Climbing at Hiidenkirnut, Rovaniemi

Ready for abseiling

On the weekend it was time again to head to Hiidenkirnut cliffs again and continue the training of rope work supervisor module. On September 2010 we did the module 1 and now managed to complete module 2 (KTO 2). The theme for the 2-day session was abseiling, rescue from the climbing wall, varying possible problems when climbing/belaying, etc...

Accident on the wall, unconscious climber

Rescue operation in action

All in all the two days was full of recalling learnings from the module 1, lot's of new things to learn and varying weather of course. I haven't been climbing before on thunderstorm and such a heavy rain, which made the rock slippery as ice. The test to become a qualified rope work supervisor will be on October, but before it there's a 6 month summer to practice...

Orienteering at amusement park

This was really a competition at home ground ! Sprint orienteering competition a few hundred meters away from my home at Särkänniemi amusement park. The environment was challenging and difficult due to non-symmetrical forms and shapes, high number of the information at the map and challenging route selection options. All in all the race was up- and downhill...

The first control point came fast and couldn't get smooth start. Didn't find it right away and missed some 5-6 seconds... The leg 1-2 went very well, I was pleased. Legs 2-3, 3-4 were pretty OK. Then 4-5 was a disaster due to wrong route selection, couldn't read the map correctly. Roughly 1 minute mistake.

From control point 5 to 12 it was pretty OK according to my orienteering skills, few small mistakes, but nothing huge. And then I totally missed control point 13, I was reading map from 12 to directly 14 and missed CP13. Disqualification ! The first DSQ ever for me at orienteering. The positive thing was that it didn't happen in the relay but in the personal race only.

The summary of the Ylläs-week

Kellostapuli fell

The week of skiing in Lapland is over... The summary for the week was:

- Lots of reindeers

- Even more Moomins at the ski tracks

- 1 Capercaillie

- 1 Picoides tridactylus

- 4 Squirrels

- 2 Swans

- 1 Jarmo Riski

- 1 Popeda

- 1 Ylläs

- 1 Pallas

- 1 Levi

and 140 km XC skiing, 10 km running, half a day telemarking and one day backcountry skiing.

Backcountry skiing at Pallas

Sun was shining, snow were melting and the feeling of being at such a place at this time of the year was incredible.

Look at this weather and the scenery!

Capercaillie, the king of Ylläs

Approaching Ylläs

In the middle of April it was time to gather again with other students to our monthly 4-day period of school studies. We headed on Thursday to Ylläs or actually to Äkäslompolo, which is a small village at northern part of Finland, next to over 700 meters fell called Yllästunturi.

Searching the victim of avalanche buried into a snow with the help of beacon

On Thursday we were practicing the use of beacons & probes to identify victims of avalanches buried into a deep snow. Ylläs has a practice area of up to 7 avalanche victims. When the victim was identified with the beacon, then the probes were used to pinpoint the exact point of victim under the snow. After a victim was localized the hard part of digging victim out of snow was conducted.

Using probes to search a victim under the snow

The whole Thursday were used for the snow safety module. Although the avalanches are quite rare and small in Finland they occur occasionally in the northern part of mountainous Finland.

The depth of the snow was 1,9 meters at this point

The days from Friday to Sunday were reserved for the teaching of skiing techniques. Cross-country skiing technique of classic style were learned and practiced on Friday, cross-country skiing technique of skate skiing on Saturday and Telemark skiing on Sunday.

Preparing classic style skis

After 3 day practicing the whole body was sore and tired, but the mind was on the good mood. I really learned a lot during these days and now at least I know how to ski technically right. It's another thing how well I was able to adopt the correct technique. For sure I have lots of things to improve on the coming winters...

One of the practices for sliding only with one ski

After the school days I will stay at Äkäslompolo the whole next week skiing classic style. The weather has been astonishingly sunny and beautiful. This morning, when skiing around the Ylläs fell, I met the king of Ylläs, capercaillie, who was not too friendly for the skiers trying to approach him...

Capercaillie meets the skier

Adventure education

Thanks to the studies I have had a great possibility to read many interesting books. The diversity of the subjects has been astonishing. E.g. the last four books have been dealing with subjects ranging from GPS systems and navigation to the human factors of risk management and an introduction to the theory of adventure education!

Left : Compass, Up : GPS system, Down : Risk mgmt, Right : Theory of adventure education

Two weeks ago I started serious training for the marathon at the end of May. I had two months time to get myself onto marathon fit. 54 km and 63 km running in first two weeks has been the total amount of the runs, which is pretty well. It hasn't been too easy, though, my body seems to require more time to get used to running after long winter...

Ice climbing at Korouoma, Posio

On a way to Northern Finland

This weekend was booked for 7th school weekend and the theme for the 4 days was ice climbing at Korouoma, Posio, which is the best place in Finland to climb on ice. There are multiple icefalls at Korouoma, the biggest one is 60 meters high "Ruskeavirta". 

Climbers at Ruskeavirta icefall

We headed to "Mammutti" (Mammuth) icefall next to Ruskeavirta. There were lots of ice due to the extreme good winter and freezing temperatures so far. Mammutti icefall was roughly 20 meters high.

On top of the icefall

Sun was setting after 6PM and on Friday we were using the time before darkness for ice climbing. Couple of times I hit my knees to the ice, when kicking the crampons towards the ice. After the climbing my knees were quite sore...

Ready for climbing and belaying

After the sunset we headed back to our base camp and started to dig snow for our tents. 

Tents at our base camp

When the tents were pitched we had a possibility to start cooking and preparing a supper, blazed salmon. It was already 10PM when we had a chance to eat after the long and hard day...

Blazed salmon

The Saturday was cloudy and it was snowing and blowing a bit during the day. Today we were practicing how to rope a team, how to belay, how to self-arrest, how to climb a snow slopes, how to move on a crevasse area, how to use ice axe and so forth...

Roping a team

Sliding down and practicing to do self-arrest to stop sliding

On Saturday evening when we were back at base camp, we started to build quinzees for the next night. The purpose was to sleep at tent only the first night and then make a quinzee for the next night. We shoveled lots of snow again to build a comfortable snow shelter to sleep.

Digging a quinzee

Inside the quinzee

On Sunday we practiced how to make a Lappland's campfire, named "Oivitiilu". It is a campfire made out of fresh birch, the only tree which is available at the Northern part of Finland. It will take roughly 1 hour to make an "Oivitiilu" campfire, but it is the essential skill to make a fire from wet and fresh wood.

A burning "Oivitiilu" campfire

Weekend of traditional tradition

On a ready made track

The skiing weekend of this year with my friends in the outback of the Kuru woods is now over. Skiing nearly 80 km distance in a four days in a thick snow was again an experience of this winter. All together this was our 9th annual skiing weekend, so you could say this is our tradition every spring. However I have missed a couple of earlier events and for me this was perhaps 7th...

On a track made by us

Great views, varying weather from the sleet and plus celsius to sunshine and -10 degrees, hard climbs, speedy downhills, laavu nights, warm and huge campfires, great company, tiredness after long days of skiing, geocaching and pizza at Artturi Pub at Kuru. This was all about it.

Laavu night with campfire