Food planning for the Kungsleden

Daily breakfast - 58g / 205 calories

x1 Porridge oats (50g / 175 calories)

x1 Sugar (8g / 30 calories)

I purchased porridge and zip bags and created my own daily packs with sugar included. Next time I will also source some powdered milk to include a spoonful in each pack.

Daily evening meal - 200g / 600 calories

x1 Adventure meal (200g dry pack weight / 600 calories)

To keep my flights luggage weight to a minimum, and to avoid any issues with taking dairy/meat products into the EU from the UK, I ordered my adventure meals on-line from Alewalds (https://www.alewalds.se/webshop/uteliv-resa/kok-kak/mat-och-dryck.html) and collected at their store. The service was exceptionally good, and the store is easy to find along the Kungsgartan in the centre of Stockholm.

Hot Drinks - 36g /112 calories

x1 O'boy Hot Chocolate Sachet (28g / 102 calories)

x4 Fruit tea or Green tea sachets (2g / 2.45 calories per sachet)

Total daily meals - 441g dry weight / 917 calories

5 day ration parcel - 2.2kg plus additional treats/painkillers

My weekly ration parcels each came to approximately 3kg including box and wrapping paper.

How does this compare to the recommended daily intake for backpacking?

There are many websites that calculate the calorie requirement using various calculations, based on factors including type of food, severity of hike, body weight and pack weight. In principle, the general message was to consume approximately 1.5 to 2 times the calories you usually consume per day. Calculating higher calories when in low temperatures, and vice versa. Additional calories can be compensated with snacks. As space in the backpack is at a premium, make sure all food items have a dense nutritional value and are work their weight and space.

As a simple rule of thumb, try to aim for between 3,000 - 5,000 calories person/day. However, if you are doing a through-hike, it may not be practical to carry sufficient meals and snacks to meet this level of intake, due to space and weight availability within your backpack.

Depending on what time of year you are planning to walk the Kungsleden, and what part of the Kungsleden you are hiking, you may be able to purchase food at the huts on the route. Please note that you may find very little or no food available at many of the huts if you are hiking around the end of the season (during September), as the huts start to deplete their stocks before closing.

When hiking between Abisko and Saltolukta at the end of August, I found that most huts had some drinks, snacks and occasional packets of noodles, but little or no dehydrated adventure meals.

Carrying a month's supply of meals is not practical, so I needed to find a more practical way of managing my food supplies. Researching on the internet it became apparent that the most effective way was to create ration packs and post via Bussgods postal service in Stockholm, to 4 locations along the Kungsleden.

The details are shown below:

1. Saltoluokta fjällstation, Saltoluokta 1, 98299 Gällevare / phone: 0973-410 10

2. Kvikkjokk fjällstation, Storvägen 19, 96202 Kvikkjokk / phone: 0971-210 22

3. ICA/Handlaren in Jäckvik, Byavägen 10, 93895 Jäckvik / phone: +46 11 28 00 00

4. Ammarnäs Livs, Strandvägen 7, 92495 Ammarnäs / phone: 0952 – 600 07

To arrange for the delivery, go to the bussgods website and complete a label for each food parcel, addressing the packages to these addressed with your name and expected arrival date on the package. For the stores, put C/O as the store while keeping your name up top. You will be charged for the delivery through the website. Once completed, drop the packages off at the nearest bussgods depot.

Note: For the two last ones, the fjällstationer, you have to send the packages with last-mile delivery, i.e. delivery to the door of the recipient and not “ombud”/pick-up point. Because while the stores are pick-up points, the fjällstationer are not and they will, quite reasonably, not drive for hours to pick up your package.

If you are hiking north to south, it is advisable to your Saltoluokta food parcel to the fjällstation at least two weeks prior to arriving there, otherwise you risk the chance of you passing through before your parcel arrives. This happened to me. Fortunately, the shop in the fjällstation had enough supplies in store for me to put a week's worth of meals together.

Another thing to bear in mind is that the prices in the fjällstations and any small stores are significantly inflated to cover the costs of logistics. Therefore, I do recommend creating and posting your own parcels.

I cannot express how comforting it is to arrive at a collection point on the trail, tired and hungry, and to open your parcel, so be sure to include a couple of really nice treats in the parcel. You will thank yourself afterwards.

Additional Note: I included one strip of painkiller tablets within each ration parcel. In reflection I should have included a full box of painkillers in each, enough for a week's supply. You never know what your condition will be during the adventure along the Kungsleden, and it is always worth erring on the side of caution.