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We came to the border of the state. There was only a sign with text "Border of state" but nothing more. The journey continued gently upwards. The wind was blowing harder and harder against and it started to snow. I begun to straggle as my skis were sliding badly backwards. The wilderness hut of Saarijärvi was in sight about at a distance of two kilometres but the distance seemed to shorten very slowly. The rest of the journey was hard and I came to the hut considerably after Juha and Seppo.
Then three women came to the hut. They hanged their clothes to dry and cooked something to eat. During the evening the storm was increasing. As I went out my clothes became wet in few minutes by the sleet. The wind was hard but the visibility was not very weak. More people came to the hut. A man from The Forest and Park Service with a motor sledge brought three women to the hut. He told that a group of almost twenty people was skiing slowly from the north towards the hut. In addition to them one couple was coming from there. The members of the big hiking group were having meal in the hut in smaller groups. The hut started to be crowded. However, those hikers stayed overnight outside in tents. Not until half past eleven it became silence and we went to bed.
In the next morning I started to wake up after five but got up at six. In the evening we had agreed on early waking as the first day trip had became shorter than planned. It would be also good to leave the hut before the hikers from the tents would come to the hut to have breakfast. I went out to fetch water which could be found from a brook under the snow. As I came back Juha and Seppo were getting up so I started to cook porridge for breakfast. We ate, packed and were on skis already quarter past eight!
The weather was mostly cloudy but also blue sky was in sight. The temperature was three degrees below zero. The wind was moderate but it has turned so that we could ski downwind. We were skiing gently sloping uphill and gradually we turned almost to the north. The hut was long in sight behind us. After all the uphill to the Kuonjarjohka hut was not very bad.
Our journey continued to the north west towards Kuonjarvaggi and Altovaara fjell. We were still skiing gently upwards. The wind had calmed totally during the lunch break. The clouds started promisingly to get thinner and soon the sun began to shine weakly through the clouds. We saw the marked route coming from Saarijärvi but we didn't go to that route because we wanted to retain the height level. Ahead were some small lakes or ponds which were hardly visible under the snow. Half-way to Lossujärvi we stopped for a pause (14.50-15.10). We ate sandwiches and drank hot drink from thermos.
Still some uphill and we came to the marked route. Then we started to ski downhill to Lossujärvi. At the beginning the downhill was so gently sloping that it could hardly be seen. Then the speed started to accelerate on the hard track. I had to ski away from the track to unbeaten snow but the speed was still too fast so I had to fling down on my side to avoid skiing towards stones. Then we started to ski zigzag. Seppo and Juha were skiing on the slope to the right but I skied more to the left. Finally I came back to the marked route which led to the hut of Border guards. From the slope I had seen the wilderness hut of Lossujärvi which was further away but now I didn't saw it. Neither saw I Seppo and Juha. I was a little bit amazed but I continued ahead. Then I saw the hut and boys skiing towards it. I had dropped quite much behind. When I came to the hut the sun was shining very warmly. There seemed to be rather much people.
I woke up several times in the morning but after seven I didn't fall asleep any more. The women got up first and started to cook breakfast. After a while also I got up and put some snow into a kettle to melt. When Juha and Seppo got up I started to cook porridge with the camp cooker. Then we ate and made sandwiches for the day. It was blowing and whirling outside so we didn't hurry to pack. We rested, filled canteens and cooked hot water to the thermos.
The others got ready for travel and so also we started gradually to pack. Outside it was whirling wet snow. The temperature was about zero. We waxed our skis with yellow wax. Quarter past eleven we left the hut. The layer of clouds was thin and the sun could be occasionally seen through the clouds but it was still snowing. The snow started to grasp to skis so we stopped and added violet wax to our skis. After that the skis were gliding better. The wind was blowing weakly from behind our backs. I started to get sweat so I take of my gloves and hat. We continued our journey along Urttasjoki river to the east. On the left side there was steep rocks. We heard somewhere a creak of a ptarmigan. Seppo said that he had seen a bird flying at the direction of the rocks.
