Last week I returned from the autumn hike of the Wilderness Guide course that I’m participating. We did a six-day hike in the Muotkatunturit wilderness area in Lapland North-West from the village of Inari. Most of the Muotkatunturit area is nice and friendly with easy-going terrain, open fjell areas followed with dwarf birch forests and […]
“Monthly highlights” is a series of post concentrating on a 10-month wilderness guide course I am taking this year at Niittylahden opisto near Joensuu in Eastern Finland. These posts try to summarize the best parts of each month and are naturally published at the end of each month (or in the beginning of the following […]
Last week’s overnighter was supposed to be a kayaking trip to lake Kuolimo in South East Finland not far from where I live. The plan was to go with T who has a kayak and I would have rented a kayak from the local club SaiLa just like before… But it turned out they don’t […]
Talvinen luonto on uskomattoman kaunis ja palkitseva, mutta se voi olla myös ankara ja haastava, jopa vaarallinen. Ankarissa talvioloissa tarvittavat tiedot ja taidot voi kuitenkin oppia turvallisesti ja tehokkaasti. Samalla voit kokea unohtumattomia elämyksiä ja pääset tutustumaan samanhenkisiin ihmisiin. Lumen verhoama autio avotunturi, loputtomat jäätikkötasangot ja jylhät lumihuippuiset vuoret voivat tuntua kaukaisilta haaveilta, mutta ne […]
The Nordic nature in winter is unbelievably beautiful and rewarding but it can also be fierce and challenging, even plain dangerous. But the knowledge and skills needed in hard winter conditions can be learned in safe and effective way. And at the same time you can experience memorable adventures and get to know interesting people! […]
Packraft is a packable white-water worthy one-person raft weighting only a few kilo and easily carried in backpack. This tool enables incredible freedom of route planning for wilderness travel. When hiker can easily carry a lightweight and capable raft in his backpack, rivers and lakes turn from obstacles into possibilities and highways. And when a […]
Dear fellow armchair adventurers, I’d have an announcement to make. Those following me on Twitter might have already spotted the reason for the blog being a bit quiet, a lot more quiet than I’d like it to be… This is because I’ve been busy organizing my next project and my main trip for this winter: […]
We just got some 10-15cm of fresh snow here in Finland so I’ll continue with winterish topics. I was writing another monster post but decided to split it in two. This post has some information and my opinions about snow shelter in general . The second half will include detailed descriptions on how I have […]
I promised some more posts about the Ultima Thule 2011 expedition and they are on their way, but it starts to be summer here in Finland (In my opinion +15 Celsius, sunshine and only tiny bit of snow left is somewhat a summer…) so I though to post something else first. Another free meal… with […]
I thought that it would be good to have a little look on the backgrounds of arctic travelling, before plunging into the gear. The gear is chosen to work well in certain conditions and for certain style of traveling and knowing the backgrounds helps to understand the gear choices and function. Weather, snow conditions, etc. […]
In July I spent (again) a week on Kebnekaise area, this time combining two trips into a one-week tour. Both were traverses of a sort, the first including a traverse of the Kebnekaise summits and the second traversing the whole massif with packrafts. This post is about the latter. The second part of the tour […]
Just a quick mention about two relatively new high quality online magazines, which are also completely free! …and as a bonus a couple of photos from the last week here at Taivalkoski. Mountain Pro The first online publications worth a look is the Mountain Pro magazine by Target Publishing. Here’s the official introduction: Mountain Pro […]
I’m waiting my Alpacka Denali Llama packraft to arrive from the States and to pass the time while waiting I’ve been reading about other people’s packrafting trips. So this list of recommended reads is mostly about packrafting blogs and trips. If you find yourself asking “What the hell is a packraft?” then it might be […]
This bilingual post includes some additional details regarding the packraft gathering at 6.-8.10.2017! // Tämä kaksikielinen kirjoitus sisältää tarkempia tietoja liittyen packraft-kokoontumiseen 6.-8.10.2017! In English: Summon the packrafters in Finland! (Once again…) We’d like to welcome you to the Finnish Packraft Gathering 4.0. Meeting will be held at Lohjanjärvi-Mustionjoki in Southern Finland on 6.-8.10.2017. The […]