Lake Kuolimo

Kuolimo is an interesting little (about 80 sq km) lake located in the South-East Finland in the municipalities of Savitaipale and Suomenniemi. It has very clear water (unlike most other lakes in Southern Finland), quite impressive rocky shores and it drains to lake Saimaa via two narrow rocky rapids: Partakoski and Kärnäkoski. According to official information these rapids are unsuitable for kayaking or canoeing but we were able to navigate them with our canoe – though they don’t provide much white water fun. Back in the days the rapids had been cleaned from rocks for floating timber but they have been restored as there is an extremely endangered population of Saimaa arctic charr living in the lake Kuolimo.

There are a couple of established nature trails at the shores of the lake, several lean-to shelter with fireplaces and also some services at the shores of the lake like the Partaranta that offers little pricey but delicious pizzas. And then of course there’s the large village (kirkonkylä) of Savitaipale with abundance of services for outdoors folk passing by. Of course there are plenty of summer houses on the lake shores so there is no feeling of a real big wilderness in my opinion – as is the unfortunate case in most of Southern Finland. But you can always find a nice bay or strait with no visibility to cottages and enjoy the nature around you.

I’d see Kuolimo as a  great destination for a 2-5 days canoeing or kayaking trip. On longer trip you would have time to visit the sights: walk the nature trails, visit the old fortress at Kärnäkoski, etc. and maybe try some bouldering on the rock faces on the shores. I assume there is quite a lot of boat traffic in the summer holiday season so preferably go during weekdays in the early summer or early autumn to get some solitude. Also biking around the lake would make sense, there are even some established bike routes!

Here are high-resolution photos of some information boards along the way if you’re interested in the details.

Click for a larger high-resolution version!

Click for a larger high-resolution version!

Showers, sauna and other luxuries

After shopping and a coffee break followed with some heart-in-my-throat rally driving by T we made it alive to our starting point at Luotolahti in the North-East corner of the lake. The original plan was to kayak around the large headland of Suomenniemi but as canoe is slower than kayak we adjusted the plan slightly. Quite soon after the sunny start the rain returned and we were able to enjoy occasional cold shower every now and then through the whole day. For some reason rain is much less of a problem when in a kayak – especially as I didn’t take any waterproof trousers as the good old ultra light style requires…

First we paddled trough the long narrow strait of “Luotolahden Kapia” which is quite impressive place with its rocky shores. When we got on the more open waters we decided to head to Partakoski for lunch at restaurant at Partaranta. We had a rare case of tailwind so we tried some sailing and got nice speeds of 7km/h or so but the sail rigged from cheap hardware store tarp could use a little upgrade… If I’d go canoeing regularly I’d definitely sew a sail for my canoe!

The route to the lake Saimaa down the Partakoski rapid includes three sections of rocky and narrow swift water but to our surprise those were quite easy to navigate with the canoe. They required active maneuvering and slow going but provided actually fun little challenges but were unfortunately very short. The maneuvering was rewarded with pizzas (13 euro each) and beers (small beer 4,50 euro) at the restaurant terrace were we watched the weather roll in again with a thunder in the distance and heavy rain surrounding us.

Last section of Partakoski seen from the bridge.

As the rain didn’t seem to be going anywhere, we decided to take the initiative and started to paddle away from it. Plan was to paddle about one kilometer on the lake Saimaa and then paddle up the Kärnäkoski as high as possible and to portage back to Kuolimo. There is an old mill and a bridge with quite small passage under it with the bridge being the only sensible option to portage. We were able to paddle up to the mill quite easily but when closing to the bridge I had to jump out from the canoe and push it upstream wading in very fast mid-thigh deep water while Tuomas was paddling and steering in the front. This was actually quite easy as the canoe offered some “cover” from the water and a support to lean against. We made it trough the little hole quite easily and were back at lake Kuolimo.

Kärnäkoski, the mill on the right, the bridge on the left.

For the night we decided to paddle to a lean-to located on the Western shore of Lehtisensaari island (quite a big island of about 3 sq km that used to have permanent settlements). While the way to the Southern tip of the island was quite nice and relaxed the weather decided to throw in one more challenge for the day: rain rolled in again and after passing the tip of the island we were faced  with strong wind from the West generating big waves that properly rocked our canoe. (No photos of this as I was too busy paddling…) We paddled close to the shore enjoying the rollercoaster and finally reached the lean-to.

The plan for the evening was to luxury camp with some gourmet food and an improvised tent sauna. The cold showers during the way were not that luxurious but the camp proved good: The wind settled a bit but still kept the mosquitoes away, rain didn’t return and we even got a proper sunset. We reshaped the fire-place to serve as a sauna stove and started to heat the rocks while preparing dinner: bruchettas (btw the WordPress Proofreading suggest “brunettes” here but we didnät have any with us…) with Spanish style tapas and red wine for starters (as tested on the previous trip), salmon fillet cooked  on a piece of wood in the glow of the fire and grilled veggies as main course (with more cheap red btu still no brunettes…) followed with Irish Coffee and marshmallows as dessert. This time even the cream made it and was easily whipped by shaking it in a Nalgene bottle!

Notice the improvised-on-site cooking equipment.

After the proper three course dinner it was time to improvise the sauna. There were some slightly charred tree trunks at the shelter and we had a big tarp with us and these combined with the seats around the pimped fireplace and some pack straps made a cozy yet very functional sauna for two. (Caution! If you build an improvised sauna, remember to put out the fire properly before covering your stove with a fabric, otherwise carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide or other nasty fumes may get you!) As the wind kept to bugs away there was no need to pitch the tent and after the sauna, swims and beers we retired to our sleeping bags under the lean-to.

We slept long, prepared breakfast on the camp fire with no hurry and feeling lazy (all that cheap red?) decided to just take the straight route back to Luotolahti. The weather was good with sunshine and only a slight breeze. On the way back to Luotolahti we found some nice rock by the water and Tuomas decided to try a bit of bouldering but not having climbing shoes quickly changed the sport into swimming. (Caution! This is fun but check the spot thoroughly before jumping or falling into the water from any high places!)

