Day 1, Kemihaara - Vieriharju

This is written four days after the actual date. The weather and how exhausting the tour actually was made it pretty much impossible to write down day to day events.

We started from Kemihaara around 10:45 am in pretty typical winter weather in Eastern Lapland. The sky was cloudy most of the day and the temperature was between -25 to -30 degree Celsius depending a bit on the location.

Our four person group made steady progress towards the Vieriharju wilderness cabin some 10 km away. We skied along the snowmobile tracks made by the Border Guards and reindeer herders.

The landscape was amazing. Just picture perfect! The fresh snow had covered the trees and painted the landscape like a postcard.

Considering my nearly non-existing experience in skiing I managed quite well. Only the uphills were really problematic with heavy pulkka behind me and those few uphills drained my energy completely.

We arrived at the Vieriharju wilderness cabin around 5 pm. Originally the plan was to sleep every night in tents but everyone was so tired that three of us slept in the wilderness cabin. It was also a matter of safety as the weather forecast was showing the temperature dropping down to -35 degrees Celsius.

Not that it made much difference temperature wise as the cabin was so frozen that it was colder indoors than outside which showed around -18 degrees Celsius in the evening.

Still, sleeping in the cabin does save some time and energy as you don't need to set up a camp and there's also a gas stove for heating water.

Unfortunately the maintenance of this cabin was poor. There was not much wood available and the outhouse was so full that you couldn't really use it.Read more