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Riksgränsens toppbok och toppmärken från 1943. Foto: Lars Thulin

New Summer Experience!

Summit Hiking EXPERIENCE 2024

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND & ACHIEVEMENT

Hiking has been a longstanding tradition in Riksgränsen. In 1943, three recurring guests at Riksgränsen established the Riksgränsen summit badge. The badge aimed to welcome all true mountain enthusiasts to sportingly excellent, interesting, and thrilling ski journeys, providing diverse opportunities to acquire the skills of skilled, enduring mountain skiers and mountaineers. Only one summit per hike counts, in accordance with the original rules from 1943, and you can collect your summits during unlimited years. When you have summited five different peaks, the badge is awarded at a ceremony at the summit.

Join us for an unforgettable hiking experience amidst the landscapes of northern Lapland. Discover the rich tradition of hiking in the region and earn Niehku's prestigious 5-summit badge by conquering five summits over 1300 metres or with a vertical drop of at least 800 metres, summer or wintertime.  To take part you need to be physically prepared for two long day hikes, 6-8 hours/day, with vertical drops up to 1100 metres. The terrain can be partly steep and rocky but will not include technical climbing; however, it will offer breathtaking views.

Annie Hesselstad
nobel-dessert-annie-hesselstad-niehku

NIEHKU'S HEAD PASTRY CHEF IS NOBEL'S HEAD PASTRY CHEF!

It is official! Our colleague Annie Hesselstad, Niehku Mountain Villa head pastry chef, has once again been entrusted with the prestigious task of Nobel Pastry Chef, responsible for the dessert for the Nobel Banquet, celebrating the Nobel Prize in Blå Hallen in Stockholm on December 10. We are so proud of Annie and are looking forward to another winter with fantastic desserts and pastries at Niehku Mountain Villa!

What the guests will be served at the Nobel Banquet cannot be revealed until they are seated on December 10. However, Annie can disclose a couple of ingredients, one of which is lingonberries! "At Niehku, we have used lingonberries from Mockträsk outside Boden, and they are absolutely unbeatable! So now we have 55 kg of lingonberries from Norrbotten for the Nobel Banquet, which is very exciting. I have already spoken to our head chef Ragnar Martinsson to make a simplified version of the Nobel dessert at Niehku""

How did a recognised Nobel confectioner end up 200 km north of the Arctic Circle? "I was asked to work at Niehku Mountain Villa by my friend Thomas Eidefors (operations manager at Niehku). I was definitely a bit hesitant as it is quite far away... But the second I stepped in to the lodge, I was hooked. The environment - both outside and inside, the people, the atmosphere, and the calm. Working here is the best decision I've made in a long time!".

Annie revealed, who nowadays is almost obsessed with fishing in the mountain lakes around Niehku and has become an avid skier. We are all very excited to welcome Annie back this winter and experience a Niehku version of the Nobel banquet dessert!