Some more cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in Lapland

On Tuesday, it was bit cloudy, but otherwise the weather was pretty good for cross-country skiing. I used a different kind of kick wax, which performed better, and skiing went quite well. I skied some 12-15 kilometers, which included a nice break at a wooden lean-to shelter.

On Wednesday, the weather was bit too warm for skiing, so we decided to check another snowshoeing route, which is located on the other side of the main fell, Ylläs. This route goes up to a smaller 'pre-summit' called Pikkulaki. The length of this route is 6,6 km, but as we started from a nearby car park, the total length was ca. 7-8 km. As the temperature was rising during the day, it went finally up to +6C. So snowshoeing wasn't that easy choice either, as snow got quite wet and heavy.

On Thursday, I decided to head for a bit more uphill oriented skiing trip, as I skied a route, which goes up to a nearby fell called Kukastunturi (474m). The total length of the route was about 12 kilometers, of which the first half was more or less bit steeper uphill.


On Friday, I did a bit more easy-going route, which was a bit over 15 kilometers long. And tomorrow, it's time to head back south and get oriented for spring.

Kuertunturi snowshoeing route

As the weather was not that good for cross-country skiing today, we decided to go and have a look, what the surroundings have to offer for some snowshoeing. It has been snowing for the whole day, so the visibility wouldn't be that good, but we still decided to head up to a nearby fell, Kuertunturi.

There's actually an official snowshoeing route up to Kuertunturi, but we started heading towards the major flow of snowshoe marks and we ended up taking a different route to the top of the fell. To be honest, it was a pretty good choice to take another route, cause the official route happened to be a 2-meter wide compacted path, even-though the map of snowshoeing and skiing tracks indicated that snowshoes are a must for this route. The official route is 3,0 kilometers in one way, so 6,0 kilometers in total, but I'd guess that the length of our route was about the same.

Off to Lapland

It has been pretty quiet, what comes to blogging, as I haven't been doing that much outdoorsy stuff lately, cause I managed to twist my knee in January. Luckily, it didn't need any surgery, but it'll take long time to heel, as the doctor said.

Today was the first day of skiing during this winter, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. As the doctor allowed me to do some easy cross-country skiing, I managed to ski ca. 15 kilometers, although the kick wax didn't work quite as well as I would have liked it to work. But I still have a week or so to do also other outdoorsy stuff, like snowshoeing as I took them with me, and there are even some new snowshoeing routes around the village of Äkäslompolo.

On our way here, we visited Haglöfs outlet, which is located in Haparanda, Sweden, as there's only a bridge to be crossed across a river from Tornio. I managed to find a new day/city backpack for myself, as I bought Haglöfs Raw for ca. 20€, cause daylight has started to come through the bottom part of my old, around 10-year-old Haglöfs Tight. I also bought a mid layer fleece for ca. 30€.

Hammering at our scout hut

We spent yesterday by doing some finishing touches for the new porch of our scout hut. Finally, the exterior is now pretty much finished, and the interior is well on its way to be finished as we mounted the indoor wood panels up to the eye level or maybe even bit higher.

I also tried the camera of my new Samsung. Well as it has only a 2 Mpix camera, the quality of the photos is not that good, but at least objects can be recognized from the photos. (My old Nokia had only a 1.3 Mpix one)

My new outdoor mobile phone

As my old Nokia got wet in my pocket and the keypad didn't work until the following morning during our hike in Nuuksio national park in August 2011, I started to look for a new one, which should be bit more outdoor proof.

Before Christmas, I decided to wish a new phone as a present, and fortunately Santa noticed my wish. I got a Samsung Xcover 271, which has the IP67 certification, so it's dust proof and waterproof (at 1 m depth for 30 minutes). Unfortunately, it's my first non-Nokia phone, as I'm Finnish, but the cruel fact is that the specs of the Samsung one are simply much more relevant for me.

Apparently, the phone is designed for quite tough use as you can see from the following video. Germans do know how to test products :)

The model is actually not brand new, as Samsung released it in October 2010, but it's enough new for a humble person like me.