Destination Kuusamo!
When I left you at the end of my last post I was heading for the gate for the last leg of my flights to my final destination of Kuusamo. To my delight, there were fellow wave three skiers waiting on the same flight! Ruedi Mueller from Switzerland was the first one I met. He is a retired engineer who has skied Border to Border before. His first piece of advice was don't go out too fast the first three days (ahead of the 88k day. There was a group of 17 Slovenian skiers there as well. As it turned out, I sat next to the leader of the group on the flight to Kuusamo. I believe he said this was the 21st time he has skied the Border to Border. He discussed the rough conditions on the last day three years ago when it was warm and snowing and no one seemed to be able to get the wax right to keep the snow from sticking. Someone ended up discovering that sunblock was the answer.
Boarding the turbo-prop for the flight to Kuusamo!
Arriving at Kuusamo!
While waiting for our luggage, I met Marcel who is from the Twin Cities. He has skied at Swedetown so we had plenty to talk about.
I had not worked out transportation into Kuusamo, but met Sarah in the airport lobby. She is from Washington D.C. and is a beginner cross country skier who enjoys adventure vacations. We shared a cab to the Hotel Kuusanka. It was serendipitous to have met her as she had the four digit code to get into the hotel lobby! The room was very clean and comfortable, but most importantly convenient to the local cross country ski trails!
I got up early, grabbed the awesome breakfast that came with the price of the stay, and headed out to ski my final 10k warm-up before the Border to Border.
Kuusamo is the home of my Karvonen, Karjalainen, Tornio, and Sirnio ancestors on my mother's father's mother's side of the family dating back to the 1600s. It was a very cool feeling to ski on the amazingly well kept trail system in a place at the core of who I am.
The glide was amazing this morning! If these conditions hold as the forecast is promising, the Border to Border Ski should be an awesome experience. I shot some video this morning and will share it once I decent wifi. In the meantime, here are a few photos.I
It looks like it is time to pack up and to go shopping for some wax. The next time you will hear from me will be from the pre-event gathering at Oivanki. Until then I will leave you with the Strava take on this morning's ski!