Rails To Trails is a short film from Kona Bikes and Suunto. Filmed and edited by Joonas Vinnari
Photos by Jaakko Posti / Erkki Punttila / Gear manufacturers
Joonas called me sometime around November and asked if I was interested in traveling way up north well above the Arctic Circle to do a bikepacking trip in January. The first thing that came to my mind is that I would rather have my balls dragged a quarter-mile over broken glass than go ride a bike in soft snow in the coldest and darkest time of the year... So I immediately said yes. The plan was to meet AP Laiho in Helsinki and take the train up north, where we would be joined by our guide and trailmaster Timo from Arcticfilm.
This post will focus more on riding in a cold climate and the gear we used. If you want to learn more about the magic of the far north, have a look at AP's words on bikepacking.com.
Our destination Kiilopää is a fell station within the UKK National Park. Old school place in a good way. You get all the basic services, friendly people, and good vibes without all the nonsense of modern ski resorts. The focus in the past years has been on skiing in the winter (and hiking in the summer), but nowadays they also have about 50 km of groomed tracks for fatbiking. The Roll Outdoors rental shop offers fatbikes and mountain bikes - also e-bikes. You cal also rent tents, sleeping bags, skis, and pulks. There is a great mtb trail network for summer riding. We created a 2-3 day bikepacking route last summer: https://www.packgofind.com/saariselka
Getting to Kiilopää is quite easy. Hop on the 12 hour night train to Rovaniemi or Kolari and there is a 3,5-hour bus connection that is in sync with the train schedules. You can take your bike (or car) on the train. Another option is to fly to Ivalo and take a 40-minute bus there.
The winter trail network combines magical snow-covered forests and open tundra. Rolling hills and twisty turns with a good flow make descending joyful. Our guide Timo is a local who has spent countless hours scouting the routes he is now grooming in the winter. You can do anything from a few hours day ride to a multi-day adventure. The trails are groomed with a custom-made plow that pushes the excess snow to the side and then packs down about a one-meter-wide trail. Usually, he goes through the routes during the night so they are firm enough for the first bikers in the morning.
Me and Timo were riding Kona Wo's. A very capable and lightweight trail monster right out of the box. Schwalbe Jumbo Jim 4.8" tires provided plenty of flotation even for my fat ass. AP was riding the Wozo that has a Manitou Mastodon Comp Air 100mm fork up front and runs on 27.5 3.8" tires. The bikes worked without any issues even in -20°C temperatures. A good tip is to set up your tubeless wheels well beforehand and make sure that they seal correctly and don't leak anymore. It might be difficult to get them to seal correctly in cold weather.
Ortlieb has gone all out with their waterproof line of bikepacking bags. I have used a lot of Ortlieb products (dry bags, duffles, and the Element 42 backpack) in the past and found them to be truly waterproof and durable. For this trip we got to test the bikepacking gear and it did not disappoint. Despite the challenging conditions, the bags worked flawlessly. I was delighted to see a TIZIP zipper on the frame bag. It is the same zipper I have on my paddling drysuit - so I know from experience that it is truly waterproof. Many other manufacturers use waterproof materials for their frame bags, but the zipper can be the weak part. Sometimes you have to leave your bike in the pouring rain overnight and it is not cool to realize that there is a big puddle of water on the bottom of your frame bag in the morning. The Ortlieb handlebar bag has a sturdy harness system with adjustable spacers and the roll-top accessory bag was easy to operate with gloves.
Stuffing gear into the seat bag is always a bit of a challenge and I did not manage to get my stuff to fit perfectly so that there would not be a sag behind the stabilizer straps. AP had his seat bag snug and tight. Otherwise, the seat bag seemed to be a very solid and waterproof product. Reflective patches on the seat and handlebar bags are a welcome bonus.
Suunto was founded in Finland in 1936Â when Finnish orienteer Tuomas Vohlonen set out to create a more accurate compass. Today Suunto is known for making rugged sports watches and dive computers. I have been using the Suunto Spartan Sport Wrist HR Baro (try saying that quickly five times) for three years now. It has been a great companion in daily life and for adventures. I have mostly used it for tracking how many hours per week I do sports, mainly biking and gym training. It also gives me feedback on how much I walk per day and tracks my sleep if I want it to.
For outdoor use, I have successfully used the watch a bike navigator attached to the handlebar with the accessory mount. You can import a route made in RideWithGPS into the watch with the Suunto App and then follow the simple on the watch. You can also create routes directly in the Suunto App and sync them to the watch. The latest version also has topographic maps for Finland, which is a huge bonus since now you can plot routes along paths or perhaps trace the contour line of a hill. For longer adventures into the wilderness, I have saved key waypoints such as the locations of the huts, bridges across rivers, and the starting point to the watch. So in the case that I lose my map for some reason, I can safely get out of the sticky situation. The built-in compass is also useful if you happen to lose or damage your mechanical compass. Another cool feature is the built-in barometer. Not only it gives a pretty accurate elevation reading, but you can also use it to predict the weather. It draws a 12-hour graph of the air pressure which you can use to interpret if the weather is going to change. A sudden drop in air pressure often indicates that a storm is coming your way. The watch alerts you when this happens. This has been extremely useful since I spend a lot of time at sea.
The new Suunto 9 Baro we used on this trips has all these features and hugely improved battery-life. You can now track your activities with GPS for up to 120 hours on a single charge (in power-saving mode, which is totally accurate enough for hiking and packraft paddling trips for example). When using it as a wristwatch without sports tracking you only need to charge every two weeks. The watch did not mind hanging onto the handlebar in - 20° C temps.
On this trip, we did not see the aurora borealis lights, but we were awarded a crispy clear night with stars. Jaakko took some really amazing photos. The hut we stayed at is built as a day hut. The benches are not wide enough to sleep on and the floor is made of stone with an open fire in the middle. A big hatch on the roof acts as the chimney so it is not thermally efficient as the fire draws cold air from outside onto the floor. It was warmer to sleep outside to avoid the draught and use the snow as an insulating layer both beneath and at the side of the tents. Everyone slept snuggly throughout the night.
This is my layering system for a medium-level activity such as relaxed pace fat biking in -15° to -25°C temperatures with 5 - 10 m/s winds. The perceived feeling of cold and generated body heat/sweating is very personal, so this might not work for you. The required physical effort also correlates with your level of fitness. Studies have shown that repetitive exposure to cold increases your tolerance and decreases the need for warm layers. Refer to this only as a rough guide (picture below).
Changes to the "baseline" if the weather gets colder (-25° to -35°C):
If the weather turns warmer or you overheat:
© 2026 Erik Plankton
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