Night xc-skiing in Italy

In Finland paths in the forest and also skitracks, our traditional winter paths, are by law always free to use for everyone. In Italy as well as in France and probably in most of the world the prepared crosscountry tracks are generally not free to use, you have to pay a fee for the maintenance that obviously costs someone money and time.

After full day on alpine skis in Monterosa I thought to do some real skiing also. I found some nice looking tracks by our hotel, no fence around them nor a booth for tickets. I couldn't resist testing them. They were great, the skis were gliding really well. We had had soft and damp snow during the day, but in the evening it suddenly turned perfect. 

I continued uphill until suddenly there came towards me the machine making the skitracks. I felt guilty of course, having no ticket, I turned around to escape. Luckily it became dark at the same moment. I had a headlamp but I didn't dare to use it. The machine had really bright lights, I was sure the driver had seen me. It continued with full speed after me. I wasn't sure if that was his normal route and speed. Or if he was furious about me being there when the tracks seemed to be closed. 

I managed to distract the track-machine driver. He went to other direction and the great skiing tracks, newly made were open for me. I enjoyed the skiing a lot, tried to make no traces on the clean paths while continuing uphill to the farthest corner of the area. There I saw the machine lights again, coming toward me! I went off the tracks into the soft snow. That was slow going. There was a fence. I climbed quickly over the fence, hid behind a tree. I lost my skis and felt really embarrassed by the whole thing. The machine passed me by a couple of meters. After a moment it returned! There seemed to be tracks around the whole meadow. I hadn't seen a map of the area and I had no idea how the tracks were placed. To avoid getting "caught" I crawled into the snow lying still. At one time a bit later I escaped into the shadows of a house. 

Finally I was on my way back to our village and hotel. The last challenge was a wildly barking dog. Looked like it was in a chain, but I am not sure. Scared already I passed it as fast as I could and found my way to the hotel.

It is funny how good training you can get when you are slightly scared in the darkness, in a totally new area with a ski-track machine chasing you. The odds were even, I evaluate. He knew the tracks, had a powerful machine and bright lights in all directions. I could hide in the darkness or dig myself into the deep snow.

I should be ashamed of myself, going to the tracks without permission. Another part of me says that crosscountry tracks should be free for everyone to use. That is how it always is in Finland. We have rights for everyone (jokamiehen oikeus) to go to the nature, use all paths and also other areas, picking berries and mushrooms etc., as long as you don't go to the yard of someone.  It is open, allowed and free.

Anyway, that was a fun night :)

TV interview Friday 7.3. at 9.05, MTV3, Studio 55

Stories about the Everest project. Lauri Karhuvaara will interview me on Studio55, on Friday, March 7th at 9.05. 

If you are in Finland and understand Finnish (or you just like to look :), please check it out!

Teamwork (I have had second thoughts whether to publish this)

On Aconcagua I learned a lot about teamwork. I thought I knew something about that being a consultant, running team-building trainings, facilitating team work etc.

But no, I knew nothing. A description for a team is (by my main guide): "A team walks within half a meter distance from each other and everybody pees at same time, during the break". 

Me, a 7 kids mother, had some problems with that. Forced to drink three times as much as normally, I insisted on having a privilege to pee when I want. Especially when that didn't slow down the group at all. I could hike up to the group in a minute after my private break. Finally i was given that privilege, but I was told, I should be grateful.

The only other rule was also too difficult for me. I tried to explain that you can't make a Finn walk in a close line in free nature. We are so few, we never can form a line at home. I told her it is a cultural thing.

For me it was really difficult walking that way, my steps were not same length as those of the guides, and never so slow. Step, stop in middle, step, stop. My steps go without stopping. Stopping hurts my hips and knees. And eating that dust from the others boots is no fun either.

I agreed to be the last one in line, but then 5 meters back was too far! Sometimes I escaped. Honestly, by mistake. In the beginning I really couldn't understand that in the wide, flat area, you couldn't go at your own speed, some hundred meters ahead, talking to some of your just found new friends.

