A hiker has described squalid conditions at a mountain station at the foot of Kebnekaise, Sweden’s highest peak, in the days before it was forced to close due to a stomach bug outbreak.
STF Kebnekaise, a lodge in northern Lapland run by the Swedish tourist association, had to be evacuated on Sunday after attempts to manage cases of stomach sickness through quarantine had failed. The mountain station said on Sunday that it was not known how the outbreak had started.
Johanna Murray, a spokesperson for the Swedish tourist association, confirmed that a landslide had broken a pump station earlier in the summer and since then, the station had been providing portable toilets, which had to be airlifted regularly to be emptied, and outhouses.
A Danish guest, Karina Brock Wilhelm, 51, who stayed at the mountain station on Wednesday and Thursday night, said she believed the outbreak had been caused by the poor toilet facilities.
“There were 300-400 people up there, you had to stand in line 30 minutes to an hour to go to the toilet and then there was only one sink to wash hands,” she told the Guardian. “People would skip the handwashing because you had to stand in line for that, and people were using that to brush their teeth.”
There were portable toilets, she said, but these were “disgusting” and had to be flown by helicopter to be emptied because they were so full.
On Sunday hikers formed long queues to be airlifted out by helicopter to the village of Nikkaluokta, about 70km (45 miles) west of Kiruna. The helicopter operator, Kallax Flyg, said it transported about 150 people in one day.
Three people reportedly became sick on their way to the top of the 2,096-metre mountain and had to be picked up by mountain rescue.
On Thursday afternoon, days before the station closed, Brock Wilhelm met a hiker whose entire party had come down with stomach problems. The outdoor shop store manager from Copenhagen, whose trip had been cut short by a leg injury, said she and her boyfriend had been relieved to leave on Friday morning and avoid the bug.
“We were aware that we had to be really careful when we went to the toilet and wash our hands, and we had our own food,” she said.
The mountain station has said it will try to reopen on Thursday after it has been sanitised. Several mountain huts have also been closed for new bookings and drop-in visits, potentially leaving some hikers without accommodation.
Signs have been put up urging hikers not to visit the station and everyone in the area is advised to be extra cautious with hygiene – washing hands thoroughly after using the toilet and walking “at least 100 metres from the trail or watercourse to relieve yourself, dig a pit, and cover up”.
Murray described claims about the state of the camp as “heavily exaggerated”.
There were usually 200 guests “at most” at the accommodation, she said, adding that the number of open portable toilets and outhouses had “varied during these days” as they were shut down when guests became sick and new toilets were flown up.
While she said there had been some queues for the toilets, they were “much shorter” than 30 minutes to one hour, and there were “several sinks and washing stations”. In total about 15 guests had reported to the tourist association that they were sick in the past week, Murray said. “We closed the mountain stations yesterday [Sunday] at noon and now only personnel are left. Yesterday we had two guests too sick to leave but they left today.”
They did not know how the outbreak had happened, Murray said, but it was “aggressive and highly contagious”. She added: “We are in close contact with the municipality and local health authorities to find the cause and do everything we can to stop it.”
