i’ll break you like a promise

When I decided at some point in 2011 that in the end of the year I will go skiing in Finnish Lapland I didn’t have to think long to choose the neighborhood of Halti as a destination. The only problem is the looong distance one has to travel to get to Kilpisjärvi. After considering the cost for a solo trip I started hinting people I thought that would like the trip. In the end most of the group formed from my two previous trips in 2010 and 2011 when we conquered the 40 highest peaks of Southern-Estonia. Some wives were brought along and my friend from a trip to Corsica. Had to rent a bus and on 27th of December we were on a ferry crossing the Finnish Gulf to start a drive through Finland. Driving those 1200+ km took 16 hours. When we left Estonia there was no snow and the same was in Helsinki. fortunately the snow-map showed the there should be at least 10cm on snow near Kilpis. So that was what we hoped for.

We arrived at the visitors center at 6am, heated some soup, packed things and off we went. The first waypoint was Saarijärvi hut. It took about 3 hours to cover the 14km. Considering that none of us had been on skis this winter and there wasn’t much snow to ski on, it was a pretty good speed. At the hut we discovered that one of us had lost his mobile phone  and while others rested we went back for about 6km to find it. For us that meant an extra 2,5 hours of walking in the snow as we thought that it would be easier without skiis. Afterthought is that we were wrong.

just warming up

I planned to reach another hut that day. It was about 10 km away and the path went over a hill. As the two of us didn’t get any rest we waited for an hour and then followed in the quickly darkening evening. An hours os so later we found the rest of the group quite lost on the top of the mountain. It had started to snow again, bu we managed to find a easy enough slope down to a valley. Skiing in the dark with headtorches is quite fun provided you have some skill. Some had more fun than others.

From there onwards it was easy going for about 30 minutes ’till we reached the Kuonarjoki hut. The huts in Finland basic, but superb. Fully supplied with a gas stove, wood stove and fuel for both and pots for cooking – hiker only needs to bring his own food. On occasions we found provisions left by previous visitors. In about an hours the place is warm enough to walk around in your long underwear. Everybody is tired from the long day and soon after dinner dozes off. Distance covered for the day is about 24km. Two of us made the extra 13 to recover the lost phone. It’s wise to keep a small fire or coals going through the night ’cause night could get cold.

Next morning we continued with only 5 of us, ’cause two preferred to hang out in the hut. Start was tricky ’cause we had snow and headwind and waymarkers were difficult to find. Fortunately we only had to us the compass bearing for an hour or so and by then we had enough light to find the actual markers. As we were constantly descending the going was easy ’till we reached Meekonjärvi huts. Some slopes proved to be pleasantly steep for our skis and I crashed at least twice, but that’s to be expected.

ascending from Meekonjärvi

Leaving Meekonjärvi after a quick snack and warm tea we followed the river upstream. It was easy going when we were bold enough to ski on ice, but as the riverbed narrowed we decided to go to shore to avoid anybody falling through the ice. There was plenty of snow in that valley and our wide skis were of good use. At some point we had to make a tricky river crossin where I went on point whacking with my ski pole to check if the ice is thick enough, because you could hear the river flowing beneath. Everybody got across safely. After some climbing we were following a gorge that led to Pitsusjärvi. After getting over a reindeer fence we saw a Porokämppa or herders camp, which seemed to be empty at the moment. Last part of the day was again over the ice – easy, but at is got dark again navigation got trickier. Still soon we saw the hut and a beacon of light from the window. Someone was working heavily on the wood-stove as sparks were constantly flying through the chimney. It was 4pm and we had covered over 20km.

Inside we found David from Czech living in Norway. He had ascended to Halti during the day, but couldn’t find the exact spot even with a GPS, because of the low visibility. As he had visited the area several times I got some useful information from him about the place and I was also reassured that narrower touring skis with Rottafella type bindings give you enough control over skis. I felt lacking that control during the day with my Swedish army model skis. Although we had a long day most of us stayed up quite late to talk and share experience.

Next morning we had to face headwinds and snow again on our way back, but this time passing familiar terrain. When we had descended to Voumakasjärvi we decided to follow the norther bank of the river not the southern like we did the previous day. That proved to be quite a challenge, ’cause there were several side-streams which were not frozen and on few occasions we had to backtrack to avoid thin ice. Eventually we had to take the skis off and cross a stream using rocks. Crossing the main stream a bit later was done very carefully, with me probing ahead. A bit later I witnessed chunks of ice falling to the stream right under my skis. We returned to dry land after that and soon reached Meekonjärvi huts again. From there on-wards was a very long ascent back to Kuonjarjoki hut. The main ascent was actually quite easy, but when the terrain eased and anticipation grew and everything around you was white with occasional dark spots in indistinguishable distance people started to see reindeer and snowmobiles and god know what that weren’t actually there. I got a minor headache from staring at the whiteness around me, trying to find the next markers.  Reaching the hut was a relief. While we had a rest, others packed and about 3pm we were on the move again.

