Sarek National Park

Sarek National Park is number 5 on the map

Sarek National Park
IUCN Category II (National Park)
The mountain Pierikpakte in the Äpar massif
Location	Norrbotten County, Sweden
Coordinates	67°17′N 17°42′E
Area	1,970 km2 (760 sq mi)
Established	1909
Governing body	Naturvårdsverket

Sarek National Park (official name in Swedish: Sareks nationalpark) is a national park in Jokkmokk Municipality, in the province Lapland in northern Sweden. Sarek borders the national parks Stora Sjöfallet and Padjelanta. The national park is popular with hikers and mountaineers, but not suitable for beginners.

The national park is roughly circular with an average diameter of about 50 kilometers. The park has no marked trails, no accommodations, and only two bridges. Furthermore, the area is among the most rainy in Sweden, which makes hiking dependent on weather conditions. It is also not uncommon to encounter streams that are hard and dangerous to wade across without proper experience.

The Rapa River delta is considered one of Europe's prettiest, and the summit of mount Skierffe offers an overlook of this ice covered trough valley.

Most notably, the national park houses a number of high mountains of over 2,000 meters. In fact, 6 of Sweden's 13 peaks over 2,000 meters are located inside the boundaries of the national park. Among these is the second highest mountain in Sweden, Sarektjåkkå. Sometimes the massif of Mt. Ahkka, located just north from Sarek National Park, is also included to the geographical Sarek, which makes the number of 2,000 meter peaks inside the park 8 instead of 6. The park also houses around 200 peaks that reach 1,800 meters or higher. Due to the long walk up, the mountains are seldom climbed.

At 1,800 meters above sea-level lies the Pårte observatory, built in the early 1900s, because of the efforts of Axel Hamberg. The construction material had to be carried up on back.

There are around 100 glaciers in Sarek National Park. Together with a few other national parks in Sweden, Sarek National Park is the oldest national park in Europe (1909-1910).

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  The shores of lake Laitaure, with mountains Tjahkkelij (left) and Skierffe (centre).

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  People using skis to walk in deep snow

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  Sarek River Delta

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  Sunset in Sarek on a skiing trip

Place names

In Sarek National Park, as in the majority of Lapland, a large number of place names originate in the Sami languages. These languages have several variations and their written forms have changed over time, which explains how some placenames don't quite match up across different sources.

The most common Swedish placenames in the park are tjåkkå, where tjåkko means "mountain", vagge (valley), jåkkå or jåkko (stream), lako (plateau), ätno (river), for example the Rapa River or Rapaätno.

Jaure/jaur is also often used as a suffex to denote bodies of water (the Alkajaure and the Perikjaure are lakes in the park) and share a provenance with jávvrre (lake). Other variants are equally familiar across the region including the Finnish -järvi, eg Liermejávri is a little lake bordering the park's neighbouring Stora Sjöfalle.

Geography

Map of Sarek National Park, Padjelanta and Stora Sjöfallet

Location and borders

The Sarek National Park is situated in the commune of Jokkmokk, 50km from the Norwegian border in the county of Norbotten, and the extreme north of Sweden. It is also located north of the Arctic Circle.

The park covers 197,700 hectares (1,977 km²) and borders the national parks Padjelanta (to the west) and Stora Sjöfallet (to the north), covering a total area of around 5,500 kilometres (3,417.54 mi). There are also a lot of nature reserves very nearby.

Topography

The Piellorieppe mountain and the Rapadalen valley

The Sarek National Park is the most mountainous region of Sweden and in no other part of the country is it so easy to form an impression of Alpine countryside. In this park, 19 summits are greater than 1,900m, and in particular the 2nd tallest summit in Sweden after the Kebnekaise - the Sarektjåkkå reaches a height of 2,089m}. The lowest height of the park is found in the southwest, near Lake Rittakjaure, at 477m.

