After a prematurely aborted attempt through Rapadalen --- last Friday, March 20, I set off from Stf Sitojaure with my pulka towards Rinim with the idea of following a route via Slugga to Saltoluokta. A rather slow journey began across the lake with my Åsnes Nansen bc wl skis, which do not glide at all due to their single camber structure and too short length. Because the weather was dull grey and lack of contrast early in the day, it was impossible to see a track leading unambiguously towards Rinim after leaving Stf behind; so I chose my own route, which led briefly through a small birch grove, among other things. A little later, I was overtaken by two skiers with their pulkas on their way to Rinim who, due to previous experience, were more familiar with the terrain. I then followed their track, which later, when the weather cleared up a bit, joined a snowmobile track closer to the lake shore. It cleared up further, the sun appeared, and with it, blue skies. But in the course of the afternoon, the weather turned greyer. Because the two skiers were moving at a faster pace, they were no longer visible by the time I reached Rinim. Among the birch trees there, I set up a campsite on a flat area with firm, compact snow. It turned out to be a partly windy and very pleasant night southeast of Nammash.
The next day, I set off further north along a snowmobile track on the Sijddoädno River and came across the camp of the two skiers. In that area, there are several branches of the river that contain open water in some places and were also sometimes covered with a thin layer of ice. I decided to follow the snowmobile track on the River. After some time, and thus quite a way further on, there was apparently a rapids just before a bend, because there are noticeable differences in elevation in the river there, and there are quite a few larger and smaller boulders, and then there were sections with open flowing water. The snowmobile track led away from the river there and went up the bank on the east side, continuing through a birch forest that became steeper as I followed the track further. The track in the small wood seemed to have disappeared, and I arrived at a steep bank of a brook that appeared to be a tributary of the main river and was covered with enormous boulders, through which a smooth, safe passage seemed impossible. I returned to the main river via a loop, where, during a break, I saw the two skiers arriving. They were attempting to find a passage through the small wood on the east side themselves, but had to turn back as well. They would then continue northwards via a possible passage on the west side of the Muorjjenjunnje mountain range. I went back up the river myself and continued my journey northwards, but soon had to go up the bank on the west side due to open water to bypass this open way. I continued my way along the river, having to绕过 boulders, until a little further on I observed an extreme amount of open water, albeit from a distance—presumably where the river splits into a main and a tributary and the banks are very steep.
Due to the slow pace, partly time constraints, and especially my unfamiliarity with the route to be continued along the river to Lake Guordedluoppal and then towards Slugga and subsequently to Saltoluokta, I decided to cut my journey short here and return towards Stf Sitojaure to trek to Saltoluokta from there. Some time after I had started the return journey, I was overtaken by two very fast skiers on alpine touring skis, during which they managed to tell me during a brief stop that they had skied across the Sijddoädno river! The following day in the afternoon, during a trip with cutting gusts of wind and light snowfall, I was back in Stf Sitojaure.
Calazo has a new map scale 1:25000 Ähpár& Rapadalen
Kind regards, Guy