I think half of the mountain was laughing at us. "The prisoners are coming!". Head down, silent, not a hint of a smile when arriving to the camp, looking like we were to be shot by dawn.

But somehow I ended up having a huge amount of friends in the other teams. They all seemed to have fun.

Victor S, a very experienced guide with a 100% track record with clients on Everest, taught me that the most important advice to summit Everest are:

• Smile
• Be in a good mood
• Have and attitude:  the problems can be solved

I tried to talk about this with my team. The answer was, "Johanna, you are so inexperienced on the mountains, be silent". Well, I tend to be too talkative for some.

A moment on my own, with just a photographer

The worst experience with my team (I really have difficulties to call it a team, because it was only a group of people forced to be together for 2 weeks) was the last day when we came down from high camp. I arrived at noon by my self-made sleigh. I waited for the others and for food. Two hours later there was a radio message – still half an hour. No, they didn't come even then. I went to see an art gallery and there I met lots of Finnish friends. We had fun for a while and of course I was then late for the lunch.

All the others were already seated and had started. My jacket was left by a chair and all my things were there, so they must have known that I was somewhere nearby. What did my team do? They ate all the food. Not exactly all, they left me two stamp-sized pieces of pizza crust, the dry corner. No water melon, no drinks, nothing else. They were sitting there when I came. Nobody apologized for eating all, nobody mentioned anything. I asked my guide Eli, if i could get something to eat. No, it is not her responsibility, she said.

I went to the kitchen and asked for something to eat, because I was really starving. We had had almost nothing after the summiting attempt the previous day. 3 hours after returning from the summit-attempt we got a half a cup of spaghetti (no sauce, nothing else). In the evening we got a fistful of mashed potato with a hint of tuna, nothing else. In the morning I got absolutely nothing, no hot water even. So I was starving. 

The main chef said that there is nothing to eat for me and started yelling together with my guide Eli that I should shut up. I started yelling back, told them that I will stop yelling for a while, but start again, if there is no food coming. Dozens of people came around us. Then a miracle happened, a young man from the kitchen appeared with 3 slices of fresh, warm pizza. I cleaned our table for him, and he offered me even more pizza, I was saved.

This is a how our team worked. I really can't understand this. Me, born in a big family, having 7 kids of my own, had learned to check that everybody gets something to eat. You never eat the last piece of food if somebody is still missing. I really couldn't understand my team. Didn't they care or didn't they know how to behave? The worst was of course our main guide Eli. All the service from her, at least for me, stopped when we didn't summit. 

Not all the people in our team were that terrible towards me. The U.S. couple actually never said anything nasty. The same you couldn't say about about our British lady or Australian gentleman.

It is amazing what a little pressure does to some people. You can become something closer to animals, fighting for resources, splitting into friends and enemies. You forget all your mum taught you. The group pressure to exclude the odd one is a much stronger force than the team spirit to include.

But a team built by exclusion is often led by fear and is seldom successful in the long run.

Luckily I had friends all around the base camp. They came from every corner, told me about their next plans, their feelings, asked for my contact info and we had great moments, even though none of us summited. Those lucky ones who summited had vanished days ago.

Life is great, but sometimes teams suck.

Shoefie

Do you know what is a shoefie?

Look at the picture.  I am just launching the term here.

I prefer taking shoefies, because I am so lousy with selfies. For the older ladies like me, it is so much easier and more flattering to take a shoefie. You can always see what you are doing, you don't have to guess if you end up in the picture or not. Not to even mention not needing to control the expression on your face, while your arms are reaching as far as possible. From now on I will go for shoefies :D

Training in Monterosa

Last week I had some pretty good training in the Monterosa ski area in Italy. In addition to some good alpine skiing I climbed up to the highest ski-lift place, up the Punta Indren, with snowshoes. The altitude difference from the cabin I started from was 1100 meters. Not so much, but to make it more challenging, I climbed it once in the afternoon and again the first thing the next morning. The slopes I climbed up were occasionally really steep and icy, all off-piste ski slopes. I barely managed to do it without any special equipment, like an ice-axe. It actually made me proud of myself,  I did both climbs without any breaks, no drinking or eating, not even any chocolate. 

