We believe that this is the first time that this has been done continuously, on the basis that we couldn't find any record of it having been completed before. We did this as a mixed team of a female athlete and a male para-athlete. We hiked / skied the winter route of the Lapplandsleden trail from Saturday 31 Jan to the morning of Tuesday 3 Feb. Totally understanding that fastestknowntime.com looks at running and hiking routes, we're submitting this on the basis (I checked with Allison Mercer first, and she said to submit as an alternative route) that this would be considered a Winter route, and that touring skis facilitate the means of hiking the route, given that it is a marked but ungroomed backcountry route, as opposed to a pisted track or the like. We'd note that running this without skis in the Winter would be completely impossible due to the amount of snow on the ground. We'd love for you to consider this as an FKT on this basis, as otherwise there isn't anywhere else that this would be recorded or preserved, and it's a fantastic winter route which we feel would be great for others to try! Report in full below:
We left Hemavan on the morning of Saturday 31 Jan, in good weather conditions, on a well-marked route. The route included a mixture of snowmobile tracks and virgin snow, encompassing woodland, valleys, plateau and mountain tops as well as frozen lakes which were marked as part of the winter route as deviations from the summer. We planned three meetings with our support crew throughout the event; the first at Joesjö, around 30km in, the second at Gränssjö, after a total of 86km, where we slept for 4 hours, ate, and replenished water and food. The third stop was in Klimpfjäll, after a total of roughly 150km, where we again replenished food and water, slept for another 4 hours, and carried on to the finish at Borgafjäll.
We carried enough food with us for each leg, the longest of which was just over 20 hours, and enough water. We also took a stove and kettle with us so that we could melt snow for more water if we needed it, however we never needed to do so. The terrain conditions were extremely varied throughout the route, and we encountered everything from meters of virgin powder snow to wind-scoured ice and rock on the top of peaks. This meant that skis were essential to facilitate the hike. The route varied significantly from the Summer variant in order to reflect the terrain differences in Winter, and was superbly marked throughout, with marker posts and reflective stickers every hundred meters or so. The Winter route that we encountered differed significantly from that put down in the guidebook, but again, this was put down to environmental conditions on the ground, and we were prepared to encounter some variance - it meant that when we were navigating, the signposting was the first and most reliable means of doing so, with the GPS as a back up.
It was an incredible route, and extremely challenging both from the perspective of being a mixed team which included a para-athlete, where the conditions underfoot were not always easy, and also in terms of the sheer distance of each leg, sparsity of practical meeting points with the support crew, and fatigue management. An excellent route however, that we would strongly encourage others to try - we didn't see anyone else on the trail at all, throughout the whole of the three days we were out! A massive debt of thanks is owed to Toby, Jimmy, Jonah and Sam, who supported us throughout, and without whom this wouldn't have been possible.