Finally winter

The winter finally came. Time for some skiing.

After New Year the temperature dropped to below freezing and it looked like we would get a winter after all. After a week we got enough of a dusting to make the ground white, and I went for a fatbike overnighter with Toni to utilize that.

A few day later the snow came, around 30 cm in less that two days, most of it quite wet and dense. It was clear that we would use this for a skiing overnighter, which we did the weekend a week ago. I've done and written about similar ones in the same place a number of times, so I'll mostly let the pictures speech this time.

I, Jarkko and JJ started from Rantapiha a little less than one hour before sunset. The weather was nice and clear. There was actually less snow than in Turku, but still enough.

The sunset was around four in the afternoon, after which there still was plenty of light, since the weather was clear.

Selfie.

I did bring a bigger camera than the usual compact camera, and got some pictures when it got darker.

The Rettu shelter was free, so we stopped there. Vajosuo might have been empty, since the cold weather, about -20°C, might have discouraged people, but that was in no way certain. Outdoor activities has been on the rise for a number of years now, and it has exploded during the whole corona year. The usual activities, like good food, conversations, beer and mulled wine commenced.

My toes caused me quite some problems now, but it was manageable with my thick down booties. It feels like the toes again have become worse and it took quite some time in the sleeping bag before they were warm again. My advice to everyone is to avoid severe frostbite, you might not recover fully from it. Otherwise I did sleep very well, though, and got up a little before eight in the morning.

The morning started out a bit foggy...

... but the fog cleared...

... and now and then the sun gave just a hint of color to the sky.

Now and then there was some fog again.

That's it. I'm hoping for more, but the winters are more unreliable nowadays and at the time of writing the temperature is above freezing temporarily.

JJ made a short video from the trip.