2011 - A Retrospective

The year 2011 is nearing its end and it is time to look back at the year. What went well during the year? What could be improved in the next year? Or wait a minute, that was the Scrum Retrospective. Anyway, 2011 was good year and from my own outdoor perspective an excellent year. Below I will recall some highlights.

The winter 2010/2011 was the best winter for years in Finland. We had a lot of snow and consistently cold temperatures. The skiing season lasted well over four months and the entire winter was a fatbike paradise.

I had a fantastic overnighter in February under the full moon in really cold weather.


The absolute highlight of the winter was the ice road adventure with Toni Lund.


The end of March provided rideable snow crust, something very unusual in Southern Finland.


A winter well spent was still extended with a ski overnighter in the beginning of the spring. Surprisingly, this turned out to be a little out of the ordinary.


After the fantastic winter, the ordinary summer overnighters somehow felt too easy and anticlimactic. Nice, but nothing special. The highlight of the summer was the week-long unsupported bikepacking trip in Lapland at the end of July. This trip proved (for me) the value of a fatbike and that my gear and packing philosophy works as expected.


I continued doing overnighters through the fall, despite the unusually wet fall weather. The real glimpse of light was that the kids got enthusiastic about joining me for overnight backpacking. We did four of these trips during the year and hopefully next year will see a lot more of these. There is something profoundly satisfying in sharing this stuff with the kids.


My goal of at least one overnighter a month and a week-long bikepacking trip was revised during the summer and at the winter solstice I made my last overnighter for the year, spending my 30th night out. It might not sound much for true adventurers, but I'm very satisfied with it. My family comes first for me, so I cannot realistically improve on this one much more.