Korpijaakko

– my personal views on all walks of outdoor life

Tag Archives: husky

Photos from the winter wonderland

3 Comments Posted by Korpi-Jaakko on 21/01/2013

The regular readers probably know that for most of this winter season I’m working at Husky Center Kolmiloukko at Taivalkoski (a small town in North-East Finland) guiding husky safaris.

I’ve been lately quite busy with the huskies and guiding because I’m also putting together my own ski expedition courses and tours and actually spent the last weekend at lake Inari training winter skills with two ultra-runners. It turned out to be a superb trip but more of it later… Despite being busy I’ve had some time to take photos on the way and here are some shots from the winter wonderland here at Taivalkoski. Photos from the Inari are to follow later…

Here are some photos from a full-day husky safari in early January. The customers were great (as they usually are) and we saw the sun for the first time for over a week or so.

The guide’s job here includes also quite a lot of driving with snowmobile – and waiting as N is doing in the photo…

In addition to the 60 adult dogs, we have also some of these cute fellows as well. The big one, named “Nuoska” (meaning wet sticky snow), is probably the biggest husky puppy of her age I’ve ever seen and if she’ll continue to grow like that she’ll be around the size of a horse in the end… 😀

As mentioned the work involves also waiting but luckily our dogs are masters in the waiting game. Here the dogs are waiting for customers to arrive for a full-day safari in mid January on a particularly cold day with temps below -30C. The upside with the cold weather is that here it goes hand in hand with clear skies and sunny weather.

And this is how the cold here looks like…

On my free time I try to go out skiing as often as possible. The views are often nice, like the dusk in the photo below taken while on a skiing trip at the close-by swamp plains.

As we haven’t seen much auroras here lately, here’s one of the nice northern lights we saw in early December. The skies are clear tonight so I keep my fingers crossed for more fresh photos of the fire on the sky…

For those interested: All photos are taken with Canon EOS 550D and most of them with the magnificent EF 24-105 4 L IS. Equipped with an external battery grip it works just fine below -30C temps and can be used also with thick mitts. Just remember not the breath towards the viewfinder or lens. 😉

guiding, photographpy 550D, auroras, Canon, cold, dogsled, EF 24-105 4 L IS, Eos, husky, husky puppy, koiravaljakko, kylmä, nature, northern lights, outdoors, pakkanen, revontulet, Taivalkoski, winter

Guided dogsled tours! / Opastetuja koiravaljakkoretkiä!

4 Comments Posted by Korpi-Jaakko on 22/11/2012

This is again a bilingual blog post about guiding services I am offering. / Tämä on toinen kaksikielinen tiedote tarjoamistani opaspalveluista.

This post serves also as a “commenting area” as the comments on pages are disabled. / Tämä tiedote palvelee myös kommentointi- ja keskustelualueena, sillä info-sivuilla ei voi kommentoida.

Which track you’d like to follow? Choose your favourite, both options now available!
– – –
Kumpaa latua haluaisit kulkea? Valitse vapaasti, molemmat vaihtoehdot nyt tarjolla!

Dogsled tours, in English

As I’m working at Husky Center Kolmiloukko this winter I’m able to offer also guided tours with dogsleds in addition to my other guiding services. The tours combine learning vital winter skills to enjoy the Nordic and Arctic winter with dogsleds and skis and/or snowshoes.

For the winter 2013 I offer two one-week programs with fixed dates but tailor-made trips with dogs are available through January, March and April:

– Deep-winter wilderness; 13.-19.1.2013; Taivalkoski, Finland.
Learn “expedition style” winter skills in the dead of the Nordic winter. Makes also a great introduction for Advanced Course in Arctic Ski Expedition in Sarek!
– Sunny spring crust; 7.-12.4.2013; Taivalkoski, Finland.
Enjoy the sunny days and crusty snow of late winter season driving dogsleds and on skis or snowshoes.
– Tailor-made trips in January, March and April 2013; Southern Lapland, Finland.

For tailor-made tours please inquire availability and prices via e-mail!

Ps. Remember also the ski expedition courses and trips for winter 2013:
– Basics of Nordic and Arctic Winter Travel; on request; Southern Finland or Finnish Lapland
– Basic Course on Arctic Ski Expeditions; 25.-27.1.2013 and 6.-8.2.2013; Lappeenranta, Southern-Finland
– Advanced Course on Arctic Ski Expeditions; 1.-9.3.2013; Sarek, Northern Sweden
– Vatnajökull 2013 – Expedition Across the Largest Glacier in Europe; May 2013; Vatnajökull, Iceland

Koiravaljakkoretket, suomeksi

Työskentelen tällä talvikaudella Husky Center Kolmiloukossa ja tarjoan muiden opaspalveluideni lisäksi myös opastettuja koiravaljakkoretkiä. Retkillä opit tärkeitä talviretkeilytaitoja liikuttaessa koiravaljakolla ja suksilla ja/tai lumikengillä arktisissa talvioloissa.

Talvelle 2013 tarjoan kaksi valmista retkeä kiinteillä päivämäärillä ja lisäksi räätälöityjä ohjelmia on tarjolla tammi-, maalis- ja huhtikuussa:

– Sydäntalven tunnelmia; 13.-19.1.2013; Taivalkoski, Suomi.
Opi “retkikuntatyylin” talviretkeilytaitoja sydäntalven pakkasessa. Kurssilla opit myös tarvittavat taidot osallistuaksesi Arktisen hiihtovaeltamisen jatkokurssille Sarekiin!
– Keväthankien kimallusta; 7.-12.4.2013; Taivalkoski, Suomi.
Nauti kevättalven auringosta ja hankikeleistä koiravaljakolla ja suksilla tai lumikengillä.
– Räätälöidyt ohjelmat tammi-, maalis- ja huhtikuu 2013; Pohjois-Pohjanmaa/Etelä-Lappi; Suomi

Räätälöityjen retkien saatavuutta ja hintoja voit tiedustella sähköpostilla!

