How to get there:
This mountain is located near, but south of Narvik. Narvik is
the city north in Nordland near the fjord where Norway has its
smallest distance from sea to the Swedish border (less than 10 kilometer).
Go south on Hwy. E-6 from Narvik. After passing Fagernes and Ankenes, you get to
Håkvik. In the southern part of Håkvik, turn left on the road that
heads up into Håkvikdalen. This road first climbs to the lake Silvatnet.
Continue a short section further to the lake Nervatnet (221m). Immediately (actually before you
see the lake)
before you turn left onto a new bridge, there is parking for 3-4 cars on your
right. This is the trailhead, elevation 223 meter, location N68:22.591, E017:22.702. Route description:
From the trailhead, a small trail leads in among the trees and down to
the lake. It immediately forks, the right branch serving a hut slightly
uphill. Continue along the left fork as this trail follows the lake south
to its south-west corner. Here, there is another hut and the trail
climbs gently from the lake and passes this hut on the left side. The trail
continues in the same general direction across a small creek that drains the
meadow above. From here on, the trail is quite distinct as it climbs the hill
among trees, then near a creek before gradually coming out above treeline in
a small valley extending upwards. You now see the peak slightly left with
the characteristic subpeak Litltind right in front. Here the trail forks, with the
left fork going to the small, nearby lake Pappartuvvatnet. On many maps, the trail
continues uphill on the west side of Litletind, however, the trail becomes hard to
follow and this is not the best route. Take the left fork and continue towards the
peak on the right side of the small Pappartuvvatnet lake. Follow a broad, gentle ridge
as it heads higher into the basin. There is no trail here, but the terrain is easy.
Looking ahead, the ridge from the peak runs down to a saddle before it climbs to the
Litletind subpeak. Below the lowest point in this saddle, there are some sections
of steep rock. However further to the left (nearer the main peak) you will see a slope
climbing with no difficult sections. Looking closer at the horizon ridge, there is a small
hump on it and the best route should ascend the slope in order to intersect the ridgeline
immediately to the left of this hump. Ascend this slope, it is not as steep as it may look
and the ground is easy with few rocks. As you get higher, you may naturally follow the
terrain a bit to your right in order to find the best line to the small hump on the
horizon ridge. In this way you gain the main ridge substantially higher than its lowest
saddle and you are never close to any steep rock.
After gaining the main ridge, continue uphill towards the peak gaining more elevation.
Locate a quite distinct cairn seemingly quite far off to your right as you face uphill
and do a gentle uphill traverse to this cairn. In case of poor visibility, this cairn is
located at 1205 meter elevation with coordinates N68:20.927, E017:20.262. That is, do not
continue uphill along the ridge above 1150 meter, but aim directly for this cairn.
This cairn marks the beginning of the upper part of the trail. The trail is marked with
more (smaller) cairns as well as some red paint (mainly arrows) on the rocks. The trail first
continues an ascending traverse, then heads more uphill below the north-west summit (on the left)
and the valley north of Kongsbakktinden (below on your right). There is a short section crossing
some rather large boulders, otherwise the trail becomes quite well defined higher up as it approaches
the saddle between the two summits.
This broad and nice saddle has elevation 1530 meter and location N68:20.659, E017:21.108. Hike up
until you see Narvik below to the north. The main summit is 1575 meter to your right, that is the
south-east summit. The marked trail continues very gently to a rather big summit
plateau with a nicely built summit cairn. There is a summit register hidden in the cairn.
The first part of the route to this summit is YDS class 1 (to the small lake), then YDS
class 2.
In order to climb the lower, but more rocky north-west summit, descend back to the saddle then traverse
on the left side (west) of the first part of the ridge. Steeper, broken rock is above you. Ascend up to
a pretty obvious corner. From here two variations will get you up a short, steep section. Either go all
the way into the corner and find a narrow ledge with overhanging rock that runs horizontally to your left.
Crawl along this ledge until you emerge around a corner. This passage is somewhat narrow, but fine for
people without a big backpack. Alternatively, climb directly to the same corner on good (large) steps of
rock. This is the crux of the climb, scramble up on good rock to the summit ridge. The difficulty of
this section is YDS class 3 (easy climbing).
There are several cairns marking good viewpoints along the steep north side. The highest cairn is
at elevation 1558 meter, location N68:20.713, E017:20.953. Comments:
I did this hike with Edward Earl (Esquared). We had just made a pretty good
attempt on Store Lenangstind, however without attaining the summit. Our next
scheduled climb was Kebnekaise in Sweden. We had at least partially dried up
in Nordkjosbotn the previous night and had now moved to Narvik "en route"
to Kiruna. The weather cleared and only got better and better. Too bad to leave
Norway without a single peak (especially for Edward). I suggested we try an
evening hike of the Sovande Dronning (Sleeping Queen), a pretty famous local
mountain.
We started from the trailhead at 1600, made the West Summit at 1920, the East (main)
summit at 1940. We took pictures and admired the good views for another 20 minutes. Departed at
2000, took the proper way directly down from the saddle to the lake (see the description above) and
were back at the car at 2220. A very nice hike in good weather.
We were now ready for a good
night of sleep before the program of tomorrow: Drive
to Kiruna, pick up Fora Chan at the airport and proceed to the mountain hut at the
base of Kebnekaise.