Finland
To do a cross-country skiing tour from hut to hut in a fairytale landscape of Lapland has always been a dream of mine. Despite minus 25°C temperatures, cold wind and rather basic conditions, I fell in love with this country: its very friendly people, great food, beautiful nature, amazing light, superb saunas and, of course, these amazing Northern lights.
Read also my post on Happiness Lessons from Finland.
Highlights:
1. Winter wonderland – beautiful nature: never ending forests – firs, pines and other trees covered with snow (kind of funny snow hats), lakes (frozen of course 🙂) and snow patterns, silence, pure wilderness.
2. Very nice, friendly people: This is particular true in Lapland as there are less people and a tough climate, so people need to be closer together to survive. They are very down-to-earth people who love nature and simple things. Somehow, I really like such people: honest and sincerely nice.
3. Healthy, natural, locally sourced, very good food (and lots of it): exactly what you need after 30km cross-country skiing. Usually I had rice porridge, yogurt and a cinnamon roll for breakfast, some cheese and ham sausages for a packed lunch – warmed on a fireplace in a wilderness hut – and a hearty, tasty three-course supper with reindeer, salmon, pasta with mushrooms, etc.
4. Saunas and rolling in the snow to cool down: Finns do not always fall into the snow – sometimes they jump through a hole in the frozen lake (even when it’s minus 25 degrees outside!). For the experience they wear nothing but wool socks. In general, wool socks are the preferred footwear at all times when at home. It took me all my courage to roll in the snow – I only did it on my last night – twice! Burning! But afterwards it was a very nice feeling (like being reborn). It’s easier to fall on your back (and then do a crocodile turn onto your front 🙂). However, you need to be careful with really deep snow – I could not stand up for some seconds as the snow was too deep and that was a shock…🙂
5. Northern lights (aurora borealis): I think it’s the most impressive show that nature can come up with. The lights are constantly changing in all kind of weird shapes and colour intensity. Amazing – I could not stop watching. The lights are mostly green, but can also be violet, red, pink and white. It can last the whole night, if you’re really lucky, fading a bit and then reappearing.
6. Light and colours: I never saw such vivid colours. Sunrises and sunsets are amazing. Sometimes during the day, the sky can be violet, red, pink, blue, etc. Now I understand what vanilla sky means. Think of the beautiful pink and violet pastel colours of Monet paintings…In Lapland you get to see them for real. If you love photography, you will be impressed by this light. I heard that it is even more amazing in early February or during Christmas/New Year, but then it’s much colder… . It’s also darker, although the Finns say that even during polar nights it’s never really dark – the moonlight is very strong and the amazing northern lights brighten your world in more than one way.
7. Cross-country skiing: I never did off-piste skiing or downhill cross-country skiing so this was a real adventure. Sometimes it was challenging but I always felt protected and taken care of by our very good guides. The smile did not leave my face throughout the whole day 🙂 And it’s not because of the freezing wind 🙂 I just loved it! What I liked most was to go first, and see the never-ending wilderness in front of me and all around me, hearing just the sound of my skis on snow and occasionally some birds chirping – spring was certainly in the air…
8. Cosy wooden wilderness huts in the forest: exactly like pictures taken straight from the pages of fairy tales. It’s so nice to step inside, get a fire going in the fireplace, warm your sandwiches on the fire (or grill some sausages), have some coffee (of course 🙂 and warm up before continuing your exploration of nature.
9. Handmade products: I got a lot of souvenirs for me and my friends (see below for more details).
Practicalities:
Lapland, Finland, is a popular destination in winter (moreso than in summer) due to sports such as husky sledging and ice fishing. However, I can really recommend cross-country skiing. I did a one-week skiing trip in Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park. It’s a rather hilly area in a beautiful big national park. We were skiing approximately 25-35km per day, which is rather tough as you do a 400-500m elevation gain as well, and go a lot off-slope. Fortunately, the pace is rather slow so anyone who has skied a little before and is fit can do it (my group ranged from 30 to 65 years of age).
