Skiing Saariselkä
We would wake up to a beautiful winter morning in Saariselkä! Unlike the overcast conditions on our drive up from Rovaniemi the day before, there were significant breaks in the cloud cover providing plenty of sunlight.
After breakfast we drove a short distance down the road to the trailhead where we would start an over 10-mile classic cross country ski adventure, barely making a dent in the 200 km ski trail system. The trailhead kiosk, fashioned after the Sami lavvu, was an impressive structure which included flat screens that shared trail maps and other information.
We would start our ski in a southerly direction finding immaculately groomed trails with a perfect combination between glide and grip. With temperatures just below freezing, no wind, and occasional snow showers, the conditions could not have been more perfect. We had been mentally prepared to see a lot of people on the trails as my cousin Mia had indicated that the resort would be busy because of the school break in the south, but we encountered very few people. Our assumption was that the crowd had to be downhill skiing and snowboarding.
While bars are a common appearance along snowmobile trails in the Keweenaw, we do not have cross country ski trail bars like this one.
We would eventually head eastward and into Urho Kekkonen National Park.
The cool thing about being this far north is how low the sun remains on the horizon. This lighting presented outstanding opportunities for photographs throughout the ski!
Our Airbnb host, Jussi, had recommended that we check out the area around Rumakuru. We were not to be disappointed by this suggestion. We skied up this fell’s west flank and then down its east flank to the shelter at Päivätupa.
From there we then skied back toward Saariselkä on a 5-kilometer downhill trail through an oftentimes narrow valley.
It is really hard to pick out my favorite photos from this ski because the whole adventure was so amazingly beautiful. I slammed a bunch of them together into a video short on the Remote Workforce Keweenaw YouTube channel that you can see at this link: https://youtube.com/shorts/OcJZ63dPp30?si=kJ4p7F1M8hyHplJC
I would come back to ski here in a heartbeat as there is so much more to explore!
After our ski we would pick up some pastries containing reindeer meat from a pop-up shop just outside the nearby grocery store. Upon returning to the condo, we would take full advantage of the washing machine and sauna!
Check in next time as we head down to Kuusamo and hike to the top of Konttainen.