Auroras, snow shelters and husky tours

The blog has been little quiet, as has unfortunately been the way this winter. So, what have I been up to?

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.

Winter wonderland and working dogs

In addition to guiding during the last four weekends I’ve also work during the weekdays as well. Unfortunately this means very little time for blogging but here’s (again) a set of photos to make up the lack of words. The photos are from overnight and one-day husky tours at Taivalkoski region in North-East Finland. All dogs are hard-working (well, except a few lazy ones) huskies from Kolmiloukko.

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…

All sorts of winter weekends

The blog has been quiet as I’ve been busy with my work as a husky tour guide and with my own winter guiding projects (meaning 10-14 hours per day, sometimes over-night, seven days a week). And again I don’t have too much time to write but I’ve been taking photos and here are some from the last three weekends. Very different but very interesting weekends occupied with work.

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…

Photos from the winter wonderland

The regular readers probably know that for most of this winter season I’m working at Husky Center Kolmiloukko at Taivalkoski (a small town in North-East Finland) guiding husky safaris.

I’ve been lately quite busy with the huskies and guiding because I’m also putting together my own ski expedition courses and tours and actually spent the last weekend at lake Inari training winter skills with two ultra-runners. It turned out to be a superb trip but more of it later… Despite being busy I’ve had some time to take photos on the way and here are some shots from the winter wonderland here at Taivalkoski. Photos from the Inari are to follow later…

Here are some photos from a full-day husky safari in early January. The customers were great (as they usually are) and we saw the sun for the first time for over a week or so.

The guide’s job here includes also quite a lot of driving with snowmobile – and waiting as N is doing in the photo…

In addition to the 60 adult dogs, we have also some of these cute fellows as well. The big one, named “Nuoska” (meaning wet sticky snow), is probably the biggest husky puppy of her age I’ve ever seen and if she’ll continue to grow like that she’ll be around the size of a horse in the end…

As mentioned the work involves also waiting but luckily our dogs are masters in the waiting game. Here the dogs are waiting for customers to arrive for a full-day safari in mid January on a particularly cold day with temps below -30C. The upside with the cold weather is that here it goes hand in hand with clear skies and sunny weather.

And this is how the cold here looks like…

On my free time I try to go out skiing as often as possible. The views are often nice, like the dusk in the photo below taken while on a skiing trip at the close-by swamp plains.

As we haven’t seen much auroras here lately, here’s one of the nice northern lights we saw in early December. The skies are clear tonight so I keep my fingers crossed for more fresh photos of the fire on the sky…

For those interested: All photos are taken with Canon EOS 550D and most of them with the magnificent EF 24-105 4 L IS. Equipped with an external battery grip it works just fine below -30C temps and can be used also with thick mitts. Just remember not the breath towards the viewfinder or lens.

Outdoor year 2012 in pictures

/ A word of warning: This post includes a lot of photos. They are nice and varied outdoors photos but there are many. You have been warned. /

As the year is about to end (as it didn’t end in 21.12.12), it’s again time to share some of my favourite outdoors moments from the past year with you. And just like last year, I thought photos would  be a nice way to do it. I’ve been quite lazy writing trip reports the whole year so this also kinda fits the theme. But I’ve added a few words in between the photos to give some context…

And there are again way too many pics and 1200+ words but try to tolerate and stop to stare only the interesting ones – or grab a cup of coffee or tea and go through all of them.

The year began while I was doing my wilderness guide internship at Husky Center Kolmiloukko at Taivalkoski. In addition to taking care of the dogs and guiding safaris I had time for an overnighter at Syöte National Park and a skiing trip at Lake Inari with N. This time it wasn’t especially cold at Inari and instead of pulkas and tents we had backpacks and we stayed in huts. There’s even a trip report available.

After the internship period it was time to return back to the guide school where we did some hunting, winter fishing and generally enjoyed the winter. Something worth of a special mention is the trip to Patvinsuo National Park as it happens to be my coldest trip yet. I wasn’t cold and it was actually very nice, but the temps were low – down to -38,5C at coldest. There is also a trip report of this.

On my coldest trip yet and trough out the whole winter I was also testing Altai Hok 125 skis which proved to be very handy tools as I told in my first impressions. I have high expectations for the Altai Skis Kar 147 I’ll be testing later this winter!