Ps. Muista myös hiihtovaelluskurssit ja -retkikunnat talvelle 2013:
– Arktisen hiihtovaeltamisen perusteet; 25.-27.1.2013 ja 6.-8.2.2013; Lappeenranta, Etelä-Suomi
– Arktisen hiihtovaeltamisen jatkokurssi; 1.-9.3.2013; Sarek, Pohjois-Ruotsi
– Vatnajökull 2013 – Retkikunta halki Euroopan suurimman jäätikön; toukokuu 2013; Vatnajökull, Islanti

guiding dogsled, dogsledding, expedition, Finland, guide, guiding, husky, koiravaljakko, Lapland, Lappi, retkikunta, talvi, talviretkeily, winter, winter survival

The winter is here!

5 Comments Posted by Korpi-Jaakko on 14/11/2012

…or to be precise, I traveled where the winter is. But anyway, me and good ‘ol winter are again in the same place and I’m enjoying it a lot! I was actually so excited that I wanted to share a few words and photos with you.

Liking the winter after a 10km training run with the dogs.

There was a little snow in South-East Finland earlier but not a real winter and apparently at the moment there isn’t any snow left and temperatures are closer to +10C instead of freezing. As I’m on the way to North to work I decided to spend some time on a “working holiday” at Taivalkoski in the Husky Center Kolmiloukko where I was working the last Christmas season.

I’ve been mostly helping training and conditioning the dogs i.e. riding sleds which is great fun. I feels so awesome to pass effortlessly and quietly through snow-covered landscape. There isn’t that much snow yet, maybe some 15-20cm, so it’s a bit bumby ride but still fun. I highly recommend giving dog sledding a try.

In addition I did the first skiing trip of the year (have to be in shape for guiding trips) and have been actually also working a bit with the shovel preparing the tracks…

Another awesome thing was that last night there were magnificent Northern lights! I saw a faint greyish light at the horizon while skiing in the late afternoon (it’s dark here around 16 pm and sun rises around 9 am) and later in the evening it turned into a real light show.

Judging by the last few days living and working in Lapland for the winter doesn’t feel too bad, though I’m quite sure my moods will swing a bit when shoveling snowmobiles from the drifts… 😉

Because of not having a permanent place to stay at the moment the blog might be silent for a while. At the mean time, I’d advice you to enjoy the outdoors! 🙂

Uncategorized aurora borealis, auroras, dog sled, Finland, husky, Lapland, northern lights, Taivalkoski

Season’s Greetings from Taivalkoski!

4 Comments Posted by Korpi-Jaakko on 24/12/2011

For me it doesn’t quite feel like it, but it’s the time to wish you all dear readers: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Glogg on an overnight pre-Christmas retreat. Merry Christmas!

And to add some content into this post here’s a quick update about what’s going on…

Preparing the cafeteria for the Christmas dinner.

As regular readers allready know I’m doing my wilderness guide school internship period at the moment at Husky Center Kolmiloukko at Taivalkoski. Usually I’ve spent the Christmas with family at my parent’s place but this year it’s very different: I’ll be working. For Christmas Eve I didn’t have much to do, only to take care and feed the dogs, which takes few hours as there are 60 dogs. Next we’ll have a Christmas dinner with the owners and then sauna. And tomorrow, on Christmas Day, we’ll wake up before 06:00 and head to the Syöte skiing center with the dogs for a full day of work. So, happy holidays for those who have a holiday! 😉

A Christmas dinner for the 60 huskies.

It’s nice and winterish here in Taivalkoski: There’s over 30cm of snow and more is coming slowly but steadily. It’s been quite warm for the whole week with the temps hovering between +1C and -3C but the weather forecast promises colder temps and more snow.

Hopefully the weather forecast is correct...

N skiing ahead in the dark.

At the end of the week I had two days off with my girlfriend N who is also working here (and is actually working i.e. gets paid for it) so we went for a little overnighter in Syöte National Park. This time of the year the Sun rises around 10:30 and sets at 13:40. So headlamps see a lot of use, specially as it’s been mostly cloudy and snowing for the whole week. We decided to spent the night in Ahmatupa rental hut as there was also a sauna. A bed in the hut costs only 10 euros per person per night so it’s not too expensive. After checking that the hut was vacant for the night we went to get the key from the Visitor center just before it closed at 16:00. We skied some 8km along ready made skiing track to the hut. We warmed up the hut and sauna, bathed and rolled in the snow, had some Christmas food for supper and enjoyed the silence and the fire while surrounded with tall thinny spruces covered with snow.

The Ahmatupa. The hut has two sides: open side and rentable side.

After sleeping in long the next morning, we decided to continue along the snowmobile tracks of the park maintenance. We planned to ski to Toralampi widlerness hut but the tracks didn’t go there and it was getting dark so after a lunch on a fire place weturned around and ventured back to the main track and back to the Visitor center, again, few minutes before it closed for Christmas at 16:00. It was a nice trip and a good start for the winter season. Hopefully there are more trips to come but now I’m feeling ready for dinner…