Kebnekaise Climb August 2025 - SE 🇸🇪

Climbed Sweden's highest mountain with my girlfriend in August... although you wouldn't know it from the weather.

Approach was via the standard route from Nikkaluokta, and the Västraleden.

Aside from lugging monster 60 lb (30 kg) packs all the way to the Fjällstation camp area, and my men's pack I gave Mariam being ill-fitted for her and hurting her hip, the trek in for day 1 was uneventful.

Day 2 started off pleasantly enough, although her hip was still barking and slowed her down.

The route up to Vierranvárri was straightforward, and the weather was good, and we had a somewhat late lunch up near the summit (but not exactly on it, unfortunately), but figured we'd make it to the summit around 5 or 6, and then come back to come by moonlight.

Boy, were we in for a shock.

Around 4:30, 5ish, as we were trudging up the final slope toward the Kebnekaise Sydtoppen, clouds, and a squall coming in off the Arctic came down on us, and we ended up hitting the summit in total whiteout conditions with sideways rain.

Spent a night hunkered down in the Toppstugen, freezing, and trying not to succumb to hypothermia or auditory hallucinations. A lot of tea was drunk that night.

When daylight finally broke, we decided we had come this far, and we were only a hundred or so meters, maybe less, from the true top, so we figured What The H*ll, and roped up for safety, and went for it.

Conditions were still super windy and whiteoutey, but roped together, we staggered over to the glacier, cramponed up, and then picked our way across the ice to the final ice crag at the very top. Climbed directly up the gnarliest, steepest, most bulletproof ice I have ever climbed, and couldn't even stand on the top because of the 50+ mph winds blowing. Had to settle for tapping it with a hand before beating a hasty retreat and heading back down.

Took us a while to get back down, and it was still pretty wet and windy til we got back to the valley floor, but getting back to camp was nice.

Crashed at camp for a night, recharged devices at the Fjällstation, then stumped our way through the worst, wettest, rottenest weather I have ever hiked in back to the cabins a mile or two short of Nikkaluokta, and finally decided we'd had enough, and shelled out to stay in one of the [expensive] cabins available by the cafe. Best. Shower. EVER. That evening. Woulda been nice if they had provided towels, though.

Next morning we piled outta there and raced back to Nikkaluokta, grabbed a burger at the restaurant there, and then caught the bus back to Kiruna.

Talk about one for the books. Made the emergency bivy near a wildfire on Bacon Peak feel like a weekend at a Disneyland Resort. Even fully prepped for a multi-day North Cascades / Caucasus alpine climb wasn't enough for Kebnekaise. This mountain is a monster

Prepare accordingly

Also, Mariam might have been the first Georgian woman to ever summit Keb. At least, that's how it appears from our google searches and queries within the Georgian mountaineering community. So that's awesome!

Song: Heaven (Original Mix) - Wavetraxx & Dawnchaser

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