Gáisi – Mountain hike in Sápmi

The mountains are calling. A crooked mountain birch that stands all kinds of weather, a breath of air that plays with buzzing mosquitoes in dwarf shrub heaths. Views for miles across lake Torneträsk with impressive mountain peaks, valleys, and waterfalls as a backdrop.

Join us on a wonderful hiking trip during the bright seasons in the Kiruna-Abisko mountain range where the reindeer still roam freely, and the varied landscape shows itself in all its glory. Travel on foot is healthy and the original of mode of transport in the mountains during bare ground season. This is a perfect day trip for those interested in fresh mountain air and nature which is home to the Sámi people and reindeer, a cultural landscape that also is affected by railway and other activities.

The guide will pick you up by minibus at Reindeer Lodge or any hotel in Jukkasjärvi/Kiruna and take you northwestward, up to the mountains, all in less than an hour’s drive. The higher up we move, the more the countryside opens up and the mountains spread out in front of us. We park the bus at Torneträsk station, check our equipment and start our hike with a light incline through low mountain birch forest and up above the tree line. The bare mountain area welcomes us with stunning and expansive views, snow-capped mountain peaks and lush valleys. Wildlife is rich and if we are lucky, we can observe migrating reindeer and lemmings.

Our guide’s trained eyes make it more likely that we do not miss anything along the way, and there is time to stop and enjoy, at a murmuring mountain creek for example. The water is clean and crystal clear and tasting a cup of water from the brook is both refreshing and thirst-quenching. The hike is approximately 5 to 8 kilometres where the final view from mountain Nagirvárri is worth the effort.

We make a stop at a suitable spot for our lunch break. Food is part of the experience, and we prepare it from ingredients from nature’s pantry in Sápmi. While the coffee is brewing, our guide talks more about nature, wildlife and reindeer husbandry that is conducted in this territory and shares exciting experiences hir has had. When we come down from the mountain again, we head back to Kiruna/Jukkasjärvi where we arrive in the late afternoon.