March is the best time, as it gets a bit warmer. Still, on four days out of our seven-day trip the temperature was below minus 20°C. The last two days we even experienced a ‘winter-summer’ temperature of 0 degrees C!
Flight: There was a direct charter flight with Kontiki from Zurich to Kittilä (Lapland). It took us about 4 hours to get there. It’s a rather expensive flight, and next time I would fly through Helsinki. As always, leave enough transfer time between connecting flights to make sure your luggage makes the flight as well.
Have a strong ski bag for ski transfer (and pack the skis in bubble wrap). Take classic (not skating) skis because if you go off slope or there is a lot of fresh snow, you cannot skate.
I was fortunate to have a really good, friendly group (German, French and Swiss) and nice guides that all helped to enhance the experience.
Ideas for what to buy in Lapland:
Finnish knife with a wooden holder and reindeer bone handle, handmade – Finns use these for everything from cutting wood to cooking. Knives can be for specific tasks: one for hunting, one for mushrooms, etc.)
Wooden cup - Finns always drink from a wooden cup when hiking and never wash it with soap. Simply clean it with used wet coffee grounds. Don’t keep tea or coffee more than 30 minutes in the cup. Wipe with paper after use. After just one year of usage, it’s finally ready. 🙂 These cups are made of birch, and mine has a reindeer bone handle – I love it. You can also engrave your name and date on it.
Reindeer meat in all variations: hot and cold smoked, salami, reindeer stew in cans, etc.) and don’t forget the lingonberry jam for it
Cloudberry jam
Natural cream of buckhorn, without water for cold weather
Wooden knives and forks (there are a lot of wooden things in general). All Nordic countries have wooden cutlery for butter and soft cheese
Washing and sauna products from natural materials
Woolly socks and mittens
Handmade berry soap
Mittens made from reindeer skin and lined with sheep’s wool - very warm
Frazer chocolate – very tasty
Below is a day-by-day diary of my seven-day cross-country skiing trip, for those who are interested in doing it for themselves one day
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First full day, Sunday, 10.03.19:
Breakfast was very big: rye bread (something between crackers and rye bread), cinnamon rolls, rice porridge, yogurt, cheese, salami, etc. We also made sandwiches for lunch.
First day we went skiing in the area around the hut: approx. 25km. It was sunny but sometimes very windy. The slopes were not very well prepared, as 50cm of fresh snow had fallen during the night. Along the way, we passed frozen lakes with very nice patterns of snow. For lunch we stopped in a local cute café and I had a tomato soup. Finnish soups contain a lot of cream. They are usually very heavy but tasty.
After skiing, I had my first sauna experience: for Finnish people sauna is veeeery important. Women and men go separately, and you shower before going in. It’s very hot and you add water to get it even hotter. It was nice and relaxing and made me ready for the scrumptious dinner afterwards.
Day 2: Monday, 11.03.19:
Next day we packed our luggage and left the house – the luggage was transported by snowmobiles to our next place of sleeping. I was very happy with all that I bought in Switzerland for skiing: especially the overshoes for my skiing boots – they kept my feet warm. In addition, my softshell jacket of Gore (windproof) is ideal. You need to have a jacket with a hood, as it can get very windy (I wore my hood almost all the time).
One of the longest and most difficult days: approx. 35km in total (it was a lot of off-slope: ascent 446m, descent 535m). At first, it was very nice and easy and we were allowed to run fast. I loved it. I was running in front of the group just to get the first peak at a lot of forests and lakes. After 10km, we came to a hut in the middle of nowhere, which was very cute. There were some nice fat birds – Siberian Jays, who will come and eat from your hands if you offer something to eat. I gave them half of my sandwich and a cinnamon roll (I regretted this a bit, as I got very hungry by the end of the day). Afterwards we skied altogether to the National Park visitor centre, where we saw a movie about the park and had lunch (they also had a Wi-Fi, which was the last one we would encounter for a while (there was no Wi-Fi in the huts)). After this we needed to get on our skies and go up to reach the highest point of the day on the fell (=hill) pass (it was very windy). To go down on the other side, we encountered a very steep and icy off-slope. This was a bit scary at times so I took off my skies and walked down, sometimes in waist deep snow. This was a strenuous exercise.
