Day 6 – Arrival to Simo and dinner in Kemi – We did it!

01/03/201703/03/2017Pepe 2 Comments

Today is our last day. We are planning a take-it-easy 25km from where we slept to Kemi, where Alex will be, hopefully waiting for us.

Our legs are tired and we have few blisters but the spirits are high because we can see the coast from were we are. Although visual distances in the baltic are relative – as we discovered soon after the start of the adventure, our GPS final waypoint is located at 22km in a straight line.

Kemi peninsula at sight. It took us 8 hours to reach.

Yesterday night we had some snow showers and we are all in deep s**t because it takes an enormous effort to keep the balance with the tick pieces of wet snow stick to the bottom of our skis.

This is a very slow way to progress because we are doing 2.5km/hour -half of what it should be – with a tremendous energy consumption because the effort of lifting the whole ski, boot and the piece of snow underneath. With the skis not touching the surface it takes double to make any progress.

Next time would remember to wax out the equipment before setting off…

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Day 5 – A marathon on ice

28/02/201703/03/2017Pepe Leave a comment

And just like that – a 42 km stage in over 12 hours. The conditions weren’t ideal buy we needed to push to catch up with the plan. We set our GPS waypoint into a straight line to a distant point in the horizon and we set off.

Today was a very long and lonely day. When you are skiing you can’t do much talking with the others and the wind and cold make the stops very short to just eat something quick, drink from the thermos and off you go.

After a titanic push in straigh line we finally set camp, nearly 13 hours later in a place just 30km from our final waypoint destination: Kemi.

We were too tired to talk or laugh so after melting ice and making tea, we passed out in our sleeping bags. It is 01:15 am and tomorrow we are planning to depart by 8:00

The weather is getting worse and worse with wind and snow showers. We went to bed in the middle of the snow storm hoping it would be over tomorrow.

It is very cold and batteries are not loading properly. The average is -10C but there are peaks of -20C.

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Day 4 – Somewhere in the Bothnian gulf… and moving slowly

27/02/201703/03/2017Pepe Leave a comment

Last night was cold and wet inside the tent. Minus 15 to be more specific and of course it took us nearly 2 hours to get moving this morning. Everything it wasn’t inside the sleeping bag was frozen, so the first thing we did was to sort out the MSR petrol stove and melt some water to drink something hot.

At around 10:30 or 11 we left the site heading north towards the next waypoint.

Pako Crestas

Today was a bit cold today but snow conditions were ok to progress. We managed around 16 km in the day and we decided to stop and recover, dry the stuff properly and have an early start the next day. And we did that – we found an island there protected from the wind where we set camp in a small hut we found over there.

Drying up the wet stuff

Confort of the stove

We had some dry food and noodles and went to bed at around 8 pm. Tomorrow we’ll need to catch up with the miles we cut short today.

We still have around 80 km to go and the pace is not right there yet…

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Day 3 – Rovaniemi – Oulu

26/02/201703/03/2017Pepe Leave a comment

Today is the start of the traverse from Oulu so last minute preparations at home before heading down to Oulu, the starting point of the adventure. We plan to cross over to Kemi in a 4 or 5 days depending on ice conditions as well as ice. If we are doing alright with these two then we will include additional waypoints in the GPS to reduce the length of the straight imaginary lines we are taking. Lets see how it goes.

Alex Simòn i Casanovas will drop us by the Oulu Marina today. The drive is around two and a half hours South West of Rovaniemi.

Pepe, Alex and Pako

Pako and Alex S Casanovas

The last stop

After a slow start we’ve finally get there by 16:00 so we start the traverse and in less than 3 hours we are already in the tent, melting ice.

Preparing the tent for the night

Morning views

After a couple of hours of melting water and getting ready we are inside our sleeping bags and ready to sleep. Tomorrow weather forecast is not bad: no clouds, mild wind and temperature of -9C so we expect the snow to be firm for a quick progress with the sled.

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Day 2. Rovaniemi – Arctic circle – Rovaniemi

25/02/201703/03/2017Pepe 1 Comment

The remaining members of the group -Albert and Pako – arrived yesterday evening and we are now ready to start the adventure.

Today was about finalising the purchase of food, getting an update ice and wind report from the Finnish Meteo and do a bit ot tourism as well. We started our day with a walk to the town from Alex’s cabin – a 4.5km of icey road and after breakfast and initial shopping we went to visit the Official Artic Line located in a town 15 km north west of Rovaniemi.

Kemijoki river

Pako and Albert

Walking the Kemijoki

Walking down to town

Tomorrow we will depart early from Oulu for the initial 20-25km of the traverse. The ice thickness varies from 10 to 45 cm in some places so we will need to keep an eye on water patches and holes. We are carrying a small but strong tent and one petrol cooker for the 3 of us, in order to save weight to sail through the fine ice.

Direction in the forest

In the Arctic

Lapland tipi

For the traverse we are using special Finnish home made pulkas – provided by Polar Guide Logistics.

The real adventure starts in 12 hours.

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Day 1 – London – Rovaniemi

24/02/201703/03/2017Pepe Leave a comment

First day of our expedition. I’d departed London this morning with the Norwegian 05:50 direct to Rovaniemi. In about 3 hours and a bit you are landing in the frozen capital of Lapland.

Rovaniemi is a small but interesting town. They claim is the official home of Santa Klaus and every years thousands travel here to spend some time with Father Christmas. There are large number of tourists around (mainly asian) wondering around the streets and the high season means local businesses doing well with bookings of Snowbike safari tours and Northern light experiences.

We are staying with Alex Casanovas, one of the most experienced guides in the area (there is a peak in Livingston Island – Antartica -named after him). Alex is originally from Catalonia and lives in Rovaniemi. The famous winter race Rovaniemi is organised by him.

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The Rovaniemi 150 race. Fat bike, skis or by foot.

Today I spent a couple of hours testing skis and boots in the frozen river near Alex’s house. I did a couple of legs of about 3.5kms each and the sensationals are good. Tomorrow we will give it a go again before buying the food and rest of material we will need for the traverse.

This afternoon I took it easy enjoying a long walk by the river in Rovaniemi and stopping for coffee in some of their local places. Temperature today weren’t that bad at -12C because Alex told me they had a couple of -30C a couple of weeks ago.

The rest of the party arrive tonight at around 22:00 and after the greetings and a couple of beers we’ll hit bed for an early start tomorrow morning.

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And collaborators:

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A WEEK TO GO… Check list out

17/02/201718/02/2017Pepe Leave a comment

We are just few days away… a week to be precise. We are now pretty much done with training and packing and we are counting the hours for the plane departure. Half of the team is flying from Barcelona and the other half (me) from London to Rovaniemi the capital of Lapland in the Artic circle.

I am setting up this blog to keep you informed on our progress so stay tuned for the latest news.