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Clare
Clare

Day 4: Saariselkä

Today got off to a strong start with one of my favourite Karelian pasties for breakfast :)

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Today was forecast to be the coldest day of the week and when we stepped outside it looked like the forecast might be correct. Minus 25!

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Our plan for today was to climb up Kaunispää, a fell on the edge of Saariselkä. There's a signposted winter walking trail which goes all the way to the top.

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Some years this has felt like quite a difficult walk. In fact, one year we didn't even make it to the top because there was so much snow we were sinking into it and needed snowshoes.

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One benefit of there being significantly less snow this year is that the path felt a lot easier to walk on!

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It was still a very pretty walk :) 

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We passed lots of places where there were animal footprints in the snow.

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And as we started to climb higher we could see the sunrise in the distance.

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One striking difference about the amount of snow compared to previous years is how bare the trees looked along the route.

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Although there were still some that were only just poking up out of the snow.

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As you can see in the photo below, the winter walking trail is prepared by some sort of machine which periodically comes along and compacts the snow, making it easier to walk on. This one had been done quite recently and we were making fresh footprints in the stripes on the path.

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Occasionally the compacting hadn't quite worked and I fell through the snow. That showed it was actually deeper than I'd thought!

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It was certainly very cold. My eyelashes and hair were soon frozen.

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The path took us alongside a cross country ski run for a while.

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When we reached a point at which we had to cross the ski run and the main road, we knew that we'd nearly made it to the top of the hill.

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Just a bit further to go!

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There were some beautiful patterns in the snow up here; it looked almost like sand in places.

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There were some beautiful colours in the sky as well now as we got closer towards midday.

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Eventually we made it to the top, where there is a restaurant...

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...and a watchtower to look out for forest fires.

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We walked around the summit to admire the views.

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It was gorgeous up here, but very cold.

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We went into the restaurant and warmed up with some hot drinks.

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We stayed for lunch, finishing off by sharing this enormous doughnut!

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Then it was time to start making our way back down towards Saariselkä.

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Walking down was easier than walking up :)

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Though in places the snow was quite icy so I was glad I'd put the yaktrax on my boots.

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It's been another lovely day in Lapland :) 




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