During the first climb the weather turned quite bad, first cloudy. Then it started snowing. Luckily it was not too windy, so I decided to continue. I didn't know the route and there were no other people. The visibility became from 5 to 10 meters. The off-piste skiing route I followed was marked with orange poles. Somehow I always managed to find the next pole without totally losing the previous one. It was maybe more exciting than dangerous, but I was occasionally slightly alarmed. Prepared some rescue plans. Finally I found the top station and I ran like hell to catch what was the last lift down. It makes you exhausted to run quickly uphill in 3300 meters :)

The next morning was beautiful, the sun was shining from a bright sky. I got an urgent need to again climb to Indren. I needed to see how it is up there. How great is the view, really? I took a slightly different route. Lots of skiers, blue skies, warm sunshine, short sleeves. Some skiers were telling me that it is impossible to do the route with snowshoes. Near the top most skiers were just shouting bravo. And I can guarantee that the view was great, really worth another climb. 

This looks easy, it wasn't though!

This time I was in no hurry to the cabin lift, it would still be working for many hours. But I couldn't resist running the last part anyway. There was a cabin waiting at the top. When I was at the door it left! Obviously the driver didn't see me in time. The next one came but the driver then had a lunch break…

Because of it being a really warm day I was suddenly very thirsty. I went to search for water. No tap water up there. But when I went outside to eat some snow the kind ski-lift driver brought me a water bottle and insisted on me taking it. It is great to meet such nice people, especially when you have climbed whole morning in relatively warm weather without drinking anything. Stupid of me of course not to bring water, but I like going light, without a backpack. I'd rather take a compass, a telephone, a map and a first aid kit in my pockets than a water bottle. I am like a camel, I can go a whole day without drinking. And there is snow everywhere.

What if…

The next high mountain will be Everest. That feels challenging now. Too bad that we couldn't summit Aconcagua. It would have been so good to know what kind of air there is to breath in 7000 meters altitude. But you can't play with the risk of an avalanche, no question about that.

Aconcagua on my mind…

Another thing about my trip to Aco is that we could have summited a day earlier, on Friday. Half of the people on the mountain were hurrying up, because there was bad weather coming according to the weather forecast. The weather in the mountains changes quickly and it is not always so easy to make forecasts. Anyway, you try to pick up the first possibility to summit if you are able to, acclimatized and in good shape.

We all were. But our main guide wanted to wait one more day in camp 2. We had been there already two nights and this was going to be our third. Most of the other groups moved on after two or even after one night, because of the weather situation. Our main guide had earlier said that her boyfriend is also a guide, three days behind us on the same route and that he will come to see her in camp 2.

I can't avoid thinking that we lost our summiting chances when our guide wanted to see her boyfriend. That is a little bit difficult to get over. Much more difficult than too much wind or a risk of an avalanche.

Whatever the real reason was, we didn't get to the summit. And I have to head to Everest with the experience of 6400 meters only. Let's hope it is enough. At least I had no problems with the altitude until we heard about the risk of an avalanche. I felt great until then. Always when I have been a little bit higher up, I have felt really good. But people say that the acclimatization process could be different each time, you can never be sure how it goes. The most important thing is to go up really slowly, not to get yourself tired, drink a lot, eat, rest. This time it all went perfectly. I didn't lose a single kilogram. Lets hope the same happens also at Everest.

Back to home

Back home again :D

The flight was long, actually it was 3 flights. I met some interesting people on the flights, so the journey didn't feel too bad.