Towards the end of the trip the wind picked up again and we felt cold so we had a coffee break with roaring fire at the lean-to in the Luotolahden Kapia strait before arriving back to the car. On the last bit we saw seagulls apparently trying to fend of something in the water: The birds didn’t mind us floating only 10 meters away but kept diving and hovering above the reed next to a little islet… Maybe there was a snake swimming to the nest?

After admiring the airshow for long enough we paddled the last strokes back to our car and headed home. Another jolly good overnighter!

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PS. As usual, more photos in my gallery.

The Repovesi is a small 15 sq km national park located in South-East Finland near Kouvola. (Detailed information is available from the always useful Outdoors.fi pages.) It offers varying terrain, great scenery and good infrastructure: well established trails with good markings, plenty of established camp fire sites, wells for drinking water and some rental shelters. This of course makes the park very popular and often even crowded, something I don’t enjoy much. Our overnighter happened to be on weekend with awesome weather which meant a lot of people but it was also the graduation weekend in Finland which should hold down the hoards of backpackers hitting the park.

After sleeping in way too long on Saturday, doing some last minute shopping and driving to Repovesi me, N and P started the trip in the afternoon from Lapinsalmi parking area. There were quite a lot of cars but no queue to the hanging bridge which was a good sign. We didn’t have a detailed plan, nor a detailed map, for the trip. The general idea was to do a round-trip following the trails towards North and visit all the scenic places on the way, camp somewhere at the end the day and then return to the car the next day.

On the first half of the day we got to enjoy plenty of cumulative height gain as there happens to be quite a lot of rocky hills on the area. Hilltops offered great views on the small lakes and the seemingly endless forests. All hill tops are basically worth a visit when weather is good. At Kuutinkanava (a wooden conduit built for floating logs back in the days when there were logins on the area) we had a nice coffee break (with cake!) utilizing my Bushbuddy stove as open fires were prohibited. After the coffee break we walked some more on trails and occasionally off-trails visiting the tower at Mustalamminvuori hill for some more views before continuing to last major sight on our route, the Olhavanvuori.

Mustalamminvuori tower on the right, Olhavanvuori hill in the middle.

At Olhava we met several groups of topless men with shiny stuff dangling below the waist…  And with that, I mean climbers. The 50 meter high vertical walls of Olhavanvuori offer probably some of the best rock climbing in Finland and thus the area is often populated with climbers, especially on a good weekend like this. Rock climbing is only allowed at the Olhavanvuori though the whole park is littered with nice rock faces… We let the climbers keep the vertical stuff and took a detour on top of the hill for some more scenery and a nice break on the top. For most of the day a slight breeze kept the bugs away and made going pleasant. Olhavanvuori is worth a visit even if you’re not a climber. It’s an impressive piece of rock with good views.

Did I mention w-i-d-e trails in the title? This one is actually a road.

Climber populated camping area at the base of Olhavanvuori.

Continuing to North-East from Olhavanvuori we found a scenic camp spot at a small headland called Sukeltajaniemi and as it was already around 8.00 pm we decided to camp there. N stayed at the camp pitching the tent to shelter us from the bugs while me and P walked some 900 meters (one way) to a well at Saarijärvi parking area to refill our water bottles. It was quite obvious we hadn’t drunk enough during the day: nearly +30C and lots of ups and downs calls for a lot of water and I was till in the “winter mode”. Luckily this was easily solved by drinking more.

Back in the camp we prepared a hearty three-course dinners. One of the advantages of light kit is that you can carry quality food – and some wine to go with it. Bruschettas with Spanish style antipasti and read wine turned out to be a great starters also in the woods. I’ll be definitely packing more of that over the summer. For the main course we had some nice slowly cooked soup and to make up the lighter main course we had pancakes with cloudberries and whipped cream. Unfortunately the cream hadn’t liked the heat of the day and immediately turned quite butterish, but was still totally edible. Next time I’ll have to pack it inside the sleeping bag with something cold…The Bushbuddy stove provided an atmospheric little camp fire and also helped to fend of some of the bugs that returned as the wind died.

It doesn’t get darker than this. No need for headlamp.

After staying up late we didn’t set alarms for the morning. And just as expected, the sun woke us up in the morning and the body yearned for a morning swim! (Even with the both ends of the Anjan 3 tent were rolled up, it’s still quite warm in direct sunshine with three people inside.) After a relaxed morning of swims and breakfast it was time to continue.

We followed the trail at the Eastern edge of the National Park South towards Tervajärvi visiting the cool rocky ravine at Kirnukangas. Worth a visit as well. The trails on the Eastern parts are little smaller and less populated but still clear and easy to follow. At Tervajärvi we had one more swim and noticed that N’s Suunto watch had dropped on the way. It was hanging from the shoulder strap of her pack and had probably snagged against a tree and dropped. We backtracked a while trying to look for it but didn’t have luck and returned back to Lapinsalmi crossing the Kapiavesi with a ferry.

All in all, it was yet another great little overnighter with good company, great weather and delicious food. The Repovesi was a positive surprise: it doesn’t have the feel of a real wilderness in it, but the scenery is beautiful and the ups and down offer also some challenge for walking. You can still find peaceful and quiet spots even on the trail side and going off-trail is also allowed and would definitely get you away from the crowds, but also away from the major sights which are all worth visiting. Maybe next time…

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Psst! If you’re confident with your navigation skills and intend to only or mostly follow the trails at Repovesi you can probably get away with just the pdf trail map available for free from here.

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And for those interested, more photos available (for free!) from here!

Usually I don’t do that much overnight trips, I prefer longer periods spend in more remote places than overnighters enable. But when the weather and company are good there’s absolutely no reason to turn down an overnighter. So I went for one, and later for another and now I’m planning a third one… But this post is about the season’s first overnighter.

I haven’t been kayaking for a while. I actually like kayaking a lot and happen to be a qualified kayaking instructor and even live at the shore of the largest lake in Finland with little wild land but plenty of water… So I guess I should do more kayaking but as I have a packraft I can’t afford a kayak at the moment. But when a friend bought himself a kayak and asked me to join him for a test trip I decided quickly to rent one. In addition to businesses, in Finland many clubs of Suomen Latu rent canoes, kayaks and equipment and also offer guiding services. I rented the kayak from local Saimaan Latu.

