The tranquility and presence found on the hiking trail is difficult to find anywhere else. The silence coincides with the rippling of the river rapids and the song of the birds in the trees. Every step you take brings you a little closer to those mysterious mountains far away.
Idre Fjäll recommends hiring a guide to get a nice experience on the mountain without having to worry about the map or getting lost. If you don’t want to hire a guide, there are plenty of hikes that are suitable for beginners, many of them are marked and some even starts at the square. Ask the front desk staff to show you some trails.
Preferably don’t go on hikes on your own, and always tell someone who is still at home where you are planning on hiking and for how long you plan to be gone.
We recommend the map “Fjällkartan” in scale 1:50 000 for mountain hiking. It gives a good overview of creeks, height differences and trails but makes it easy to navigate as you get a good perspective over the terrain as a whole. You can buy “Fjällkartan” at Ica among other places.
The map “fjällkartan” is now also available as an app – perfect to plan your hike and to get a good overview. But remember that there is not always phone reception in the mountains and that your phone battery might discharge. Always bring a paper map with you.
3 kilometers/hour is considered normal hiking speed in terrain with a packed backpack. In that pace you will have enough time to enjoy the scenery and to take the occasional picture. You can, of course, hike both faster and slower. If you walk a lot uphill you have to calculate with more time, especially if you have a heavy backpack.
A full day’s hike is typically between 10 and 15 kilometers in one day, depending on experience, terrain and the amount of packing.
Here is a list of things that are good to bring during a days hike in the mountains:
Before going on a hike it’s important to make sure to have good shoes. Sore feet and blisters can ruin an entire hike and therefore it’s important to properly walk in the shoes before going on a hike. Start with walking in your hiking boots at home, then successively extend your walks until you have walked the same distance in them as your planned hike.
