Meeting day

We travel to Meloy, about 120 km South of Bodø, where we stay for the night in several rooms. We eat dinner together and talk about the days ahead of us. This day we will go trough your equipment / paperwork and make sure you are ready for the expedition. We pack everything in cars and we are all set for the big adventure ahead of us!

Fykan – Gråtadalen

We start early and enter Láhko National Park during the day. You can glimpse Svartisen, Norway’s second largest glacier, with its nunataks during the day. Then we climb up Skavldaln approximately 922 meters above sea level. We continue our way we ride down into Gråtådalen walley, a giant valley dominated by the stunning view of Skjelåtinden summit. This is the biggest summit of Meløy kommune as well as Beiarn. h side. We have now entered Saltfjellet-Svartisen National Park, Norway’s second largest national park with it’s 2102 square kilometers.  Somewhere around here will be our camp spot for the night.

Gråtådalen – Tverrådalen

Gråtådalen is a beautiful valley immersed in wilderness. We move slowly upwards until we reach the ridge of the next mountain, from where we can see all the Saltfjellet mountains in the East, close to the Swedish border. We follow the ridge until we get to a steep path down the mountainside. If it’s icy, this is the spot we will use our climbing harness and ropes. Perhaps we will need to lower our sledges and our self down this mountainside. Once we are down, we will enter a pine forest by Beiarelva that stretches all the way throughout Tverrådalen. We will follow Tverråga for a while and look for a suitable camp spot for the night.

Tverrådalen – Søre Bjøllåvatnet

This is the longest part of the trip. If it’s not to much heavy snow, we will cross several tufts, silent reminders of old mountain farms in the days gone by. When we come down to Tollådalen, we head for Bukkhaugbua, owned by the State Forests Authority, which marks about the halfway of the day’s stage. If it’s not frozen in, then about 3 km from the hut, there is an impressive Bukkhaugfossen waterfall, which can be heard long before we even get to admire it. Next we will do a little turn from the old track, we will avoid Stallogropa, the old portal into Saltfjellet. There are som cute nesting birds here that we will leave alone. Our camp target for the day are Søre Bjøllåvatnet.

Søre Bjøllåvatnet – Kjemåvatnet

We start the day by climbing our way up to Steindalen. In summertime this is the trickiest part of the trip, but in wintertime, everything is different and it all comes down to how much snow it is. Once we are up in Steindalen the wind tends to blow pretty strongly here. It hits us from all directions as we fight our way trough the walley. We pass Lønnstindvatnet lake and we continue our way down towards Kjemåvatnet, somewhere here will be our camp spot for the night.

Kjemåvatnet – Sverige

We pass E6 and enter the Dypen naturereserve with it’s lovely birch and pinewood, this is the last push on our incredible journey. We have to cross some lakes and we will climb over Litlefjellet and make our way down to Graddis Fjellstue. Here is pickup, we will travel by car back to Saltfjell hotel Polarcircle for a well deserved dinner!

At Beyondlimits, we always focus on safety during our trips. The trip doesn’t follow a permanent trail, and is led by an experienced and knowledgeable local guide. We provide tents, stoves, first aid kit, navigational aids, and safety equipment. There is no cellphone coverage during the trip, but we bring emergency beacon and a device for communication.

You need to wear clothes that are suitable for the North Norwegian mountains. You have to bring sleeping bag. Once signed up, you will receive the equipment list that explain all the details needed about equipment.