{"id":119,"date":"2011-04-07T00:18:28","date_gmt":"2011-04-06T22:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"\/blog\/?p=119"},"modified":"2013-04-12T20:57:39","modified_gmt":"2013-04-12T18:57:39","slug":"skiing-in-kasivarsi-wilderness-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gerald-zojer.com\/blog\/skiing-in-kasivarsi-wilderness-area\/","title":{"rendered":"Skiing in K\u00e4sivarsi Wilderness Area – Exploring the Surroundings of Kilpisj\u00e4rvi"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"K\u00e4sivarsi<\/a>
Mountain range close to Kilpisj\u00e4rvi, in K\u00e4sivarsi wilderness area<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In April I kind of felt like needing some mountains around me, especially because I really wanted to go skiing. Alpine Skiing! Rovaniemi and its surroundings is really great for cross country, but suffers from a total absence of mountains – like Finland in general (I’d say, even if not everybody agrees). However, close to the Norwegian border, in the very North-West of Finland, there are some (the native Austrian would say: almost) mountains, that looked inviting for skiing when I passed by there in January, on my way to Troms\u00f8<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So it was pretty easy to make a decision. In a week where the weather forecast promised good and not too cold weather (my sleeping bag unfortunately has its limit already at -15\u00b0C) I spontaneously decided to grab my back-country skiers, my tent, and my other gear and took the bus to Kilpisj\u00e4rvi. Arriving there in the afternoon, the first day was a rather short one and I only went towards the Norwegian border, when I had to build up my tent, as the thick fog didn’t allow me to find the way on the (from the wind blown away) trail any longer: it was really hard to see from one marker to the next one, so I decided to prepare for the night. The next day, the same picture. No sight, only white in white, so I hung around the tent and spent the time reading. Only late in the afternoon, the fog lifted a little bit and I walked to Norway (I didn’t know earlier, that I was just about 50 m from the border). Anyhow, that day I was not very sporty, but at least it ended promising more visibility for the next day.<\/p>\n

\"Me<\/a>
Me on the top of one of the hills<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Which was true. With my Alpine back country skiers (they are definitely not made for hiking in flat areas, they need mountains!) I continued. On the first few kilometers on the trail, I twice met a big group of snowmobile bikers, which seriously disgusted me (those things smell like hell and make noise like being in a huge mine) and lead me to the decision, to leave the trail. So I headed East (instead of North) until I found myself in an elevated, small valley, which looked really cozy. I decided to build up my camp there, and spend the next days with doing short skiing trips to the tops of the surrounding mountains. It was a bit tricky though to build up the tent, as there was really heavy wind all the time. So to make it easier and sleep better, I first cut out blocks of the compressed snow, and made a wall on the side the wind was coming from (reading the valley, the wind apparently most of the time was coming from West).<\/p>\n

Starting from that “base camp” I then spend the next two days just skiing up and down with my old back-country skiers, and to rediscover the pleasure of old-school skiing without carvers – the way I learned it, when I was a child. I enjoyed that so much, that even late in the evening, after I have already been back at the tent, I went a few more times up and down the hill, on which foot my tent was built. Even though I would have enjoyed spending a few more days with skiing, I had to go back to Kilpisj\u00e4rvi, to catch the bus back to Rovaniemi. Since I wanted to make sure to catch the bus, I decided to spend the last night not too far away from the village. Unlike all my campsites in the tundra area, the place that I reached very tired in the evening did not have a hard snow layer on top, which I only discovered after – and because of – getting of my skiers. Nevertheless I somehow managed to stay at that place (when you lay on a mattress, your surface contact is big enough to not sink into the snow; a fact I should have reminded for going to pee also later in the night; however, now I know what a tunnel tent is ;-) ) and came in time to the bus next day.<\/p>\n

All in all, I really enjoyed this short trip. Mostly, the weather was beautiful, and the temperature never dropped below -12\u00b0C, so my sleeping bag was sufficient :-) For not freezing off my ass, I also have to thank a friend of mine, who updated me with the weather forecast, to know about the expected temperatures (good that I went skiing: on the top of the hills the mobile got reception). That way I was able to enjoy one of my most amazing weeks I have had in Lapland, so far …<\/p>\n

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