We started the trip from Myllysaari in Lappeenranta where I picked up the rental kayak from the club’s fine kayak shed. The plan was to circumnavigate a largish island called Kirkkosaari, spend a night in a shelter on the way and return back to Myllysaari the next day.

We started late in the afternoon in good weather: warm, sunny but windy enough to keep it cool and add a little extra challenge for crossing the more exposed areas. Water was probably around +18C so there was no need for a drysuit, which would’ve probably caused a heat stroke anyway. Short underwear, nice button-up shirt and cap was all that was needed – and of course a PFD.

There were also nice shores without summer houses, with a wilderness like feeling.

We paddled, paddled some more and then kept paddling. After some three hours in the boats we had very late lunch break on rocks sheltered behind a nice island. No bugs, no wind, warm sun shine. Could it get any better?

The wind was slowly dying and the going was getting better with air cooling and lake calming down. After the break we soon reached the lean-to we had originally planned to use but decided to go for another hour as the conditions were so nice. It was perfect on the lake: warm, sun low in the horizon, no wind, calm waters, tranquil atmosphere.

I guess we could have kept paddling for quite a long time in the lovely conditions but we had agreed a meeting at the next lean-to. We had a problem as we wanted to have some quality grilled food but open fires were banned due the dryness and we couldn’t fit a proper barbecue in the kayaks… As a solution we called cavalry to the rescue – with a barbecue!

After some 25km of kayaking we met N at a lean-to shelter easily accessible from a road. And she had brought barbecue with her! Evenings’ program was mostly grilling, eating and trying to not mind the mosquitoes. The lean-to is located in a nice spot on a riverside near the lake shore and the area was populated with birds and mosquitoes and we even saw a beaver in the river.

Exploring the river upstream past the shelter.

The big lump under the bridge is actually a beaver!

Around midnight N left as she had work the next morning and we pitched my Hilleberg Anjan 3 to shelter us from the bugs. I slept well trough the night and to my surprise didn’t wake up being too hot in the morning. Rolling up both ends of the tent makes it quite well suited for hot weather as well. My friend Tuomas was traveling light without a sleeping pad and said the night had been somewhat restless…

After breakfast and coffee cooked on Bush Buddy wood burning stove it was time to set on the waters again. The conditions weren’t bad but not as good as the previous evening: it was warm but cloudy, there was a headwind and forecast was threatening us with rain. The stiffness in my upper body reminded me that I hadn’t been kayaking for a while before yesterday but the headwind helped to warm up the sore muscles.

Because of the headwind we decided to take some 5km shorter route and do a little portage. After a few hours we reached the portage in rain (Notice the photos missing as it was raining?) and easily carried our kayaks on the other side. Mosquitoes and rain didn’t encourage to have a longer pause so we just continued paddling untill the rain ended and we could have a lunch break on the waters without the bugs.

Later we had a proper break on a small island enjoying snacks and watching train of barges sail past us. We paddled past islands crowded with summer houses of varying size and shape.

The town silhoutte was visible in the horizon for the latter half of the day but it took some time to get there… As we closed the town and harbour area we zig zagged trough the archipelago and found an interesting shipwreck before finishing the trip. The second day turned out to be some 27km and took little under six hours with breaks.

The trip reminded me that it would make a lot sense to own a kayak when living next to lake Saimaa but I guess I’ll stick with the rentals for now but I’ll be definitely kayaking more this summer!

As most of my winter was spent working with furry four-legged friends and guiding husky safaris at Taivalkoski in Northern Finland, it also makes a good topic for the first part of the series.

Home, chilly home

At the verge of the winter I was still supposed to work with snowscooter safaris at Luosto further North. But before heading there I was spending some time at the husky farm at Taivalkoski as my girlfriend N was working there for the season. I had done an internship period at the farm the previous winter and when the owner was faced with a sudden lack of quality guides he asked if I would be able to work there for the season.

Hmm… Living with my girlfriend and guiding long dogsled tours instead of short snowscooter safaris – plus a freedom to pursue my own guided ski tours in between… The decision wasn’t too hard!

So, instead of heading to Luosto I dumped the huge load of gear from the car to the backroom of a cafeteria building which became a home for me and N for the season. Living at your workplace has its advantages and disadvantages. In this case good things included very reasonable rent, possibility to use the cafeteria’s kitchen and feasting on the left-over food from safaris – and of course very short commute to work. Actually, on many mornings I was able to start working at the same time when I was munching my breakfast and if I happened to have a rare break during the day, I was able to spent it “at home”.

This is from the end of the season but the load is about the same…

The major disadvantage in living at your job is of course living at your job. This means often working also on your free time in the evenings or when having a day off. But as this sort of guiding work is more a lifestyle than work, it’s part of the deal. Other minor problems included for example:

- Very limited space which wasn’t quite enough for all the gear we had… But on the other hand, we didn’t spend that much time indoors anyway.
- Slightly inadequate insulation in the cafeteria building… But on the other hand, it helped getting acclimatized to the outdoor job.
- A 300 meter walk to the showers… But on the other hand, you don’t need to have a shower every day – or even every week – especially if it’s below -30C or there’s a raging blizzard!

A lovely December morning: outside -30C, inside +10C.

Despite the little shortcomings of our “backroom home” solution, living at the farm was cozy and convenient, a good solution.

Is that a husky?

“Are these all huskies?” and “Is that a husky?” were the standard questions through the whole winter. And the short answer was “Yes.”

Lempi (Alaskan husky)

We had around 70 dogs at Husky Center Kolmiloukko of which around 50 were working, few were retired  and we had 15 puppies and youngsters from three different litters. Most of the dogs were Alaskan huskies which is actually not a race but a name for mixed breed working dogs. Dogs bred to be the most hard-working, fastest running, hardest pulling workers with incredible endurance, the ulra-athletes of the dog world. They don’t necessary look like your classic postcard husky (a Siberian husky) but they do damn good work. Most or our dogs were “arctic looking” Alaskans with thick fur and pointy ears but we also had some mix-breed hound crossings, a type of dog often used for speedy competition that usually comes with shorter fur, floppy ears and skinny tail, and unbelievable motivation to run in a team.