I started the flights home by practicing with a paraglider, Mendoza in front of my feet

The first transfer in Buenos Aires caused a surprise. The next flight (transatlantic) was from another airport. The travel time by airport bus was more than 90 minutes. The next bus was in an hour and scheduled to the correct airport only 40 minutes before my flight, too late to check in. I had no more Argentinian pesos. Taxis take only cash. There must be something organised, or is there?

I started running around asking all people if they were heading for the other airport. No. No. No. Finally after 15 minutes I found a man, not an English speaker, but clearly heading same way I was going. He had a voucher from his airline and it needed to be changed to an other document. I stuck to him. We found an other man also changing airports, Brazilian, and he even spoke some English. Great! They were even more in a hurry than I was. With the new documents (I did't have any) we headed for the stand where you can book a car. 

Your vouchers, por favor? The two men explained something about my missing voucher, we paid and we were promised a car in 5 minutes. After a long wait the driver finally arrived. We headed out for a nice, but very small car. My huge pile of luggage (all the sleeping bags, high altitude shoes, duvet jackets etc.) was almost too much to fit in. When I started packing the car myself the driver got mad. It didn't help when I explained that – having a big family – I am used to do impossible packing and that I am also capable of taking care of the driving, because we were now really in a hurry. Finally I understood to shut up and hid myself in the middle of the back seat and the trip could start. 

Luckily the driver knew his job. He drove 120 km/h, was able to pass from left and right and he arrived to the international airport in good time, I thought.

I was wrong. How can security checks tale so long and especially the passport control when leaving a country? The final call was blinking when I was still in the passport control line. I had made some friends in the line. We rushed through and started running to to gate, about a kilometer away. What nice exercise before a long flight! I really enjoyed that as I always do when I get an opportunity to run at the airport. When you have practically lost all the chances of making a flight there is only a possibility to win by running hard.

That we did this time; got the the plane before the gate closed. There was a nice (read talkative) person sitting next to me. We had a lot of fun and really interesting discussions. I loved to talk with him after being so long with people shouting "silence" at me if I ever opened my mouth. I tend to really split people into two camps, some really enjoy being with me and others hate it. Most of the group I was with on Aco could not stand me, but everyone else I met seemed to be really happy with me.

I may write more about that later, teams that turn on a member and bully them. It is an important topic all around the world, both at work and elsewhere.

Good memories, hiking up to camp 3 with Rolo

One of my best memories from Aco is from a carry day. We carried part of the load to a higher camp for acclimatization and for not having a too heavy load on the moving day. 

We had all the time climbed really slowly, as is wise of course. We had the last break and had 150 meters altitude left. Our main guide Eli said suddenly, now you Johanna may hike up faster with Rolo, another guide. And really fast we went. the others were left like standing still! Honestly, I thought that I will die, but I didn't give up a step. The altitude at high camp is 5900 meters. Finally we came to high camp. I took two deep breaths and ...felt terrific! I had had lack of sports for 10 days, not once a good exhausted feeling. Now I really felt good. Best feeling during the whole 2 week journey. Of course, sliding down from high camp to base camp on he last day was also great, but this was even better.

I met some Norwegian friends up there. We left the heavy load there and started waiting for the others. Can't be a better feeling than have a  hard  competition up in thin air. :D

Rolo is great in all ways. He is a gourmet chef. He can cook better food up there in a tent than many restaurants can offer at sea level. He is a multi-skilled man. He repaired the cookers for my Canadian friends, he puts up tents in a half a minute, he knows everything about the mountains, he is humble and even he can understands a little bit a different type of a Finnish mountaineer. Thank you Rolo for your friendship!!

An electrical storm nearly killed me

The third day at camp 2 I really needed something to do. I decided to carry up our garbage to camp 3, because sending them back down from there is cheaper and also easier for the porters.

We managed to create a huge amount of garbage. I never totally understood how. There was of course leftover food and lots of paper & tissue from cleaning up. All was to be carried with us, or we needed to pay porters to do that. You shouldn't even leave poo after you.

