Day 4: Pitsusjärvi - Halti - Pitsusjärvi

I slept pretty bad as the wind was blowing heavily from the fell and shaking the tent all night.

No matter if I was tired or not I started around 7 am with three other hikers towards Halti. The sky in the direction of Halti was black! Something that I had noticed in the night too.

The two hours of hiking it took to reach the foot of Halti the weather was decent. A few drops of rain, a bit of sunshine and heavy wind. But the top of Halti was still in cloud cover, but thankfully not fully black clouds anymore.

It was a heavy climb. Really heavy! I hadn't really prepared myself mentally for this climb. I think I was expecting some kind of a path, but there was none. Just wood markers pointing the way, but no path. We were basically hopping from rock to rock and climbing a few times vertically up which made me worry how I would get down.

As we approached the peak there were few times that I thought to abort my climb. I was trailing our group and the cloud cover made me lose sight of other climbers. It's also the general feeling of the place. It feels dead. Inhospitable. Not welcoming. Rocks. I don't belong there. Go home.

But suddenly the marker of the highest point in Finland was in front of me. It came so suddenly from the cloud that I almost didn't understand that I reached the top of Halti! It was snowing and extremely cold at the top. We quickly took photos, signed the guestbook, and sent messages to home as there was cell phone coverage. I also made a quick call to my grandmother.

It took about an hour and fifteen minutes to reach the top. I signed the guestbook as summit at 10:10 am.

Climbing back down required all attention as well as it wasn't any easier than going up.

Have to say that it was a pretty special feeling to reach Halti. It's not easy feat at all. First to hike 40 to 50 km and then additional 24 km to Halti and back in a single day. Add also that after doing this you need to hike another 40 to 50 km to reach Kilpisjärvi.

I won't be going back to Halti anytime soon...Read more