| 2025-02-25 | Lyngen mountains |
|---|---|
| 2025-02-26 | Finnmark birches |
| 2025-02-27 | Sametinget in Karasjok |
| 2025-03-01 | A gorgeous cross-country ski tour in Saariselkä |
| 2025-03-03 | Backcountry skiing in Finish Lapland |
| 2025-03-05 | Three countries in sixteen snapshots |
| 2025-03-06 | Polar stratospheric clouds in Råneå |
Two days ago – Annika and I have started our journey through the Finnmark and Finnish Lapland. The first stop is in Breivikeidet, where we wait for the ferry to the Lyngen peninsula. Despite the pretty depressing weather forecast we get a bit of sun which makes the steep and rugged mountains of the Lyngen Alps looking even more impressive. Today I edited some of the photos, making them monochrome.
Yesterday Annika and I continued our travel from Alta to Karasjok, part of the Norwegian Finnmark. I connect this landscape with birches and snowy hills. Especially by the rivers it often looks like this:
You may think, this looks quite desolate, but I love the simplicity landscape. I find it much less desolate than the wet and ice snow free meadows that we passed the day before. Sign of a winter that has been much too warm (and still is).
The rivers however can be quite beautiful, when they are partly frozen and snowy and partly open. This is the river Kárášjohka where the road 92 crosses it.
Sametinget – the Sámi Parliament of Norway is in Karasjok, where Annika and I stayed overnight last night. Yesterday we spent some time in the library and we were lucky to get a short private guided tour to the plenary hall. It was so interesting that we decided to join a longer guided tour today. We could not only visit this incredibly beautiful building (wow, what a workplace!) but also learn more about the parliament itself and ask some questions. Thank you, A. for your time.
Some photos from the inside:
If anyone is interested and can understand Norwegian (or one of the Sámi languages), the parliament meetings are broadcasted on the website of the Sámi Parliament of Norway: sametinget.no
After days of car driving through the Norwegian Finnmark we crossed borders to Finland two days ago. Yesterday we arrived in Saariselkä in the northernmost Finnish region “Lapland”. Saariselkä is a popular tourist destination, especially for cross-country skiers. So we decided to make a cross-country ski tour today despite of the grey and dull weather that the weather forecast showed us for the region.
After breakfast we took our skies, walked to the tent-like starting point and started skiing. Oh my – after using the broader “fjellski” a lot the thin cross-country skis felt like skiing on matches! I had some difficulties and blamed myself but then realised, that beside of my stiffness one of the skins – permanently glued to the ski – started to peel off. We abandoned the tour in hope to find someone that can fix this. So the first ski tour was just 1.17 km – yay!
We were extremely lucky. We soon found a ski rental and got the problem fixed within a minute. The employee even refused getting paid. Kiitos paljon! So – back to the starting point.
Meanwhile the weather that had been ignoring the forecast as usual started clearing up. Temperatures were around -8 to -9 °C and it was calm. Perfect skiing conditions, if you ask me. This time I felt a bit more comfortable.
We unmounted our skis at a short but uncomfortably steep passage, where the trail crossed a stream in a small valley. Last night’s fog had added rime to the snowy trees.
After this short obstacle the trail got easier and was extremely pleasant to ski on. Plus, the trail was perfectly prepared and the sky cleared up more and more. But let the photos speak for themselves:
Was it as empty as on the photos? Almost. There were a few other skiers, but not many.
After about 7 km we reached the first cabin – Rumakuru Päivätupa. We took just a short break and decided to continue to the next cabin – Luulampi, taking a break there. We passed Rumakuru Vanhatupa and after 4 km we arrived at the large cabin Luulampi.
My dreams of eating cake in the cabin were destroyed. The café was closed. So we skied to the small hut nearby were we took a lunch break. Annika grilled sausages in the fire, while I ate two Karelian pirogs. Then we shared some biscuits.
And then? Taking the more advanced ski trail that climbs at least 150 other metres, leading to the road and then hoping for a bus or a lift? Or just taking the same way back? We chose the latter.
As usual I took much less photos on the way back. One of the reasons: it had become cloudy and the sun had vanished. Now the landscape was more monochrome, but still very beautiful.
We passed the other cabins again, and again we unmounted our skis at the steep descend and ascend. And then, after some more descends we were back in town. Here there are a lot of people, that do not ski and you have to remind them, that ski tracks are – well – ski tracks and not open for pedestrians, cyclists or snowshoers. Mostly it helps …
I tracked today’s tour. The second and real tour was 21.95 km, which adds up to a total of a bit more than 23 km on cross-country skis. I guess, Annika and I will feel our muscles tomorrow. I feel them already now.
This was one of the finest cross-country ski tours I’ve made in the last years. Thank you, Annika for the tour!
