Lapland in Winter
Ampupäät & Tuiskukuru

[back to the overview]

18^th of February 2002
Skiing tour, day 3: day of rest and climbing the Ampupäät-fjells

Today we decided to make a day of rest, but sitting around the whole day is not very interesting. So we decided to went with light day luggage up the summit of the Ampupäät - a hill range near the hut. After watching some reindeers near our hut, we started at eleven o'clock.

As soon as we reached open terrain, it was very windy. We just had to stretch our hands and the wind was blowing us (like a sailboat) up the flat slopes of the fjells. Our skis were running very good on the wind pressed snow, and so we reached without any problems the summit of the fjell. At the top we made some meteorological measurements. We had 60km/h wind speed and a temperature of -9°C and a good sight over the large taiga plains of the national park - this is really the middle of nowhere and I think that's the reason why the Finnish people say, that Santa Claus is living here.

At the way back to the hut we met a men with his akja (sleight), which was by his own on the way to Mt. Sokosti. He was very happy with our track and said, without it, he would have needed one day more for this tour.

Arrived at the hut we chopped wood, washed the dishes and ourselves.