In addition to the aforementioned we had a few Siberian huskies as well. The previous season we also had two Greenland Dogs but they were too slow for our teams. They excel in different use.

Vilma (Siberian husky)

Blue (Alaskan husky)

Usain and Bowie (Alaskan huskies). The former naturally has a brother named Bolt…

Other typical short answers included: “Yes, they all have names”, “Yes, I know them all by name”, “No, they don’t usually fight” and “No, they don’t bite”.

The dogs are all individuals and to be able to work with them you have to know more than the name. For example:
- What place the dog runs in (lead, middle, last), how it normally behaves (to notice if somethings wrong)
- Does it have special strengths or shortcomings (for example being a good leader or being afraid of snowscooter)
- How does it cope with others and different situations, etc.

It takes some time to get to know the dogs and for example the character of young dogs also develops over the season when they get older and get more experience. This keeps the work interesting as you keep learning new things all the time. Though I guess you have to like dogs to find this interesting.

A team in work. Birk (hound cross-breed) in the lead.

Dogwise the season was very good one: the dogs did well even though they had to work a lot occasionally, the yearlings learned to work in a team and turned out to be very good runners (even leaders) and we had very few accidents and the dogs stayed healthy through the season.

Pile-of-poo – and other daily tasks

Guide’s work at a husky farm is actually very varied and includes a lot of things, especially as for the most of the season we were lacking an employee or two! Being out in the woods with the dogs and guests is only part of the package and most of the work and daily tasks done are somewhat to the guests.

One of the big daily tasks is of course taking care of the dogs.  The dogs eat every day – and they eat a lot! They poo every day and the fences need to be cleaned every day – and that makes a mountain of poo over the season! (Sorry, no photo of the Mt Poo…) In addition the nails need to be clipped and fur in the paw’s trimmed regularly. And of course you have to monitor the dogs constantly and keep in mind how they are doing and take actions if problems arise. (For example: two dogs living in the same fence not coming along as the bitch in the next fence is in heat).

Diego having a massage at the cafeteria.

A typical day at the farm starts at 08:00 with watering the dogs. Each dog gets about one liter of water mixed with some dog food or fat every morning to keep them hydrated and give them some extra energy. The watering is actually quite a quick job but can be little unpleasant if it’s dark, temps are below -30C and the bowls are buried under a blanket of fresh snow – or the dogs have hidden them in a secret place…

After the watering it is time to clean the fences which takes little more time and effort. Depending on the snow conditions and the number of dogs at the farm the normal amount of poo shoveled out of the fences was from two to five over-loaded wheelbarrows. But cleaning the fences was actually nice when you were not in a hurry so you had time play with the dogs and let them play with each other in the running fence.

After the cleaning there was maybe time for a quick coffee break and then it was time to arrange the sleds for the day and start to build-up the teams: take a dog, harness the dog, take the dog to its place in the lines and repeat. Tell them not to fool around in the lines and repeat. And after enough of repetition keep an eye on the dogs and tell them to behave untill the guests arrive. In the early season dogs are over-enthusiastic and fool around a lot but towards the end of the season it goes like a dance.

After the days work the dogs are put back to the fences, usually with the help of the guests. And when the guests have left, after some coffee and pulla, it’s time to feed the dogs: Each dog gets 0,7-2 liters of soaked dog food (with plenty of fat when it was cold and/or they were working hard). Again quite a quick job with the above mentioned exceptions… After the feeding there is often some work to do with sleds and other equipment meaning that a typical day ended around 18:00 or so ensuring a healthy ten hours outside!

In the beginning of the season, when snow was scarce and guests were few, the daily tasks included also training the dogs for the upcoming season. First this was done with an ATV but when the big marsh plains were frozen and there was a bit of snow, it was time to start the sledding season. And the start is always bumpy! But driving a dog team is great fun so I didn’t mind the bumps. In addition to training the adults the three litters of puppies needed also some extra program and as they were cute and entertaining as hell I sometimes went for a walk with them even on my days off.

In addition to the dog related tasks there was a plethora of other things to do, mostly related to maintenance work and preparations for the upcoming safaris: trails need to be kept in reasonable shape, snow scooters and sleds need occasional maintaining, cafeteria has to be cleaned, groceries shopped and food prepared and gear packed for longer tours. One of the special tasks was warming up the sauna if there were guests staying at the farm. This was especially interesting on the occasions when a water pipe had leaked on the floor making it a nice indoor ice rink…

Out and about

Even though the dogs were awesome and the general outdoor work was nice the best part of the job were the safaris, especially the longer ones.

Going for a safari didn’t mean that I’d get to drive with a dog team. That was for the guests. At Kolmiloukko the guides usually drive with a snowscooter in the front opening the trail and towing food and equipment needed for the longer tours. There are pros and cons in using a snowscooter instead of a dog team and even though I don’t like the use of motorized transportation in the nature, as a guide I prefered to have the scooter.

Driving a scooter is a full-body activity.

Scooter makes the work a lot easier and the whole tour a lot safer for the guests and the dogs. For example we had around 250km of zigzagging and crossing trails on the area were we operated and scooter makes taking the right turns easy, even when routes are covered with snow. It also makes catching loose dog teams and picking up fallen guests possible. Not too easy to do with a dog team, especially if it would require U-turns in deep snow! And of course the snowscooter with sled would also make evacuation easy if needed. I think that the kind of safaris we did on the kind of trails we had, would not be possible to arrange safely without a snowscooter.

Learning happening the hard way…

And as the scooter was a necessary evil I actually learnt to like the driving, especially when conditions were difficult or you had to drive trough soft snow in dense forest. I’m not too interested in driving a snowscooter on hard track on my own free time but this was different. I think this was more about mastering useful tools and techniques: knots for climbing, chisels for woodcraft or code for programming. And I did learn a lot about snowscooter driving over the season, a skill I consider useful for all general winter outdoors professionals.

Guiding a safari in January, temps below -30C.

