Skiing in the sun

We’d done much studying of weather forecasts to find somewhere to go skiing with potentially decent weather. The Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park in northern Finland was found to tick that box, and we discovered that there was a multi-day ski route, with plentiful, open huts along the way. A visit to the National Park information centre whilst waiting for the weather to clear was not all that encouraging; the lady said that some parts of the route might not have been driven since there was too much wind and snow… Oh well.

The best we were hoping for was that a snowmobile had driven along the marked route, thus making a hard base for us to ski on. In fact we got a mixture; tracks made by a snow groomer, by snowmobile, and by individuals. The route was marked with wooden crosses, which were regular but had sometimes turned into weirdly shaped blobs of snow. Anyway, navigation was made simple by having some sort of trail to follow the whole way.

We set off from Hetta in hazy sunshine on a freshly groomed trail, generally feeling good about life. It was great to be out in the sun, not ploughing through deep snow (OK, Dour doesn’t actually mind doing this…), battling with blizzards or needing to check the GPS every few hundred yards.

Didn’t take long to get to hut-the-first as we had a fairly short first leg. The fire inside had clearly been lit for some time, with day-trippers taking advantage of the facility to sit and get warm, or make a hot drink. In the end, there were five people who stayed the night in the hut, the number suggested as the maximum. The hut was pretty basic and you needed a mat or a thermarest, as the sleeping area was raised wooded boards. Can’t fault the set-up; somewhere to sleep with gas and firewood, all for free!

Day two wasn’t great for weather, we got a bit snowed on and it was claggy, so what should have been pretty good views were a bit hazy or absent. We set off following the tracks of a person who’d snow-shoed from where we wanted to get to. Or so we thought. Must have been a bit of a misunderstanding, cos after a short distance the tracks stopped heading where we wanted. Followed the GPS for a bit and came across a snowmobile trail leading in the right direction. Getting ourselves, and the ‘pulk’ (the gear sledge), down the steep bank onto the trail was tricky, and I was reminded of Julian’s words from his post about skiing in Austria: “When you fall over you sink right through the snow. It’s like climbing back onto a log floating in the water, with your feet tied to the log”.

A few km from the next hut, the normal route through a steep pass had been closed due to avalanche risk, but the freshly-groomed trail that had appeared took us round a diversion and right to the door of hut-the-next. This one was divided into two halves, the open ‘wilderness’ bit where we slept, and a reservable half where you could guarantee yourself a bed (with a mattress) for €11, if you booked in advance. I was going to stick my head round the door just to have a nosy, and see what €11 got you for future reference, but a woman came bustling out, saying “I think this is the reservable part”, so I took the hint….

The aurora did its thing that night, not particularly bright but the best we’ve seen to date. A bloke in the hut managed to a picture of it looking much greener than it did to the naked eye. Wondering how green it *actually* gets, and how many of all the gorgeous pictures kicking around are manipulated. Still hoping for a really fantastic Northern Lights show.

       

We had a chilly start (-20º C) but warmed up with a climb out of the valley and onto the tops. Spent most of the day in winter wonderland, with the sun shining on the snow, and massive ice crystals on the trees. It was fabulous. Didn’t see a soul for most of the day even though we were skiing in a top quality area.

        

At the third hut we won big-time. The wilderness hut was the original hut from the 60’s, but there was also a new reservable hut nearby. We had the older hut to ourselves and it must have been stayed in the previous night because it was still warm. Just what you want.

We decided at this point, having done three out of the planned five days, that we were likely to complete the trip and could then book some accommodation at the end. There just happened to be a mountain lodge right at the end of the trail, what a shame…

Day four was a day of two parts. For the first part, we skied through the forest following another skier’s tracks, with the pulk behaving itself. Had lunch in a ‘Lapp hut’ (a conical wooden hut), and then skied to an important junction / decision point. We had to decide whether to take a detour to another hut, or to camp. Given that we got to the junction quite early, the weather was great, and there were tracks heading up the hill (to the hut), we chose to do a bit more skiing rather than spending the night in the tent.

The second part of the day involved a strenuous climb up a hill, with the pulk tipping over at every possible opportunity. Since we have one pulk for all our gear (which Dour manfully dragged all 61km), it was a bit top-heavy, and was very naughty at times. The views as we ascended the hill were just gorgeous, with the sun setting and ice crystals on every surface. Coming over the coll we were rewarded with vista of pink hillsides.

       

There were two huts within a km of each other up there. We’d initially talked about getting to the second hut, making the final day a bit shorter. But the sun was setting and the first hut we came to, with space for two, looked like providing us with a memorable stay. This was the smallest and most basic of the lot, with no cooking facilities, but we had a petrol stove so we lit the fire and started melting snow. Melting enough snow for hot drinks, an evening meal, drinks and breakfast the next morning, and drinking water for the next day, in an 800 ml kettle, takes some time….

Having strewn all our stuff around, we were a bit concerned when a snowmobile stopped outside the door, thinking that someone else might be planning to sleep in the hut. This would have meant one person sleeping on the floor and that would have been *cold*; whilst the thermometer I’d hung off a nail in the wall read a toasty +14 ºC and we were too warm in our new pits, the icicle at the base of the hearth (formed by melted snow running down the stones) didn’t melt overnight! However, the guy (a local reindeer herder whose rudimentary English was infinitely better than our Finnish / Sami) just wanted to get warm and say hello. So did his dog, who kept trying to squeeze past Anthony, the bucket of snow and the roaring petrol stove to get to me. Ok, you’re a very nice dog, but please don’t set yourself on fire, or drool into our soon-to-be drinking water!!

        

Day-the-last was going to be a long day, so we were up at 6:15 and skied off into the rising sun. Made pretty slow progress getting down the hills due to the pulk misbehaving. This was due to the tracks of several snowmobiles, which meant lots of compacted ruts for the pulk to tip into. Definitely felt like we’d been skiing for five days, and were very happy to find prepared trails when we got within a few km of the hotel. Even though we were pretty tired, we were able to ski much faster in the tracks, and got to the hotel in time for another beautiful sunset.

So, 61km skied, mostly in glorious weather, plus some Northern Lights. Tick. It was grand. Luxuries like water from taps and fresh vegetables were much appreciated over the next few days, as was the odd beer. Or two. Well-deserved, we felt 🙂