to Kittelfjäll, it’s possible to take a bus from either Storuman or Vilhelmina, and if you make the tour back again to Kittelfjäll you can take the bus home again.

To Fatmomakke there are no busses, so if you want to make it a one way trip, you can either make a deal with someone to pick you up in Fatmomakke or let someone drive you to Fatmomakke and then the tour will end up in Kittelfjäll, from where you can take the bus.

The last alternativ is to rent a car and then decide where to start. If you do it this way you have to make it a round trip whatever your choice of starting point is.
Then I would recomend you to start in Fatmomakke, and you could make a round trip without having to go back the same way you came from. That trip would only be slightly longer than the original and you could stick to the 5 day schedual without any problem.