The park is formed from three types of relief, and sometimes they are difficult to tell apart: large valleys, massive mountains, and high plateaux. The biggest valley of the park, which is also the most famous, is Rapadalen. This valley takes up 40km of the park, including several branches, the most important of which are Sarvesvagge, which climbs as far as Padjelanta, Kuopervagge - taking up nearly 20km - and Ruotesvagge, surrounded by numerous glaciers, including those of Mount Sarektjåkkå. Among the other notable valleys not part of the Rapadalen network, Kukkesvagge forms the north-eastern frontier of the park, and Njåtsosvagge is situated near the southern border. The largest plateau is Ivarlako, to the west of the bulk of Pårte, with an altitude from 660m to 850m. To the west of Pårte, the plateau Luottolako covers an area of 45km and has an even higher altitude of between 1,200 and 1,400m. Finally, interspersed between the valleys and the plateaux, we find massive mountains, often with several summits: the principal ones are Sarektjåkkå (highest point: Stortoppen, 2 089 m), the Pårte (Pårtetjåkkå, 2 005 m), the Piellorieppe (Kåtokkaskatjåkkå, 1 978 m), the Ålkatj (Akkatjåkko, 1 974 m), the Äpar (1 914 m), the Skårki (1 842 m) and the Ruotes (1 804 m).

Relief image of the park from the southeast, with the Pårte and its glaciers in the front of the picture.

Climate

Sarek in winter

The climate of the park is particularly marked by its position on the border between the influence of the oceanic climate to the west and the continental climate to the east. The first is characterised by mild temperatures and a strong humidity, while the latter is marked by hot, dry summers and cold winters. This results in the park having large variations in climate throughout the year, and depending where you are the climate can be very unstable with unexpected changes. The park's large variations in latitude amplify these characteristics. As an indication, the records for the meteorological station near Ritsem is given below. The station is at 532 metres of altitude in the north of the park, on the far side of Lake Akkajaure. However, Sarek's precipiation is more important than that of Ritsem due to the topography, with a high annual average of 2000mm, compared to only 460mm in Ritsem. This quantity of precipitation is amoung the highest in the entire country.

The altitude greatly influences the temperature too. The average August temperature at 1,830m on Mount Pårektjåkko is -1°C but it's as high as 10°C in the valleys. During the day, the temperature gradient is around 1°C for every 100m of altitude.

The snow generally starts to fall during September.

Climate data for {{{location}}}
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Source: Institut suédois de météorologie et d'hydrologie (SMHI) ·

Hydrography

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The park's main river is the Rapaätno. It starts up in the glaciers of Sarektjåkkå then runs down the Rapadalen valley as far as Lake Laitaure, thus leaving the park. It rejoins the Lilla Luleälven river which eventually forms the Luleälven river at the confluence with the Stora Luleälven. This river is fed by thirty glaciers, which contribute to a significant flow: it is the specific flow, that is to say the ratio between the average flow and the drainage basin, the most important in Sweden. The flow fluctuates strongly by season, with an average of 100 m3⋅s-1 in July and around 4 m3⋅s-1 in winter, giving an annual average flow of around 30 m3⋅s-1. The Rapaätno also transports an important quantity of sediment: in one summers day, it can carry between 5,000 and 10,000 tons of sediment. This amount is only a few tons in winter, which giving a total of 180.000 tons over the whole year. The sediment explains the grey-green colour of the river and the formation of immense deltas. An important delta is formed at the confluence of the Rapaätno with its principal tributary, the river Sarvesjokk.

Just before the confluence, the river braids for nearly 10km, forming a zone called Rapaselet. The most famous of the deltas - truly an emblem of the park - is the Laitaure delta (Laitauredeltat), which the river forms as it runs into Lake Laitaure. The other important rivers correspond to the principal valleys listed above, mostly making up the drainage basin of Lille Luleälven. But the rivers in the north part of the park flow into Lake Akkajaure, in the Stora Sjöfallet National Park, hence forming part of the hydrographic network of Stora Luleälven.

The park also contains several lakes, often containing crystalline water. The principal is the Alkajaure (altitude 751m) on the border with Padjelanta park, and the Perikjaure (altitude 820m) near Stora Sjöfallet National Park. Other lakes before the glaciers and the ice of the glaciers stemmed their stream. Once the glaciers recede most of these lakes disappeared, but their traces are still visible.

Geology

Formation

Alkavagge, in Sarek Park. The Scandinavian Alps were made by an ancient plateau being strongly eroded

The Sarek National Park forms part of the Scandinavian Alps, reminiscient of the Caledonian Chain, the origin of the mountains of Scotland, Ireland, Greenland and Svalbard. The Caledonian orogeny was formed by the collision of the Laurentia and Baltica plates between 450 and 250 million years ago, with the disappearance by subduction of the Iapetus Ocean. This happened just before the formation of the chain and was caused by the appearance of a rift which finally led to the creation of the Atlantic Ocean. The chain, once split open, continued to erode until it formed a peneplain.