As the day was already darkening we used tracks made by Jośe. He is a brazilian hiker, working in an Arctic Ice Bar in Honningsvag. Currently he is on a ski trip with his Alaskan malamute. Started from Murmansk on a bike, but changed to skis some time later. Dog hauls a quite massive sledge when he wants. That doesn’t happen always though. Most of the sleighs weight is made up by dogfood, but that doesn’t obviously rise his spirit. We had heard about Jośe from David and part of the group who stayed in Kuonarjoki got to now the pair more. So we were on and off their tracks, ’cause wind had covered some of them and occasionally we made different road choices. After about 2 hours of going we started to descend and our path led us through a gorge with massive amounts of snow in it. It was exceptionally cool in the dark, because during the day it would have been just very white, but illuminated by our headlights it became one of the highlights for me. After getting through we reached a specific landmark and learned that we had veered off-course. Fortunately a fence we use to navigate from that point led us right to a bridge next to Saarijärvi hut. Jośe was already there and had warmed up the place a bit. The malamute was massive. Huge head and paws. The instant I saw it I thought that this is what the direwolves in Game of Thrones series should look like – not those dogs with their tails up high.  Rest of the night went as usual – preparing dinner, chatting, resting and making plans for the next day. To my disappointment the group fell apart again as some decided to head straight to Kilpisjärvi for a beer. I didn’t understand that at all. The rest of us, same group that reached Pitsusjärvi decided to head for Saanajärvi hut and with the weather permitting climb Saana also. The distance for the day was over 30km and almost 9 hours of skiing.

in Saarijärvi hut

Next morning greeted us again with fierce wind and we waited for about an hour to start. It eased up a bit and we started with the red light of a antennae on the top of Saana as a beacon. Over the lakes we passed on the first day and in about 1,5 hours we reached Saanajärvi, but still had the 2km to cover to the hut. In there we had a snack stashed our gear and started to climb Saana.

Saanajärvi hut, lake and hill

Going at first to the westernmost end of the hill seemed pointless although the map showed a gentler slope. Instead we pointed our skis in the general direction of the top and pushed on as the terrain allowed, searching places with more snow and less rock. We had to climb about 300m total and that took about 1,5 hours. Wind on the top was strong so we didn’t wait for too long. To our fortune the weather had stayed clear and we could see the mountains that were probably quite close to the sea. Halti direction was still clouded.

conquest of Saana

a little more

those who made it

Then we started going down. Now this would have been the absolute highlite of the hike if there were about 100cm of more snow. Now we had to a bit more careful when choosing our route, but that didn’t stop us descending like devil past some other visitors who probably looked at us with some horrified amazement. Some of us were bolder and we tried to find a route that was comfortable for everyone. Don’t get me wrong – our descent didn’t look like anything you see in those fancy powder and off-piste videos, ’cause our path  wasn’t anything like that. It would have been as decent beginners off-piste track with appropriate gear. Still everybody got down safely and we were back in the hut before dark.

descending from Saana

A quick dinner and warming up the place and time went by. Everyone managed a little bit of rest before 2012 arrived and after watching the people in Kilpisjärvi shooting fireworks for an hour before and after midnight we started our last part of skiing. The village gave some illumination and it wasn’t as dark and we made the last 5km in over an hour ending with a long and twisting descent to the parking lot where out bus waited. The skiing was done. And the rest was a pretty boring ride through Finland.

Some words about gear.

I used wooden Finnish army skis with their original bindings. Skis are great for deep snow, ’cause they are wide, but not so good for dashing down the slopes. They don’t have metal edges to provide traction on hard packed snow and bindings aren’t suitable for aggressive turning. Still they proved suitable enough for this trip, but I’m seriously considering getting something better. Samelin hiking boots were used with skis.

For clothing I had my Odlo warm base-layer, Craft mid-layer and Hannah skiing trousers and ISC jacket. For colder times I packed also my Hannah fleece, which proved useful when the hut hadn’t warmed up yet. Fleece buff to cover my head and thick mittens for hands. I had also very thin gloves, but didn’t need them.

For sleeping Multimat Adventure foam mat and Golite RS1+ quilt. Latter was quite enough for the warm huts. Packed everything into GoLite Pinnacle.  Everything except the skis and poles weighing a bit over 8kg. Plenty of room until the massive amount of food was added.  I think that food added about 5kg at least, ’cause there was some heavy tinned meat and minced meat. But the weight went down as we replaced the burned calories. Considering the gear I brought it was pretty minimal and as we slept in warm huts provided with cooking gear we could cut our weight quite a lot.

view to Saanajärvi

So despite lack of snow (in Lapland standards) it was a great hike and I already have plans for coming years.