Chilly Christmas greetings!

It’s again that time of the year. Hendrik’s Advent Calendar closes to its end, which can mean only that Christmas is right behind the next bend of the trail and it’s time for holidays for most of us. Me and most other seasonal workers in the North will be working hard also on Christmas but that doesn’t prevent me (and hopefully the others) enjoying the Christmas.

It’s been unusually cold mid-December here with temps below -30C for several days and it’s been a blast! (Well ,except for the two frostnips on my nose…) It seems that the worst (or best) cold is over for now but the weather will continue cold (well below -20C) over the Christmas. And that’s good as I happen to like it.

Merrily chilly Christmas to you all! Enjoy the winter!

Just add little more frost and a pointy hat to MYONSC! (Make Your Own  Ninja Santa Clauss).

PS. For the understanding readers Finnish:

Jos epäilet, että joulupukilta ei heru tarpeeksi lahjoja, on 31.12. saakka mahdollista voittaa hieno elämys sekä ahkiolastillinen tietoja ja taitoja blogini Lukijakilpailussa! Ei huono lahja, vaikka itse sanonkin.

The winter is here!

…or to be precise, I traveled where the winter is. But anyway, me and good ‘ol winter are again in the same place and I’m enjoying it a lot! I was actually so excited that I wanted to share a few words and photos with you.

Liking the winter after a 10km training run with the dogs.

There was a little snow in South-East Finland earlier but not a real winter and apparently at the moment there isn’t any snow left and temperatures are closer to +10C instead of freezing. As I’m on the way to North to work I decided to spend some time on a “working holiday” at Taivalkoski in the Husky Center Kolmiloukko where I was working the last Christmas season.

I’ve been mostly helping training and conditioning the dogs i.e. riding sleds which is great fun. I feels so awesome to pass effortlessly and quietly through snow-covered landscape. There isn’t that much snow yet, maybe some 15-20cm, so it’s a bit bumby ride but still fun. I highly recommend giving dog sledding a try.

In addition I did the first skiing trip of the year (have to be in shape for guiding trips) and have been actually also working a bit with the shovel preparing the tracks…

Another awesome thing was that last night there were magnificent Northern lights! I saw a faint greyish light at the horizon while skiing in the late afternoon (it’s dark here around 16 pm and sun rises around 9 am) and later in the evening it turned into a real light show.

Judging by the last few days living and working in Lapland for the winter doesn’t feel too bad, though I’m quite sure my moods will swing a bit when shoveling snowmobiles from the drifts…

Because of not having a permanent place to stay at the moment the blog might be silent for a while. At the mean time, I’d advice you to enjoy the outdoors!

Five days in Sarek

Last night was again very stormy but the morning was nice and nearly calm. Wind picked up again in the afternoon during snow shelter building excersise. We built an emergency shelter, 2 snow caves and an igloo in the storm. Full 8 hours of skiing tomorrow, followed with short sleep and night skiing in the dark back to the cars. Time to rest, this time in the little emergency shelter…

This message was sent by Yellowbrick Tracking Ltd.

Four days in Sarek

The bad weather continued in the morning and we decided to wait for few hours. The waiting paid of and we started the day in reasonable weather but it soon turned into 15+m/s gusts with snow. Later the weather got better and we did our daily mileage in a bit over six hours and even saw some moose. Tomorrow will be short day of skiing followed with snow shelter building – weather permitting

This message was sent by Yellowbrick Tracking Ltd.

Three days in Sarek

First three days done. The Yellowbrick was down for a while but the tracking is running again. First two days were good skiing but today we couldn’t ski because of storm. We had over 20m/s gusts that broke two poles from one tent. Everyone is ok, poles are fixed and the weather is getting better. Planning to continue skiing tomorrow.

This message was sent by Yellowbrick Tracking Ltd.