From around 60 million years ago, both the Scandinavian and the North-American sections suffered a tectonic uplift. The causes of this are unclear and several hypotheses have been proposed. One of the theories is the influence of the Iceland hotspot which could have raised the crust. Another hypothesis is the isostasy related to glaciations. In any of those cases, the uplift allowed the ancient chain to rise several thousand metres.

Erosion

The glacier Mikka on Sarektjåkkå

The erosion of the chain rejuvenated and was then subjected to a new period of glacial erosion. It was 15 million years ago, the Quaternary period was beginning and with it an important ice age. The glaciers began to grow and invade the valleys, then little by little they unified to form an ice sheet which completely covered the region. Several further glaciations then followed, forming the current landscape, with glacial valleys, cirques, nunataks etc.

The amount to which the chain submitted to the erosion depended strongly on the nature of the terrain, which explains the diversity in the topography. So the topography of Sarek, like that of Kebnekaise, is divided into strongly pronounced zones, in particular the two neighbouring national parks. This is mainly due to the existence of diabase and diorite dikes which were more resistant to erosion. Effectively, the park is divided into a swarm of dikes dating from 608 million years ago, which probably correspond to the first appearance of the rift during the formation of the Iapetus ocean. These dikes respresent intrusions into Sarektjåkkå nappe, composed of sediments probably deposited in the basin of the rift.

Glaciology

Pårte with its characteristic glaciers

The park consists of over 100 glaciers, which makes it one of the most important concentrations in the country. The glaciers are relatively small, with the largest being Pårtejekna in Pårte at 11 km2. However, some of the others are relatively large for Sweden, as the largest Swedish glacier is Stuorrajekna in Sulitelma (in the south of Padjelanta) measures a mere 13 km2.

Their evolution, in particular that of the glacier Mikka (8 km2) may have been studied since the end of the 19th Century, thanks to the work of Axel Hamberg, who dates from that century. The other glaciers have a similar evolution: between 1883 and 1895 they were mostly receding, then advanced a little between 1900 and 1916, then started another retreat. They then stabilised or grew, which is interpreted as being caused by the increase in winter precipitation related to global warming, compensating for the effect of the raised summer temperatures. The glaciers have retreated with a particularly rapid rhythm during the years of the 21st century.

Wildlife

According to its WWF classification, Sarek Park is situated in the Scandinavian Montane Birch forest and grasslands ecoregion, with a small part inside the Scandinavian and Russian taiga. It is not the richest site in the country nor the region in terms of flora and fauna. This is mainly explained by the fact that most of the park, with the exception of the south and south-east, is situated above the growth-limit of conifers, which is at an altitude of around 500m in that region. Similarly, unlike a large part of the region, Sarek Park has few vast lakes or swamps]. In total, around 380 species of vascular plants are found in the park, 182 species of vertebrates, 24 mammals, 142 birds, 2 reptiles, 2 amphibians and 12 fish. Among these species, many are on the red list of endangered species in Sweden, notably the large carnivores.

The vegetation follows a fairly strict altitudinal zonation, based on the climate, and implying a similar zonation of fauna, although this is often less strict.

Montane region

The montane zones are relatively rare in the park, as its upper limit is situated around 500m lower than the northern irelands. The flora of this zone is constituted by primary forests of conifers, principally the Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), but also has the Norway spruce (Picea abies). The pines can attain a great height, particularly those around Lake Rittak, in the south of the park. The undergrowth is mostly covered with mosses and lichens, in particular reindeer lichen, and also with Vaccinium myrtillus, Empetrum nigrum and cowberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea).

These forests are a privileged habitat for numerous species of animals. Among the large carnivores, the brown bear (Ursus arctos) is particularly frequent in the park and in the neighbouring Stora Sjöfallet. The bear also ventures into the subalpine region too fairly often. The Eurasian Lynx (Lynx lynx), classed as an endangered species in Sweden, is also found around the lakes of Rittak and Laitaure, but also goes to the subalpine forests of Rapadalen valley. The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is relatively frequent, and little by little is extending its territory towards the higher zones, so it competes with the Arctic fox, (Vulpes lagopus). In terms of small mammals, the pine marten (Martes martes), the least weasel (Mustela nivalis) and the stoat (Mustela erminea) are very frequent, but the ermine also lives easily on the higher regions too.

External links

• Sarek National Park from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
• Trekking Sarek National Park