Korpijaakko

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…

Skiing back in typical Northern spruce forest.

So, Merry Christmas to you all!