winter tales

Ski touring in Lapland

By Erik Plankton

March 30^th, 2019

Kiilopää - Suomunruoktu

Mid March is pretty much a sweet spot for ski touring in the Finnish Lapland area. You get a lot of snow, 12 hours of daylight and not too demanding temperatures on the average. The agenda for the first day was: a flight to Ivalo, bus to Saariselkä, breakfast, shopping for groceries, a canister of gas and a bottle of Jaloviina. Then a taxi to Kiilopää, where we got our rental pulkas and sorter our gear into them. We got going around 12:30. Our goal was to reach Suomunruoktu cabin before sunset, which is about 5 hours away. After 6 km of skiing we reached the highpoint of the day, from where it is downhill or flat all the way to the cabin. Flat light, a bit of snow and limited visibility it was.

Suomunruoktu cabin

The first day went smoothly and we were at the cabin well before sunset. We were greeted by a few Finnish guys and a solo traveller from Spain, who were on their way back to Kiilopää. We got good intel of the conditions ahead: there were no tracks beyond Luirojärvi and the 80 cm snowpack had zero support. This caused a little concern since our plan was to take a northern route from Luirojärvi via Lankojärvi back to the starting point. The Spanish guy had been trying to advance further from Luiro, but found it impossible.

perspiration

Second days target was to reach Tuiskukuru cabin about 5 hours away. The weather was still very cloudy with visibility varying throughout the day. This section has a couple of really steep climbs that require a lot of effort with the sled dragging behind you. The temperature was climbing dangerously close towards zero °C which meant that the snow got heavier and stickier during the day. Two litres of water was not enough to compensate for the sweaty ordeal and we felt dehydrated at the cabin.

cabin life

We spent the night discussing various outdoors related topics with a Polish gentleman who was on a two week trip. Got even a glimpse of the sunset reflection on the clouds. After a good 10 hour sleep it was time for breakfast and getting ready for the day. We used the provided hi-tech device to crush our after ski beverage cans and. Also cleaned the cabin from random shit others had left, like half a dozen burned candles. We were pretty much ready to go, but Antti felt pretty dehydrated and a bit feverish from the previous day. Knowing that it would be a real struggle from Luirojärvi we decided to stay put and do a shorter day trip from the cabin.

tuiskukuru

So we left the sleds at the cabin and followed some old tracks on the bottom of the Tuiskukuru gorge. The scenery was really nice with the small river flowing on the bottom. At times it became really narrow and you had to be careful not to fall into the river if the snowbank collapses underneath. We opened up the track for about 3 km in knee deep snow. Antti went on to get some rest and I did a little extra scouting loop on the track that led to Luirojärvi direction before heading back to the cabin.

back on track

With renewed energy we started heading back towards Suomunruoktu.

snowsquall

The temperature was again just a degree or two below freezing. At first skiing was still quite pleasant.

pushing through

During the day visibility started to deteriorate as the wind picked and the snow started to fall quite heavily. We saw two guys skiing about 5 minutes in front of us on the bog, but there tracks were difficult to follow. The wind covered their trail almost immediately.

sticky stuff

During the day the temperature climbed to zero and the snow became wet. I was hoping to break some speed records for man and pulk on the steep descents, but instead it became a struggle to make any good progress as the snow stuck to our skis providing zero glide. The few last kilometres to the cabin was an annoying walk fest. We enjoyed a well deserved ham & potato hash for dinner.

sad news

After another pleasant night at the Suomunruoktu cabin we were ready to battle the +20 cm of fresh snow on the trail. Due to the change of our original plans and route we had only about 5 km to the Suomunlatva lean to shelter, which would be totally doable without a cleared track even in wet snow. A bit before our departure we heard snowmobiles. A group of forestry agency people were doing a supply run to Luiro. So the good news was that we had a premium track to ski on, but the bad new was that they brought a sign and informed us that the Rautulampi cabin had entirely burned down during the previous night. Two skiers had been rescued after spending a cold night huddled up in the outhouse of the cabin, with all of their gear burned sans one sleeping bag. If our original route would have been possible, we would have reached the Rautulampi cabin the day after it had burnt down. It would have been a sad sight, but not a problem for us, since we were prepared to sleep outside anyway, no matter of the conditions.

suomunlatva lean to

We arrived at the shelter in good time and had lunch. There was plenty of time to do some landscaping duties such as building steps and shelves in the snow. After the sunset we got the weird feeling of cold for the first time on this trip. The temperature plummeted from -2°C to -18°C in just two hours.

nightlife

We enjoyed the full moon over the fells and grilled sausages over the fire. Finished the bottles of Jaloviina and had a good nights sleep even it was bit colder.

crispy morning

The cold night had crystallised the snow into beautiful patterns.

hazy view

Everything looked extra nice with the sun trying to blast through the hazy cloud. All the trees were covered in frost. We had only 10 km back to Kiilopää, so we enjoyed the morning outdoors having a coffee and breakfast by the fire. Last of our eggs had frozen during the night so we had to boil them.

sunny fells

On our last day we saw the sun for the first time. The snow was really good after the cold night, so we made good progress back towards Kiilopää.

back home

We arrived back at Kiilopää in good time to pack our gear for the flight and have a sauna. We returned the pulkas and payed for two sodas and saunas. We got a really good discount, because the salesperson could not figure out how to charge us for the sauna correctly. After taking a brief shower we headed for the sauna, which was not heated. Great and thanks. So in retaliation we took a 20 minute shower. Next time I will remember to bring a towel too. After that it was a matter of packing our gear and enjoying a pizza and beer before the bus to the airport. Good times!