At the north west end of Urttaspahta rock-face we stopped for a pause. We mowed away from the track to the left, behind a hill to have shelter from the wind. It had stopped to snow and it started to clear up. We didn't have lunch yet but we ate raisins and chocolate. After continuing journey we saw some reindeers quite close. Further away seemed to be more. The sun began to warm much and skis began to slide a little backwards. We met four persons pulling sleighs and chatted for a while with them. Quarter to three we came to Urttas 'hotel'. It is a hut of retired rural police chief living at Kilpisjärvi. The hut is open for all travellers when the owner is absent. We went inside to eat sandwiches.
There was a lot of reindeer in surroundings of the hut when we continued towards Pitsusjärvi lake. We skied uphill on the left bank of Pitsusjoki river towards the waterfall. When the waterfall was in sight we dropped our rucksacks and got down to the river-bed. The waterfall was totally frozen but there was some square metres unfrozen water below the waterfall. It was possible to hear the babble of the water behind the ice crust. On the west bank of the river below the waterfall there was huge snow-drift. We went back to our rucksacks and started to climb to Pitsusjärvi lake. The skis didn't slide backwards any more. On the contrary the friction was excellent. When we came to the lake the skiing began to get hard as the snow was rather soft and the bases of our skis started to freeze. The Pitsusjärvi hut was in sight about at the distance of two kilometres. In the middle of the lake the snow was harder but the skis were not gliding well. We were at the hut at twenty past five.
After the meal we decided to continue still to Halti hut as the weather was so fine. At half past seven we started to ski ahead. The wind had almost calmed but the temperature had dropped below zero. We met two skiers who suspected that they had seen a wolf. They were not sure because the animal had been so far. We continued upstream on the east side of Kovdajohka river. The sun was still shining brightly rather high. We saw the trace of the "wolf". They were so small that we supposed that they had been made by a fox. We heard again creaks of a ptarmigan. We were still skiing gently upwards. At some places there were steeper hills. We took photos of the fjells which were lighted by the setting sun. Juha noticed a fox running on the opposite bank of the river at the distance of few hundreds meters. I heard beeping of a snow bunting and saw the small white bird sitting on a stone. Spring was coming to Lapland. Before Halti hut we had to climb still a steep uphill. Then we crossed the lake on which shore the hut was.
I woke up before midnight all over sweaty as the hut was still very warm and I had closed my sleeping bag. I got up in the morning at 6.40. The temperature had dropped to +8°C. I visited the dike, set fire to the stove and continued to write my hiking story. There was -6°C outside, almost calm and clear. However there were some clouds at the horizon. When I finished the writing it was almost eight o'clock and time to wake up the boys.
The visibility was poor but for a while we saw also Saivaara fjell. The wind was weak on the summit. We stayed about half an hour on the summit. When we started to get down the weather deteriorated. It started to snow and the visibility got very weak. The skiing downhill was mostly easy as the snow was suitably soft. As the visibility was poor it was occasionally difficult to observe the leaning of the slope and the speed accelerated easily. Once I had to make emergency braking by sitting to the snow when the speed seemed to accelerate too much. It was somehow unreal feeling when I couldn't see no sky, no ground and no reference points; everything was white. We got down in about half an hour and were back at the hut at 12.10. The temperature was there -1°C.
We went in and started to cook lunch. We had a proper meal and got ready to continue our journey. We had planned to ski to Somasjärvi hut. When we went out the visibility was so poor even it didn't snow very much that we decided to go back to Pitsusjärvi. A fresh motor sledge track lead to that direction. At times the sun could be seen weakly through the clouds. There were barely no details to be seen around; everything was white. We were skiing quite fast as we were going downhill. We were back at Pitsusjärvi hut at quarter past three.
He was obviously experienced hiker and pursued ice fishing. He told that he had been fishing at Toskaljärvi lake and caught one rather big (45 cm) arctic charr. He cooked and ate a smaller fish. During the evening it cleared up a bit but the wind whirled up the snow. I went to the woodshed to chop wood and Juha fetched armful of firewood too. Seppo fetched water from the lake. After seven we cooked again a meal.