I did not know that „fell“ actually means a hill, so if you do a „fell trek“ – you will need to go a lot up and down. After this tough way down (the most difficult part of the trip), it was no track at all – it was just all off-track, wild, deep snow, through the forest. When we got back to the normal track, I ran fast again. I actually felt ok after these 35km. As I ran fast, I was the first in the hut and could choose the room. 🙂 The hut was much more simple than the first one (we needed to use our sleeping bags), but very warm and with electricity. We were three people in a very small 4-bed room with bunk beds. It was excruciating warm during the night, as we did not see that the heating was set at +25-degrees! My sleeping bag was too warm for it (I brought my bag for -20-degrees, but actually a lighter one would have been enough). We stayed in the same hut for two nights. The sauna there was very small, and as the sauna for Finns is the bathroom as well, this was the only place to shower. Overall, the hut was fine. We had a vegetarian dinner with soya balls, which was surprisingly good.
Curious Siberian Jays
Warming up sandwiches
Day 3, Tuesday, 12.03.19:
25km, (454m up and 315m down). It was sunny day with almost no wind. In the morning -25 degrees, then -10/-15. We went to a hill and then climbed up the 300m on skis. It was rather icy on the top but sunny and not windy. On the top, we went to a nice wilderness hut and made grilled sausages – nice and cosy – really loved this experience. Skiing down was easy, especially through the forest (the top icy part I walked. 🙂 After, we had a coffee and cake in a small coffee place, looking like an igloo. Then we went back to the hut and I decided to go by myself to a nearby village – approx. 5 km to and from. It was so nice to ski alone and see the sunset. I loved it. I came back, took a shower and had another good dinner. Tomi (our guide), said that this night was a perfect chance to see the Northern lights, so I decided to practice with the stars first. I put on my warm clothes, getting ready to go outside, and the others in my group thought that it was because of the Northern lights so they got excited and went out with me. 🙂
I thought it was funny and did not tell them that there were no lights outside, just the stars. We went outside and for the first 5 minutes we saw nothing but stars, but then out of the dark, like magic, we saw the Northern lights dancing in sky!! It started as a weak green line but then the show began! What a show! Constantly changing pattern, very bright green light – it was amazing! I was frozen after being outside for 1 hour mostly not wearing any gloves as I took so many photos – I think that’s when I got a minor frostbite, as my fingers were always freezing from that time. In general, you should be very careful with the cold as you can get an irreversible damage to your body – if parts of you are too frozen, you risk that this part of your body will freeze even in warmer temperatures. That evening it was below -30 degrees! I got back, had a tea (it was around 11:15 and everyone else were already in their beds) but I decided to go back out – I just had to see the show one more time and to take more photos. I watched this amazing show of always changing lights alone, far away from the hut (and everything else) on a freezing night in Lapland,…this was a night I will never forget!
Magical northern lights
Beautiful sunset light
Day 4, Wednesday, 13.03.19:
34km, 432m up, 376m down. It was partly sunny that day as we went further through the national park to another (but much simpler hut). After a big breakfast, as usual we went for a flat 10-15km in yet another cold morning! With a bit of wind and with an amazing sky of violet, pink, and blue, we skied on a nice path – up and down through the forest. After some time it started to climb and get warmer as we reached our lunch hut – very nice wilderness hut on top of a hill – nice landscape with hills and lonely trees and amazing light on the sky. We ate our sandwiches and I warmed my hands, which were freezing, even though a French gentleman from the group gave me his big mittens. After lunch, we went through the field (off-slope), which turned into a rather steep downhill with a lot of fresh snow. I was the last one down as I fell five times (I would ski, gain speed, and then go into the deep snow to break and then fall, fortunately in landing in soft snow). After this, we had a long and rather flat off-slope track to the wilderness hut. It was difficult as the snow was very deep and the poles were sinking fully in it – you need to have skiing poles with big round circles on the bottom for the deep snow. It was nice through the forest but a bit too long and in the end I was rather fed up – I wanted to arrive.