So I agreed with our main guide that I will go up to get rid of some of the waste. A nice, quick evening walk I thought. It could have taken 4-5 hours at regular speed, but I had learned to move faster, so a couple of hours I estimated, having only light clothes on.

I left, but after climbing 150-200 meters altitude, there was a rattling sound in my head, electric. I threw the ski poles away, as well as my backpack and I dove into the snow. After of while I tried to get up. The same thing happened. Again into the snow, this time into a little bit deeper hole. I was  there lying still for 15-20 minutes, all covered by snow, freezing. Once a lightning hit to the rock next to me.

Finally I saw 2 porters running down the mountain. I rushed to them asking which direction and what to do. They started to explain, but in the middle of that it already happened. You have to throw your poles as far as possible, sit on your backpack, feet also up on it, and then wait. I was late. when I tried to open the belt of my backpack, my whole hand started to shake a lot. Later it ached the whole night as well as my earlobe! I couldn't sleep on that side, which was bad for my sore hips, not being able to switch sides. 

I survived this electric attack. For the next one I was well prepared. 5 times we rushed to the ground on our backpacks and some minutes later continued running down. To my surpriseI  could keep up with the porters, even passing them. Probably I was the one most scared.

Finally we came back to camp 2. 

My guide came toward me yelling, she had been really worried and was thus angry. She had also missed the storm-warning that was in place when I left for the higher camp, the porters told me about it when we were running down.

At one point I thought, my only options were to die from lightning or hypothermia. neither one seemed a good option. I didn't sleep much that night. 

Back from Aconcagua

I am back from Aconcagua, lying by the pool at the hotel, or mainly in the pool. It is more than 40 degrees hot in Mendoza. I met some Finnish friends the last day in Base camp and we are planning a climbing up to Cerro Plata , a 6000 meter peak to heal the disappointment of not summiting Aconcagua a little bit. And we have planned to start this second climbing trip today, if possible :D

The journey was great anyway. I learned a lot, survived in the middle of an electrical storm, made lots of good friends and some enemies. 

Scary ? At least my face looks a bit worried

Best regards to Alex, Heloise and Nicolas from Montreal, Jean-M (John also from Montreal), Ivan from South Africa, a group of 14 from Norway, Anka from Romania (who is still trying a second attempt to the summit on the 24th), Jolanda from Den Haag, Victor S. (the best mountain guide ever) and many many others. Special greetings to Martin from Neatherlands. With him we sat at the best and highest rock of camp 2 looking at the marvelous view and talking about life and death. Most of us never summited, because of the high risk of avalanche. Some did, congratulations to you! For those of us who didn't there is one great thing, you have your dream still alive (not to mention you have a life). If you manage to fulfill your dream, the dream is gone, dead in that sense. That happens often to me. This time not.

Bests from Mountain Girl from Finland!

P.S. something happened to my camera and it did not work on the mountain, so if anyone has pictures I would appreciate them a lot!

Got to 6400 m

We're back at basecamp on the other side of the mountain. Saturday was supposed to be summit day, but no-one made it up to the top because of the risk for avalanches. It snowed all the time very heavily. We made it to 6400 meters and the going felt good but we had to stop. 

I was angry the whole next night because I had wanted to summit the day before already, when the weather was still good.

Today (Sunday) I came down the 1700 meters on my own because I was a bit quicker to get started than the others. I dragged the sack of gear behind me as a sled, that worked well.  It was a wonderful day, not too cold, lots of new snow, and in the steep parts I could slide down with the sack, controlling the speed with the cramp-ons! After having put my clothes to dry and queued for the internet connection I heard that the rest of my group was still only halfway down.