We sat and chat with the man. He told he had met reindeer herders from Raittijärvi. The local people were very much worried about the "ozone hole" and they were afraid of skin cancer. According the man "the younger Juuso's" face was entirely red. However, the men had hangover after Easter. They had wanted to change dried meat to spirits. Two other men at the lake had sold a can of beer and got big heap of meat. Then the herders had inspired to compete about who can drive with a motor sledge highest on a steep slope. Finally one of them had fallen with his motor sledge and hurt himself badly. Then the injured was taken with motor sledge to Kilpisjärvi.
We went to bed after ten. I slept the night fairly well. At five I watched the clock first time and after six I didn't sleep much. Quarter to seven "the fisherman" got up to have breakfast. I got up too and set fire to the stove as the hut was cool (+12°C). Then I went out. It was clear and five degrees below zero. The wind was blowing fairly hard from south west. Snow was flying with the wind but the visibility was good. We left Pitsusjärvi hut at ten. The wind was still hard but fortunately we could ski downwind. We had decided to go to Somasjärvi or actually to Kobmajoki as the hut had been built to a new place. We heard this from "the fisherman".
From the hut we were heading first to the east. We climbed on a ridge. When we skied down from there and started climb next slope we turned towards north west. The slope was long and rather steep. On the western sky there was threatening clouds coming towards us. Fortunately a whirl didn't came. On the top of the hill we saw a lake which our route was crossing. Then we skied downhill to the lake, crossed it and started to ski along river bed of Kobmajoki towards Somasjärvi. Conditions were excellent; dowhwind, gently sloping downhill and bright sunshine. Skis were gliding well too.
The river bed became sharper and turned into a narrow gorge. The downhill became steeper so we could only let the skis slide. Then came a still steeper downhill which ended to a some kind of pit. I went down first but I didn't fell like Juha and Seppo. We stopped for a pause but only for a while as the wind was whirling snow around the rocks. We continued our journey and met four men with sledges. The men were coming from Kobmajoki hut after spending a few days behind the border in Norway. We passed a branching place of the river and after that the river bed was again very flat. Soon it started to whirl and visibility was rather poor. At one we saw the Kobmajoki hut and soon we were in the hut.
To the east from the hut there was very little snow. At some places there was almost bare gravel. Soon we saw the seita stone (=holy stone) of Somas which stood out in relief as big and black. When we came closer we saw that the stone was actually very dark and gnarled. It had split into two pieces. We took some photos of the stone. Then we continued our journey and turned to the east. The terrain was still hilly. Between those small hills there were small ponds which where obviously mostly dry. However, there was still some ice on the shores of the ponds. There was still little snow. In one place there was so much stones that it was difficult to ski between them. We skied across Somaslompolo and saw some unfrozen water. The river flowing from Somasjärvi lake and Somaslompolo is called Valtijoki. We skied for a while on the eastern shore of the river. We came to the place of the old hut which had burned. There was nothing left from the hut but there was a sign showing the way to the new hut three kilometres away. First the river flowed in a narrow river bed but then the river bed became wider. The muggy river bed was growing small bushes which were obviously willows.
The sun was shining warmly and Juha was skiing fast ahead. I started to get warm. I opened my coat and took hat and gloves off. We saw a big bird making curves on the sky. It was very far but we though it was an eagle. The river bed narrowed again. We stopped at four to have a break. We ate chocolate and raisins. Soon we felt the wind to be cold as we were rather sweaty so we continued our journey.
We had decided to take a short cut to Porojärvi lake over Jahmejunni fjell. We left the river at Sieddejohka ford. The wind was blowing against and the sun had been behind clouds for a while. The climbing was quite hard because we had contrary wind and the skis were sliding backwards. The steepest uphill was soon behind us and the terrain was then hilly. The wind increased and it whirled snow against our faces. For a while we had to really struggle against the whirl. Soon the weather cleared and we came to an even terrain. On the right was the steep slope of Pumbovarri fjell. The sun was shining again but the wind blew snow.
We skied high up to the west to a pond on the headwaters of a brook. There we stopped for a short pause. Then we skied for a rather long way against the wind to the south west before we turned to ski downhill to Porojärvi lake. We saw Jogasjärvi hut far away behind the lake. We came quickly to the shore of Porojärvi lake where was growing tundra birches. Swarm of willow grouses took off in front of us. After seven we skied from the lake to the yard of the hut.
