New Year's Eve at 70°N

I wonder if you have ever been told to not jump into strangers' cars or follow them into forests, in the middle of nowhere. That's something my parents told me, so now I speak from a stranger's point of view in this story. Some of my newly made friends surely haven't heard this advice. It takes guts to jump in, especially if you are asked by a random guy on some Facebook site. At this point in time the random guy, after all planning and arranging, did end up spending his New Year's Eve in the promise land of cold and dark winters and reindeers.  This adventurous story takes place in beautiful Kilpisjärvi, Finland, far up North in the Polar Circle. In company with three other guys; a Finnish, a Californian and a German; and one girl from France. We became friends instantly and travelled hours and hours in a fully packed car to experience New Year's Eve in an abandoned hut in the middle of the wilderness, in the Arctic tundra.

Polar night, The sun won't rise. It's the moon that's shining!

 

New Year's Eve in cold, dark Lapland of Finland? Why not!

 

It could be said that the main trigger to plan such a trip was the fact that all my friends, with whom I'm used to spend New Year's Eve in the past, were working during the turn of the year. The poor snow situation in Southern Finland didn't sound very appealing neither. I had been imagining winter hiking and camping as a fairly exciting and adventurous thing to do, so I thought I would give it a try and gather some adventure-minded people together. I started with the Californian. It was pretty easy to get him involved since he's always excited and "down" for new experiences. Although Justin is a really nice fellow the journey needed more participants in order to being a success. I started with Facebook... some interested friends but all were busy on New Year's Eve. Where could I find travel-minded and motivated people that are able to deal with the Nordic conditions and be at least tolerable... or preferably super awesome to hang out with. I got really nice comments for my first post on hitch hiking Facebook group so I thought that some of these nice adventure seekers would be interested in joining the crew. Soon after sending an open invitation I got messages from a French lady named Sarah and a German Niklas. A week later my old fishing friend Tuukka heard about the great Lapland adventure plan and asked to join. I was happy to have another person with hiking experience in our crew.

Testing out the carrying devices.

Until the point in time when all five of us met at Parkano train station close to my home town, the planning was focused on researching possible places to stay, needed gear, skyping with the crew, arranging schedules, and so on.  Our local ski slope Jämi lent us snow shoes to make our small budget expedition a reality. I built four sleds so that we could drag our gear when trudging through the deep snow.

14 hour night car ride to north 29.12.-14

 

Our journey started when Tuukka got off work and made his way to my hometown. We loaded the car and agreed that we had everything needed for the trip, although both of us had a feeling in our butts that something was missing. Great thanks for Tuukka for attending since without him I wouldn't have felt confident in taking people I barely know and Justin from the sunny land of California to do a multi-day winter hike in Lapland.

Next we went to pick up the rest of the crew from Parkano train station. The tension that had built on my mind when arranging and planning the whole thing finally dropped off when I get to meet the rest of the crew and realized how amazing our new friends/hiking crew was. We started the engine and headed North.

Crazy people, every single one of them!

Failed hiking 30.12.-14

 

The car ride through night was quite heavy but we made it to Kilpisjärvi around 9 am. I had been checking the webcams of the Kilpisjärvi area when planning the hike. Although the sun didn't rise at all, it seemed through checking the webcams that light would appear around 9 am and disappear after 3 pm. When we arrived though, it was way darker than I would have imagined. Cloudy sky and snowfall decreased the visibility. There was no trail or snowmobile track what so ever and I sensed a feeling that it could be too hard for our unexperienced group. We waited a while in the car, but eventually decided to give it a try. After few minutes our sleds were packed and ready to go. The snow was quite hard to hike in and every now and then we stumbled into rocky areas. The one who went first had to drag his sled uphill on the soft yet deep snow, making a path for others. Our progress was slow in the dark, mountainous landscape full of short birch trees, but a bottle of liquid warmth cheered us up. After 4 hours of hiking through the dark, daytime started to turn into a truly dark night. We tried to look for a mountain tip that would work as a landmark and give a direction for our compasses in case we would end up hiking in pitch black. We went on for a while but couldn't find the crucial landmark before it got dark. The group started to fall apart and exhaustion was clearly taking its place. We stopped briefly in order to check the possible route. When looking to our hikers exhausted faces, and the fact that we had barely made one third of the total distance and had no clear direction in the darkness we decided to turn back. It was a bitter decision but the right one when thinking about the conditions. All in all I felt proud of the whole group and that we had made it so far.

New Year's Eve, The cabin 31.12.-14

 

It was another day and our will to spend New Year's Eve in the wilderness hadn't decreased one bit. The crew had got their rest. The hitch hikers both were going off days without real sleep so it was welcomed to sleep in actual beds after hard days of traveling. It was time for another try. This time we chose the destination according to the snow conditions and what we had learnt from the day before. We got a late start, but now we had the moon lighting our way. Due to the better quality of the snow, progress was much faster than the day before and soon we made it up to the tree-line (the vertical height were trees stop to grow). Hiking was incredible in the dark landscape on top of the mountains, around us only snow, stars, the moon and light wind. Such a stunning view. In front of us just plain untouched snow and behind a path of snow shoes and sleds, winter hiking at its best! 

Group photo on the way! (Northern lights glowing in the horizon.)

First northern lights of our expedition.

After few hours of walking we felt relieved when finally found the cabin. No electricity, no commodities, no nothing. But that is how we liked it. I laid my backpack on the floor and went to get some wood to start the fire stove in the corner. Settled around the table for a rest, smile appeared to our faces when we finally get the cabin heated up and our clothes to dry. It would have been tempting to take a nap after another tiresome hiking day, but the new year was coming! Party on!

Far away from civilization a party was about to get started.

Midnight run in the snow. Welcome 2015.

Late night hours in the cabin.

The year changed and our partying gave way for conventional cabin life. The days consisted mostly of keeping up the fire, chopping wood, ice-fishing, preparing the arctic charr we caught, reading books, sledding etc. Every now and then someone went to get more water from the lake. Easy livin'!

There's the cabin! Some northern lights and the halo of the moon too.

Californian on ice.

Trying our best to feed the crew.

Arctic char. Small, but after catching and smoking several we got a nice meal.

Dinner time!

After some days of cabin life it was time to hike back to the car. We woke up early in the morning, ate the last food we had left, packed the sleds, and once again we were ready to move on. The snow had gotten even more hard during our stay, which made hiking really pleasant. We conquered the mountain top fast and continued through the white scenery, reaching the car before midday.

Another long drive back south soon followed. Listening to Spanish flamenco music in the car coupled with spiritual Saame radio gave some cheerful contrast while driving the snowy roads. Super happy that the trip we had planned eventually turned out well, although at first it seemed like hiking longer distances in soft snow wouldn't work. At some moments of despair I felt like the idea of New Year's Eve in wilderness wouldn't work, but the common good spirit and motivation of the crew made each day more fun and enjoyable. I was lucky to have you all there. Hope to see you again soon! Thank you.

Richard