In the beginning of the season we did quite a lot of short 7km loops at Hanhilampi near Syöte National Park. This meant early wake-up, packing the dogs and sleds in a lorry and driving about an hour to Hanhilampi and putting the show together there. Usually the guests arrived from the nearby hotel with snowscooters, we gave them a driving lesson and then they drove the 7km loop with the dog sleds two in each sled, changing driver in the halfway. Driving the loop took only about half an hour but usually we did several loops every day meaning often long days.

The longest day at Hanhilampi was before Christmas when the lorry broke on the way and we spend the night at Hanhilampi with the dogs. Luckily, there is a huge kota shelter and we got some sausages and beers from the grocery so it wasn’t too bad.

Towards the end of the season we visited Hanhilampi only once a week or even less frequently. This was nice as the logistics are quite a hassle and long safaris are a lot more fun than the short loops!

Guests arriving to Syöte. Dogs waiting patiently.

The good stuff at Syöte on a good day.

The most typical safari was a full-day safari with lunch in the woods. The safaris started from the farm when guests arrived after the typical morning chores. The guests were given warm clothes, a driving lesson and then it was time to let the dogs out!

We drove along the tracks choosing a route appropriate for the conditions and for the guests. We stopped every now and then for photos and to change drivers (day tours were usually driven with “double sleds”) and after a few hours of driving we arrived to one of our lunch spots. There the sleds were fixed to trees, a fire was made and a lunch was prepared on the fire and enjoyed around it. After a one hour break or so we continued back to the farm. Normally the whole program took about six, seven hours and we covered from 25km to 40km. The dogs run actually quite fast (20km/h is easily achieved on good track with “single sleds”) but breaks and lunch take some time and it’s supposed to be holiday so usually we were not in a hurry.

Another typical tour, and one I liked even more than the full-day safaris, was an overnight safari. Basically it started like a full-day safari but guests where driving single sleds and at the end of the day we arrived to a wilderness hut in the forest and returned back to the farm the next day.

The guests took care of their own dogs and helped with the chores at the hut: poo scooping, making a whole in the ice, carrying firewood and water, warming the sauna, preparing dinner, etc. A longer tour is always more relaxed as you have more freedom to choose a suitable route and decide your own schedule, the guests also relax and learn to drive better and of course you learn to know the guests. Most of the guests were awesome and it was a blast to spent evenings at the hut with them: dinner, sauna, sitting by a fire with a nice dram…  Most of the time guests slept in the hut and most of the time the huts were full so I had a good excuse to build quinzees and sleep outdoors (or in a sauna).

Jänisvaara hut in moonlight.

The longest safaris we guided were one-week safaris with the program fine tuned for each group. Usually the week included picking up the guests from an airport, a full-day safari as a training day followed with a three-day safari visiting two different wilderness huts and  another full-day safari with dogs or snowscooters or some other activities and then taking the guests back to the airport. The longest tour of the season included six days of driving with the dogs and towards the end of the week the guests had become very good drivers and we were able to do some special routes.

As the tours get longer the relationships between the guide and guests and between the guests and their dogs develops and immerses. And in addition there is more freedom to choose what to do: you don’t have to pull the 7km loop in 30 minutes to be able to repeat it in time. The week-tours were probably the highlights of the season, in addition to some especially awesome full-day and overnight-tours.

Black grouses, quite a typical encounter on the tracks.

Excellent leader Iris teaching the yearling Alva the right route…

Jermi relaxing at one of the wilderness huts.

In addition to the husky tours we also helped the local hotel to provide safaris and outdoor activities for their customers as they didn’t have a guide of their own. During the season I guided also some snowshoeing, ice fishing, skiing and snowscooter safaris. It was nice variation for the husky safaris but I still consider the long husky tours the best. (Not counting guiding arctic ski expeditions covered later…)

Week-tour guests on a snowscooter safari.

Bottom line

The dogs were awesome.

The Northern nature in winter is awesome.

There is nothing quite like silently and effortlessly gliding trough winter wonderland wilderness with a dog team.

Driving snowscooter can also be fun – but don’t tell anyone!

Most of the guests are awesome.

I really liked my work.

Nature is just awesome.

PS. More photies! A selection of photos from the 2012-2013 husky safari season is available in my gallery: Click here to get there!

Even though the winter is definitly over in most of Finland, it ain’t over for me. At the moment I’m hurrying with some last-minute preparations for guiding a ski expedition across Vatnajökull, the largest glacier in Europe situated in South-East Iceland.

Urttaslaakso (Käsivarsi wilderness, North-West Finland) on a holiday ski-tour in April 2013.

The winter season has been a very busy one with guiding work. (My apologies for the silence in the blog and all the broken promises related to it.) It’s been hard at times but also very rewarding and guaranteed plenty of time in the great outdoors around and above the Arctic circle. This far I’ve spent little under 30 nights and closer to 100 days outdoors this year, which is never a bad thing. There are loads of unpublished photos and some stories to tell but that’ll have to wait until the end of May or so…

Winter magic – working in the outdoors in January. Cold but so beautiful!

The last time…

I was skiing across the Vatnajökull also about a year ago. The Vatnajökull 2012 expedition was a crossing from West to East (roughly along the line where the glacier is at it’s widest) and also included a longish detour to South to climb the Hvannadahlsnjukur (2110m), the highest peak of Iceland. The expedition took 16 days and was mostly very enjoyable experience despite the weather sucking big time every now and then: Freezing super-cooled rain, winds above 30m/s, temps below -20C, white outs, etc. – But luckily not all of that at the same time! And luckily we also had some days of great weather and good skiing to boost our moral.

Skiing on Vatnajökull in 2012.

… and here we go again!

The Vatnajökull 2013 expedition will be little different: we will start about 1 month later (meaning generally better weather), we will ski from East to West and won’t be doing the detour to Hvannadahlsnjukur and will spend 12 days on the glacier.

As we are leaving later in the season, I was expecting milder temperatures and generally better weather. I told to my clients that we’d probably have day time temps above 0C and night time temps down to -10C and would definitely get some rain at some point. But looking at the weather forecasts now at the eve of the departure it seems very different… Well, at least snow is better than rain and we still have good chance of rain at the end of the expedition.