After the gorgeous cross-country ski tour in Saariselkä yesterday Annika and I want to use our backcountry skis today. We take the car a bit south to a place called Kiilopää. Here there are not only cross-country ski trails but also “Nature skiing tracks” suitable for backcountry skiing (though you do not need any prepared track at all for this type of skis). We follow the cross-country ski trail a bit and then turn left, where a path marked with blue crosses leads through the forest.
Slowly we gain altitude and the forest becomes less dense.
You can see the almost barren, rounded mountain peaks of the Lappish tunturi. Twice I take a detour to take some pictures of the solitary snow covered trees.
We reach the mountain shelter Niilanpää and we are not alone. Small and larger groups of skiers, many of them with pulka sleds are on the track, around or in the hut.
Since the small shelter hut is occupied we continue our tour, that now slowly descends to the forest again.
This ski tour was a recommendation of our friends C. and M., who know this region well. As they supposed we use a shortcut through the forest. This old forest is beautiful. It is not very dense but has a lot of beautiful, large trees that make the forest a nature exhibition. After round 1.5 km we reach another cross-country skiing trail where we turn left to reach the shelter and grill place Sivakkaoja.
We could grill sausages, everything is there, but we decide to only take a short break and then finish our ski tour. One of the reasons: at the parking place there is also a hotel with a café that serves sweet pastries :-) .
We follow the prepared trail eastwards. The grooves made for cross-country skis are too small for our broader skis so we use the skating track (without skating) in the middle. After some kilometres through the forest we are back at our starting point again. Distance today 12.8 km. Time for a pastry and something to drink!
I’ve never been in the region of Saariselkä before and really like it. The nature is beautiful, it is not too crowded and there are many possibilities for different types of winter sports. Today – the day after this tour – we will leave Saariselkä, but I can imagine that it was not the last time being here.
Today we take the car to Kuuriuru, Finland. Tomorrow we plan to continue to Råneå in Sweden. From there it is “only” another 300 km to our home in Obbola in Sweden.
While Annika and I have been travelling through Northern Norway, Finnish Lapland and Northern Sweden I take photos not only with my cameras, but also snapshots with my mobile phone. Here is a small non-landscape selection.
Solhov, built in 1912–24 as a school provides accommodation today. The wooden building is huge and has a large hall with a piano that is surprisingly in tune.
As in Tromsø it is too warm in Alta. Temperatures round +7 °C lead to snowmelt and giant puddles in town.
In the middle of nowhere there is a café by the road E45 from Alta to Kautokeino. To our delight it is open and we get reindeer burger and omelette with smoked rein for lunch. Delicious!
We stay two nights in Karasjok, where the Samí parliament is located. Our cabin is cozy. Min Ája, the camping site has a billiards room.
The design of some of the beer cans looks arctic. While most alcohol has to bought in the specialist shop “Vinmonopolet”, beer up to 4.7 % can be bought in supermarkets, too.
In the tourist shops you can buy a lot of genuine Sámi handicraft. And thick fabrics in wonderful colours. Many traditional Sámi garments use the same colours: blue, yellow, red, and green.
A small shop. A cupboard with lockers. On each locker attached photos, all of them with fishing motives.
As many hotel rooms our room has a wardrobe with hangers. But it has something more: two umbrellas. Could be a useful device here in the warmer months.
Saariselkä has many cross-country ski trails. No wonder, that the hotel has an own waxing hut, where you can prepare your skis.
It’s not a rumour, there are definitely a lot of Ä-s in the Finnish language.
No town without a pizzeria and/or a burger bar. Although the name “Riviera” may not completely match the actual winter weather in Sodankylä.
If temperatures are hardly below zero and it is snowing the snow is sometimes like glue and covers your car everywhere.
Snow, a birch, a fence, a road in the background. Leaning against the fence: a bicycle. Clearly unused for a while, since it is deeply stuck in the snow. A Northern winter short story.
Two countries, two time zones, two languages. At the border two towns: Tornio on the Finnish side, Haparanda on the Swedish. They share a lot of infrastructure such as the bus station. The border itself is not visible, but the two clocks showing Finnish and Swedish time or the cabinet with Finnish and Swedish food.
A border that connects people. A border I like.
While Annika and I were visiting Teknikens Hus, a museum in Luleå with friends and their kids, it was clearing up more and more. At 16:00 the museum closed and Annika spotted a Polar stratospheric cloud in the west.
When we arrived at our friend’s house in Råneå, the colours of the clouds had intensified and I went out to take some photos. I was standing on the snow covered field and it was getting darker. Together with the moon the planets Mars, Jupiter, and Venus were visible in the blue sky. After a while the clouds got paler, but even now, at 18:22 there are still visible. They just lost all their colours.