In addition to the internship period with huskies I decided to do some more and helped Vaiska on his Arctic ski expedition courses to get some extra experience to arrange my own in 2013. I worked as an instructor on two weekend courses in Southern Finland and as a guide on a one-week ski tour to Sarek National Park in Swedish Lapland. The weekends were damn cold (below -30C) and the trip to Sarek damn stormy but it all provided good outdoors experience, especially on guiding a big group in challenging conditions in challenging environment.

After Sarek I started the last preparations for Vatnajökull 2012 expedition and at the end of March me, N and two of our friends headed to Iceland and spend 16 days skiing across the largest glacier in Europe (Vatnajökull) and climbed the highest peak of Iceland (Havannadahlsnjukur, 2109,6m) on the way. It was miserably wet and cold at times, very windy (up to or over 30m/s at worst) on few occasions but generally an awesome little expedition and great success!

The spring at the guide school was filled with tests on nature lore but also with a lot of water sports: kayaking, canoeing and rafting. And as we were on the waters I naturally had to do some packrafting as well. On June 8th the school ended and later in the summer after getting the last assignments done I graduated as a qualified guide (Erä- ja Luonto-opas). During the guide course I wrote a “Monthly highlights” series of monthly posts on the school but it’s still missing the last few posts and I’ll try to do something about it.

I celebrated the end of the course by going for a hike in Lapland. On the map me and N had planned anice  12 days 200-250km hike through the wilderness areas of Muotkatunturit and Paistunturit but due an embarassing scale mistake we had only 165km to walk in real life and did it in 10 days. Still very nice walk in the early summer with days of nice weather and days of bad weather.

Due several reasons I was quite lazy doing overnight outdoors stuff in the summer even though I would’ve had time for it. I have to say that I regret it a bit. Instead I spend quite lot of time in the woods around the house foraging and enjoying the free delicacies fresh from the nature. The foraging madness continued later in the autumn topped with the best apple year for, ehm, years.The main reason for the lack of trips was that I was preparing to spend the academic year 2012-2013 in Svalbard on Arctic Nature Guide program. I had applied there earlier the year and got approved but financial reasons (five-figure sums of euros required) crushed my plans and I ended up doing quite a lot of useless work and not being out in the wild experiencing and learning.

After the Svalbard related plans went busted I decided it was time for some comfort hiking and put together the Social Hiking in North plan with speed hiking and peak-bagging trip (and some packrafting) West of Kilpisjärvi (trip report), a six-day hiking oriented packrafting trip from Kilpisjärvi to Reisadalen in Norway (trip report) and a nine-day hiking trip in Sarek National Park in Swedish Lapland (sorry, no trip report).

A few weeks after returning from Lapland me and N headed back to meer friends and to do a little three-day trip as Pyhä-Luosto National Park. Nice trails and cozy wilderness huts and very silent national park.

I also managed to do one more packrafting trip as we still had full-on flood in October after very rainy summer and autumn. Me, Xavier and Alpo (on an airmatress instead of an Alpacka packraft!) headed to Kymijoki to enjoy the big river white water and little exploration in the tiny Valkmusa National Park.

As the winter season was setting in it was time to head again back North for seasonal work as guide. Instead of guiding snowscooter tours at Luosto I ended up guiding husky tours at the good old Husky Center Kolmiloukko at Taivalkoski. Before I started the work I had time for a quick but relaxed overnighter with an old friend. When closing to Christmas the season really kicked off and I had to scratch the plans of little overngiht trips to Syöte National Park and concentrate solely on the work but luckily I like my work so can’t complain. In addition I launched my own ski expedition courses, tours and expeditions that are turning out to be very popular. Interesting work to come in winter 2013.

Again I can say that the passing year was a good year outdoorswise. I’m a bit sorry that the Svalbard plan went bust but that opened new possibilities instead. Again I learnt a lot new things and got more experience in other things. I didn’t end up spending more nights outdoors than in 2011 but hit again the 60 nights out or so. (I don’t still really do counting.) On the latter half of the year I was a bit lazy spending nights outdoors as I found it hard to be inspired by little trips close to home. Partially this was due the big uncertainties with the Svalbard related plans and later getting work for the winter season. But it was good year none the less. As a closing remark I’d like to thank the teachers and fellow students of SELO11, people involved in the Vatnajökull 2012 expedition and especially N.

The winter of 2013 is pretty much set involving guiding husky safaris at Taivalkoski and also running ski expedition courses and tours in Finland, Sweden and Iceland. What happens in May and thereafter is somewhat a mystery but once again I try to include a lot of outdoors to the upcoming year.