“Not only for the thrills!” I am a qualified Wilderness Guide and offer guided expeditions, trips, courses, training and programs for groups and individuals. My primary focus is in wilderness travel and the related skills: – on foot (lightweight bacpacking and demanding hikes), – on water (kayaking, canoeing and packrafting and rafting), – and especially […]
As the halfway ready trip report about Lake Inari vanished to cyberspace, I will instead take part to the current hot topic: the meaning and role of the gear. As everything in the blog, these are my personal opinions. Hendrik started the current round of conversation with his post Who is the lightest of them […]
The title states the obvious facts about last Wednesday’s micro adventure I did with classmates from the wilderness guide school but apparently there is more to say about the trip than the numbers as this turned out to be quite a long post. The Niittylahden opisto has also many other courses and classes than the […]
Once again this is a love story under the name “review”. And more than about a jacket, this a story about a hood. And not just any hood but possibly the best shell jacket hood in the world. And it can be found from Sasta Everest jacket. The author enjoying the great hood in Svalbard […]
The Expedition in Brief The Ultima Thule 2011 expedition was my main project for winter 2011. It was a three-week long unsupported and unassisted skiing expedition to Svalbard taking place in April 2011. The objectives of the expedition were to: – do an unassisted and unsupported three-week ski expedition, – climb the highest fells of […]
For the last two weeks or so it has been a full on summer here in Finland. Temperatures have been close to +30C, there hasn’t been much rain (at least in the South-East) and everything is green and blooming. Well, mosquitoes are not green but they seem to be booming as well… This all means […]
Instead of writing about snow caves as I promised before, this post will be about simple emergency snow shelters as I happened to build a couple of them last weekend. I was not in an emergency but there is still a lot of snow out there and I had time – so why not? I […]
Packraft on muutaman kilon painava, repussa kulkeva koskikelpoinen yhden hengen kumilautta. Tämä ”työkalu” vapauttaa vaeltajan ja melojan perinteisistä reitinvalinnan rajoituksista ja mahdollistaa monipuolisen, vapaan liikkumisen luonnossa sulanmaan aikaan. Kun vaeltajan repussa on kevyt ja suorituskykyinen kumilautta eivät joet ja järvet ole enää kierrettäviä esteitä vaan uusia mahdollisuuksia ja valtaväyliä. Ja kun meloja voi tarvittaessa pakata […]
Last weekend I was skiing in Repovesi National Park with four other Ultima Thule 2011 expedition members. The trip was good, people were great and weather was nice for training. Even the most sloppy packing ever didn’t ruin the trip… 185 bags of freeze dried meals from Fuizion In Friday afternoon I hurried to home […]
In addition to other guiding services for winter 2013 we offer now also a great opportunity to learn vital winter travel skills with husky dogs in collaboration with Husky Center Kolmiloukko and their great huskyes! There are two one-week trips with fixed dates but tailor-made trips of similar or different style are available any time […]
Not so long ago I wrote a post about different satellite communication devices available for outdoors use. And as many of the devices were brand new for the market there wasn’t too much user experiences available by the time. This is a follow-up and addition to the original post introducing some new satellite communication tools […]
I have now weighted almost every piece of gear that I am going to take with me to Svalbard on the three-week unsupported and unassisted skiing expedition next month. Skiing on expedition meeting at Padasjoki, January 2011. … and the winner iiis… Earlier I posted my gear list to my blog and promised a free […]
This is the second time I’m recommending you to read these two online magazines (sorry for that) but they are really good and there have been also some updates/changes so it’s worth reminding you of them. The summer solstice sun setting at lake Saimaa. Sidetracked Sidetracked is arguably the most inspiring online travel and expedition […]
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 […]