Itinerary of Vatnajökull 2013 expedition

- 26.4. flight from Finland to Iceland and drive to Hoffel
- 27.4. we will start skiing (or likely walking with crampons) from the edge of Lambatungnajökull in the East
- … skiing* …
- 7.5. arriving to the hut in Jökulheimar, on the Western edge of the Vatnajökull
- 8.5. super-jeep pick-up from Jökulheimar and drive to Reykjavik
- 10.5. flight back to Finland

* The basic plan is to ascent up on the Vatnajökull along the Lambatungna glacier in the South-East corner and then ski roughly to West across the glacier. But we might do also some detours on the way to check interesting places, weather and conditions permitting. At least we will try to visit the Grimsvötn volcano (1725m) on the middle of the glacier. There’s also a nice hut at the edge of the volcano…

The Grimsfjall hut in 2012. Expecting less snow this time…

Follow the Vatnajökull 2013 expedition!

We will be carrying a SPOT tracking device so you can follow the progress of the Vatnajökull 2013 expedition online on the awesome Social Hiking service: Click to the map!

In addition I’ll try to send some tweets along the way when we have cellphone reception (the sat phone we will be carrying doesn’t support tweeting…) but this will be scarce. But if you’re interested, it’s still worth to follow me on Twitter.

And if you’re really interested in the expedition you can also follow the weather forecasts on yr.no and Icelandic Met Office to get an idea of the weather on the glacier.

And if you happen to know Vaiska’s sat phone number, you can also cheer us with a message about the nice warm days, sunshine, beer and barbecue you are enjoying…. You enjoy the spring, we’ll be skiing.

I’ll be back in couple of weeks!

Mostly I’ve been busy guiding husky tours ranging from full-day safaris to over-night tours but there have also been other things…

On the tours we spend the nights at huts but being out in the wild gives a good excuse to sleep outside and this week I decided to sleep in a quinzee as the night was expected to be a cold one. (The record low for this winter was recorded at Taivalkoski at the same week, -38,2C.) I was a little hasty building the quinzee and made the pile little too small and decided to go without the sticks to mark the wall thickness. The end product was livable but little too short with too big doorway and I had to patch one hole in a wall. But it still added apparently quite a lot of warmth as I managed to sleep most of the night comfortably in my sleeping bag rated to -18C (Tlim) and only woke up chilled a few times after 6.00 a.m. The cabin doesn’t have a thermometer but it’s in a cold place on low-lands next to big marsh so the temperature was likely colder than at the village of Taivalkoski… Snow shelters make sense! And there is still time to make some so don’t miss the chance!

The little free time I’ve had, I’ve used for arranging the guided ski tours. The last week I was guiding a group in Sarek (along the route mapped on Social Hiking, though the distance listed there is little optimistic). We also made snow shelters in Sarek as a training and they were not bad choise as the night was cold. Snow caves are especially nice shelters if you happen to find pile enough pile of hard snow. It was an awesome tour with good group and well worth sitting in the car for 21 hours – each way.

Sarek. There’s a feeling of real wilderness. And beatiful mountains as well!

I’ll write a separate post about the tour in Sarek later as this post is about northern lights! As the winter has been unusually cloudy there hasn’t been much auroras to be seen at Taivalkoski. I saw a good show here on early December, little faint lights every now and then here and at lake Inari and nice but little grey light show at Sarek. But this evening was different. After several cold and cold nights without a trace of the northern lights the lights at the sky were on a big time! Here are some photos of the showon Sunday evening. Hope you enjoy the photos in case you missed the show!

For those interested in the techy stuff all photos taken with my trusty Canon 550D (with a battery grip with dual battery for the cold), the cheap but stellar Samyang 14mm 2,8 lens and of course utilizing a tripod (a heavy Manfrotto 055). The only problem with this setup is the Samyang lens being fully manual, which shouldn’t be much of a problem but the markings on the focus ring are all totally wrong andgetting it focused in the dark is not too easy. I think I should make some new marking on it…

On the weekend we also had the pre-expedition meeting with the Vantajökull 2013 expedition and I can’t wait to get on the ice for with the group as it’s likely to be a great little expedition… But before that I still have some weeks of husky safari guiding to be done, including two nice longer tours. I’ll try to get some nice photos to share from the tours.

Fjell tops in Sarek, March 2013.

PS. I’ll be carrying a SPOT tracker in Sarek so starting on March 2nd you should be able to follow the tour in Sarek on SPOT shared page and also via the awesome Social Hiking.

A blog

The first tip is a blog of a local (at Taivalkoski area) musher and outdoors woman: the Wander Woman. And it’s even in English! Lots of information on outdoors with the family and dogs. And as this post goes online are Anu and his husband (who used to be guiding husky tours as well) are ski touring around Kebnekaise with their dogs Mora and Miilu (whose sister and brother are working here at Husky Center Kolmiloukko). Here’s a little video of their final rehearsal on top of a local hill called Jänisvaara. Windy and cold i.e. good training.

Activity on Arctic areas

The next tips are about Finnish activity on Arctic areas later this season. Vaiska is guiding his sixth expedition (!) to Svalbard along the same route I was doing in 2011. The expedition has a blog but unfortunately it’s only in Finnish: Huippuvuoret2013.

Little later in the season the two middle aged man (their own words) of the Ice Cap Crossing 2013 expedition are trying to cross the Greenland icecap along the “normal route”. I was instructing them on a basics course in 2012 and they’ve been for example developing an interesting tent with with Finnish outdoor company Halti and adventurer Pata (nice and helpful guy and also a great speaker).

The third interesting project is by Finnish adventure runner Jukka Viljanen who is also crossing Greenland along the same route but instead of skiing he will be running across Greenland! And the site/blog is in English.

PPS. In most cases Iceland and Vatnajökull glacier are considered as Arctic areas so I could add my forthcoming Vatnajökull crossing on the list but don’t really have anything to share about it yet… We will be on the ice 11 days starting on April 27th and will ski roughly 150km across the glacier or maybe more if the weather and conditions permit.