We arrived around 18:30 at the wilderness hut, which was rather small and cold (heated only with the fireplace in the middle) and had no electricity. But our other guide (who arrived with a snow mobile) already made the fire 4 hours before we came, put candles and had hot soup waiting for us. Then everyone but me went to the sauna (I was not sure how hygienic it is without water and electricity) but supposedly it was amazing – with candles and big space in the middle where you can wash yourself with the warm water from the bucket first and with the cold water after sauna (they fill the water from the running river just next to the hut). Therefore, I waited for three long hours until everyone was done with the sauna. We had a late dinner at 22:00 that night – good pasta with local mushrooms and an amazing blueberry pie.
I must say that being without electricity and running water in a sub-zero environment, is not my favourite thing, but it makes for an experience. Again, the hut got warm during the night and I found that a warm sleeping bag was not needed on the trip at all. Several from the group, said that night in a simple hut with the fire and the candles, was one of their fondest memories from the trip…
Day 5, Thursday, 14.03.19:
It was snowing the whole day and in the morning quite a lot, but less in the afternoon. It was a much warmer day (-5 degrees) and there was no wind. After a simple breakfast, we left the hut to go to Haetta. It was a very nice and easy day: 27km, 408m up, 340m down. First, off-slope through the forest, then up a hill and then we went to the hut for a lunch (our sandwiches), and we met a Finnish guy who travelled for 2 weeks with his husky – Mauri – a very cute dog. After lunch, we skied through the canyon of snow – quite nice, ending in a beautiful descent to Haetta, where our minibus waited to take us back to the hut (1 hour driving – 100km – all the distance we made with skis!) We also went to a big souvenir shop on the way, where I bought a mushroom knife, wooden cup, sponge for washing, cream, jam, etc. Prices there were better than in the small coffee shops. In the evening we had a nice dinner with chicken and apple pie. And of course, we also went to the sauna in the hut – loved it.
Day 6, Friday, 15.03.19:
We were very happy to be back in this big hut. After a nice breakfast, we went on a beautiful 25km skiing on well-prepared slopes in the forest. The weather was not the best – cloudy and very warm (around 0 degrees) but it was ok. Lunchtime took place in a wilderness hut with coffee and our sandwiches. That day we were already back at around 4pm. I had a great sauna and my first snow experience. 🙂 I took a backwards fall, as it is easier but make sure the snow isn’t too deep, as you will have a difficult time to stand up. . I even turned in the snow once. 🙂 It’s an amazing and at the same time shocking experience but you feel very energized afterwards. In the evening, we had a fantastic dinner with reindeer ragout (absolutely loved it and can’t wait to make it for my friends in Zürich), with cranberry jam and mashed potatoes and blueberry roulade. I ate too much. 🙂 We also watched a slide show of some of the best photos of one Swiss photographer who lives in Finland 6 months out of the year. They made me want to live in Finland also!
Day 7, Saturday, 16.03.19:
Departure day. A lot left early that day. We (3 Swiss ones), had a flight at 18:45 direct to Zürich so we went skiing again. It was an amazing day! I was skiing with Tomi (our guide), and the Swiss couple went by themselves skating. We went across a beautiful lake with the sun shining and 0 degrees. I took many nice photos of old angler huts. Then we came to a coffee place selling reindeer meat. I bought a lot: 3 cans with ragout, dried meat and salami and cranberry jam for it. Really want to repeat my amazing Finnish experience with friends in Switzerland. We also saw yellow nose swans on the lake and then went through a beautiful forest. Loved that day!
I felt so good! I loved Lapland, the nature, the food, the people.
I came back to the hut at 15:00, took a shower, packed and left to the airport at 16:30. All went smooth. I was very happy and had a glass of wine on the plane to reminisce and celebrate one of the best holidays ever!
I plan to go back to Finland again by the end of August/beginning of September when the hiking and mushroom season is open!
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11.11.2019
