Chistmans in Rovaniemi is coming closer and we decided that we have to leave the city, simply too many tourists and too much stress here. We got an offer from our Finnish friend Niko to visit him on a Husky farm in Levi (170km northwards from Rovaniemi) where he was working for one month.
So the destination and the members for the trip were decided now we just have to get all our stuff in this little old blue Opel Astra of Tomáš. After playing some Tetris with your luggage everything – tree pairs of skies one snowboard, food and cloth for one week plus four people – fit inside but the car was every full and it felt like sitting in a rocket cockpit because there was no space to move.
After arriving in Levi we went directly to the Huskies cages to say hello to all this nice dogs. Surprisingly all of them looked different like they were different breeds but all of them were Siberian Husky Niko told us. The cottage which would be our home for the next days was just amazing. Except the chimney everything was made out of wood so it was really nice and homey. We even had sauna with a wooden fired stove and I can promise you these are the best ones! Oh and there were no flowing water or electricity in the cottage, so back to the roots. ;)
The first day the weather was quit foggy and we couldn’t see the Fjäll where we want to go up with your skies. So Niko pointed us in the direction and we start walking over the frozen lake, through forest and then all the way up in deep snow. The skiing down was quit challenging because there were so many trees that it was almost impossible to find a line without hitting one.
On the Second day the Levi ski resort was our destination. We decided to don’t buy a lift ticket so we just skinned up with our skies – yeaa it’s for free – and skied down. We did this three times and then we called it a day. It was funny suddenly there were a bunch of Reindeers on the slopes, these can only happen to you then you try to go skiing in Lapland!
The next day we left for Norway and it was again a long distance drive. After we crossed the border we were quite shocked because there was no snow at all. It was simply to worm because of the sea. But we decided to go to Lyngen anyway and give it a try. In the worst case we would just go hiking without snow. We parked our car near the start of the path to the “skihytta” which was our destination for this night. We packed our stuff and food for two days and start walking up but without skies because there was no snow in vision. Near to the cottage we finally hit some snow. The hytta was quit fine and we tried to make it homey as possible in the small kitchen. The other room would be simply too large to heat them up with the wooden fired stove. Next day we went down to the car again to get our skies and more supplies for the next days. Back at the cottage we prepared everything to go further to another cottage near Gjerdvassbu in the Gjerdedalen. Not even half way there a snow storm started and we had to go in a quit steep and small canyon with our big backpacks and skies on the back. The conditions were hard and at some points the snow was over one meter deep. And then the unavoidable happened, I was leading the group and went through a couloirs which was filled with a lot for snow and suddenly the first snow layer started to drift and took me down the couloirs. I was quit lucky that not the whole snow from the couloirs went down. I stayed the whole time on top and after some meters everything was over but I was quite shocked anyway! After this experience we continued walking on the frozen river. But this was the next challenge because the river was not completely frozen and after some minutes the first one got already completely wet ski boots because he broke into the ice. It was already kind of dark and there were still some way to go in unknown terrain so we decided that the conditions are too dangerous and started walking back to the first cottage.
Our next destination was also a skihytta near the small village of Fastdalen. The cottage was located beside the river Fastdalselva in a wide vally called Russedalen. When we reached the cottage we discovery quit fast that there is no suitable firewood in the storage. So we start looking around near the cottage and collected everything which looked like firewood. But then we had to cut it with these old dull saws. After some workout with the saws and axe we had firewood for more or less three evenings which should be enough for our stay. Again we arranged a really comfortable kitchen which was almost a living room with a lot of carpets and blankets. Because the avalanche situation was very dangerous – a lot of new snow and strong winds – we made the decision to stay at the valley and not go up to some mountain even they looked really attractive!
The last days we didn’t saw any other people even we were twice by our car to pick up the skies and supplies so it was kind of suppressing that on the last day of our stay one Finnish man with his girlfriend showed up at the cottage. They were also outdoor guys so we told them what they can do around here.
After some hours of resting we packed all our staff and headed in the middle of the night back to our car for starting the journey back to Rovaniemi (550km). Honestly I have to say one of the best trips I did here in Scandinavia but the next one will come soon for sure! But as important as the trip are the companions and they were just amazing. We were a perfect Czech-Slovakian- and Austrian Team!!
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