The fireplace was fine and made out of slates. The water had to be melt out of snow with camp cooker or by the fire. First the fireplace seemed to function badly. Some smoke was coming inside. However the fireplace warmed well. After a while there was +15°C inside. The door of the hut was towards the wind and the porch was not tight so weak wind was blowing even inside. We drank still tea and went to bed at eleven.
In the morning Juha got up at seven and set fire to the fireplace. I got up an fetched my thermometer outside to the hut. There was outside -6°C and inside +7°C. There was some clouds on the sky and the sun was not shining properly. The only window of the hut was towards east so it was easy to follow how the day was lightening. During the night the wind had weakened. It took more time than usual to get ready for the journey. We had to melt water again out of snow. Before leaving we waxed our skis and were on the track ten to eleven.
The wind started again to blow harder form south west. We wanted to se Meekojärvi lake and hut so we headed for the west end of Porojärvi lake. There was rather good motor sledge track crossing the lake. When we were middle of the lake a small aeroplane flew above us. We skied without stopping about five kilometres to Meekojärvi hut in an hour. There was a woman and two men having a meal in the hut. Soon came a couple which had used some kind of sail (like a parachute) to help their journey. Seppo knew them (Heta and Jussi Hyttinen) as they were members of Vantaa latu (Local Association for Recreational Sports and Outdoor Activities). After them came two young men to the hut. We stayed altogether 50 minutes in the hut.
After leaving Meekojärvi begun a rather steep climbing. The track was good. Soon we stopped to take photos of Saivaara which is a special shaped fjell. The slope was not anymore so steep but it continued quite a distance. We met few people pulling sledges. We climbed to the top of the ridge and turned towards Kutturakuru gorge. We skied on unbeaten quite soft snow. Gradually we begun to ski downhill. It took a long time to reach the shore of Siettinjärvi lake.
As we were approaching the lake I begun to feel hungry. In the middle of the lake there was a motor sledge and a man ice fishing. There was no good place to have a break so we continued ahead. The wind was blowing rather hard. We were climbing gradually towards Kutturakuru gorge. As we were approaching the highest place in the gorge the wind weakened noticeable. We skied still a little lower. I choose a place for the pause in middle of some big stones. At half past four we sat on the stones to eat sandwiches. Although the sun was shining bright the wind was so cold that the pause coat was necessary.
After the pause we followed a sledge track. The track didn't lead to the bottom of the gorge but it stayed on the right slope. We turned to the right from the track to retain the height level and take a short cut to the direction of Terbmisjärvi lake. The slope changed so stony that we had to turn partly backwards. We skied between stones downwards heading for the eastern end of Terbmisjärvi lake. We reached the lake at half past five. The wind was blowing against and the sun was shining so bright that it burned our faces. We were skiing fast without stopping across the lake to the hut where we were at ten past six.
I got up quarter to six because we had to leave early at that last day. We ate breakfast and made normal morning tasks. We tried to get quickly on the track but it took half an hour to get ready. We waxed still our skis and were on the track at 7.35. The weather was partly clear and it was blowing quite hard from south west. The journey was monotonous. First we skied on the lake and then begun a gently sloping uphill. The route was marked well but the track had been whirled up. The bottom of the skis begun to freeze but it didn't hinder as we were skiing uphill and aginst wind. We had short pauses quite often but we didn't stop to ate sandwiches any more. Not until a little before Tšahkaljärvi lake begun a downhill.
At the lake we saw day skiers heading for Saarijärvi. We were at
the western shore of the lake at 10.25. We had to ski still a small uphill
and then we could begun skiing the last downhill to the road. The track
was broad and it had been made with a track machine. The skis were gliding
very well. We had to be careful as there was other skiers coming upwards.
We heard a reindeer bell clanking and soon came a man in a sledge pulled
by a reindeer. After him came a few reindeers running on the track. Fortunately
they dodged. Then we came to the road. We had come in three hours from
Terbmisjärvi. We crossed the road and skied to the car at the parking
place of the tourist hotel.