Views on Vatnajökull, March 2012. Hoping to get more of this and less freezing super-cooled rain with wind…

Some books

Quality Finnish outdoor books are not too common (it’s a small market) but every now and then few are published. Big news is that the long waited mammoth project of creating the first ever Finnish Off-piste skiing handbook is finally completed and the final product is now available. Of course it’s only in Finnish but those who are interested in steep snow-covered places and manage written Finnish should take a look at Vapaalasku.com.

The other book news is that Kari “Vaiska” Vainio has secured a book deal on series of instruction books on traveling in demanding conditions. The first book will be available at the end of 2013 and will be about winter travel on Arctic areas and above the tree line in Lapland. With 50 years of outdoors experience and having lead over a dozen of demanding expeditions it should be quite something.

And the bonus video

The narrative on the bonus video is also in Finnish but it’s quite awesome anyway. It’s digitalized archive material from a journey to the remote village of Kilspisjärvi in North-West Finland… done in 1947 with dog team, horse, skis and hiking. It wasn’t an easy journey before the road was built! Nowadays you can get there easily by bus or with your own car.

Click yourself into the archives!

OAC Kar 147 – the gliding snowshoe goes backcountry ski?

Not a ski, not a snowshoe but something in between. Natives of the Northern areas have always used also shorter skis with climbing skins for certain needs and inspired by the short skis of the natives of the Altai mountain the US-based company (with production somewhere overseas) introduced the Altai Skis Hoks: 125cm and 145cm long short and wide skis with permanent skin inserts. I had a pair of the 125cm model for test and published my initial impression on the blog about a year ago. In short: I liked them a lot. Loads of fun and good tools for forested areas in winter.

The Finnish importer of the Altai Skis is OAC and they wanted to change some aspects of the skis which soon lead to the birth of two updated skis based on the idea of the Hoks. The OAC still imports and sells Altai Skis Hoks but now they also produce and sell their own skis: Hok 145 like OAC Kar 147 and  more XCD-ski styled OAC TAO XCD 160 – both designed and made in Finland! The TAO XCDs I wish to test later this winter when OAC gets the production running but this post is about the Kar 147.

The OAC skis are marketed as “backcountry skis” and the Altai Hoks as “original gliding snowshoes” and this seems to be somewhat true when comparing the Kar 147s to Hok 145s: the latter are a bit closer to snowshoes while the first are a bit more ski-like. Both are still in a category of their own being very short (for a XC-ski), quite wide and having permanent skin inserts.

Tools for travel: Madshus VOSS 205cm, OAC Kar 147, Altai Hok 145 and Atlas 730.

OAC Kar 147 vs. Altai Skis Hok 145 – side by side

Dimension-wise the OAC Kar 147s are quite close to the Hok 145s. The Kars are nominally the 147cm long and the Hoks 145cm long.  The width is about the same (measured without any precision instruments): 128mm – 110mm – 122mm for the Kar and 124mm – 110mm – 122mm for the Hok. Both have also permanent skin inserts, full steel edges, a bit of camber, nicely raised tip and also some raise in the tail.

There are also differences: The most notable difference is different placement of the binding. On the Kar 147s the binding is placed so that the pivot of the X-Trace binding (or the pinline in 75mm NN binding) is on the balance point. On the Hok 145s the binding is considerable more forward, approximately about 10cm in front of the balance point. (In the Hok 125s bindings are placed on the balance point.)

Other differences include:

- Different tip and tail design: The tip of the Kar 147 is wider and doesn’t raise as much as the tip of the Hoks.
- The Kar 147s are also little bit wider on the tip, only about 4mm but wider anyway.
- And (something I consider important) the Kar 147s have about double the camber the Hok 145s have, when you strap the Kars together they fit a standard match box between them easily, the camber of the Hoks is about half of that.

Both feel about equally stiff though the Kars have more initial flex before stiffening towards the end when being pressed flat against hard surface. I assume this is because of more camber providing a longer flex range.

The Hok 145s weight 1892g per ski with the X-Trace Pivot bindings . The Kar 147s weight 1790g each with the same binding meaning the Kars are 100g lighter per ski. They are listed to weight 1150g without any bindings but as mine are clued on so can’t check.

OAC Kar 147 vs. Altai Skis Hok 145 – in real life

I haven’t had time to do very thorough testing (in my opinion that would take at least one whole winter season with varying use and conditions) with the Kar 147s and Hok 145s but I’ve used them enough to get on idea how they perform in deep soft snow and on packed trail in rolling, forested terrain. Both of the skis are equipped with X-Trace Pivot universal bindings and I’ve used them with Meindl hiking boots and Sorel winter boots. More on the binding to be written later…

N zig-zagging up about 25-30 degree slope. She hates steep stuff on normal skis but is quite comfortable with the Hoks and Kars.

I’ve skied around in gently rolling forests and flat swamps with deep soft snow, pulled sled on the track and off the track, climbed 25-30 degree slopes with soft snow and skied them down doing turns with my bad technique – and had fun all the time! And that is what the Hoks and Kars are about in my opinion: fun tools for winter travel.

Me going up…

… and trying some telemark on the way down.

And coming down again. Damn it’s fun!

The Hok 145s feel and act like the Hok 125s but being longer there is more surface area and thus they provide better floatation, a nice feature for someone in my weight class or if using them with a heavier backpack. Being only 145cm long they are still very agile in my opinion, basically just as agile as the 125cm version. (Take into account that I’m 186cm, for considerably shorter people the shorter version might feel more agile.) And as the binding is moved in front of the balance point the Hok 145s distribute the weight quite equally and thus sink in the snow in horizontal position instead of going “tail first”. The binding placement also gives them a bit more snowshoe-like feeling when compared to normal skis, or the Kar 147s.

The Kar 147s feel a bit more ski-like than the Hok 125 and even more than the Hok 145s. They track better on hard surface and are easier to control when going downhill but as a downside the tail of the ski sinks deeper than the tip in certain conditions (especially on soft snow on top of almost supporting layer of crust). I think this is because they have more camber and mostly because the binding is placed into the balance point as on normal skis. The advantages are clear and the downside is familiar for most people who use skis in similar conditions meaning that most can live with that but for some it might be an inconvenience.

