albert bosch

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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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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We Love Mountains

Baltic Sea traverse | Finland | Winter 2017

100km ski traverse in the frozen sea in total autonomy

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

Day 3 – Rovaniemi – Oulu