Big snow storms on Aconcagua

From Aventuras Patagonicas:

"Yesterday the group reached high camp. Unfortunately due to big snow storms it was impossible for over fifty climbers from every company to continue their journey to the summit. Tonight the group will be spending night on high camp, preparing all their gear for the way down. Tomorrow everyone will descend towards "Plaza de Mula", the western basecamp.

This is the only Aventuras Patagonicas´s expedition so far this season that could not get to the summit. Nonetheless the achievement they have accomplished is to be appreciated."

Johanna may be a bit frustrated, turning back before the top is not her favorite thing. We also had to turn back also from Mera in the Himalayas before the peak in September because of the weather.

So, as she picked turning back for security reasons as one important thing to practice she's getting her share of doing that. You don't conquer a mountain, you visit it if it allows you to.

Camp 2, Chopper Camp, 5300 m

Chopper camp at above 5300 m, photo from the Aventuras Patagonicas web-site

Info from Aventuras Patagonicas:

The team is at camp 2 or Chopper Camp, Yesterday they did a carry to high camp, they left a load of food, fuel and some equipment at almost 6.000m.

Today they are having a well-deserved rest at camp 2. They need it because tomorrow, Jan 17th,  they will move to the high camp, called Plaza Colera or White Rocks (19,685'), focused on the summit. They will probably go for the summit on Saturday the 18th.

Camp One, 4900 m

Everything and everyone has been well at camp 1 according to the lead guide Eliena Camaño.  The group is now carrying a load to Choper camp, or camp 2, at above 5.300 meters. After carrying the gear up there they plan to return to camp 1 to sleep and then again climb to camp 2 the following day. All this back and forth to acclimatize better.

There are still camp 3 and then high camp close to 5900 meters en route before the summit. Summiting could happen in 3-7 days depending on the weather and how the climbers are doing.

Basecamp, 4200 m

Everything is well. We are at 4200 meters in the basecamp. I borrowed a computer here in the tent-kitchen and managed to get a slow internet-connection too. $10 for 15 minutes.

Yesterday we took our gear up to camp one and tomorrow we will hike up there to sleep. Today is a resting day, but I climbed 580 meters because I lost my sunglasses there, near camp one. It was a very rocky area where I dropped them, nobody believed I would find them. But after an hour of searching I found them and got a bit famous here for that. Mission impossible accomplished!

There are many expeditions here. I have gotten acquainted with many of them. Here's an Everest guide who promised to coach me for that mountain, but I should climb up to camp 2 for that. Let's see how my energies are tomorrow.

My oxygen saturation was very good in the morning, 94%, better even than our guides. I'm hoping that my physiology is good for high altitudes, that will be tested for the first time above 6 km in a few days. More info on what has happened when we have been to the summit!

Up the Ameghino Valley to Base Camp

Reporting from the organizing company:

The approach the group took to base camp is a bit longer than the most used, "normal" route. This is good for acclimatization and the route is really beautiful. The east side view of Aconcagua may be the nicest.

Everyone in the group arrived in good shape to Plaza Argentina according to the lead guide Eliena Camaño.

Now they will have a day of rest in the base camp. Then it's off to camp one, first carrying the things, then back down to sleep at the base camp and then again up to camp one the next day. Climbing up and coming back down to rest is a good way to acclimatize, since recuperating is easier lower down with more oxygen in the air.

 Photo by Jean Desbies (CC BY 2.0)

I (Tommi) have taken photos from Wikimedia Commons to illustrate, since the photos the group is taking will not be available until after the expedition.

Starting to climb Aconcagua

Finally at the slopes of Aconcagua. Tomorrow we will start climbing up. It will be 3 days, 40 km and 1700 m altitude to the base camp. We hike up the Vacas and Ameghino Valleys from the east, with mules carrying our gear. After base camp we carry everything.

A few hours in the van from Mendoza to the Los Penitentes ski area.

We are now at 2500 meters Altura, like they say in Spanish. Speaking Spanish is by the way fun, even when I cannot talk it, but by trying the correct word will be found little by little.

Base camp is at 4200 meters. 

