Walking Lapporten “The idea was that we’d come up here, in the midnight sun, and we’d rig a highline between the two mountains. It is with a mixture of horror and delight that I imagined myself being out there, alone.” (David Sjöström)
By Paula Hammond
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Images from the film Lapporten Skyline, showing in the Banff Mountain Film Festival Tour.
Known to the northern Sami people as Čuonjávággi, meaning Goose Valley, the u-shaped mountain pass that forms the gateway into Swedish Lapland, is perhaps one of the region’s most iconic sights. More popularly called the Lapporten Gate, this area of staggering natural beauty has it all: epic skies, moody weather, and brutally big mountains.
with my wife and three kids. When my middle daughter was four, I realised that I needed to be more physically active. So, I found a slackline … and that really married with my previous interests in yoga and meditation very well. It became the perfect activity for me and I became very passionate — sometimes obsessive — about it,” says Sjöström.
takes that and suspends the webbing across canyons and between mountain tops. It’s not unusual for highliners to cross lines that are hundreds of metres high, but Sjöström’s idea of walking across the Lapporten gap meant constructing a 2,130 kilometre-long line, suspended 600 metres in the air.
It’s an area that has been on Swede David Sjöström’s radar for years, thanks to his intriguing hobby — highlining. “I live
Slacklining involves walking along a length of flat webbing suspended between two anchor points. Highlining
The attempt was to be filmed by fellow Swede, Emil Sergel, whose documentary, Lapporten Skyline, followed the
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Issue 161
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December 2023
A record-breaking feat