The wider and flatter tip and tail work just as well as the more tapered and higher raised ones of the Hoks: the tip jumps on top the soft snow when gliding the ski forward and you can do 180 degree turn on hard surface just as easily as with the Hoks (but in both cases the skins stop you instantly and damn near knock you over). The Kar 147s also have slightly smaller skin insert which (according to the people of OAC) is made of higher quality material and thus it should give the same grip with less friction but as the test pairs I had were of different age, I can’t verify this. Both provide easily enough friction to haul a 60kg sled on hard surface, easily enough grip to navigate in soft snow on gently rolling terrain but not enough grip to push directly up 25 degree slopes with soft snow, those have to be zig-zagged up. The grip is naturally better on hard surface.

Initial verdict

As a simplified and very much precursive verdict I’d say that the Kar 147s are still mostly like the Hok 125s I tested a year ago but with some differences:

“They work and they are fun.

They are very maneuverable and provide decent good floatation.

The Kars Hoks seem to be sort of go-anywhere-do-anything tool but such things come with compromises.”

This time the compromise is taken closer to a ski and a step away from the snowshoe. This gives better tracking, better control for downhill and more ski-like feeling but at the same time looses some of the snowshoe-like feeling in deep soft snow. And of course the bigger surface area gives better floatation. In my opinion the Kar 147s are more ski-like and thus well suited for people looking for agile backcountry skis or something to have fun on local hills. On the other hand the Hok 145s are probably better tools for traveling on soft snow with gentle terrain and also maybe better suited for people who plan to use them a lot without poles (photography, hunting, etc.)

Which ones you prefer, is up to you.

Availability & price

In Finland the OAC Kar 147 are available from the usual suspects like Partiokauppa (399eur with bindings, not in stock) and SOS (419eur with bindings, in stock. The best price I’ve seen this far, and the only retailer listing the Kar 147s also without bindings, is from Hiking Travel HIT at Ylöjärvi (near Tampere) who has them for 285eur without bindings and 390eur with the X-Traces.

- – -

Disclaimer: The nice people at OAC Finland lended the skis for me for test on request but with no obligation of reviewing them. And unfortunately I have to return them.

For those interested in (camera) gear the photos are taken with Canon EOS 550D with Canon EF 24-105 4 L IS or Samyang 14 2,8 lens. Mostly it’s just fast’n'dirty point’n'shoot, often from moving snowscooter but when you shoot enough, you also get some hits. Especially the Samyang 14mm wide-angle has proven to be a very nice piece of glass and it’s also cheap for the quality. Downside is that it’s all manual lens and the markings on the focus ring are far from reality but when you learn that the infinity is around 0,7m focus it works like a charm.

I have to say that even though I love my job, I’m really looking forward to having a day off on Sunday as I’ve now worked for 33 straight days! I need some time to wash clothing, repair gear and do some more preparations for the one-week ski tour to Sarek in early March. And maybe I also have time to write some more words for the blog as well…

In mid-January I was in the North-East Finland near the Russian border on lake Inari practising winter skills with two ultra runners who are planning to participate on the Siberian Black Ice Race on lake Baikal in 2014. (The race was supposed to be held in 2013 but was postponed due the lack of participants.) The conditions were quite easy: cloudy the whole weekend, temps starting with -5C and dropping below -10C on Sunday morning and varying wind – which was good for the training. The customers were moving on foot but still did steady 5km/h despite  the occasional soft snow. Ultra runners are tough! A great weekend all together. Thanks Dave and Diana!

And as a bonus few photos from the way back to Taivalkoski as there happened to be some sunshine at Saariselkä region…

On the last weekend of January I was running The Basic Course on Arctic Ski Expeditions in South-East Finland. The first half of the weekend was filled with lectures and familiarizing with expedition gear and the later half was spent on an over-night trip practising the new skills in real life conditions. The conditions were quite similar to those at lake Inari: -6C, quite windy, some drifting snow and super-good surface conditions for skiing. Another good weekend that will be later followed by the one-week tour to Sarek in Northern Sweden. A tour I’m really looking forward to!

During the last weekend I was guiding a 3-day husky tour in Taivalkoski area. The conditions were unbelievably similar to those of the previous weekends: mostly cloudy, temps around -5C and some wind with drifting snow. Early February should be damn cold up here (sub -30C) but it hasn’t been the case lately and I kinda miss the cold… Anyway, we had good time covering some 80km with dog teams (Well, I was driving a snowscooter opening the trail, or sometimes getting stuck in a slush…)  We spent the still quite long nights in private wilderness huts. (Though I tried to build a quinzee the second night but the temps were too mild for the snow to settle properly in the short time I gave for it and the structure cracked while carving it…) Good travel, good food and great company – even though this job is occasionally hard, I really love it most of the time.

While working in the woods I don’t really have a possibility to write real blog posts but I try to tweet regularly so if you’re interested in the life of a guide / seasonal worker in Northern Finland, you might want to follow @Korpijaakko on Twitter.

PS. With the knee-deep snow we have here it took only 15 minutes to shovel the pile of snow for the quinzee and another five minutes or so to gather twigs for marking the proper wall thickness. The carving would have taken only some 15-20 minutes but was brought to halt because of the structure collapsing when about 90% done. If you happen to live on an area with enough of snow, I highly recommend building a quinzee and spending a night in it. It’s nice activity, teaches important skills related to winter backcountry safety and is great experience that you can do even on your backyard! Just remember: let the snow settle long enough, make a hole for ventilation and have a candle burning inside (if the candle goes out, there’s not enough oxygen!). I’ve also written a post about building quenzees. The post would benefit from some proofreading and I’d have also some new experiences to share but it’s still helpful as it is.

PPS. I also try to find some time to write first imperssion on a high-quality expedition sled I’ve been testing: The huge Isohitti which is 100% made in Finland by Hiking Travel Hit. I also have some new Kar 147 gliding snowshoes, not Altai Hok Skis but a similar (and dare I say upgraded?) model by a Finnish company OAC. Oh, and also some original Altai Hok 145s for comparison. Impressions coming when I have the time to write more, now to sleep as I have an overnighter to guide tomorrow…

Stuffed with six sets of insulated overalls, six pair of Sorel boots and a chair. And still room to spare…