The views are great, even Chile can be seen from here. I trained a little bit climbing up some 350 meters. 

After tomorrow no wifi for 2 weeks. This blog & photos were sent from some kind of a storage room where I found a slow connection!

Suerte!

A blog of selfies :)

In Argentina

The flight from Amsterdam was long, 14 hours I think! 

I'm here with Aventuras Patagonicas, a local company with international services. I spent one night in Buenos Aires and another in Mendoza. Now we're off to to the mountains! First to Los Penitentes.

The group in Mendoza, photo from the Aventuras Patagonicas web-site. I always have to have a map to know where I am.

One thing confirmed about Argentina, great steaks! And giant-sized. As a snack, I have also had a quadruple-steak hamburger, the largest in Mendoza :-)

Traditional Boxing Day "Pirunkuru climbing"

Every Boxing Day we climb up the Kesänki Fell via Pirunkuru (Devil's pass), a very steep pass with the whole family. Nowadays it is a little bit easier when all the kids climb and ski themselves. Some of the skis must be carried for others, but that's easy compared to carrying all the babies.

This year we were well equipped, two pairs of snowshoes and an extra pair of skis with skins on the bottom, you know the telemark style of climbing up with animal skins fixed to the bottoms of skis. Nowadays the skins are certainly artificial.

Climbing equipment for 3 persons out of 9, the rest of us needed to manage somehow, crawling in the snow. You can barely see the blue skin on the bottom of the skis.

We skied some kilometres to the bottom of the fell, changed to snowshoes, skins or just skiboots and started climbing up. In spring time there is a path or almost like stairs and you can run up if you are fit enough. Now it looked like we were the first people going up this season. No marks in the snow. Every step we dropped like half a meter, even with snowshoes. From the picture you can see that the weather wasn't the best either.

At the top of Kesänki fell,  wind 20 m/s 

Finally at the top we changed back to crosscountry skis and started going downhill. Not so easy either. The snow was hard on the surface, but soft underneath, so you never knew when you dropped 30 centimeters trough the thin hard icy crust. If you didn't drop through the ice the heavy wind took you with full speed down. The small kids didn't drop through the icy surface as often as us adults. Interesting downhill. 

First reindeers of this season, Rudolph the white-eyed ones!

When at last we reached our cottage, I rushed to the Sauna, to get my  fingers and toes to melt. Not the wisest thing to do, I should not freeze them this winter and thawing them in the sauna is probably a too quick method.

Christmas training

Christmas Day training in Lapland; cross-country skiing 20 km, sticky snow, + 5 C degrees. That got me thinking of last Christmas, it was -32 C and we went snowshoeing to the Kellostapuli fjell. I had just started this project, trying to find out lots of things, because I knew practically nothing about mountain climbing.

Nina Ehrnrooth, my childhood sailing friend, now CEO for Partioaitta, helped me a lot. She introduced me to Greendoor's V-P Mölsä, a member of the Paratroopers guild (Laskuvarjojääkärikilta). They had an expedition to Everest some years ago. V-P gave me so much valuable advice, especially about safety. He sold me the idea of the warmest ever duvet jacket, a lifesaver as he called it. He told me he has slept in that coat in the snow in -28 C ! I had thought I will manage with a down overall that I already bought in Kathmandu in September and left in storage over there. But it is true, me as an always freezing person, I will need all the warmest possible equipment. V-P also found me the warmest shoes available! Thanks Nina and V-P!

Mostly wet in +3 C, but it will take  while before the snow melts, probably until May. If it freezes now it will be really speedy skiing!

Back to the training today. The wind was all the time against me, funny when I made a circle, but finally it didn't matter. The last kilometers went like flying. Two reasons, first there was a man that I passed in the last uphill and he said, "sähän nouset vauhdilla", meaning "your upward skiing looks really fast". And the other reason was that the temperature dropped near zero.

Merry Christmas to everybody!